Scenario: Meyers Brigg

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation: As you are watching the team you realize there are 5 strong extraverts and one introvert on the team. The introvert does not appear to be participating. When you ask – How is the balance of participation? The introvert says I am participating it just takes me longer to process and I keep missing the opportunity.

Tags: Action Learning, ActionLearning Coach, Team Coach, WIAL, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk

Trackback from your site.

Comments (23)

  • Avatar

    Paulina Gucka

    |

    As AL coach I would ask the group: “How the described situation (someone missing the opportunity) impacts the work on solving the problem?” and than “What we could do better as group to maximize the potential of the whole group?”.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Fabrice Pettoello

    |

    I would ask to the team:
    1. “What is the impact on the team?”
    2. “How do we want to obtain the participation of everyone without missing opportunities?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Anni Townend

    |

    As an action learning coach having asked the team ‘How is the balance of participation?’ and the person with the more introverted preference sharing that it takes them longer to process and that they keep missing the opportunity therefore to participate I would ask ‘What is the impact of this on the team?’ and, or ‘What can we do as a team to increase the participation of everyone in the team?’ I might also ask ‘What is the impact of missing the opportunity to participate on our problem solving?’ and finally I think I would ask ‘What can the team do to ensure the participation of everyone in the team?’

    It is possible also that I might take a ‘teaching moment’ at some point, if Myers Briggs is something the team have used, and use to understand and appreciate each other’s differences, and gifts. Thus I might say something about the different ways in which people engage, some of us needing time to think then to speak and then think again, and others of us preferring to speak then think and then speak. If I did this I would then ask the team ‘What can we do as a team to appreciate and enjoy these differences?’

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Luke Tanner

    |

    As the coach I would follow-up on their answer with another question. “How can we ensure participation from all members of the team and why is that important?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Andrea Nery

    |

    I would add some other questions:
    “Why it is important to balance the participation?”
    “Which is the impact in the team?”
    ”How do we want to manage this?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Jessica Low

    |

    As the coach I would ask the team “How can they ensure everyone does not miss out on the opportunity?” Follow up question would be “How missing opportunity can impact the team in solving the problem?” Finally, “What can we do to prevent this from happening again?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Lee Kwan Meng

    |

    As an Action Learning Coach, I would first ask the team “How are we all contributing individually as a team? If there is a response that one of them is yet to contribute, I would also whether there is any way we can do anything about it? Then to response to the introvert who said that that he still needs time to process the issue, I will then ask the team in what way we can help the introvert to understand the issue better?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Maura Muller

    |

    As the Action Learning Coach I would next ask, “What might be the impact on our group if XXX keeps missing the opportunity to participate because they need a bit longer for reflection?” “How might this impact our problem solving?” “How does the team want to handle this?” I might also bring them back to, “How are we doing as a team on a scale of 1-10?” “What are we doing well?” “What can we do better?” All questions to help them think more intently about the impact of one team member not getting the opportunity to voice their input.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Thuy Nguyen thi Bich

    |

    I need to raise the team awareness of the main differentiation between the introvert and extravert when participating the session. From this understanding, the team will create more opportunities for introverts to join.
    I would ask them “On a scale of 1 – silent and 10 – very energetic, how do you rate your expression style individually in a group discussion?” After they look at their own styles, I would continue asking” How is the difference in the expression style of an introvert from an extrovert?“. Then the next question is “What is impacting to discussion process?”, “What are the opportunities for you to participate in the discussion? “And finally I ask “What will you do to increase the participation of the introverts?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Mihaela M

    |

    As an ALC I will ask:
    “What is the impact on the team if not all of us have the opportunity to participate?”
    “What do we want to do from now on so that all the voices in the room are heard?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Guan Heng Tan

    |

    As an AL Coach, I need to be mindful that learning needs to occur at the organisational, team and individual level. I would ask the team, “on a scale of 1 -10, what is the level of participation by the team”? If one person isn’t participating, the Broad-Specific approach can be used to drill down with, “what can the team do”? That helps especially when the introvert says that she tries but misses the opportunity. Rather than make it seem like it’s the introvert’s fault or it’s anything to be ashamed of, the team has to learn to support its members. Also, from the scaling question, I may want to take note of diverse responses. Perhaps, a few may assign a low value in comparison to the rest of the team. I may ask, “team, what have we learnt from the responses given”? “What would the team like to do”? “How does this impact the team back at work”?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Rifki Feriandi

    |

    As AL coach I would continue the questions:
    1. What is the impact of missing opportunities to the person?
    2. What it the impact to the team and to the problem solving?
    3. What we can do better so that no one missing the opportunities? Expected two responses: for the introvert side and for the extravert
    4. What we can learn from this and implement to the organisation?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Ivy Sun

    |

    I would ask the whole group: “Now we have already known that in our team there is member keeping missing the opportunity to express his/her idea because of needing longer time to process. What is the impact of this situation on our discussion?” Then let everyone express its idea and continue to say: “Since we have known the possible impact, then as a team, how can we do for the following discussion?” Let the team notice the personality difference among members and learn how to handle the difference as a team.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Renata Livramento Mendes

    |

    As an Action Learning Coach, I would ask: What can we as a group do to ensure that everyone participates? Or what is the impact of having people who are not actually participating in this session on solving our problem? In summary I would ask questions to bring more awareness to the group about what is happening regarding the participation of all members.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Hong Wu

    |

    I would say: “It’s natural that people with different personalities would have different participation style. The extrovert tends to speak while thinking, and the introvert prefers to think first before speaking. In other words, they need more time to prepare to speak. So, what we often see is that they keep on preparing and miss the opportunity to express themselves.”
    Then I would ask: “AL is group wisdom. How to make everyone has a participation opportunity? How does your personality benefit the group discussion? How can you make the people different from you into account? Is there any similar situation that happened in our group? What do you learn from it?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Brigit Naude

    |

    Once the question, “How is the balance of participation?” has been asked and answered, I’d ask, “What is the impact of this on the team?” and then, “What can we do about it?” Then, “Who has the next question?” (If the introvert needs to be overly ‘considered’, it may hamper the natural flow of the process but at least there is now an awareness. Perhaps the initial structuring of the group will need to be better thought out in the future, or the introvert could be given some guidance outside of the AL session on how to be more assertive?)

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Loc Do

    |

    As an Action Learning Coach, when I heard the answer of the introvert, I will take it as an opportunity to help team learn more about teamwork, by raising team awareness about how critical all team member participation is.

    This is what I will intervene:
    1. Hello team, I heard that one member keep missing the oppportunity to participate in discussion, how will this situation impact to our teamwork?
    The answers may lead to 4 scenario below:

    A. Scenario A: Everyone, including the introvert, say “No impact at all” => We will need more specific approach, plus some closed questions
    2. To what extent we are working together, as each individual or as a team?
    3. How many members do our team have?
    4. In case some members just sit here and don’t participate in, what will this impact to our team power? Is it increase or decrease our power?
    5. What will you do to help us work better as a team?
    6. Do we have agreement on these actions? (Check individually)
    7. Who have next question?

    B. Scenaro B: Everyone, except the introvert, say “No impact at all” => We will dig deeper to the introvert’s perspective and let others understand that
    2. Hello Mr./ Ms., I heard that you said there will be some impacts, what are the impacts in specific? (Listen and take note)
    3. Hello team, I noted that we will have some impacts which are…, do you admit that these things will impact our teamwork? (Check individually)

    B1. YES!
    4. What will you do to help us work better as a team?
    5. Do we have agreement on these actions? (Check individually)
    6. Who have next question?

    B2. NO!
    4. What are the reasons make you think that these don’t impact our teamwork? (Listen and take note)
    5. Hello team, now we heard all opinions, what will we do to help all of us overcome this situaton and work better as a team?
    6. Do we have agreement on these actions? (Check individually)
    7. Who have next question?

    C. Scenario C: Everyone, except the introvert, say “It has some impact” => We will dig deeper to others’ perspective and let the introvert understand that
    2. Hello team, I heard that you said there will be some impacts, what are the impacts in specific? (Listen and take note)
    3. Hello Mr./Ms., I noted that we will have some impacts which are…, do you admit that these things will impact our teamwork?

    C1. YES!
    4. Hello team, what will you do to help us work better as a team?
    5. Do we have agreement on these actions? (Check individually)
    6. Who have next question?

    C2. NO!
    4. What are the reasons make you think that these don’t impact our teamwork? (Listen and take note)
    5. Hello team, now we heard all opinions, what will we do to help all of us overcome this situaton and work better as a team?
    6. Do we have agreement on these actions? (Check individually)
    7. Who have next question?

    D. Scenario D: Everyone, including the introvert, say “It has some impact”
    2. What will you do to help us work better as a team?
    3. Do we have agreement on these actions? (Check individually)
    4. Who have next question?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Rogier ten Kate

    |

    As an action learning coach I would as the group:
    What impact does this have on the team?
    What can we do different to adapt to this participants comment?
    This way the group can solve and find a solution to deal with this issue. It is important for the group to come up with their own solutions that works best for their Action Learning session and group dynamics.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Katia Gaspar

    |

    I would add some other questions:
    “Is everyone having the opportunity to participate?”
    “What are we doing weel as a for everyone in the group to contribute?
    ”What do we want to do for everyone have the opportuinity to contribute?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Marta Siudak

    |

    I would ask the group:
    ‘How does it impact the group and our work?’
    ‘What can we do differently/better to give everyone the same opportunity to participate?’
    ‘Would it bring any value if all participants have an opportunity?’

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Lam Nguyen Thanh

    |

    As an Action Learning Coach, after listening to the answer from introvert, I would intervene by asking all team members: “Based on what introvert has just shared, what are the results when one of members miss the opportunity to share his/her idea? Then I would ask the question: “From now on, how can we make sure that all team members have an equal opportunity to share his/her idea?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Danny de Ruiter

    |

    As an ALC I would ask the team what that situation means for the group’s work and what they can do to help the introvert to contribute more to the group’s dialogue?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Sneha Govind

    |

    As an ALC coach, I would ask the group to reflect on the following questions –

    1) How are we doing as a team?
    2) How are we able to contribute at an individual level to the team’s problem?
    3) What’s the impact that each of us are creating by asking relevant questions?
    4) Are we being able to collaborate well, and bring everyone to participate?
    5) What could we be doing better?
    6) What else?

    Reply

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.