As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
Lots of statements are made in response to a question that was posed to everyone.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
Lots of statements are made in response to a question that was posed to everyone.
As long as everyone is addressing the question that was posed I would let the team go forward. No need to intervene.
If they are not all in response to the question, I would ask, “What question are you answering?”
There could be different scenarios:
1. If the question is raised during problem framing phase, and there are comments may impact the consensus, I will intervene after everyone gets chance to response to confirm the progress on problem statement.
2. If the team continues posting comments instead of asking new question, I will intervene to let them know my observation and ask about impacting if stopping question.
As long as the statements are concise, relevant to the question and people are not over-talking each other, I will not intervene.
As far as the statements are in response to the question posed, i will not intervene. If the statements made are not in response to the question posed, i will intervene and ask “What question are you answering to?”
Also if the statements to the question posed, are being made for a significant amount of time, i will intervene and ask,” Now who has the next question?”
As an action learning coach I need to be mindful of the ground rules. As long as the statements being made are in response to the question being asked , I will not intervene. However , if the statements being made are not on point , I would intervene with the the question ” What question are you answering? “. If the statement is bringing in a different perspective , i would intervene with ” That’s a great idea , Could you put that in form of question ? ”
If I think that similar statements are being made , I would intervene with ” Who has the next question ? “
If the multiples statements are all focused on the question, I won’t say anything.
If the statements refer to different things out of the question topic, I would intervene by asking” What is your question ?” to the poser and “What is your answer to this question ? ” to the members who answered something which was not linked with the question.
If participants provide answers one by one moving the problem solving process forward, I won’ interfere and continue to observe. If I notice that there are active and passive participants, I will ask:
• How are we doing as a team?
• Why do you think it is important to get answers from each participant?
• What are we going to do about it?
• Who will ask the next question?
If answers to the problem holder’s questions sidetrack from problem solving process, I will ask:
• What do you think, whether you really answering the question asked?
If they say “No”, I will ask (both team and a problem holder)
• What further team’s actions would be most productive?
In addition, if team members provide multiple simultaneous answers in a spontaneous way, I will ask:
• How would you describe the effectiveness of a process?
• What are you going to do about it?
• Who will ask the next question?
• I would find a solution for this case based on the AL Ground Rules: “Statements can only be made in response to questions and anyone can ask and answer questions”.
• If participants’ answers are in line with the questions asked, I will continue to observe
• If answers sidetrack from the questions asked, I’ll ask: “What question are you answering right now?”
• If participants speak out at once, I’ll ask: “How are we doing as a team?” and then (if situation doesn’t change) – express my observations about what’s going on.
• If answers appear to be multidirectional, which makes team disoriented, I’ll ask: “How are we doing as a team?” and after short discussion: “What actions could be most productive for the team?” One of the probable options for this case is (based on my AL coach experience) – minimize number of questions “all to all” by focusing on targeted (to particular person) questions.
• After any action (decision) of a team, I ask a question: “Who will ask the next question?”
I would ask a question: “Colleagues! What question are you answering right now?” If team members clearly repeat initial question, I’ll ask: “How does it help the team?” If I get responses like “We are exploring an issue and we do have something to say”, I will proceed with observations.
If team members can’t recall initial question (despite many answers made before), I’ll remind a rule: “Statements can only be made in response to questions”. Then I will invite the team to start asking questions.
I think for concise helpful statements for the particular question, there shouldnt be a need to intervene. However, if the statements arent helpful in solving the problem, I would intervene by asking . What impact are the statements having? What can we do about it? Who has the next question?