As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
The team is attempting to analyze the problem situation in a search to identify the one key variable that they can influence or change to create movement in the direction of their established goal or end result. They are debating the relevance of only a few factors and seem to be ignoring the probability that the problem situation was caused or is perpetuated by multiple factors.
I am not sure it is the AL coach’s job to judge whether the team is focusing on the right issues. The first question that pops up in my mind is: How would the AL coach know if there were other relevant factors unless the coach was someone who was too close to the problem? The whole philosophy behind AL is that there are not SMEs and that the problem is being solved by those who live it and by those who are able to ask fresh questions about the problem. I would trust the group process on this and continue with the standard AL Coach questions such as: How are we doing as a team, what could we be doing better, etc.
If, on the other hand, the AL coach observed that any ideas other than a few were shot down or ignored, that would be cause for an intervention.
I think I would intervene and ask if there is agreement on the problem, and ask each person to write down their understanding of the problem and then share with the group. I would then ask again if there is agreement on the problem.
It might also be useful to ask what the group is doing well and what it might do better.
These interventions might provide the group with teh opportunity to stand back and reflect on the group process, and if they need to consider the problem more deeply or in a broader context.
It is difficult to know how many solutions a group should explore. As an Action Learning Coach I would like to see the group members discuss different solutions before they select a final one. The reason is that participants have to reflect in more depth to develop creative sustainable solutions. Accordingly, my approach in this situation is to increase the awareness of the group members that many factors can contribute to a problem and there are many ways to solve it. I would ask a couple of questions but not all:
(1) “When do we know that we have explored enough (all) variables pertinent to this problem?”
(2) “How do you know that the problem was caused by a few factors only?”
(3) “What kind of solutions would you expect if we limit our focus too early on a few factors that contribute to the problem and ignore others?”
(4) “What are the consequences of limiting our focus too early on a few factors that contribute to the problem and ignore others?”
The team is attempting to analyze the problem situation in a search to identify the one key variable that they can influence or change to create movement in the direction of their established goal or end result. They are debating the relevance of only a few factors and seem to be ignoring the probability that the problem situation was caused or is perpetuated by multiple factors
As an AL coach, i would intervene to ask a learning question – ” Team, on a scale of 1 -10, 1 being the lowest score and 10 the highest, how do you think we are doing in terms of considering all the different factors in the discussion?”. The aim is to heighten the awareness that some factors are being left out. If some members feel that not all the factors are being taken into consideration then I will ask “what’s the impact of not doing so” and “what can we do better”. If all the members give a high score and agreed that they would prefer to narrow down the factors and work on it, then as a Coach, i will trust the process and let the responsibility rest on the team members and the Problem Presenter.
After the typical “How are we doing? (scale of 1-10), What are we doing well? What could we do better?”, I would probably start with a question along the lines of “What is our level of systems thinking?” or “What is the quality of our problem solving?” or “Why is it important that we identify only one key variable?”
Hopefully, these would present learning opportunities for the team to think more broadly about multiple factors or provide an opportunity to voice the reasoning for focusing in on only one point.
This is another one of those tricky ones, since as coach I need to leave my judgement out of it. Typically, when I’ve seen this occur is when folks are reading out what they wrote down as the problem. From here the conversation progresses in one of two ways. One is that there is a discussion about who’s is the right one – this is the situation described here. The other is when they recognize that there are many aspects to the problem.
When they recognize that there are many aspects to the problem – I’d ask, how do we want to capture all the elements to this problem? How do we want to determine where to focus our energy for the rest of today?
If they don’t notice this, then the next time I ask them to write down the problem, I’d phrase it – Let’s try writing down the problem again. If you are hearing multiple elements to this problem list them all?
Depending on the circumstance, I might ask What’s the magnitude of this problem?
Gail Finger
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I am not sure it is the AL coach’s job to judge whether the team is focusing on the right issues. The first question that pops up in my mind is: How would the AL coach know if there were other relevant factors unless the coach was someone who was too close to the problem? The whole philosophy behind AL is that there are not SMEs and that the problem is being solved by those who live it and by those who are able to ask fresh questions about the problem. I would trust the group process on this and continue with the standard AL Coach questions such as: How are we doing as a team, what could we be doing better, etc.
If, on the other hand, the AL coach observed that any ideas other than a few were shot down or ignored, that would be cause for an intervention.
Reply
Catherine Breathnach
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I think I would intervene and ask if there is agreement on the problem, and ask each person to write down their understanding of the problem and then share with the group. I would then ask again if there is agreement on the problem.
It might also be useful to ask what the group is doing well and what it might do better.
These interventions might provide the group with teh opportunity to stand back and reflect on the group process, and if they need to consider the problem more deeply or in a broader context.
Reply
Philipp Werenfels
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It is difficult to know how many solutions a group should explore. As an Action Learning Coach I would like to see the group members discuss different solutions before they select a final one. The reason is that participants have to reflect in more depth to develop creative sustainable solutions. Accordingly, my approach in this situation is to increase the awareness of the group members that many factors can contribute to a problem and there are many ways to solve it. I would ask a couple of questions but not all:
(1) “When do we know that we have explored enough (all) variables pertinent to this problem?”
(2) “How do you know that the problem was caused by a few factors only?”
(3) “What kind of solutions would you expect if we limit our focus too early on a few factors that contribute to the problem and ignore others?”
(4) “What are the consequences of limiting our focus too early on a few factors that contribute to the problem and ignore others?”
Reply
edna liong
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The team is attempting to analyze the problem situation in a search to identify the one key variable that they can influence or change to create movement in the direction of their established goal or end result. They are debating the relevance of only a few factors and seem to be ignoring the probability that the problem situation was caused or is perpetuated by multiple factors
As an AL coach, i would intervene to ask a learning question – ” Team, on a scale of 1 -10, 1 being the lowest score and 10 the highest, how do you think we are doing in terms of considering all the different factors in the discussion?”. The aim is to heighten the awareness that some factors are being left out. If some members feel that not all the factors are being taken into consideration then I will ask “what’s the impact of not doing so” and “what can we do better”. If all the members give a high score and agreed that they would prefer to narrow down the factors and work on it, then as a Coach, i will trust the process and let the responsibility rest on the team members and the Problem Presenter.
Reply
Donna Christophersen
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After the typical “How are we doing? (scale of 1-10), What are we doing well? What could we do better?”, I would probably start with a question along the lines of “What is our level of systems thinking?” or “What is the quality of our problem solving?” or “Why is it important that we identify only one key variable?”
Hopefully, these would present learning opportunities for the team to think more broadly about multiple factors or provide an opportunity to voice the reasoning for focusing in on only one point.
Reply
DrBea
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This is another one of those tricky ones, since as coach I need to leave my judgement out of it. Typically, when I’ve seen this occur is when folks are reading out what they wrote down as the problem. From here the conversation progresses in one of two ways. One is that there is a discussion about who’s is the right one – this is the situation described here. The other is when they recognize that there are many aspects to the problem.
When they recognize that there are many aspects to the problem – I’d ask, how do we want to capture all the elements to this problem? How do we want to determine where to focus our energy for the rest of today?
If they don’t notice this, then the next time I ask them to write down the problem, I’d phrase it – Let’s try writing down the problem again. If you are hearing multiple elements to this problem list them all?
Depending on the circumstance, I might ask What’s the magnitude of this problem?
Happy Coaching
Bea
Reply