Scenario: One on One
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
A single team member is asking all the questions of the problem presenter, the remainder sitting back observing.
Tags: Action Leaning, Action Learning Coach, WIAL, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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Donellen Schlosser
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I would take the opportunity during a check-in to ask “How are we doing as a group in balancing the questioning among all members?” or “How are we doing as a group with balancing participation?” You may have to take the pulse of the group to see if they are simply not participating, don’t feel comfortable breaking in, or are processing the information and may need a bit more time to ask questions.
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Lenor Baptiste-Simmons
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At the first standard intervention (8-12 minutes into the session), as the coach, I will intervene and ask each participant “on a sca.e of 1-10, how do you feel we are doing as a group thus far?” Then ask the group “what are we doing well? Anything else? , “what could we do bettrer? Anything else?
Finally, i would ask the group to respond to the following process question: “what is the balance of participation.”
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Michelle Lim
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As Coach, I would ask the Team their observations of all team members’ body language, followed by a scaling question that requires them to rate on a scale of 1-10 the level of participation within the Team (1 very low, 10 fully engaged). With their observation and input, assuming they observe only one active team member and level of participation is low, I would ask them what the impact on the team is if this is allowed to continue.
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Emmanuel Ossom
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Having noticed that only one team member is asking all the questions of the problem presenter, i will intervene with a number of questions with the aim to ensure that at least every team member participates as much as possible. The first question would be: “How is the balance of participation?” The next question would be a scale type question: “What would be your rating on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is the least participation, and 10 is the highest participation) of your participation in asking questions of the presenter?” These questions will alert them that the asking of questions of the problem presenter is tilted towards one team member. It will certainly awaken the rest to rise up to their responsibility as team members to ask questions too. They would certainly respond to these questions by getting actively involved in asking the right questions as they would have noticed that asking divergent questions by all of them is necessary to unravel the real problem in the problem statement presented . Asking many right questions by all team members is the fastest and surest way to understand the problem statement presented and to quickly define what the real problem is. This will stimulate the “sense of ownership” of attaching a sense of urgency of defining the real problem and also to act on it. There is a risk of wrongly defining the real problem if other team members wouldn’t be asking questions of the problem presenter as expected of them. That would mean the subsequent actions too on the wrongly defined real problem would be wrong and that would eventually mean that the real problem of the problem presenter would be left undefined and unsolved. If others too wouldn’t be asking questions, there is also the risk that at the end of the session, consensus wouldn’t be reached and that would mean the time spent on the session has been a waste. Thus, moreover, not asking question would mean no generation of creative insights into the problem, lack of focus and productivity, and the rest of the team members wouldn’t develop their leadership skills for other challenges they may face on the job or other problems they may have to define and solve.
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Rachael Olivier
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Response:
As a coach, I would perform a check in after I’ve observed the occurrence. During this check in I would ask the group: “How do you feel you are doing as a group on a scale of 1-10?”. Upon their response, I would ask, “What can be improved?”. In addition, I would ask: “What are your thoughts or how do you feel about the balance of questions asked within the group?”
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Yingting Wu
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In this situation, as an action learning coach, I could ask the team the following questions:
“How are we doing in terms of equal participation?”
“How are we doing in the balance of questioning and answering?”
“I notice one single member is asking all the questions of the problem presenter. What is the impact on the team? ” And ask what the team would like to do about it.
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Mackenzie Farrell
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In a group, diversity of thought and varying viewpoints are helpful in learning and skill development and ultimately to finding the root problem and offering solutions. As the coach, I would ask the group “what is the balance of who’s asking and who’s answering”, to help them recognize who is/ isn’t speaking. Another great way of opening up the conversation to others, would be to ask the questioner “can that question be directed towards the group?”.
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Simone Gutwilen
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At the time of the intervention I would ask to each participant: How do you feel we are acting as a group so far, on a scale of 1-10? Then ask the group: What are we doing well? What can we do better? After that I would ask the deep question: How is the balance of participation?
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Ana Motta
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One of the roles of the Action Learning Coach is to ensure improvement in group performance and to assist in the development of leadership skills. This way I can intervene at any moment with these two great goals. I would make an intervention: “Do you remember the first rule of action learning?” Or “What does the first rule of action learning?”. I understand that in this way the group can reflect on the participation of each one. I can also ask questions that focus on how much each one is practicing the competence that said they would like to work (from 1 to 10, being 1 little practice and 10 very practical), because depending on what each participant chose as competence that wants to work, he can give greater focus if I participate by asking questions then the last question that I would ask can generate several reflections of how much the member is participating and the group can evaluate how much they are in balance with respect to the participation of all. Another question I can ask is “How is the balance between who asks and who answers questions?”
It is worth mentioning that there is already the moment of the first intervention with 10 minutes of rerunion where the Action Learning Coach asks and each responds: “How do you feel we are working as a group so far, on a scale of 1 to 10? What are we doing well? What can we do better? Anything else?”. In this way, this moment is already a milestone for the group to reflect on the balance of participation and to reflect individually on their participation. Of course we will not just wait for this moment to ask questions that promote the group’s performance but at the moment it is more a reinforcement and a time for these reflections and to think about possibilities of improvement of the group’s performance from then on.
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fatima dias
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When this happens I believe the best the Coach can do is to intervene as following:
– We have been working for xx minutes. How do you feel we are doing as a group? from 1 to 10. Ask each one.
– What are we doing well?
– What we could do better?
– Why is it important to have all the group asking questions?
Ok, who has the next question?
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Renata Gripp
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In my experience it has worked well to ask the group “how is the balance of the questions in the group from 1 to 10”. with the sequence of the question: “And what we can do better as a group to help the presenter of the problem to deepen in understanding the problem.”
They can perceive the imbalance and adjust the distribution of the questions.
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Desdra Bascombe
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I would lean in and tell the group that we have been working togetheror the past eight to ten minutes and ask each individual:
On a scale of one to ten, how do you feel we are doing as a group? Group answers
What do you feel we could do better? Group answers
What could we do better? Group answers
Why is it important for all members to ask questions? Group Answers
Now who has the next question?
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Mecaela Paula Peralta
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I will do a quick intervention and ask each member, “Have you asked a question, yes or no?” “Have you answered a question, yes or no?” This will clearly describe the situation to the team.
If it turns out that only 2 people have been talking since the beginning of the session, I will ask the team about the impact of the limited participation and ask them what we can do moving forward.
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Romila Chopra
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I would see this an learning opportunity and would like the group to reflect on the process. My first question would be ” How are we doing as a group ? ” and would wait for the observation to evolve from the group it self. If it does not come up my next question would be . “I am observing that one person is asking all the questions . What is the impact of this on the group? I will wait for the group members response and then ask ” What can we do better ?” ” How can the group handle this situation ” ?
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Naveen Chopra
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How are we doing as a team?
I observed only one person is asking the questions – did anyone else have this observation?
What is the impact of only one person asking questions on the team?
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Anna Gabryjelska
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During the intervention time I would say for example ‘I notice that some members of the group are visibly more active than others. Have you also noticed that?’ and if they answer ‘Yes’ I would ask ‘How does it influence our work? What can we do about it?’.
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SHAINA VANEK
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I agree with much of what has been posted already, specifically with jumping in as coach to ask what the balance of participation is and, as a follow up, what the impact is of one person asking all of the questions is. It’s important to help the group become self aware (both as individuals and as a group), and utilize the skills of all of the team members in action learning. As the coach, you often see things that those who are “in it” don’t, and have the responsibility and the privledge to ask questions that drive the group forward.
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David RECORD
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As the Coach, when choosing to intervene, I would ask the group members, “How do you feel on a scale of 1 to 10, the level of equal participation within the group, with 1 being unequal and 10 being everyone participating equally?”
On the basis of their answers, (as the score will be less than 5), I would ask them what impact would have on the quality of learning and problem solving if this unequal participation continues and then ask them would the group should commit to do during the next session.
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Marcelo Conte
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It would proceed in the same way as before, asking the basic questions: “What are we doing best? What can we improve? “, Trying to draw attention to this solitary action of one of the members.
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Kanokwan Srisunthorn
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As the coach, I will check in and intervene with questions. “What are we doing well as team?” “on a scale of 1-10, how do you rate our doing as a team?” What we could do better to balance of participation?
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Waranunt Chooprasertchok
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I will intervene by asking the team members what is happening now. If there is one person to ask like this, what happens next? Who hasn’t asked any questions? Please raise your hand. And ask the team members who raise their hands to ask the next question. In the meantime, if this problem occurs again.I will ask the team members to give their own work scores from 1-10. I will ask the team members what each person can do well. What can do better. I will write down what they say to remind them later.
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Gloria Alice Lobato Rodrigues
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One of the functions of the Action Learning Coach is to ensure improvement in group performance and assist in the development of leadership skills. In this way, I would make an intervention using the following questions: “I noticed that only one person is asking questions.” “Someone else observed?” “What impact does the group have when there is no balance in the stakes? the first 10-minute action intervention in which the Action Learning Coach asks and each responds: “How do you feel now that you are working as a group on a scale of 1 to 10? What are we doing well? What can we do better? Anything else?”. We can not wait for this time if the observed behavior is impacting the performance of the group and we have an opportunity to generate learning and behavior change.
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Michelle Ow
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I would intervene and ask:
* On a scale of 1-10, how is the participation in asking questions as a team looks like; 1 being only 1 or 2 team members are asking questions, and 10 being all team members are asking questions.
* What is the impact of having only 1-2 persons asking questions have on the team?
* How does this look like back at the workplace?
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Ricardo Grzybowski
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First, I would observe if the two Action Learning rules are being met. Secondly, I’d pay attention if all group members are showing value to the questions and answers. Therefore, with a soft pause, I would incline myself physically and ask the question: How are we exploring the problem from all angles on 1-10 scale? If the symptoms don’t change, I’d wait the block ends to listen to the learning responses as part of the group development.
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Pascal Milhous
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I would ask the group how they think the cooperation is working out. Is everybody involved? Are we using the group potential?
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Manassawee Manavid
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S: Team…How about the participation on asking the question?
I: What is the impact if we continue like this?
D: What do team decide?
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Manassawee Manavid
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S: Team…I observe that there is only one member asking all questions to problem presenter…What do you think?
I: What is the impact if we do not distribute question to others?
D: What do team decide?
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Min Ge
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When this happens again and again, I will interrupt and ask the team members, “Is everyone’s participation balanced?” “Why it is important that everyone’s participation?” And “How do we ensure it next?”
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Rohini Chopra
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I would intervene and ask the team how they feel as a group they are doing on participation? Based on their answers I will ask how one person asking the questions impacts the group. I would ask what the team would like to handle the situation going forward .
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Elena Goryacheva
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I would intervene with the following: 1. ” How are we doing as a team ?” If not helpful, I would do: 2. “How are we doing with equal participation and engagement of all participants in the discussion?” if not helpful I would do: 3. “I am observing that only one person is asking the questions. What is the impact of this on the group? What should we do right now in order to improve the situation?”
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Joaquim Braga
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I would intervene for the purpose of raising the group’s awareness regarding what was happening, as well as to invite them to address that situation. I’d ask the following questions:
1. How is the distribution of who is asking and answering questions?
2. How might this be impacting the group?
3. Why it is important that more group members ask and answer questions?
4. How can we ensure that several group members are asking questions, and that those questions are directed toward several people in the group or to the whole group?
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May Ling Siow
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As a coach, I would ask the question” on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the least and 10 being the most in terms of team participation, where are we at this moment” continued by ” What would be the impact of the team if this (low participation) continues throughout the AL session?” followed by “moving forward, what should we do?”
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Jiajing LE
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I will ask everyone: thank you * * * for your question. I noticed that three questions were discussed just now. How does this situation affect the team working together? What can be done to reduce this impact? It is up to the team to determine the next rules of engagement.
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Huong Doan Kim
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I would intervene by asking “I observed and saw that only one member asked all questions to the PP. How does it affect the team?”. After the team answer, I continue to ask “What should we do to improve this situation?”
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Enrico Sterken
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Feitelijk is daar een mooi moment voor in het script. Na xx minuten kun je als coach aangeven dat het tijd is om de peilstok erin te steken en de vraag te beantwoorden hoe we het als groep doen in een range van 1 tot 10. En dat uiteraard per persoon vragen. Vervolgens vragen wat we goed doen en wat beter kan. Als er ook een observator bij is, dan blijkt vanzelf of het opgevallen is dat er maar eentje de vragen stelt. Als Action Learning coach zou ik, als het niet op tafel komt, pas bij de reflectie op het eind deze observatie delen. In dat geval lijkt dat te laat, maar ik vind dat een team juist leert van gemiste kansen en je als coach niet teveel moete doen om gemiste kansen te voorkomen.
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Grace Wong
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I will ask: “What do you think of the overall participation of the team? How do you score on a scale of 1-10?” “I noticed that there is only one member asking questions. What impact will it have if it continues?” “What can we do to improve team participation?”
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