Scenario: Rapid Fire
As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:
Someone asks a series of questions without waiting for an answer.
Tags: Action Learning Coach, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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Dax Cobarrubias
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As an Action Learning Coach, I will intervene by asking this to the team: “Team, I see a learning opportunity here: I noticed that A is asking one question after the other without hearing any answers. A did you notice this? Team did you notice this?” Once I get a unanimous YES from the team my next question would be: “Team, what is the impact if we continue asking one question after the other without waiting for a response?” After I hear all their answers I will come up with a final questions so that the team can come to an agreement: “Team, how would you like to move forward?” If the scenario continues, I will call another intervention until the issue goes away.
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wthimmes
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“I’ve observed that multiple questoins are being asked without an opportunity for the individual to respond. What is the effect of this on the team?” How would the team like to address its questions in the future?
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Stan Oawster
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I’d use the question sequence learned in CALC. How are we doing with…asking questions? Why is it important that we…ask one question at a time? How do we want to make it happen within this team? This sequence of question works well with situations such as this. No one feels called out and the group as a whole learns and takes note.
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Michael Anderson
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nice.
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Tiffany Maurycy
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I would would say the following, “I’ve observed someone stacking questions. Did anyone else notice that? What’s the impact on the team when questions are stacked? What should our norm be for stacking questions?
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elbertor
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I would ask the team to take a moment, and ask them to recall the questions that have been asked. From my experience, most people have trouble recalling and in the same sequence. I would then take the opportunity to ask “what is the impact of asking too many questions in a row without waiting for a response?” From there, I will ask how the team would like to proceed.
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Michael Anderson
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I like asking them about what questions they remembered. Neat idea.
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yeungpatel
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I ‘ll get the team to pay attention to this situation by asking this question “Team, I notice that more than one quesion has been asked. What are the impacts? If the team doesn’t react, I ‘ll have to direct my question to that particular member “Member X, are you asking one question or multiple questions?”
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Guntoro
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I will encourage Member who ask questions, “Mr A, which question you need to be answered first?” or ask Team to decide, “What do you think, Team? Are we going to choose one question to be discussed satisfactorily?”
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RAIMI BIN SIRAJ
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I would intervene with, “Team, how are we responding to question? From scale 1-10”. This is to get response from team members before continue with, “Team, how can we help the team to response to question?” My reason to intervene with those questions is to attract the attention of the member who have been asking question rapidly that his question is not being answered due to too many questions at one time. My intervening is to encourage other member to contribute with alternative questions.
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Edo Lavika
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I would use this a learning opportunity and ask the team, “On a scale 1-10 how are we doing?” If the team notice this and think it will disturb the process, I will ask, “How do you think we can improve our performance?”.
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Barbara Brown
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I would intervene and say, ” I have observed that several questions have been asked without giving anyone a chance to answer. Why is it important to ask one question at a time? ” After listening to answers I would ask the person to ask their first questions again.
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Shuk-ha, Jennifer CHAN
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It’s learning opportunity for team. I will intervene by asking “Team, how do we doing well so far?”. If someone alert the scenario, we then can move on. If no, I will further ask “Can anyone remind us the two ground rules?”
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Lei
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I will ask the team ” Team, on a scale of 1-10, how are we doing with the quality of our conversation?” ” What are you observing?” When a member replies that several questions are being asked at a time without them being to reply , I will ask what is the impact to the quality of discussion of the team. Then I will follow it up with “How can the team make it better?”
Another way is to say ” Team, I have observed that in the last X minutes, several questions have been asked without anyone having the chance to reply.” “What is the impact if it continues this way? Why is it important that we ask one question at a time?” Then I will ask the person ” Which question would you like to ask first?”
Then during the Reflection for Learning I will go back to this event and ask ” What did we learn about asking one question at a time?”
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Vivien Reyes
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As an Action Learning coach, I would say ” Team, what have you noticed happening in the last few minutes.” , to enable the team to indicate their own observation that a series of question has been asked without waiting for an answer. If no one is able to point this out, that’s the time that I would then say, “I have noticed that several questions have been asked one after the other without having a reply. What is the impact if we continue doing this? What does the team want or need to do about this?” I expect that they will say, to ask one question after another in order to get the response from the individual. After that, I will then ask “Who has the first question?” Will loop back the learning at reflection time and ask them, “What could we learn about the importance of asking one question at a time?”
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Paul Duncan
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As an Action Learning Coach I would affirm the fact that a team member was so committed to finding solutions and was engaged fully in the process by asking so many questions, i would then ask them, “which question would move our discussions on the farthest?”
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Michael Anderson
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Yes! I had the same thought. Granted, it is an assumption, but give them the benefit of the doubt and applaud their enthusiastic “endorsement” of questions asking. 🙂
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Nicole
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I would said” We have just asked a series of questions. Are these questions totally different or similar?” If they are totally different questions then ask”what is the impact if we ask these questions in one time?” If they are similar questions then ask “how can we rephrase the questions and ask in one question?”
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Michael Anderson
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nice
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DrBea
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I’d use the “I’ve observed” sequence for this one.
I’ve observed a series of questions without time for responses. Did anyone else notice that?
What’s the impact on our problem solving if we don’t wait for a response?
How will we slow down and wait for responses?
Happy Coaching
Bea
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Silvia QR
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Dr Bea, how would a “direct Intervention” like Guntoro did work? The same way we intervene with “did you intend that to be a closed question?” Maybe “did you intend that to be multiple question?” and if they say “yes”, then “What is the impact on the team by doing this?” “which one would you like to be answered first?” if they say no, just ask the latter and move forward. How would this work?
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Alex Wong
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If it is the first time, and it is a fresh group, I’ll simply ask “Which question would you like the team to answer?”. If it is a pattern, i.e. repeated 3 times, I will address the pattern. “I observed that Mr X (or the team) has asked several questions in a row a number of times, did anyone observe that?” “What is the impact of asking multiple questions at a time?” “What can we do better?”
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Michael Anderson
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Before I read all the great answers above, I will submit my best attempt. I think one of the challenges in coaching is to intervene in a way that is gracious and allows people an opportunity to learn without “losing face.” This seems like one of those situations. Ultimately I want the group to explore the effect on others of rapid fire questions. Regardless, my first question is directed to the person with the questions; “Excuse me, which of those questions do you want to be answered first?” Following their response, I want to ask the group, “What is the effect when a person asks a lot of questions at once wth out allowing time to answer each question?” I might follow that up with, “How can we improve our question asking”?
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MAI PHAM
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This is, of course, a good opportunity for intervention for learning questioning skill. I will ask the person “which question do you want the team answer first?”. After the answer, I would keep asking him “ what is the next question you would like to ask?”. Normally, it is not easy to recall when we ask many questions in a series. Then, “ team, what we would learn from this experience?”; “what should we do next time if we have many questions at the same time”. I would let them have a short discussion with few ideas. Each member of the team will find the best solution for him/herself, I trust them.
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Wu Yanmei
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I would like to intervene and say “I noticed that Mr. X asked a series of questions. Did every question receive the answer?”
The team will point out the problem and I will continue to ask the following questions:
1、What’s the impact of someone asking a series of questions without waiting for an answer？
2、What can we do better ?
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jefferson Cua
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As a coach I will intervene, and ask the member as to what question he wants to be answered first. I will also ask the group the impact to the team if questions will not be answered or not enough time be given to answer a question.
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Sara Williams
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As a coach, I would wait until after the series of questions and see how the group responded first. If there seemed to be confusion or if someone in the group did not ask, “what question would you like us to answer first?” I would intervene to provide a learning opportunity by interjecting:
I noticed that there were a series of questions asked without an opportunity to respond, did anyone else notice that?
Why is it important to give team members a chance to respond?
Person X, would you like to take a moment to rephrase your series of questions into one question / Person X which question is most important for the team to answer first?
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Misbah Maqsood
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I will intervene saying “What is the impact of asking too many questions without waiting for an answer”
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David RECORD
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As the Coach, in the situation like this, at the intervention, I would first ask a grading question of the Group
“On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not too good and 10 being excellent, how you think we are we doing with listening to the answers to questions, before we ask the next one?”
Once I had the answer, I would then ask the Group,
“Why do you think it is important that the Group listens to the answers before asking the next question?”
Or
“What does the Group think the impact would be on our ability to identify the problem if we don’t build on the answers given before we ask the next questions?”
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Arnaud van Dijk
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As a coach I would intervene. The contributor must be given the opportunity to answer the question.
I will ask the team: Did every question receive the answer?”
The team will point out the problem and I will continue to ask the following questions:
1、What’s the impact of someone asking a series of questions without waiting for an answer？
2、What can you do better ?
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