As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
The team is working on a problem for a single session. One of the members tells you that they already have it figured out – both the problem and the solution- so they will not disrupt the process and sit quietly until everyone else figures it out.
Ask the member bring his/her request to the team, and ask the team:
“ How does the team feel about it? What is the impact on the team? What could be done (differently) to make us a better team? What does the team decide to do next? ”
Neither the problem nor the solution are owned by a single person. All members of the team are owners of both the problem and the actions. In order to reach the deeper layer, the contribution (involvement) of everyone is needed.
I would ask this member to pose his decision to the team. I would then ask everyone including him, how they feel about it. What is the impact when this happens in a department at the workplace? How can an organization move forward when participation and involvement of the full team is not practiced? What can we learn from this?
First I would ask the team how they feel about it,then ask them what is the impact of not hearing everyone’s voice and not having every one fully engaged ? And finally what they want to do about it?
If they decide to continue anyway, I would try to pull that participant in during the problem statement sharing by asking him/her to write down and read out loud the problem as any other participant to help that person realize that the problem could be different that he/she thought at first.
I would ask the team what they observe, how they feel, and what they want to do about this situation. Then, let the team decide how they want to proceed.
I woud intervene:
“How other member feel about this decision? can you share your opinion?
What’s the best things we can do for team in this situation?
How our team decided to move on?”
Then, respect team decision how they want to move on
As an action learning coach I would take the opportunity to ask the problem presenter the followed question: How could you have acted to help the group to help you?
Also, I would remembered even when the problem presenter doesn’t find the solution there are learnings on the process, pushing them to thinking positively and focus on the future. After that I would ask the group which learnings they have from this session.
As an action learning coach, I would ask all member:
“Hello team, what is the impact of this decision at the session?
What do you think if there is only 4 left members to solve the Problem presenter’s problem.
Let decide what you want to move on this session”
I would intervene by asking the group “What do you think / feel about this decision?” , “What do they recommend in this situation”, “How much support from all the team member would be useful in solving the problem?”
Finally, I would share my opinion that there can be several solutions to a given problem. Therefore, it could be worth joining the discussion, because thanks to their support, the group may come up with new solution. “What do they think about it?” Of course, the decision is on their site.