Scenario: Silo-ed participants
As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:
Each member of the team is focused on their own line of questioning. This becomes particularly clear when participants start asking questions that have been asked by multiple participants.
Tags: Action Leaning, Action Learning Coach, WIAL, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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Tracey
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Remind the group to ask questions of the team and to build their follow up questions off each other’s responses.
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Phanit Tiravongchaipunt
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I will intervene the process by asking what team can do better. If team notice that some questions being repeated, I would ask the follow up question” what is the impact?” and “how can team improve the ?” If no one addresses the point, I will ask how well team do in term of asking questions.
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Ben Sparkman
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During the check-in and asking “What could we do better?”, if this issue doesn’t come up, I would say, “I have observed many questions being repeated during this last segment. Have you noticed that? What’s the impact on the team? How we can we improve?” After they discuss, I will lean out and ask who has the next question.
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Owen Yeung
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I will ask what the team observed in respect of the questions raised? Do we have any repeat questions and what’s the impact on those? How are we going to deal with this situation as a team in future?
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Barbara Brown
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I would ask the team what they have observed about the questions they are asking. If they don’t bring up that some questions have been repeated I will say that I have observed that some questions have been repeated. Then I will ask what the impact is and how they can improve.
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Changguang Zou
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I would ask the team “What can we do better as a team?” if no member brings up the quality of the questions,I would say”What is the quality of our questions so far?” When they notice that some question being repeated, I would follow up with”what is the impact?” and “how to improve?”
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Sophie Bryan
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I would ask the team how they think they are performing, and how they think they can improve. If they raise repeat questions, I would ask the team if it’s helpful to have repeat questions, and what they would like to do about it. If they don’t volunteer the repeat questions as an area for improvement, I would share my observation, and ask them if repeat questions are helpful to them, and how they would like to proceed.
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marc rutter
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I would lean in and ask: What is the quality of our questions? How do you think the group is doing? In what ways might we reduce redundancy so we are using our time better?
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DrBea
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I’d start with the standard 3 questions and if no one mentioned it move to WHAT? SO WHAT? NOW WHAT?
How are we doing building on each others questions?
Why is it important that we build on each other’s questions?
How can we hold ourselves and each other accountable to building on each other’s questions?
Happy Coaching
Bea
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Gabor Holch
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I think such a situation is good learning opportunity, because the participants have ‘imported’ their usual corporate culture into the Action Learning sessions, where we can observe, discuss and improve it. I agree with Dr. Bea about the question sequence: “What” “So what?” “Now what?” Ultimately, if the team confirms that they feel comfortable this way, it’s disconcerting but the coach should not dictate another way of working together. However, I think that is unlikely: It is much more probable that part of the team feels as frustrated with the situation as the coach herself, and under intervention will come up with a better handling of questions.
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Daniela Adamo
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During my intervention I would take the opportunity to ask ‘what can we do better?’. If no participant bring this up I would say that I have observed repetition of questions and ask what could the group do better to get the best out of the session. Depending on their response I would further question how the group is doing on building on each others question and suggest the use of “what/”, “so what?”, “Now what?”
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Tanushree Luthra
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I would use the (scripted) intervention at 8-10 minutes in to ask:
– How are we doing as a team?
– What are we doing well?
– What could we do better?
– How are we doing with building on each other’s questions?
– What is the impact of building on each other’s questions?
– What does the team want to do about it?
– Who has the next question?
If the single-line of questioning continues, I would go in with a Level 2
intervention and ask:
– How are we going with building on each other’s questions?
– What is the impact of not building on each other’s questions?
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焮茹 杨
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As action learning team usually are formed temporarily, it is difficult for them to be in tune and cohesive at the very beginning. If some participants are more familiar with the problem or better at solving the problem than others, it could lead to the silo situation. Therefore, it is important to intervene regarding team effectiveness.
I may ask；
What is the quality of the questions we have asked?
If participants just ask questions from their own perspectives, I may ask:
What is the impact of only asking questions from our own perspective on team effectiveness?
If the teams aren’t aware of this, I may ask:
What perspectives of our questions? What are their relationship?
What the impact on the team? What should we do next?
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