Scenario: Unkind Gesture
As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:
A member arrives to a three hour session one hour late. You conduct coaching inquiries and he is smoothly integrated into the team. 15 minutes later he is exchanging friendly but sarcastic comments with a team member that end with him using a hand gesture that would cause most folks to take offense to a fellow team member.
Tags: Action Learning Coach, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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bkknox
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I noticed the tone of our conversation and gestures have changed. Has anyone else noticed that?
How would you like to address this?
I also might add: I wonder if the tone and gestures are supportive of our team? What ideas do you have?
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Michael
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As the A/L coach I would say, “I’m noticing that one of our team members is doing things that may be impeding our process. Is anyone else noticing this? How might sarcasm get in the way of the team’s progress? How should we deal with sarcastic remarks/gestures in the future?”
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ksculver
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I would say “I’ve noticed that one of the members of our group has done something that is not going to help our performance and our progress. Has anyone else noticed this change? What is the impact on the group when one of the members behaves like this? As a group, how should we address this kind of behaviour now and in the future?”
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DrBea
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Be careful to use questions that bring the behavior in to discussion but not the individual.
I would start with the standard 3 questions –
How are we doing as a team on a scale of 1 – 10?
What are we doing well?
What can we do better?
I fully expect that someone would mention it at this point.
If not, I would ask – How respectful are we being of each others views?
Once it’s been named –
Why is it important that we maintain a high level of respect for everyone’s views?
How will we make sure that we keep a respectful atmosphere?
Happy Coaching
Bea
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Tiffany Maurycy
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I appreciate that you provide the team to self identify the behavior in the standard check in and if they don’t highlight the behavior but move away from the context to higher ground with a the value of Respect. Brilliant.
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Shobhna Popatlal
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I would ask the team “Team, what is happening?” followed by “How are we performing as a team?” and “What can we do better?” I would think the behaviour would be brought up by now and would ask them “How does lack of respectfulness impact team’s progress?” and “How do we ensure positive atmosphere is maintained from now onwards?”
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