As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Part way through the session, one of the members mentioned a meeting they have that will require them to leave early. Several other participants mention they need to go to the same meeting, leaving only 2 participants for the session.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team races to consensus on the problem. They are saying the same words but have not really talked about what the words mean.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

You recently attending training and learned a new way of doing root cause analysis. You know if you share this with the team they will be able to identify the real problem much quicker.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team is having trouble coming to consensus.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Hearing the initial statement of the problem you (as coach) are clear what the real problem is. The team heads down a different path with it.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team has gotten off track with their questions and is now investigating an unrelated issue.

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.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Several team members are sitting with their arms folded across their chest.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A team member asks a process question. For instance – I’ve noticed we have all the managers on one side of the table and everyone else on the other. Did anyone else notice this? What’s the impact of that on how we are working together? What do we want to do about it?

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team decides they should be asking each other more questions instead of just asking questions of the problem presenter. However they continue directing all of the problems to the problem presenter.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant gets up from the group to fill a cup of coffee.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A team member isn’t participating. During the checkin they say that were lost and confused by the discussion and they were trying to figure out what was going on.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Someone decides they should start capturing what the team is saying on a flip chart and moves to the front of the room to do so.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Someone asks the problem presenter – How does this present itself as a problem for you?

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant asks another participant “why they asked a question”. The first participant is visibly disturbed. Your instinct is that they are reacting to the word “why” in that they feel the value of their question is being questioned.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant asks another participant to explain what the intent behind their question was.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant ‘playfully’ hits another member on the back of the head.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team decides it is too beautiful inside to stay indoors and opts to move outside to a picnic table.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member stands during a session.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member uses their phone to check the time.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team decides to capture some of the information they are discussing on a flip chart. The person that moves to the flip chart flips the leadership skills out of view.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant responds to a question with – What inspired that question?

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant asks a question of everyone and after a single answer another question is asked and the team moves on.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Lots of statements are made in response to a question that was posed to everyone.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presenter asks a question.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant responds to the question they were asked and continues on with additional information that is no longer answering the original question.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Early in the process a participant asks a closed question.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member responds to a closed question with an open answer.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A higher ranking participant of the team decides to pull rank and asks another team member – “Do you want to stay employeed?”

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The teams members are locked to the table. They are adhering to the two grounds rules but not making use of any other resources.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

You say “may I do a checkin?” amd a team member says “NO”

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

You’ve been working many hours and the team is clearly exhausted.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member if the team decides they know the problem and the solution, so they will sit quietly until everyone else figures it out.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member if the team doesn’t understand the process and decides “EVERYONE” doesn’t understand.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

During the Single Problem Action Learning session, the coach reminds all team members a few times that they have to think about the actions they will commit to at the end of the session, in preparation for the follow up session. When the coach asks for the actions at the end of the session, several people have listed the same or nearly identical action. How would you react as coach ?

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The team in a single problem action learning set asks questions to the sponsor (the boss), and in addition to just answering the question, the sponsor talks about the context, history, options, ideas for solutions … and this even when the question asked was a closed one … Even if the team members become aware of this, they struggle – in particular in a high power distance (respect for authority) – to do anything about it. How would you as a coach intervene ?

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presented is outside the control or influence of the problem presenter and the team. For instance: A consultants presents about an organization he does not consult for – Organization A has a culture of fear.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presented is outside the control or influence of the problem presenter and the team. For instance: A consultants presents about an organization he does not consult for – Organization A has a culture of fear.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The team is shifting in their understanding of the true nature of the problem. For instance the original problem is presented as “How should we restructure the organization for efficiency?” and they are shifting to “The communication between team members has eroded to the point that we work against each other instead of helping each other.”

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

An animal – bird, monkey, or other – enters the room through an open window.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Someone asks a question that changes the depth and understanding of the true nature of the problem.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presenter decides to test the team but giving mis-information to the team. By the time this becomes apparent, many of the team members are upset to varying degrees.

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.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

A member of the team you are coaching insists on answering questions that are being directed to the Problem Presenter

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

A member of the team does not want to participate.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presenter locks eyes with you when presenting the problem.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Someone from the team mentions it hot in here, someone else gets up to turn the air conditioner on.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The team is having trouble reaching consensus on what the real problem is.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

You ask the team – “What are we doing well?”, and get a response “We are asking all closed questions.”

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

You ask the team – “how are we doing on a scale of 1 – 10”, and get a response “I think we could be blah blah blah …”

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Someone answers a question that was asked of someone else.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Someone answers their own question, without waiting for a response from anyone else.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Someone asks an open question, then follows it with a couple choices for the response.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

A participant makes a statement followed by – “do you agree?”

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Someone asks a series of questions without waiting for an answer.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Some members don’t see the need to practice a leadership skill since they are not leaders.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation: 

Some of the group members direct questions to you since they were aware you had knowledge of the situation; despite you repeatedly stating your role as coach.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

One of the managers questioned the members about their questions. One member got irritated by him and challenged him back.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Two vocal members chit chatted more often with each other. Behavior repeated despite the intervention with team consensus to have one conversation at a time.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Each member is focused on their own line of questioning.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Several members are asking questions unrelated to the problem at hand.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The team feels they are at a point that it would be useful to brainstorm.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

During the session someone jumps up to the easels and starts capturing what is said.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

During the session you realize no one is taking notes.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

During the session a team member’s phone rings and they leave the table to answer it.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The members were enthusiastic to help the problem presenter. They asked many good questions. However, the problem presenter commented its confidential info and would not answer some of the questions. Members felt they were not able to help the problem presenter much if their questions were not answered and they could not see the value of action learning in this instance. But the problem presenter felt the session was useful to him in addressing his problem.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

During an intervention you ask “How are we doing taping all the knowledge in the room?” A participant says “We are asking questions and (s)he (the problem presenter) is answering them – isn’t that the rule?”

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

A participant says – “Wait. My question hasn’t been answered. The rule is that you have to answer the question”

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

At the start of the session you ask everyone “if they are ok with the rules” instead of “if they understand the rules” – someone says “no”.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

You ask a member of the team how they did with their leadership skill. Another member pipes up – I’d like to tell you a technique so you can accomplish that skill. All you have to do is …

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presenter asks the team to suggest some solutions. The team members start telling stories of their experience. These stories aren’t answering the question – What are some potential solutions.

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.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

You are coaching a leadership development program with a group of senior engineers…One of them is a Six Sigma Black Belt with years of experience in problem solving methods.  During the middle of your second meeting to frame the problem, the Black Belt notes that it is taking way too long to come to agreement on the problem.  Some of the Type A members of the group nod their heads in agreement.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

The team is attempting to analyze the problem situation in a search to identify the one key variable that they can influence or change to create movement in the direction of their established goal or end result. They are debating the relevance of only a few factors and seem to be ignoring the probability that the problem situation was caused or is perpetuated by multiple factors.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Every time the team seems close to getting to consensus a question is asked that takes them someplace else. You realize there are two levels that are being looked at – some participants are focused at a single group level (How do I address this with my group?), others at a corporate level (How do I address this with all groups?). 

From Tom Janiak

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle:

In the first session, there is a lot of humor in the team. Participants joke about the the 1st ground rule and answer in a parody manner, e.g. “Dear John, in reply to your question I would venture to say…”. Whenever you ask a serious question, like “what are we doing well?”, first comes a joke and only then a genuine answer.

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

A member of the team asks you – is it ok if I ask myself a question?

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

Just prior to the beginning of the meeting, the group is informed that a member has been asked by her boss to handle an emergency, and will not be able to join the group for the first 2 hours of the session.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team is working on a porch with windows around three sides. As the session starts two participants stand up at the same time. One walks to one side of the room and closes a window, the other walks to the other and opens a window.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The session has been going for a long stretch and participants start stepping out to use the bathroom.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The participants have been directed to participate in the Action Learning session but believe it’s a waste of time.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A year earlier there was a merger in the organization. All fun elements had been stopped – picnics, team outings and were replaced with ridged procedures. The team was tasked with determining was to bring back fun in the work place. The top HR person on the team is convinced it can’t happen and derails every idea.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The teams has been working on fleshing out a breakthrough solution to a problem that has been haunting the organization for years. A long term employee stops by just long enough to tell them it won’t work.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team starts brainstorming some great solutions; stopping short of actually developing a fully and clearly implementable plan.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team seems to be at consensus but continues to question the nature of the real problem.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant is convinced of the true nature of the problem and repeats the same questions over and over in an effort to persuade the others, even after others have made it clear that they don’t agree. Others are seeing what this person is advocating as another symptom – not the real problem.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team is starting to ask the same questions over and over again.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

When checking in with the team they have a particularly deep learning around something they identified. You still have one more thing on your list of potential learnings.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

During the learning checkin the team has identified all of the learning opportunities you had noted both in terms of what went well and what could be better.

As an Action Learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

After the actions are defined the problem presenter asks for help implementing them.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant is asked to take an action and declines because they know they do not have time to complete it.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant shows up for a session and has not completed the promised action.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

At the end of the session, several participants have practiced many of the leadership skills that were written up.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

At the end of the session, a participant hasn’t practiced their leadership skill.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant does something in direct contradiction to their chosen leadership skill.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant does something that strongly exemplifies their leadership skills.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team has clearly reached consensus on the problem and clearly identified the actions that need to be taken. There is still another 45 minutes in the time they allotted for the session. 

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The organization has prioritized multiple problems for multiple teams to work on. The teams are arguing that they all need to work on the top priority problem.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presented has a multitude of aspects to it. For instance many sub problems within the main problem.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presented is much bigger than the time allotted.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The presented problem is how do I update the operating system on my laptop.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team is focusing on a problem in another division that they have no influence over.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

In exploring deeper roots as to what the real problem is the team gets to the point that the real problem is “world hunger”.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team is working extremely well. Exploring deeper and deeper avenues as to what the problem is.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The participants are asking extraordinarily curious questions.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team is working extremely well. Exploring deeper and deeper avenues as to what the problem is.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The participants have asked some really powerful questions and are clearly building on each other’s questions.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Part way through the session, one of the members mentioned a meeting they have that will require them to leave early. Several other participants mention they need to go to the same meeting, leaving only 2 participants for the session.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team races to consensus on the problem. They are saying the same words but have not really talked about what the words mean.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

You recently attending training and learned a new way of doing root cause analysis. You know if you share this with the team they will be able to identify the real problem much quicker.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team is having trouble coming to consensus.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Hearing the initial statement of the problem you (as coach) are clear what the real problem is. The team heads down a different path with it.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team has gotten off track with their questions and is now investigating an unrelated issue.

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.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Several team members are sitting with their arms folded across their chest.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A team member asks a process question. For instance – I’ve noticed we have all the managers on one side of the table and everyone else on the other. Did anyone else notice this? What’s the impact of that on how we are working together? What do we want to do about it?

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team decides they should be asking each other more questions instead of just asking questions of the problem presenter. However they continue directing all of the problems to the problem presenter.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant gets up from the group to fill a cup of coffee. Well filling their cup it is clear they are fully engaged in the discussion.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A team member isn’t participating. During the checkin they say that they were lost and confused by the discussion and they were trying to figure out what was going on.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Someone decides they should start capturing what the team is saying on a flip chart and moves to the front of the room to do so.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Someone asks the problem presenter – How does this present itself as a problem for you?

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant asks another participant “why they asked a question”. The first participant is visibly disturbed. Your instinct is that they are reacting to the word “why” in that they feel the value of their question is being questioned.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant ‘playfully’ hits another member on the back of the head.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team decides it is too beautiful inside to stay indoors and opts to move outside to a picnic table.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member stands during a session.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member uses their phone to check the time.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The team decides to capture some of the information they are discussing on a flip chart. The person that moves to the flip chart flips the leadership skills out of view.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant responds to a question with – What inspired that question?

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant asks a question of everyone and after a single answer another question is asked and the team moves on.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Lots of statements are made in response to a question that was posed to everyone.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The problem presenter asks a question.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A participant responds to the question they were asked and continues on with additional information that is no longer answering the original question.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

Early in the process a participant asks a closed question.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member responds to a closed question with an open answer.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member makes a particularly prejudicial remark. For instance – women don’t belong in the work force.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

An extraordinarily deep question is asked. The responder sits quietly for a minute than begins to weep.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member checks their voice mail during break and receives disturbing news. For instance – they are an emergency room nurse and one of their patients from the night before didn’t make it.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member bangs their hands on the table and stands angrily.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

The fire alarm sounds.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

All of the team members agree on the problem and a possible solution, but the problem owner insists it won’t work.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

You have changed roles from participant to coach. One of the team members asks you a problem related question.

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:

A member of the team asks another in an angry voice – How can you be such an idiot?