Normally each participant defines her/his focus and is then coached by one or two other participants. The main role of the coaches is to listen carefully to the replies to their questions, and to adapt subsequent questions accordingly.
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This exercise is used to uncover underlying problems, and to create tension between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’ - or between hopes and fears. Normally each participant defines her/his focus and is then coached by one or two other participants. The main role of the coaches is to listen carefully to the replies to their questions, and to adapt subsequent questions accordingly.
I first encountered it in a workshop at the Findhorn Foundation in the mid 1980s and have since used widely and incorporated into the Learning for Change methodology.
The Learning for Change booklet (link below) was prepared by Marilyn Mehlmann and André Benaim, with the support of Shepherd Urenje and Frans Lenglet, and many workshop participants in Europe, Africa and Asia. / Marilyn Mehlmann
The later Theory U methodology seems to have similar provenance.
For trainee coaches and facilitators
For managers and leaders interested in peer coaching
Best results are achieved with people who feel secure in themselves. If the group is new or has not yet settled into its ‘safe enough space’, it’s especially important to phrase the instructions as an invitation and to provide an alternative activity for any who opt out.
Spend time to prepare and test the instructions for participants. This is not easy to convey - but when successful, the method is highly popular.
The first problem-owning participant states the question, as formulated in Step 1.
The participant playing the role of coach asks ‘Why is this important to you?’ This is NOT a question of ‘Why does this problem exist?’
Example: Not enough funding. Why? Because our donors are short of money. No!
Example: Not enough funding. Why is this important to you?’ Because in one month I may be out of a job. Better!
Example: In one month I may be out of a job.
2. Why/how is this important to you? Because I am a single parent with two children and no other income.
3. What is the heart of this problem? Is it that you have no other possibility to find a job? No, it’s because this project is my passion and I don’t want to give it up.
Now you have reached an underlying concern.
1. So how can you work with that possibility?
Example: I could fund-raise.
2. How? I could ask the present donor to endorse an application to another
foundation.
3. How would you do that? I could invite the donor to a stakeholder meeting where the stakeholders explain the importance of the project, and how the funding cuts are
affecting our work, and ask them to brainstorm with us about other potential donors.
What is a good way to ending the exercise with the whole group?
As usual, it’s good to invite reflections about the process - the experience of doing the exercise is in focus, not the content. After that it’s fine to invite anyone who wants to, to either say something about their content, or to write (signed or anonymously) on a flipchart set up to receive ‘Aha!s’ - where all participants can post important insights.
Click on cover to read or download.
The same goes for the translations below.
Click on cover to read. Get the real book here.
A simple way to get an overview of possible risks, and how to deal with them.
