Most of us can’t forget entirely about our jobs when we open the door to our home or conversely, leave behind all thoughts of family life and personal commitments when we arrive at the office.  And when we’re at work, we interact with various employees from different departments, cultures, and experiences. Each believes in different values, feels troubled by different concerns and circumstances, and develops different agendas.  It’s no wonder that newly-formed groups need time to understand diverse perspectives as they mature.

WHERE PARTICIPANTS STRUGGLE

• Feeling uncomfortable at being “pulled away” from work.
• Unable to set aside cares, worries, and mental To Do lists during meetings.
• Mistrusting others’ ability to respect confidentiality.
• Reluctant to disclose their “sore spots.”
• Accustomed to helping others by giving advice instead of asking beneficial questions.
• Fear of interpersonal conflict and confrontation.
• Comparing themselves to others – favorably or unfavorably.
• Resisting the process (e.g., not wanting to play by Group Coaching rules).
• Forming cliques or sub-groups that stand apart from their team (for example, by holding side-conversations, communicating non-verbally with each other (e.g. rolling eyes), telling inside jokes, interrupting).
• Recurrent poor attendance and/or lateness.
• Disregarding the norm of equal air time by dominating the conversation, giving advice disguised as questions, or behaving as if their needs were more important.
• Behaving passive-aggressively, passively, or aggressively.

FACILITATOR RESPONSES

Experienced Group Coaching facilitators direct obstacles and difficulties back to the group for resolution. In this context, set members can deal with predicaments in several ways:

• Create norms to guide the group in specific situation (e.g. what can we do to prevent or deal with lateness?)
• Through skillful questioning, help a participant reframe a concern or a complaint into an action item (e.g. from “I can’t finish my regular work because I spend so much time in this group” to “I’m going to ask my boss if I can cross-train (Name of Person) to deal with urgent situations during my absences.”)
• Ask for suggestions for handling distracting (yet common) challenges: e.g. having difficulty leaving cares, worries, or To Do lists at the door. (Example: on a slip of paper, write what’s on your mind. Fold it in half and put your initials on the outside.  Then place the paper in the middle of the table. Or settle down by journaling first.)
• During breaks, the facilitator can speak briefly with an anxious set member and encourage him/her to bring their concern to the group. F. and set members can then listen, ask questions, and display calm and caring nonverbal cues.
• The Facilitator and/or the group may ask the participant: “How can the group win your re-commitment to what we are doing?”

Effective teams learn to overcome challenges as different personalities, professional focus, values, and personal communication styles come together in a Group Coaching set. Yet when powered by a shared purpose, clear boundaries, excellent communication, an effective process, and expert guidance, individuals develop into a cohesive and productive group.

When the going gets tough, it’s usually because participants hit a few speed bumps along the way. With their facilitator’s support and assistance, these speed bumps signal learning opportunities.

This has been a great ride, with twists and turns from crisp and tight clarity to complete chaos and back again. Group Coaching Participant

1. The Sponsor, Project Manager, and Facilitators introduce themselves, their roles, and the reasons for implementing Action Learning in support of the organization’s strategic goals. The Sponsor may address specifically the short- and mid-term goals of the organization and how Group Coaching has the potential to impact these goals. The Project Manager (PM) continues as master of ceremonies with assistance from the Facilitators (F). Orientation leaders encourage Q & A throughout.
2. PM explains: Why/How (Company Name) selected orientation attendees as participants.
3. Participants share their names, roles/titles, and personal/professional interests.
4. PM presents a brief overview of the Action Learning principles and the purpose of Group Coaching.
5. PM describes the personal and professional benefits (and workplace applications) that set members value and enjoy as a result of taking part in this Group Coaching experience, such as developing new competencies and enriching current strengths:
   • Shared leadership and accountability
   • Attentive listening.
   • Asking high-gain questions.
   • Making decisions and solving problems.
   • Managing conflict and differences in opinions and values.
   • Informed risk-taking.
   • Creating personal development plans.
   • Developing and using knowledge gained from experience.
   • Effectively challenging assumptions and ideas.
   • Displaying supportive nonverbal communication.
   • Incorporating professional development stretch goals into their performance discussions.
   • Increasing their proficiency at recognizing what they need to learn and how to accelerate that learning. (When everyone on a team agrees to become a proficient learner, team members interact as equals. They become open to new experiences—even welcoming change. They find fresh inspiration to develop individually and as a member of the group. This commitment to learning enriches each person’s growth, the vitality and effectiveness of the team and department, and ultimately, the strength and health of Company Name).
6. PM briefly explains the differences between Group Coaching and traditional training, emphasing confidentiality. Other differences include:
   • An individual challenge
   • The work of the set
   • Reflective inquiry
   • The action
   • Commitment to learning
   • The facilitator’s role
7. PM reviews the components of Group Coaching:
   • Logistics, timelines, meeting locations.
   • Managing workload and set participation.
   • Attendance.
   • Topics to explore for the year of Group Coaching (examples: adapting to a change, improving quality, product/process improvement, customer satisfaction, etc.).
   • The Pre-work Challenge Sheet and the attributes of a meaningful personal Challenge:
     • Related to an individual’s development and effectiveness via a 360, Employee Opinion Survey, or other data source.
     • That doesn’t have clear answers; an issue that’s difficult to solve with the participant’s current breadth and depth of expertise.
     • Aligned with one of the organizational macro themes. (Example: improving my ability to motivate performance that will impact quality).

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. Benjamin Spock

PART 2— Group Members Meet with their Facilitator (2 hours including break)

1. Participants begin interacting with their set through an introductory activity comprising about an hour’s time. (Leadership/Visual Explorer or My World, etc.)
2. F presents Group Coaching: A Powerful and Practical Handbook
3. F summarizes the responsibilities and expectations of participants via a tour of the Handbook:
   • Attendance
   • Confidentiality
   • Pre-work
   • Goal setting content and outcomes/ROI: (e.g. are you better at running meetings? What are the indicators that you’re improving? Are you more comfortable with respectful confrontation?)
   • Journaling
   • Learning Contract
   • Volunteer to post emails and cell phone numbers.
4. With F as a guide, set creates ground rules for successful work together (no phones, punctuality, etc.)
5. F reviews actions in preparation for first set meeting: Boss discussion, sign learning contract, complete pre-work.
6. Wrap-up: participants share their best insights from the Orientation and Journal component.

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. Isaac Asimov

We humans learn continuously: our survival, evolution, and success require it. Throughout our lives, we identify and solve problems, observe others, seek guidance, grapple with new experiences, explore unfamiliar territory (both without and within), ask questions, and search for information.

At work, Action Learning is an ideal context for diligent self-development. And since the efficacy of the team experience depends on choosing the right members, participant selection sets the stage for achieving the dual mission of Group Coaching:

• Exploring an issue/solving a problem
• Building the capability of individual participants and the team as a whole

(Note: See Group Coaching: The Role of the Participant)

There are two credible methods a company can use to recognize and recruit Group Coaching set members:

1. Asking managers to identify employees whose professional development will accelerate through participation.
2. Once Group Coaching is part of a company’s culture, soliciting volunteers to participate, along with an application, meeting logistics, and the role description for a set participant. Of course, the participant will need his manager’s approval for this level of participation.

Many expert practitioners recommend these guidelines to qualify team members:

1. Structure sets to include talent from various functions and disciplines.
2. Keep members within one or two responsibility levels.
3. Never place bosses with direct reports.
4. Maximize diversity—male and female, experienced and inexperienced, youthful and mature, varying cultural backgrounds—to expand the learning environment in the sets.
5. Choose employees who are ready for a rich developmental opportunity (and may someday train as a facilitator), have no performance problems, and/or who are high performers seeking motivation, a challenge, or exposure to other parts of the organization. Perhaps this experience can be part of an individual development plan.
6. Ensure that set participants have discretionary time to control their work schedule (e.g. the ability to attend a meeting during the workday and have someone cover for them), and the commitment and the support of their boss for the duration.

Entry Characteristics for Participants

• Tolerate ambiguity
• Respect confidentiality
• Curious and motivated to learn
• Comfortable disclosing lack of knowledge/skill in front of others
• Willingness to take measured risks
• Ownership for his/her own action and learning

Once the Sponsor and/or panel of managers facilitated by the project manager and/or external consultant identify prospective set members, the candidate’s manager or the Project Manager meets individually with candidates to:

• Explain the formation of a Group Coaching set (to give employees a chance to learn and practice team dynamics, solve individual problems, build interpersonal skills, increase emotional intelligence, and expand their mindset).
• Describe the benefits to and responsibilities of participating members.
• Consider the candidate’s ability to commit time and make the Group Coaching meeting attendance a top priority.
• Review agenda and timeframes: teams meet all day for eight months throughout a year.
• Note changes (if any) to the individual’s work responsibilities

After this briefing, all the candidates participate in an orientation to Group Coaching where roles, expectations, and further preparation will build a solid foundation for the new team members.

Transformative learning occurs when we make a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of an experience, which guides subsequent understanding, appreciation, and action.  Jack Mezirow.

Self-development is the hallmark of Action Learning—a journey rich in challenging new encounters and events. Keeping a journal helps participants draw together the threads of their experience by connecting their recorded observations and insights about themselves, their colleagues, and their work environment.

A journal enables the writer to take charge of his own development by promoting self-awareness, accountability, and adaptability: capabilities indispensible to learning.

Benefits of Keeping a Group Coaching Journal

• Learning from experience (successes, mistakes, uncertainties and challenges).
• Tracking the evolution of thoughts and actions.
• Holding oneself accountable for achieving goals and responding to complex situations.
• Applying ideas and concepts to actual work/life experiences.
• Broadening existing perspective–viewing situations from various angles.
• Sorting out and expressing feelings and complex emotions.
• Recognizing behavioral patterns and organizational realities (and their impact) over time.
• Anticipating, considering options, and planning future actions.
• Reframing past experiences in light of present knowledge or wisdom.
• Examining assumptions, values, and beliefs.
• Sustaining performance by documenting activities and accomplishments.
• Posing provocative and challenging questions.
• Recording ideas for future presentations, articles, or projects.
• Reflecting on personal insights.
• Recording memorable quotes from speakers or colleagues.

How to Use your Journal

The Overall Process

• Identify a trigger event or interaction (along with the date and place).
• Describe your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Explain why you responded as you did.
• Jot down the relevant immediate and mid-term consequences.
• Think about what you learned by writing a question to yourself.
• Note how you will apply what you learned to other professional and personal circumstances.
• Draw an image that represents your experience.

Throughout the Group Coaching Process

Pose a question to yourself (such as one of the following) or respond to a facilitator’s or set member’s question.

1. My Value as a Set Member

• What difference do I make to my co-workers/colleagues/team?
• When did I laugh the hardest during our work together?
• Whom do I admire and why?
• What happened that surprised me?
• What strength do I rely on too much?
• What can I bring to and learn from my colleagues?
• Have I maximized my team role (facilitation, decision-making, creativity, etc.)?
• How can I boost my engagement and participation?
• What is my level of courage and honesty?
• How do I show support?

2. Progress on my Goals

• What have I done that worked well, and why?
• What didn’t work well, and why?
• What are some signs that I’m making progress? Are there other ways to measure my improvement?
• How do I feel when I try something new (venture out of my comfort zone)?
• What am I resisting or avoiding? What causes my resistance? How should I deal with these factors?
• How can I come up with more alternatives?
• What am I avoiding?
• What is my energy level regarding this goal?

3. Developing a Skill or Attribute

• Get clear on the target (what would success ideally look like?)
• Do I/why do I really want this change? What will be the immediate and extended benefits (to me, others, my organization)? What will be the potential costs? Is the effort worth it?
• Have I already taken action to develop this capability? If so, how have I demonstrated this skill?
• Who are the members of my set who display this competency?  Who doesn’t? What specific behaviors indicate their level of competence? How can I observe, adopt or avoid similar behaviors?

4. Learning from a Current Problem

• What is happening? What is not happening?
• How am I feeling, thinking, and acting?
• What is particularly stressful or painful about this? What is at stake or seems threatening?
• Have I responded (so far) in the way that I’d like to respond? If not, why not?
• In what ways is this situation the same or different from similar circumstances? What patterns do I recognize?
• How would I like to be supported? What resources can I enlist?
• What can I learn from this situation?

5. Reviewing a Difficult Interaction

• When did I feel most frustrated during the Group Coaching meeting (or journey)?
• What happened?
• What were my assumptions and expectations?
• What did I hope would happen?
• What were my team members’ expectations, thoughts, feelings and needs?
• What did I learn?
• What are my best options moving forward to positively influence the situation?
• What does stress bring out in me? Why?
• Am I getting better at giving constructive (difficult) feedback/input? How can I improve?

Tips and Cautions

1. The most effective learning records include specific statements about experiences and insights (e.g. “I was frustrated when John ignored me, but I did not do anything about it.”) and how to apply these ideas to future circumstances (e.g. “I will sit near him next time and speak up first when I want to say something”).
2. Reflect on and measure what matters to you, because what we pay attention to becomes integrated into our performance.
3. Learning means acquiring the knowledge, skill, and mindset to act effectively in a wide variety of life’s circumstances—predictable and unpredictable. You know that learning has taken place when you understand or can do something you couldn’t do before.

I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.  Albert Einstein

Comfort with a Diverse Team

Typically, four to six participants comprise the set. Member diversity (that is, people selected from across functions and departments) generates a range of attitudes, values, and behaviors that contributes to productive meetings. Group dynamics are less competitive and more supportive in a diverse group than in a homogenous one. Members who have different backgrounds:

• Exchange views that contradict and challenge (rather than complement) each other. This minimizes groupthink, which discourages the exploration of a variety of perspectives
• Generate different interpretations of the problem
• Examine the implications of their actions on various areas of the organization
• Build new networks

Diversity brings an array of knowledge and experience to the project, contributes richly to the questioning and reflecting activities of the group, and expands the group’s learning opportunities. To complement their variety of skills, knowledge, and approaches, group members should posses the same level of perceived competence and status, so they feel comfortable in challenging each other. While difficult, employees working from remote locations can participate through access to teleconferencing and other methods of virtual participation.

Commitment to Attendance

While each team member understands that attendance at meetings is a priority, there may be times when personal or organizational urgencies limit attendance. Each team needs to discuss how it will deal with this reality. It is generally better for the team to meet less frequently with every member present than to meet more often with incomplete attendance.

The Ideal Participant’s Role

Attributes

• Interest in the issues and circumstances of set members
• Tolerates ambiguity
• Takes measured risks
• Supports and facilitates others in their quests for learning
• Values, respects and learns from others’ ideas and principles
• Attends to group dynamics and personal and professional growth

Behaviors

• Rotates through a variety of team roles to better understand the process
• Contributes as an equal (All receive adequate and equal “air time” and their ideas and questions are considered equally.)
• Listens actively, reflects, and challenges others to analyze their issues; stimulates new thinking and opportunities for insight and reflection
• Poses questions that stimulate solutions to a problem (divergent thinking)
• Analyzes and plans solutions—and acts collaboratively to achieve goals (takes action)
• Ensures privacy and discretion: discusses the temptations to (and the consequences of) breaking confidentiality
• Helps determine the meeting schedule; attends (and actively participates in) team meetings to ensure continuity
• Contributes to defining explicit, positive group norms that express the group’s central values around expectations, assumptions, and how they will work together regarding individual commitment, confidentiality, and accountability
• Points out counterproductive behaviors using observations and respectful wording, friendly tone of voice, and positive  nonverbal language.

Participating in Group Coaching supports set members in examining and developing their values, interpersonal communication style, contribution to the team effort, learning capability, and sensitivity to the realities and operations of their organization.

Coming Up: GC—Creating a Learning Journal

A learning log book helps the journalist recognize learning needs, take advantage of learning opportunities, measure personal effectiveness, share information with others, recall AHAS! and reflect on lessons learned: in other words—to better know one’s self.

In a nutshell, the ideal background for a Group Coaching facilitator is an artful blend of group process and communication skills learned through formal and informal study, observation, supervised participation, and experience. They create a supportive, encouraging environment in which the set can learn to:

• Own the solutions to their problems
• Challenge each other by asking high gain questions
• Reflect on how they learn and the application to other organizational issues
• Examine its behavior as a group
• Maintain focus on the process
• Ensure that teams use the principles of Action Learning (e.g. that team members curtail giving advice or making judgments)
• Focus on learning to solve problems rather than the problem themselves, and on the present and future, rather than the past.

The facilitator’s job is not to teach, manage training, supervise work, problem-solve, or provide subject matter expertise regarding the problem under consideration. He or she does not suggest solutions, but remains neutral throughout discussions and conflicts.

To prepare themselves for the skill and art of balanced coaching, facilitators can complete a graduate course in group dynamics, serve as apprentices to seasoned facilitators, and participate as members in Action Learning groups, where they practice advanced group process and communication skills.

Group Process Skills

• Help the group establish and follow norms and deal with issues when norms are violated (e.g. repeated absence of a member, unproductive patterns of interaction, differences in individual values)
• Create a safe, confidential learning environment where members feel comfortable and empowered to engage in reflective inquiry
• Intervene when she sees an opportunity to improve performance
• Ensure efficiency and accountability for process and outcomes
• Keep participants on track and on time
• Ensure that all set participants have adequate and equal airspace (speaking time)
• Accommodate different learning styles (a learning style is the way in which each learner begins to concentrate on, process, internalize, and remember new and difficult academic content)

 Action Learning Skills

• Manage real-time learning experiences by guiding the set members to diagnose, look for patterns, and seek the root cause of a problem
• Intervene when he sees and opportunity for learning and improved process
• Remind the team to reflect on their dynamics and processes by promoting dialogue (vs. discussion), and careful listening (vs. speaking)
• Encourage creativity and fresh perspectives in problem-solving and developing innovative action strategies
• Challenge the team to apply learning to define and solve problems to use in a variety of situations
• Help the set determine who will take what action and by when, and if, how, and when the results will be presented to the sponsor and the larger organization
• Focus the set on what it is achieving, what it finds difficult, and what processes it is using
• Help members explore the organizational context within which they are operating to understand the internal and external business environment and determine if/how the company’s culture, mission and values supports group dynamics
• Challenge the team to consider the impact and consequences of the strategies they’re considering
• Model the framing of high-gain, appropriate questions, active listening, and providing and receiving effective feedback
• Guide group to assess and monitor their progress in learning, questioning, reflecting, listening, and taking action
• Help the group to clarify goals, reframe problems and challenge assumptions
• Assist the group in defining what it can and cannot control

For example:

1. Part of the way through a 45-60 minute set in which a participant shares his or her issue, the facilitator might ask:

• How are you doing as a group after (the first 30 or 45 minutes of) working together?
• What have you done well so far?  What can you do better?
• What questions had a useful impact on the presenter?
• What assumptions were uncovered?
• Where do you need to go next?

2. At end of each set, the facilitator can ask:

• What did you do best as a team? What could you do better? What felt difficult or awkward?
• What leadership skills did you observe?
• What themes or patterns have emerged from among all the challenges that were presented today?
• What did you learn that you will apply immediately?

3. If dysfunctional behavior surfaces, the facilitator draws attention to the interaction by asking:

• What are you observing?
• What do you want to do about this?

It’s not an exaggeration to say that a strong and able Action Learning facilitator transforms problem-solving into a powerful, enduring learning experience by preparing set members to succeed at self-development and continuous learning, helping adults learn through self-discovery, and emphasizing the process of acquiring and applying new knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities.

Coming Up: GC—The Role of the Participant

Group Coaching is a rewarding, exciting, and sometimes difficult endeavor.  The personal and professional benefits of this experience are great, and require an informed commitment to analyzing a problem, planning and taking action, supporting and challenging one’s self and colleagues to think about the problem in new ways, and reflecting on the learning from this transformational experience.

Attributes and Roles of a Strong Executive Sponsor (typically a C-suite member)

• Possesses the business savvy and reputation to exert pressure within an organization to overcome resistance to Group Coaching as a non-traditional development process. This is important because it reduces the amount of time the group needs for approval and alignment.
• Approves and secures funding for the Group Coaching budget
• Understands that the overall goal is a developmental experience for participants (i.e. supports the dual purposes of action and reflection)
• Guides the alignment of the Group Coaching themes to organizational initiatives and strategies
• Evaluates his/her own performance as a sponsor and seeks feedback from facilitators and participants
• Requires the evaluation and measurement of the Group Coaching outcomes
• Receives the macro-level findings and recommendations from the project manager and external consultant at agreed-upon intervals

Attributes and Roles of a Project Manager [typically a Learning and Development (L&D) executive]

• Prepares the strategy and budget for the Group Coaching project
• Secures executive sponsorship (see above) and relevant executives’ nominations and approvals for their participants
• Provides vision; articulates goals and expectations for the project
• Orients the L&D team about the project
• Selects the participants based on organizational needs, such as cross-functional collaboration
• Selects the external consultant who will advise and guide the Group Coaching project
• Selects facilitators and, with the external consultant, supervises the facilitators
• Approves project timelines
• Attends the first orientation session to introduce the project
• In some cases, may facilitate one of the Group Coaching sets
• Participates at the mid-point progress review and advises on issues communicated by the facilitators
• Briefs the executive sponsor as needed
• Ensures evaluation of the project and process improvement over time

Coming Up: Group Coaching—What a Facilitator Brings to the Mix

A strong Action Learning facilitator is instrumental in modeling Group Coaching behavior and guiding participants to ask high-gain questions to clarify problems and challenges, and to observe and learn via the process of interacting rather than from the content.

In the words of an experienced practitioner, Work-based learning…differs from conventional education in that it involves conscious reflection on actual experience…one constantly thinks about one’s problem solving process. It is not enough just to ask, “What did we learn?” but also to ask, “What does it mean or how does it square with what we already know?” Hence, learning can be more than just the acquisition of technical skills; (it) also constitutes the reframing necessary to create new knowledge.  -Joseph Raelin, author and professor

Familiar Learning Methodologies

We are fortunate to live during a time when we can select from a variety of methods to increase our knowledge and abilities: reading, coaching, coursework, podcasts, videos, PowerPoint presentations, webinars, case studies, discussions, focus groups, outdoor adventures, simulations, problem-solving and decision-making formulas, team building activities, role-playing…and more. Action Learning as Group Coaching stands apart in its effectiveness among these familiar methodologies.

What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing. Aristotle, Greek philosopher 

Group Coaching Develops Complex Skills

• Using intrinsic corrective and reinforcing feedback by focusing on visible behavior
• Promoting empathy for another’s circumstanceReaching consensus and commitment through group effort
• Sharing leadership and goals. (Shared goals reduce internal conflict and improve the
  likelihood of achievement)
• Seeking and endorsing diverse viewpoints. (Diversity of experience is critical: everyone’s talent and commitment is needed to optimize outcomes)
• Increasing group cohesiveness (commitment to and personal involvement in the group’s task; enjoyment of team work)
• Managing conflict
• Surfacing implicit, unstated knowledge and converting it to learning. Participants learn
  collectively in the midst of their activity, yet learning is uniquely personalized and just-in-time.
• Harvesting system insights and themes, best questions, and organizational (and personal) learning
• Trusting the process to develop effectively as people spontaneously figure things out

Don’t Use Group Coaching if:

• An obvious answer to the problem already exiss
• Traditional instruction will yield a solution (Action Learning is an extended, multifaceted process.  If a quicker, cheaper solution is obvious, use it.)
• Analyzing the situation will produce a solution
• Senior management will not commit to implementing the group’s recommendations
• Your organization’s culture doesn’t ordinarily support self-managing teams

What Group Coaching Is Not

• Group therapy
• Easy for the participants
• A fad
• For the faint of heart

Coming Up: Group Coaching—The Role of the Executive Sponsor

Transformational change programs (such as Action Learning projects) best achieve their intended results when they have the clear, active and steadfast support of an influential sponsor.

Group coaching benefits organizations by stimulating constructive change and an entrepreneurial outlook:

• Encourages the development and improvement of processes, services, and products
• Increases team functioning and maturity
• Integrates professional development and performance
• Develops leadership and management capability
• Builds and accelerates the organization’s learning capacity: shares intelligence across generations and levels of employees
• Breaks down the silo mentality among departments
• Fosters a culture of ongoing learning
• Encourages peer consultation and collaboration
• Optimizes goal accomplishment at the personal, group, and organization levels
• Positively impacts the bottom-line

Group coaching benefits group members by improving their capacity to:

• Promote systems and strategic thinking
• Build proficiency in reflection, reframing, questioning, problem-solving planning, and time management
• Increase dexterity in presentation, facilitation, and communication
• Balance inquiry and advocacy
• Enhance group facilitation and process skills
• Deepen trust and collaboration among peers and across departments as members gain an understanding of the issues, motivations, and intentions of colleagues and stakeholders
• Improve interpersonal support skills: listening, coaching, questioning, and feedback
• Develop emotional Intelligence
• Inspire creative thinking
• Teach how to navigate the white water of organizational politics
• Maximize leadership assessments when 360º surveys are completed prior to the start of group coaching
• Enhance personal flexibility and adaptability; sanctions effective responses to change
• Decrease dependence on experts
• Drive individual responsibility for learning and personal development

Six Key Characteristics of Group Coaching

The creation and exploration of knowledge that lead to new behaviors is the primary goal of Action Learning. These characteristics optimize the learning process:

1. A problem (project, opportunity, challenge, issue, or task

Action Learning deals with actual, important work-related challenges that affect team members mentally and emotionally. The more urgent and significant the problem, the more likely the group’s recommendations will lead to action. Complex and unfamiliar challenges best serve the individual and group’s scrutiny during the work of the group.

• Complex, so that solutions are not immediately apparent; members must explore multiple interpretations and consequences to clarify the root causes and effects.
• Unfamiliar, to help individuals break out of established mindsets. While the person presenting a problem to a group coaching team knows the problem and context, too much familiarity with its difficulties may decrease innovative thinking and the need to challenge assumptions. Finally, the goal (i.e. the solution to the problem) must be within the capability of the team to understand and handle.

Those best able to help in developing the self are those comrades in adversity who also struggle to understand themselves. Reg Revans

2. An Action Learning group, team, or “set”

Groups are cohorts of individuals that come together to help each other deconstruct, discuss, and resolve workplace concerns. Ideally, they are composed of four to six people who meet for seven or more times over the course of a year. The team takes responsibility for solving their problems by generating learning opportunities, building knowledge, and developing individual, team, and organizational skills. When these partners in learning have diverse backgrounds, they benefit from a variety of perspectives and experiences. To increase diversity, the team sponsor selects members from various functions or departments, includes individuals from other organizations or professions, and/or involves suppliers, customers, and community members. The overall goal is to learn from and with each other in order to take effective action.

3. An emphasis on perceptive questioning and reflective listening

Group coaching tackles problems through an iterative process: 1. Asking questions of the challenge presenter to clarify and specify the problem, 2. Through high gain questions, guiding the presenter to reflect and identify possible solutions, and 3. Taking action. By focusing on questioning and reflecting (rather than on stating facts and opinions or giving advice), participants can stand back and sort out the meaning and implications of their experience. Fresh questions reshape underlying assumptions, create new mental models, stimulate discussion, increase interpersonal connections, support systems thinking, and enhance the quality of learning with regard to both the problem and the problem owner.

The mark of a person is in the questions they pose, not just the statements they make. Reg Revans

4. Taking action

The action of Action Learning begins with reframing the problem and determining the goal, followed by choosing effective strategies and finally, taking action. (The magnitude of the action taken increases the degree of learning.) Group coaching requires that members have the power to take action themselves, or have confidence that their recommendations will be implemented.

If the group is tasked only with making recommendations, it loses energy, creativity and commitment. Meaningful, practical learning occurs when people take action and then reflect on their experience. In fact, action enhances learning because it provides a strong foundation for reflection.

5. A commitment to learning

When employees take accountability by solving their own tactical problems, the company benefits. As the group becomes more able, the quality of its decision-making and action-taking also improves. The greater, longer-term, benefit, however, is the strategic application of the learning acquired by group members on a systems-wide basis throughout the organization.

6. A facilitator/coach

The facilitator helps team members reflect on what they are learning and how they are solving problems. Through skillful questioning, the facilitator encourages group members to consider:

• Norms for optimizing group interaction
• How they communicate (listen, ask questions, reframe the problem, and offer feedback)
• How they approach problem-solving
• The assumptions that shape their beliefs and actions
• What they are achieving, what they find difficult, what seems easy
• What processes they are using, and the implications of these processes
• The types of questions that work best to clarify and inspire; the insights, themes, and learning (personal and organizational) revealed during the dialogue
• How to prepare for important events and meetings (mental rehearsal)

The facilitator holds the role for the duration of the group coaching commitment. Over time, the group members adapt the facilitation skills and responsibilities so that in the end, they own the process fully.

As group members become proficient in dealing with challenges, the facilitator encourages them to observe and regulate their own process.

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~Alvin Toffler

Coming up—Group Coaching: It’s not your Traditional Training Experience

Group coaching differs significantly from traditional instructional methods. The next blog highlights these distinctions, and suggests when not to use this form of Action Learning.

In the words of an experienced practitioner, Work-based learning…differs from conventional education in that it involves conscious reflection on actual experience …one constantly thinks about one’s problem solving process. It is not enough just to ask, “What did we learn?” but also to ask, “What does it mean or how does it square with what we already know?” Hence, learning can be more than just the acquisition of technical skills (but) also constitutes the reframing necessary to create new knowledge. -Joseph Raelin, author and professor

That is, do you know how to acquire the knowledge, skill, and mindset necessary to understand and adapt to whatever situation you encounter?

Action Learning excels as a catalyst that drives individuals, groups, and organizations to become continuous, thoughtful learners.

Characteristics of a Learning Orientation

• The practice of group coaching gradually builds a learning orientation, which means that this method promotes trust, openness, a willingness to share ideas and knowledge, insight, motivation, skill development, and accountability. Participants learn in just the right doses at just the right time.
• Action Learning, the foundation of Group Coaching, is an iterative process that involves:
• The reevaluation, acceptance, and rejection of ideas so that new knowledge emerges
• Unlearning: a readiness to discard old ways of thinking and acting, challenge traditional practices, accept new perspectives, and acquire new knowledge and skills
• Reflection—a type of disciplined thinking which increases the quality of solving problems and taking action
• People becoming partners in creating and expanding existing sources of knowledge
• Asking “are we doing things right?” Are we doing the right things for ourselves, each other, our organization? Are we probing to the underlying assumptions behind our goals and strategies?
• Self-evaluating performance
• Increasing risk-taking ability

People even learn to question what is considered “sacred” or “undiscussable.”

Sacred cows make the best hamburger. Mark Twain

Action Learning: Creating Knowledge through a Transforming Experience

An organization can choose from many different types of performance improvement methods. These methods promote short-term and surface-level change:

• Structured workshops
• Guest speakers/experts
• Process improvement
• Departmental problem-solving meetings
• Task forces/focus groups

Other methods promote long-term, deep-level organizational change—they are all variants of Action Learning:

• Rotation assignments
• Executive coaching
• Group Coaching
• Town hall problem-solving sessions
• Strategic planning work
• Re-structuring roles and responsibilities

Action Learning entails learning from concrete experience, critical reflection, group discussion, and experimentation. It is an optimal method for integrating learning and work, because group members engage in action, inquiry, and reflection. However, action without learning doesn’t increase cognitive and emotional intelligence, and learning without action does not effect change. Cycles of sharing ideas, testing assumptions, clarifying interpretations, and valuing input from others regularly result in members expanding their knowledge so that fresh, innovative solutions become possible.

Organizational learning occurs through the shared insights, values, knowledge, and new mindsets of the participants. The ongoing acquisition of skill and knowledge, and the organization’s ability to direct avenues of inquiry in ways that bring the company closer to its goals, drives learning continuity and improves organizational fitness. Employee engagement and morale increase through increased involvement in shaping organizational life. The organization benefits greatly as contributors share accountability for their role, work, and decisions.

We are most effective as a team when we praise each other without embarrassment and disagree without fear. Author Unknown

Team learning occurs as people combine their mental power, emotional intelligence, personal attributes and diverse points of view. The synergy of group experience enables members to recognize the connection between individual problems and the social and political context that creates them. From the start, as they struggle with the basics (getting organized, making decisions, balancing individual needs with group goals), individuals learn how to be good team members, not simply good individual contributors. Furthermore, teams can focus on developing the skills that are high priority at the time.

Individual learning occurs as people become:

• Aware of (and learn to modify) non-productive behaviors
• Less dependent on authority and experts for instruction and guidance
• Receptive to challenges to their own preferences, standards, and ways of thinking
• Sensitive to whose interests are served by maintaining the status quo and who will benefit from change
• Adept at skilled questioning
• Attuned to group dynamics
• Better listeners
• Knowledgeable of organizational goals, policies, issues, politics, and cross-departmental contributions.

Often we place too much emphasis on the desired results and not enough on the person we need to be to achieve and support those results. Larry Hehn

Coming up—Group Coaching: Benefits and Key Characteristics

Read about the components of present-day Action Learning and how it increases learning capacity through group coaching.