Do the answers to problems always exist in books (if only we knew where to find them)?
Are experts our best bet for resolving problems?

Neither. The Group Coaching method, a form of action learning, demonstrates that we can best discover answers to our problems by asking the right questions (rather than seeking the right answers) and then taking effective action.

In the business world, the practice of action learning has become a favored strategy for crafting solutions, because it supports long-term, deep-level organizational change:

• It integrates the experience of active learning with the achievement of business results.
• It’s a cost-effective, engaging method of shared learning that balances knowledge, reflection and action.
• As important as reaching the right solution is the “learning how to learn” that group coaching produces for individuals and teams.

Early Practitioners

Kurt Lewin: If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.

Action learning has its roots in action research, a term coined around 1944 by German psychologist Kurt Lewin while he was working as a professor at MIT. He believed that:

• People gain understanding of an organization by trying to change it
• Change requires action
• Successful action requires analyzing the circumstances correctly, identifying potential solutions, and then choosing the most appropriate response to the situation at hand.

Incorporating these beliefs, Lewin developed a team-based process for progressive problem-solving. His approach involves a cycle of iterative steps which include planning, action, and identifying the results of the action.

Reginald Revans: There can be no learning without action and no sober and deliberate
action without learning.

In the 1930s, a young man named Reg Revans worked with high-powered colleagues at the University of Cambridge. When faced with difficult research problems, they would meet and ask each other lots of questions. Each person was considered equally important to the process: it was their combined capability, focus, judgment, and insight that benefitted the participants; they all had contributions to make (even when they were not expert in a specific field). In this way, they teased out workable solutions to their own (and each other’s) problems.

In the 1940s, Professor Revans conceptualized action learning. Recalling that Albert Einstein had told him: “If you think you understand a problem, make sure you are not deceiving yourself,” Revans re-evaluated the capabilities and roles of non-experts in problem solving, and the differences between knowledge and wisdom.

He believed that the key to improving performance lay in the awareness of the practitioners themselves, not with subject matter experts. With this in mind, he developed a process in which participants studied their own actions and experiences within small groups called “action learning sets.” Group members shared their perceptions and asked each other questions about what they saw and heard.

Revans understood that existing information (books, theories, concepts, specialists), which he labeled P for “programmed knowledge” was an essential but insufficient ingredient of learning and problem-solving. He believed that an equally critical component was questioning insight (that is, asking the right questions at the right time), or Q.

He summarized the process in the formula: L (learning) = P + Q

Concepts and theory are important, but in action learning, the emphasis is on applying them. So Revans focused on Q. This means that we must reflect on the experience in order to identify exactly what we’ve learned, internalize the lessons, and create action plans.

Next Blog—Group Coaching: Benefits and Key Characteristics

Read about the features of present-day action learning and how it delivers on its promise to increase learning ability through group coaching.

Questions are used to facilitate the Group Coaching session. The flow of questions begins after a group member introduces their issue. Open-ended questions are preferred, and choice of questions depends on the intent, the context, and the individual.

Facilitators guide, teach, and role model effective questioning, and remind participants of the types of questions they are asking. For example, when group members use questions as a way to indirectly give advice, facilitators might urge: “How can you ask that question another way?”

The skill of asking questions to enable the participant to re-frame the issue, learn, and take action is the key ingredient of Group Coaching. New participants struggle to avoid giving advice and opinions.

Here are some question types along with examples:

1. Open-ended questions (preferred):
a. How was that strategy useful?
b. How was the strategy not useful?

2. Closed-ended questions (used for specific purposes since they can limit dialogue):
a. Was that strategy useful?

3. Clarifying questions (to increase understanding):
a. What does that mean?
b. Could you be more specific?
c. What needs addressing? What is happening? What are your concerns?
d. Who is involved? Who are key stakeholders?
e. How would an objective observer describe this situation?

4. Probing questions (to expand perspective):
a. Why do you think this is the case?
b. What are your options for solving the problem?
c. Is there an option that you have not yet considered?
d. How have you managed to put up with the situation to date?
e. What do you care most about in this situation?

5. Checking/paraphrasing questions:
a. I’m hearing you say __________; am I understanding this correctly?

6. Questions about affect:
a. What was that like for you?
b. How does it feel to hear that?

7. Questions to address roadblocks and build motivation:
a. What’s preventing you from solving this problem?
b. How would you approach this issue in an ideal world?
c. If you had a magic wand, what would you do?

8. Action-oriented questions (to delineate and create action)
a. What are the first steps you will take?
b. What additional steps will you take and when will you take them?
c. What will you do to sustain this solution in the long-term?
d. How will you know you have solved the problem?

9. Reflective questions (to address learning):
a. What has changed since we started group coaching?
b. What did we learn?
c. What aspects of this process did you find most helpful?
d. What aspects of the process were not helpful?

Some common pitfalls to avoid in asking questions during Group Coaching include:

·Asking leading questions
·Asking too many close-ended questions
·Failing to ask sufficient follow-up, probing questions
·Asking questions with the purpose of appearing intelligent rather than out of curiosity or for the benefit of the participant/group
·Imposing one’s values and beliefs on others
·Giving advice or judgmental opinions

The Group Coaching facilitator has a unique role in setting the structure, maintaining focus on objectives and outcomes, role modeling, assuring the use of open ended, reflective questions, probing, checking, paraphrasing, and setting topics for the session. They help the group reflect on their learnings and problem-solving process, and encourage application of knowledge gained in Group Coaching to other organizational challenges.

The Group Coaching facilitator guides the group to examine their own behaviors, such as:

•    listening to, supporting, and challenging each other                                                                                       •    providing effective feedback for each other                                                                                                     •    asking each other helpful and challenging questions                                                                                     •    planning actions and solutions                                                                                                                           •    following through on action plans

The role of the facilitator changes and evolves over time.

Initially, the facilitator is the keeper of the structure and process: setting boundaries and group norms, determining session themes, establishing roles of group members, and keeping time. In these first few sessions, the facilitator engages in some teaching and modeling of the Group Coaching process, emphasizing the differences in content versus process. He or she creates a safe and trusting environment.

Over time, the facilitator strives to become obsolete as the group learns to manage their structure and roles and hold each other accountable. As the Group Coaching continues, the facilitator focuses more on validating the process. Trusting relationships are established and the facilitator challenges group members to stretch themselves and grow.

Several areas typically emerge wherein groups struggle in the Group Coaching process and wherein powerful learning ultimately occurs:

In the beginning, group members view with the process with skepticism. “Is this worth my time?” they ask. Resistance surfaces. Over time, group members feel more natural in the process and grow exponentially in Group Coaching abilities. At this point, it is important for group members to understand that the learning process continues and expands.

Advice-giving is a behavior that is difficult for people to cease, since they are accustomed to this form of helping. People don’t often ask thought-provoking, open-ended questions in their daily interactions, and they must practice becoming comfortable with this new communication style.

Maintaining a balance between supporting and challenging their fellow group members is also a struggle for many groups. Support is a necessary precursor for creating an open, trusting environment, but challenging individuals to stretch themselves and look at issues from different perspectives is necessary for effective action planning and rich learning.

Focus on process over content is an additional area of struggle for group members. They become so engaged in the stories of their fellow group members that it can feel anti-intuitive to discuss group process, though this is where much of the learning takes place!

One of the key components of the Group Coaching process features individual goal setting. After a group member shares their particular challenge, others in the group guide the person to define the issue more clearly through inquiry. Once the challenge is well defined, the group helps the individual form an action plan, and encourages accountability for taking steps towards the goals. The individual is afforded an opportunity to reflect on goal progress with the group along the way, feeling both supported and challenged through the Group Coaching process. Goals set by group members in the past include:

• Learning how to influence others
• Managing competing priorities
• Winning buy-in from a particular co-worker
• Aligning their actions with organizational initiatives
• Communicating with their managers more effectively through role clarity conversations

Sometimes general topics stimulate identification of pressing concerns, such as: sharing “rocks” and “balloons” with the group (factors that weigh people down versus letting them soar and excel in their work).

Over time, participants sharpen their goal setting skills and at the beginning of each new Group Coaching session, each participant provides a progress report on their goals. All reflection without action is not the purpose of Action Learning!

2. Why is this important?                      to you?                                to your organization?

3. How will you recognize progress on this problem or opportunity?

4. Who else would like to see progress on this?

5. How do you intend to go about tackling this challenge?  What are your first steps?

6. What are the benefits if this problem is reduced or resolved?                         to you?          to your organization?

The mechanics of a Group Coaching program vary depending on the number of people in a group and the number of sessions held over a period of time. Five half-day sessions (5 hours in length) over 7-10 months will accommodate five participants.

Ideally, an orientation to the methodology of Action Learning launches the Group Coaching work ahead. Confidentiality and other ground rules are established. After the orientation, the sessions generally follow this type of format.

• Members define and discuss work-related challenges one at a time. Themes such as quality or change management may serve as themes for the challenges.
• Time is divided equally among the members, 45 minutes to an hour
• Without interruption, one member presents his/her issue for 5 minutes
• Other participants then ask questions to assist the presenter to gain a deeper understanding of the issue and their assumptions about it. Approximately 25 minutes
• Typically, the problem is re-defined by the presenter and new actions ensue.
• At the right point, participants guide the presenter to action via questions, such as: “How might you go about this?” 8 minutes
• At the end of the session the facilitator guides a discussion of system insights and themes, best questions, organizational and personal learning. 7 minutes
• Over time, the group members improve their abilities and eventually manage their own sessions
• The skills are immediately usable in countless other settings

During the sessions participants achieve:

• Uninterrupted time to frame the business issue (45 minutes per person)
• Intense listening
• Stronger questions to assist with deeper understanding of an issue
• Challenges to each other’s thinking and assumptions
• Improved feedback abilities
• Action steps and accountability
• Reflection on lessons learned
• Maximum group effectiveness
• Systems thinking
• Cross-functional themes
• Support
• Trust

Our next blog will offer a sample of the pre-work the participants bring to a session.

In this post, Steve Hansen  shares his experiences with coaching people who are experiencing work family conflict.

Many of the people I coach experience some work-family conflict issues (work/life balance). There is a lot of talk about work-life balance in the workplace but it is often discussed with sort of a wink, in the sense that in reality one has to get the work done first and foremost. It really matters how the people at the top of the organization act. If they are exemplifying their support for a good work-life balance and living it themselves, then there is a greater chance that others in the organization will be able to do so as well. If it is just corporate speak, and the people at the top of the organization don’t live it, it is obvious to all that getting the work done is the number one priority.

In coaching someone, it is very important to know the culture of the organization with regard to work-family conflict. If the organization does not realistically support a good work-life balance, then I find it important to have a conversation about boundaries and self-management. Given their cultural reality, what boundaries around work can be realistically set and how well can the client self-manage to those boundaries?