Originally By
Contagious Creativity
Coaching and facilitating – two faces of a coin
I’ve been doing facilitation for quite some time and have enjoyed the process so far. Lately I was asked to coach a group in problem solving over a number of visits. I became very interested in this concept even more as it allowed me to monitor the progress of the working group, rather than leave it to them at the end of the facilitation meeting.
Digging deeper into the subject, I read the “Coaching for Performance” by John Whitmore. According to him, “coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them”. In a way, isn’t that what facilitation is about? but rather than focus on the individual, it is a group process. facilitation also relies heavily on the group to find their own solutions, and the facilitator’s job is asking the right question, and providing a framework on how to move forward in the process. Using both compliments each other and it enriches the whole experience. A facilitator needs to start with an informational interview with the client prior to facilitation to understand the issue at hand, then the meeting happens, and a follow up could occur.
If the facilitator is an experienced coach (not necessarily certified), then the person can be even better at asking questions, provoking thoughts, bringing awareness to the client and ultimately, the client will be take on the action plan because he/she feels ownership of the solution they came up with as a group (rather than a consultant suggesting it from the outside). In a way, smart consultants can even capitalize on the benefits of using coaching skills in his/her practice.
I will use an example of a creativity model applied by some facilitators called Creative Problem Solving (CPS) and compare it the guidelines that Whitmore suggested for coaching for performance.
in the CPS, a facilitator goes through a number of steps to reach the ultimate goal of finding one or more solutions to the issue at hand. Puccio, Murdock and Mance offer one version of the model by connecting it with some of our thinking skills that we need to make it work. Following are the steps:
1. Assessing the situation (diagnostic thinking)
2. Exploring the vision (visionary thinking)
3. formulating challenges (strategic thinking)
4. exploring ideas (ideational thinking)
5. formulating solutions (evaluative thinking)
6. exploring acceptance (contextual thinking)
7. formulating a plan (tactical thinking)
whole coaching can follow the steps:
1. setting goal (ask questions to get to the ultimate goal the client has (the dream))
2. checking reality (assessing attentudes, tapping emotions, using more descriptive and detailed explanations)
3. exploring options (alternatives, assumptions, what else?, and finally prioritizing)
4. Intentions on making things work (what will you do?) – continue with questions to find the motivation behind each alternative or option and how likely it will happen.
5. conclusion (give action plan and follow up)
see? many already overlap with each other… and can easily be digested together. when I assess the situation as a facilitator, I ask questions, and when I explore the vision, I will ask “how would the situation look like if the issue was resolved?” or what’s your dream solution? this is ultimately setting goals for the client as a coachee and assuming ownership of the problem.
from the other side, it still stands still. when we are exploring options (alternatives and assumptions) we are using ideational thinking in finding all the ways that we can use. a facilitator of the CPS has an advantage here of being exposed to a number of creativity tools that will assist this stage. with many idea generation tools available, the important rule to the game is separating divergent from convergent thinking. so when we are looking for alternatives, we are not judging or even commenting on their fitness or not. we are simply generating ideas.
the conclusion in both is an actual plan and we are using our tactical thinking to find the best fit (now’s the best time for converging our options and choosing the best fit).
when we explore a challenge using, combining our individual and group coaching and facilitation skills, we create a package that will help tackle a problem from all areas, and build on the assets of the inidividual as well as the group who are dealing with it, creating awareness and responsibility for everyone.
I say it’s a winning formula.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tested and Confirmed: 7 Steps to RICHES
Wow!!!
For the first time in a very long time, I get to blog. Feels SOOO good to the back.
Just in case u wondering were I've been.........
here's a catch up ......
I've been doing it.....moving around trying to make meaning of my life I did it, too. I walked by big houses and wondered who lived there. What did they do for a living? How did they make their money? Someday, I told myself, I would live in a house better than that.
I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on (Plus a lot of them, from www.changethis.com ). I told myself one good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not.
But here's one fact i find TOO factual not to challenge.
These stories are great to read about and sometimes they even inspire us.
But are they always true?
Many of us think that if we could only get our hands on the right 10 steps, we can be successful too. We believe that there is this linear process where we can read a book, and if followed, it will lead
to riches. This is why there are so many books out there with numbers in their titles like:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
48 Laws of Power
The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player
The 17 Indisputable LawsOf Teamwork
One that got my attention, The Business Laws: The 7 Irrefutable Laws That Determine All Business Success by David Eichenbaum.
How can he be so sure?
Infact how can they all be so Sure?
There are not 7 nor 777777 steps to success.
It is different for everyone. We can all get at financial success if that is our goal, but there isn’t one single path that will work for all of us.
They make it sound so Mathematical. Take for instance "The 7 Habits of highly effective people" is that suppose to be a Universal Personal development law. Commoooooon, in Nigeria alone, in Ikorodu where I stay to be specific you probably at Least 7 top survive the daily trafic, another 7 for Commodity bargaining, another 7 to keep you from being frustrated and the list is endless.
So without the 7 steps where do we begin our journey?
Well, the first thing we need to do is stop letting our egos brag about our successes and Honor Our Failures instead.
Yes...thats what I do. Tell people how I Painfully and regretably failed keeping my job at R.B.A (technically).
Failure is valuable only when we realize it is a normal part of the business and Success process, even when there isn’t always something to learn. So it does not hold us back.
The real fear and pressure in this whole process is not brought on by our competitors or other outside people. It mostly originates within us. The biggest fear we have is that someone in our position would have done better than us, made better decisions, and would have built it faster and
more profitably than we did. We believe that we should be in a different place than where we are right now, and that we would be if only we had made better decisions.
Nonsense.
Rubbish.
Errant Nonsense (as a gr8 teacher and former Boss of mine used to say).
In order to move forward in our business life—past the fear, past the failure, and yes, past the success—we actually need to just let go. Letting go is the key to gaining true business confidence—
not by holding onto what people have taught you are the keys to success, not by looking for the 7 steps. You need to let go of the idea that there is always something to learn from failure or that you can always build and duplicate your success.
To be Continued...........
www.risenetworks.org/blogs
www.risebusinessacacdemy.ning.com/ibrahimdurosimi
For the first time in a very long time, I get to blog. Feels SOOO good to the back.
Just in case u wondering were I've been.........
here's a catch up ......
I've been doing it.....moving around trying to make meaning of my life I did it, too. I walked by big houses and wondered who lived there. What did they do for a living? How did they make their money? Someday, I told myself, I would live in a house better than that.
I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on (Plus a lot of them, from www.changethis.com ). I told myself one good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not.
But here's one fact i find TOO factual not to challenge.
These stories are great to read about and sometimes they even inspire us.
But are they always true?
Many of us think that if we could only get our hands on the right 10 steps, we can be successful too. We believe that there is this linear process where we can read a book, and if followed, it will lead
to riches. This is why there are so many books out there with numbers in their titles like:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
48 Laws of Power
The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player
The 17 Indisputable LawsOf Teamwork
One that got my attention, The Business Laws: The 7 Irrefutable Laws That Determine All Business Success by David Eichenbaum.
How can he be so sure?
Infact how can they all be so Sure?
There are not 7 nor 777777 steps to success.
It is different for everyone. We can all get at financial success if that is our goal, but there isn’t one single path that will work for all of us.
They make it sound so Mathematical. Take for instance "The 7 Habits of highly effective people" is that suppose to be a Universal Personal development law. Commoooooon, in Nigeria alone, in Ikorodu where I stay to be specific you probably at Least 7 top survive the daily trafic, another 7 for Commodity bargaining, another 7 to keep you from being frustrated and the list is endless.
So without the 7 steps where do we begin our journey?
Well, the first thing we need to do is stop letting our egos brag about our successes and Honor Our Failures instead.
Yes...thats what I do. Tell people how I Painfully and regretably failed keeping my job at R.B.A (technically).
Failure is valuable only when we realize it is a normal part of the business and Success process, even when there isn’t always something to learn. So it does not hold us back.
The real fear and pressure in this whole process is not brought on by our competitors or other outside people. It mostly originates within us. The biggest fear we have is that someone in our position would have done better than us, made better decisions, and would have built it faster and
more profitably than we did. We believe that we should be in a different place than where we are right now, and that we would be if only we had made better decisions.
Nonsense.
Rubbish.
Errant Nonsense (as a gr8 teacher and former Boss of mine used to say).
In order to move forward in our business life—past the fear, past the failure, and yes, past the success—we actually need to just let go. Letting go is the key to gaining true business confidence—
not by holding onto what people have taught you are the keys to success, not by looking for the 7 steps. You need to let go of the idea that there is always something to learn from failure or that you can always build and duplicate your success.
To be Continued...........
www.risenetworks.org/blogs
www.risebusinessacacdemy.ning.com/ibrahimdurosimi
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