3D Juggling 498: Seesaws

If you would prefer to read Juggling in your Facebook news stream, here's the link to Like Us!  We've had a number of emails from people with Year 12/13 children who are interested in the Personal Statement Workshop but can't make the date.  Yes - we do 1-1s.  And if you can get a critical mass together, talk to us about running a workshop in your area.

Claire writes: "I was training a group last week. Their mandate is to spend two hours with individuals helping them to review their work:  Guided self-appraisal you might call it.  They were great... yet the reviewers were talking on far too much of the responsibility for the conversation. The centre of gravity was resting with the person asking the questions and not the person there to review their work.

Conversations are like seesaws. We have all probably had experience of talking to people who take over, dominate, make everything about themselves.  We're left in the air, wondering what it's all about.  Yet 1-1s can often feel like that, too.  We go to a review or appraisal or 1-1 with things we want to explore, and the person who is there to assist us takes the journey off in their own direction, tries hard to ask questions, gets us to retell things we already know, or tells us their own story.

Seesaws work well when there is balance between the people on them - and a shared sense of responsibility for the ride.  This is around content AND style AND even the order in which you discuss things.  A productive conversation is much more than reporting back.  It has allowed things to be seen and understood in different ways.  So some helpful questions when we are facilitating conversations include:

• What do you want to talk about?
• What do they want to talk about?
• And what do you each want to be different by the end of this conversation?
• How will you know you have got there?
• How will we work together today?
• Where shall we start?
• Where are we now?
• We agreed to x. Have we got where we need to be?

Slightly tweaked, some of these are also great questions for conversations around new business.  Where does the centre of gravity need to be in your next work conversation?"

If you want to find out how we can help you develop these skills in your team, call us and we can arrange to have a coffee.

Discuss this week's juggling at http://www.3dcoaching.blogspot.com/


© 2010 3D Coaching Ltd
May be distributed freely.  Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

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3D Juggling 492: Commissioning

Jane writes: 'I was speaking with an Organisational Development Manager at a City Council last week who explained that their current focus was on commissioning.  Ring any bells?  It certainly will if you’re involved in the provision of health or social care, whichever sector you are operating from. 

Lynn and I are currently designing a leadership development programme for an NHS organisation, and one of their requirements is that we help participants explore their responsibilities in relation to commissioning and delivery.  The outcomes required are changes that improve the quality of, and access to, patient care.

We won the opportunity to undertake this work through a competitive tendering process.  We were successful because we offered an approach to leadership development based on our belief that the people in the room will know the answers to the questions they need to answer – our role is to help them find them.  They may find them by drawing on their collective experience, knowledge and other resources.  They may find them through others or via research.  But they will find them.  And by finding them they learn how to find answers to questions that haven’t been asked yet – the questions of tomorrow, next month, next year.  They will also develop new networks of useful resources, and learn how to help others to do the same.

How do we achieve this?  By asking purposeful questions, with confidence that they can be answered. 

Here are some examples of questions we may ask about commissioning:
•    What do you need to know?  How can you find out?
•    What might you need to predict?
•    What tools and techniques can you use to engage with/understand client needs?
•    What might you need to keep/make flexible/integrate/separate/let go of?

Here are some examples of questions we may ask about service provision:
•    What is the service and what does it deliver? Different viewpoints - stakeholders/partners/ team members/clients...
•    What is the context in which it is delivered? Now and in the future.  What do you know? What can you anticipate?
•    If you weren’t providing this service, who would be?
•    How can you be a proactive provider?

And here are some questions for everyone:
•    Who do you need to be speaking with? What’s stopping you?  What do you need to do?
•    Where are you now?  What else do you need to do?  Who can help you?

We will also introduce, where needed, relevant tools and techniques such as LEAN and Experience Based Design.

Who do you know that is involved in some way with commissioning? How could we help them to find the questions they need to ask – and the answers?

Love this? If you need some help in your organisation to develop your approach to commissioning, whether as commissioners or providers, come out for a cup of coffee with us to talk about how we can help you.  We'll pay!


Discuss this week's juggling at http://www.3dcoaching.blogspot.com/


© 2010 3D Coaching Ltd
May be distributed freely.  Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

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3D Juggling 436: Hold your nerve

Claire writes: 'The broken foot is now healed, but the memory of 2 weeks in a Butlin's mobility scooter is still firmly alive. The first evening we were there I was trying to get back to my accommodation at 10.30pm after a long day's work and finding going up and down pavements a challenge to my driving! A helpful member of staff pointed out a traffic barrier on the road and told me that if I drove towards it, the barrier would lift up and allow me through. And there was the challenge. If he was right I'd get back in extra quick time. And if he was wrong, I would have a long drive in my scooter to get back onto the pavements. So I slowly drove up to the barrier which was about level with my nose. They're designed for lorries, so it only lifted when I was within millimetres. But it did lift and I carried on my journey!

That was certainly a case of holding my nerve even though I was unsure about what would happen next. That's what needs to happen in effective conversations at work. Sometimes we need to open a conversation without the security of knowing the other 5 bullet points which we have as our comfort in a notebook and trust our colleague and the process. Because then our colleague will find the way forward with our support rather than our solution. And because you won't know what will happen next, you will need to hold your nerve. And in doing that you are demonstrating trust which is a very powerful thing.

Love this? Do us a favour and send it to five people. Who thinks like you? You could send it to someone who holds their nerve at work!

Discuss this week's juggling at http://www.3dcoaching.blogspot.com/

© 2009 3D Coaching Ltd May be distributed freely. Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

Juggling in 3D 417: Stakeholders

Claire writes: 'I dream of a morning when I get up and don't have to check that the road is clear and that the school is open. That's because there are more people involved in this snow day thing than just the girls. Mike couldn't get to work some days either, so we were all here. I was working in the office. He was in the dining room. Sue couldn't come to work because her kids were off... and there was no room to fit her in here! It wasn't exclusively about the school and the girls.

The danger in a 1-1 conversation in coaching or in a Action learning Set is that the conversation can become exclusively about the client or the presenter. Who are the other stakeholders in what that person is thinking about? Their team, colleagues, organisation, family, customers, parishioners, patients...?

The effective conversation takes account of all the stakeholders: So what will be a good outcome from today for you? What about your organisation? Or your team?

Until we work with the client in their world, we are only making a partial contract. This is the same in conversations with friends and colleagues. As John Donne said 'No man is an island, entire of itself...''

Love this? Do us a favour and send it to five people. Who thinks like you? You could send it to someone who works with teams.

Discuss this week's juggling at http://www.3dcoaching.blogspot.com/
© 2009 3D Coaching Ltd May be distributed freely. Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com