This week I attended Agile Coaching Exchange meet up in London. The guest speaker for the evening was Kim Morgan of Barefoot Coaching who is co-author of “The Coach’s Casebook: Mastering The Twelve Traits That Trap Us”
Kim Morgan & principles of #coaching at #acelon #scrum pic.twitter.com/OJFmTEvRWa — Helen Meek (@Helen_J_Meek) March 30, 2016
Principles of Coaching
Kim introduced us to some of the Key Principles of Coaching:
Listening to ignite the human mind
Presupposing success
Leveraging Motivation
Understanding Transformation
Use of emotion and creativity
Coach as instrument of change
Dynamics of Personal Change
Kim explained that transformational change is almost always linked to strong emotion.
A typical journey towards transformation includes:
Kim also introduced to us the thoughts of Jack Mezirow who is widely acknowledged as the founder of transformative learning. Two situations that give rise to transformative learning are:
A disorientating dilemma
A state of puzzlement
In contrast we also looked at Peter Jarvis work which explores Non-Transformative situations which are everyday things that require no learning:
“Non-learning is our response to everyday experience. As long as experience conforms to our mental models, no learning is required.”
We also looked at common motivators for individuals. We either move towards pleasure or away from pain.
Coaching Cards
The first practical exercise of the evening introduced us to Coaching Cards. We used the Barefoot Coaching Picture Cards
Each person was asked:
“Think about a time in your life where you experienced a significant change.”
Select a picture card that represents that change
In pairs, share the experience and why you chose that picture
Feedback following exercise:
Pictures acted as a bridge to get thoughts out into the real world
Our minds make a mental connection to the picture
This demonstrates “Physcological Projection” which was conceptualised by Freud.
Picture cards could be used for Sprint Retrospectives “Pick a picture card that you feel represents this sprint.”
Listening
Next Kim introduced us to deep and bold listening citing much of Nancy Kline’s work in Time to Think
She talked about listening as a belief not a behaviour. Interestingly there is scientific proof that genuine listening from another person generates the feeling of being in Love. Listening is a skill that many of us struggle with. How often are people interrupted in your workplace?
An interesting example presented was from Doctors surgery. GPs thought they listen for 3 minutes when a patient first arrives into their surgery. In reality it was 20 seconds. This essentially led to longer consultation time and patients feeling like they weren’t understood. If the GP listened for longer they would have shorter consultations and patients reported better experiences.
To demonstrate the importance of listening we did another practical exercise.
In pairs do the following:
One person assume the role of Listener
One person assume the role of Thinker
Listener asks “What do you want to think about today?”
The thinker than has 5 minutes of uninterrupted thinking time. The listener cannot respond in anyway.
Feedback following exercise:
Thinker talks like the other person wasn’t there
Silence is good! Don’t fill the space with talking
PAUSE is very effective!!!
Think WAIT:
Why
Am
I
Talking
Helps to understand without interjecting. Our understanding of the other person isn’t so shallow if we listen for longer
When listening Body language important – Use it to express interest but avoid leading the session through body language
WAIT – why am I taking? #acelon pic.twitter.com/hsVLePTq0L — Helen Meek (@Helen_J_Meek) March 30, 2016
Want to explore coaching further?
I’d highly recommend getting “The Coach’s Casebook: Mastering The Twelve Traits That Trap Us” It is full of lots of real examples and exercises.
Hands down one of the best meet ups I've been to in many years. Blog Post to come soon! @Helen_J_Meek @BarefootCoaches #acelon — Toby Sinclair (@TobySinclair_) March 30, 2016