Agile Coaching and Facilitation GROW Model and Coaching Questions ‘The GROW model helps you pick the right questions to improve your performance coaching skills. Effective questioning can be broken down into two parts: «Asking the right coaching questions «Asking coaching questions in the right order. ‘The GROW coaching model helps you to do both. Overview of GROW Model ‘The GROW model offers the coach a simple, yet powerful, framework to ask coaching questions. The model helps you to structure your interaction with your coachee, and it follows the following four steps: G for Goal setting: define the short- and long-term goals R for Reality: explore the current situation 0 for Options: identify and evaluate different action. strategies, and further enhancement of this step y includes Opportunities and Obstacles born ‘The conversation can start at any one of the four stages of the GROW model. As you can imagine, it would be probably a bit easier if we have the scenario where a coachee might begin by telling you about something s/he wants to achieve (Goal), a current problem (Reality), a new idea for improving things (Options) or by outlining an action plan (Will). By itself, the particular order of questions helps you to pave the road to become a great coach. What's helping you further is that each question should aim to inerease your coachee’s awareness and responsibility. It’s the combination of context and sequence, along with lots of practice, that will make you a better coach. You might have seen people calling this ToGROW model, which is pretty much the same but with an additional step, TO for Topic. "Agile Coaching and Facilitation G for Goal setting ‘The most important part of the first coaching phase is to define and agree upon one or more goals that the coachee wishes to achieve. Ideally, you should establish a clear goal for the coaching session itself and a long-term performance goal. Make sure that you and your coachee know what the objective of your conversation is, even when you are coaching informally. It's important to give value and direction to any discussion. Sou etd GOALS Ceci Reeetier sy er) Individual goal setting is not only a crucial stage for performance coaching but for strategy execution in general. Goal setting is one of the most researched elements in organizational science. 1 believe every good coach needs a solid understanding of the topic that goes beyond knowing what SMART stands for. Below is a list of questions that can help you get started with Goal Setting. 1. What is the aim of this discussion/session/interaetion? 2, What topic do you want to discuss about today? 3. What would the desired outcome be? 4. What goal do you want to achieve? 5. What would you like to happen that is not happening now? 6. What do you really want? 7. What would you like to accomplish? 8, What result are you trying to achieve? 9. What outcome would be ideal? 10. What do you want to change? 41, Why are you hoping to achieve this goal? 12, What would the benefits/value be when this goal is achieved? 13. What would need to happen for you to walk away fecling that this time was well spent? 14. What outcome would you like from this session/discussion/interaction? 15. What do you want to achieve long term? 16. What does suecess look like to you? 17. How much personal control or influence do you have over your goal? 18. What would be a milestone on the way? 19. When do you want to achieve it by? 12Agile Coaching and Facilitation 20.Where would you see yourself in a year/6 months time? 21. How realistic is this to you? (scaling question can come in handy) 22, How do you see the goal? Is it positive, challenging and attainable? 23, Will that be of real value to you? 24, How will you measure it? R for for Reality The most important criterion for examining the current situation is objectivity. Most people think they are objective but in reality they are not. Nobody is. Absolute objectivity doesn't exist. We can only have partial objectivity. DE org et aCe Pecia REALITY NCP Seu ue aur There are many things that can and will cloud your, and your coachee's objectivity including opinions, expectations, fear and prejudices, But the more we aim to be objective, the more we will be. session goal So it’s your challenge to come as close as possible to reality, by-passing as many distortions as possible. As a coach, you should help your coachee to remove as many false assumptions as possible. Explore the real nature of the problem by asking your coachee to describe their perceived current reality. This is an important step. Too often, people try to solve a problem without fully considering their starting point — and often they are missing some of the information they need to solve the problem effectively. All too often, as your coachee tells you about his current Reality, the solution starts to emerge. Below is a list of questions that can help you get started with Reality 1. What is happening now? (what, where, when, who, how much, how often). Be precise if possible. 2. How do you know that this is accurate? 3. How have you verified, or would you verify, that that is so? What other factors are relevant? What is happening at this moment? What is the affect or result of thi soa How long has this been an issue? 138. Where are you now in relation to your goal? 9. Ona scale of one to ten where are you? 10. What has contributed to your suecess so far? 11, What progress have you made so far? 12, What is working well right now? 13. What is required of you? 14, What are the steps you have taken? 45. What do you think is stopping you? 16. What do you think was really happening? 17. What is the importance of this to you? 418. What did you learn from_ 19. What other factors are relevant? 20.When does this happen and what causes it? 21, Who else is involved? 22, How are you coordinating? 23. Ona scale of one to ten how severe/serious/urgent is the situation? 24, If someone said/did that to you, what would you think/feel/do? 25. Who is involved (directly and indirectly)? 26. What is their perception? 27. When things are going badly on this issue, what happens to you? 28.What happens to the others directly involved? 29. What is the effect on others? 30. What have you done about this so far? 31. What results did that produce? 32. What is missing in the situation? 33. What do you have that you're not using? 34. What is holding you back? 35. What is really going on (intuition)? 0 for Options/Opportunities/Obstacles Agile Coaching and Facilitation Once you and your coachee have explored the current reality, it’s time to explore what is possible - meaning al the potential options, behavior or decisions that could lead to the right solution. Help your coachee to generate a long list. Your objective as a coach during the Options stage should not be to find the right answer, but to help your coachee identify as many different ideas and 14Agile Coaching and Facilitation solutions as possible. You don't want any obstacles like preferences, feasibility or need for completeness blocking the brainstorming process. At this point in the process, it’s the Ensure choi creative part that provides the real —- value. ately So, as strange as it may seem, focus on quantity rather than quality and eee CoS TEM feasibility. It's from this long inventory of creative possibilities that actions will be chosen during the next stage. What could you do to change the situation? Discuss what possibilities for action the coachee sees. Do not worry about whether they are realistic at this stage. Below is a list of questions that can help you get started with Options/Opportunities/Obstacles. 1. What are your options? 2, What do you think you need to do next? . What could be your first step? e . What do you think you need to do to get a better result (or closer to your goal)? . What else could you do? . Who else might be able to help? . What would happen if you did nothing? . What has worked for you already? How could you do more of that? yeeros |. What possibilities for aetion do you see? 10.What is the hardest/most challenging part of that for you? \, 11. What advice would you give to a friend about that? 12, What would you gain/lose by doing/saying that? 1g.What are the benefits and/or pitfalls of doing that? 14.What's the best/worst thing about that option? 15. Which option do you feel ready to act on? 16. How have you tacked this/a similar situation before? 17.What could you do differently? 18.Who do you know who has encountered a similar situation? 19 1f anything was possible, what would you do? 15Agile Coaching and Facilitation 20.What else? 21. What approach/actions have you seen used, or used yourself, in similar circumstances? 22.What else could you do? 23,What if..2 (time, power, money, ete.) 24,Who might be able to help? 25,Would you like another suggestion from me? 26.Which options do you like the most? 27.What are the benefits and costs of each? 28.Which options are of interest to you? 29.Would you like to choose an option to act on? W for Will/Willingness What will you do by when? Commit to action The purpose of this final phase is to transform a discussion into a decision, using the outcomes of the three previous coaching steps. Again, you will be guiding your coachee through a series of questions. Dose Se eur hae ure) WILL ROR Ray By examining the current Reality and ET exploring the Options, your coachee will now have a good idea of how s/he can achieve their personal goals. That's great, but without ownership to kick-start and drive future actions, it has no value. So you need to help your coachee to take responsibility and commit to action. As you want to maximize chances for success, you need to examine any potential obstacles, discuss ways of overcoming them, agree on the resources needed and the nature of further support. So, the fourth phase demands that the coachee takes several decisions. Remember: the coachee takes the decision, even if that decision is to take no action at all. The coachee always maintains choice and ownership. Below is a list of questions that can help you get started with Will. 1. How are you going to go about it? 2, What do you think you need to do right now? 3. Tell me how you're going to do that. 4. How will you know when you have done it? 5. How do you plan to track the progress? 16Agile Coaching and Facilitation 6. Ona scale of one to ten, what is the likelihood of your plan succeeding? 7. What would it take to make it a ten? 8. What obstacles are getting in the way of success? 9. What roadblocks do you expect or require planning? 10.What resourees can help you? 11.What might be a missing piece to for you to get started? 12,What one small step will you take now? 13.When are you going to start? 14.How will you know you have been successful? 15.What support do you need to get that done? 16.What will happen (or, what is the cost of you) if this is not done? 17.What do you need from me/others to help you achieve this? 18.What are three actions you can take that would make sense this week? 19.0n a scale of one to ten, how committed and motivated are you to doing it? 20.What would it take to make it a ten? 21,.What option or options do you choose? 22.To what extent does this meet all your objectives? 23,What are your criteria and measurements for success? 24.When precisely are you going to start and finish each action step? 25,What could arise to hinder you in taking these steps? 26.What personal resistance do you have, if any, to taking thes steps? 27:What will you do to eliminate these external and internal factors? 28.Who needs to know what your plans are? 29.What support do you need and from whom? 30.What will you do to obtain that support and when? 31.What could I do to support you? 32.What commitment on a 1-to-10 scale do you have to taking these agreed actions? 33,What prevents this from being a 10? 34.What could you do or alter to raise this commitment closer to 10? 7Agile Coaching and Facilitation Overcome Obstacles (with ToGROW model) Overcome Obstacles (with TOGROW model) © Dream Without it If you had unlimited resources and couldn't fail, what would you do then? What if you did have the time (or resources, or the support)? Then what? Let's just remove that obstacle from the equation for a minute - imagine it is all taken care of. How does that chenge the things? How do you feel about pursuing this? If you have all the time you would like tohave, what would you do? If decisions are made in favor of your thoughts, what do you want to do next? Brainstorm Options Give me five options for how you could overcome that obstacle What resources do you need to conquer this obstacle? Where could you get them? Who do you know that could help you wth this? You've mentioned resources several times as an obstacle. If you had the resources you need, then what would you do? What is stopping you from reaching that objective? What's your top concein? What's your worst-case scenario? What goes on inside you when you attempt to tackle this? Can you describe it? What would it take for you to get to the bottom of that? What's the right thing to do? 18Agile Coaching and Facilitation Solution Focused Questioning Solution Focused Coaching (sometimes also labelled “Appreciative Coaching”) 1 ag ee 10. au. 12, 13. 4. 15. 16. 7. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Ifyou came in tomorrow and things had been transformed overnight into the way you would like to be. What would be the first signs we would notice? What would you be doing that was different? What would you have stopped doing? What different would it make? How would your colleagues notice the difference? How would this change look like to your colleagues? What would have been the first thing that would have changed? ‘What would need to happen for some of these things to happen? What would you start? What would be the gains for everybody? ‘What needs to happen to tell you your efforts were well spent? Has there been a time in the past when this wasn’t an issue for you? What are something else that that you aren’t doing now? ‘What might be one of your strengths you may have that you play down? If your friends were asked to nominate your three greatest strengths, what do you think they would say? What would you be doing differently? What would you not be doing? What would others notice? What would have changed first? What else can you do to leverage the strength(s) so we can get you to where you want to be? Ifyou could have everything you want to have (name a few such as power, experience, ...), how would you handle the situation? How did you overcome a similar challenge in the past? How can we improve this area? 19