My weekly email helps educators and innovation leaders enhance their practice by sharing provocations, ideas and mental models. Join today, and get your copy this week.
It excites me to renew and establish new coaching partnerships for 2021 and 2022. I love to meet people where they are at and use dialogue to support their growth in:
Design Thinking — leading creative problem-solving.
Creativity — your own and how we unlock creative potential.
Facilitation and coaching — leaders often need to invest in these skills.
Innovation — how we create the conditions for innovation and lead change.
Critique and Feedback — we are in a constant critique loop, so improving our understanding is critical
Over the next few weeks, I will confirm the private coaching partnerships for the next 12 months or so.
If you think I could be a good fit for you* I have limited capacity, so please complete this short form, and get in touch for a chat. ↓ Click the link.
*By the way, your choice is all-important. After reading multiple weekly emails, I know you will have noticed my style. That thinking approach is what we would do together.
Some more factors to consider about coaching in my article here.
🔭 Apple Education Session
Next week I am running another Speaker Series session for the Apple Education community. These short provocation talks are followed up with small group dialogue sessions that you can opt into afterwards.
My third session is all about thinking routines and frameworks to shift perspectives. Come and join us, the session is open to all. Details and registration here ⟶ Shifting Perspectives for Better Thinking and Dialogue
⚡️ Google Educator Group (GEG) Mornington
Phil Carew invited me to the latest GEG session, where I shared a twenty-minute talk on Feedback Strategies. I explored a couple of strategies in depth and looked at the different elements of the critique dynamic.
You can jump to my talk from about 12:30 into the video below.
🦸♀️ Teaching Heroes
To start my week, I spent some time in dialogue with Dr Jo Winchester, Deputy Head of Education at the Australian Catholic University.
Jo creates a show called Teaching Heroes — I am not sure I am in that category, but it was great to talk about my approach to partnerships, not projects and some other topics:
Education structures that inhibit change and growth.
🔀 New Pathways
Dialogic Learning is the name of my education consultancy business. It has been a challenging time for small businesses and independent consultants. There is so much uncertainty and constraint.
I have mapped new business pathways over the next 12 months. Looking ahead, I have chosen to focus on the development of:
Digital Products: Create and sell more courses, learning materials and frameworks. This will also include a subscription model for this weekly. For anyone who wants to go deeper down the rabbit hole with me!
Audience and Community: I will be looking at ways to broaden the audience of the weekly and to create a community space (see rabbit hole).
Coaching Partnerships: Build awareness of my dialogic approach, support more people and hone the craft.
By the way, this is me being open and public about strategy. You are an integral part of my journey, and I am excited to create more opportunities to connect and learn with you.
If you have any ideas, comments or feedback I would be grateful to hear it. Just hit reply!
A strategy is only really a strategy if people in the organisation alter their behaviour as a result ~ Freek Vermeulen
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Thanks for joining me this week — I will leave you with this.
I have been writing and sharing at a higher rate at the moment. This set of illustrations about imposter syndrome struck a chord.
This is a snippet of my Dialogic Learning Weekly.⚡A weekly email designed to build your cognitive toolkit and enhance your practice. It saves you time and provokes your thinking.
One of the features of dialogic coaching is the sharing of ideas. If we were in a session, you would notice I don’t sit back — if I have ideas and there is space for them, I step up and explore them together. These are often just signs of my curiosity.
Dialogic coaching is about learning through dialogue — an important distinction between mentoring, facilitative coaching or consulting.
Here David Bohm paints an image of meaning flowing between us.
“Dialogue” comes from the Greek word dialogos. Logos means “the word,” or in our case we would think of the “meaning of the word.” And dia means “through” — it doesn’t mean “two.” The picture or image that this derivation suggests is of a stream of meaning flowing among and through us and between us.
I spend the majority of my coaching in this stream. Let’s see what that means if you were also getting your feet wet in a session with me.
⟶ We participate as equals and share the thinking space — we create a better understanding by sharing ideas and thinking aloud.
⟶ I don’t sit back — if I have ideas and space for them, I step up and explore them together. Far from a fixed answer, these are often just signs of my curiosity.
⟶ We work the challenge together — I understand the need for responsibility in coaching, and you might need a support partner to work things out.
⟶ Someone to bounce off — coaching with me is a creative process often involving problem-solving. We bounce ideas and questions off each other.
⟶ I guide you to action — we surface new insights during coaching. I believe clarity comes from action. You commit to the next steps. I hold you accountable. Repeat.
⟶ The stream of meaning reflects how we change — we consider the process and reflect on what works. We look up and downstream. Understanding how we grow and develop is essential.
Your Talking Points
Which of these elements of dialogic coaching resonate?
What stops you from reaching out to establish a coaching partnership?
How much value is there is in seeking out a perspective from beyond your bubble?
Everyone is here, right? Let’s get started; the first thing today is…
STOP ✋
Instead of launching into the first item on the agenda, ask your team, “What’s on your mind?”
The Curse of Knowledge
The problem is we assume everyone is ready to start and focus. Our preparation for the session means we have a high familiarity when others might not. This cognitive bias is the curse of knowledge.
Design The Transition
The reality is we are bouncing from one meeting or workshop to another, with little processing time in between.
Create a short period of transition at the start of your meeting to pause and process. Ask, “What’s on your mind?” and talk about the issues raised.
Talk About The Talking
In this deliberate transition, you can frame the session and what to expect. I often say we can talk about the talking — meta-talking.
Refer to the type of thinking, dialogue and work that will be needed. I prefer to use this transition time to highlight the disposition or mindset that the meeting requires. Not just list agenda content.
Build Understanding
A key benefit I witness from hundreds of meetings and workshops I have designed is increased empathy.
When we share answers to “What’s on your mind?” we create a better understanding of our disposition. As the meeting or workshop continues, we are more likely to be empathetic to a colleague.
“What’s on your mind?” increases empathy, which is an excellent place for any meeting to start.
The Start Stop Continue routine has been around for decades. It is commonly used as a ‘retrospective’ activity in Agile development and Scrum meetings.
Our development toolkit is filled with templates, activities and protocols for reflection, but often the simplest tool can be the most effective.
In this post, I explore the fundamental components of the reflection, how you can use it and the benefits. I also share an extended version that gives you some new options to try in your next review session.
Before you finish make sure you grab a copy of the editable PDF resource for the Start Stop Continue extended version. You can use it in your next meeting.
Start Stop Continue
In its simplest form, the protocol explores the three actions of its namesake. When you are reviewing the development of your project or even your own teaching practice, ask these three simple questions.
What should I stop doing?
What should I keep doing?
What should I start doing?
What are the benefits?
Provides a clear and comprehensive structure for agreeing on and setting actions.
Helps teams explore different types of improvements, using three different triggers.
Makes it easier for individuals to talk about what is not working and clarify issues.
Simple and memorable enough to be conducted quickly with little preparation.
Flexible enough to be valuable for individuals or large teams.
How do I facilitate the Start Stop Continue?
The first thing to do is grab a copy of the editable PDF resource for the Start Stop Continue. All of the sample questions below are included in the download.
This retrospective model will help you and your team explore what is working, what is not effective and what might be useful to try.
To support this and make it easier for participants, use some of the example questions below:
Start
What practices do you need to START doing?
Outline some of the new ideas that you want to start?
What are the habits you want to start?
Stop
What negative practices do you need to STOP?
What are the low-impact processes which need to stop?
What do you need to stop investing in?
Continue
What established practices do you need to CONTINUE doing?
Which aspects of your work need to be maintained?
What needs continued investment to maintain the impact you want to see?
A useful hack from Sarah Beldo, Head of Content and Communications at Miro, is to switch the order a little:
I’ve found that people find it easier to think about what already exists – both the good (“continue”) and the bad (“stop”), before venturing into uncharted territory (“start”).
Beyond the core Start Stop Continue routine, we can extend the reflection protocol in a few different directions. I think these provocations offer some much-needed nuance to the activity.
For example, the option to Pause, and not just Stop, is a useful distinction. The addition of shifting the thinking frame forward and back in time helps us to consider some important strategic modes of reflection.
I have developed the following additional provocations to complement the core trio and help you facilitate a comprehensive reflection.
Improve
What aspects of your practice can you IMPROVE?
Which parts of your project have room for growth?
What changes can you make to increase the impact?
Pause
Which elements of our work need to be PAUSED to allow resources to shift elsewhere?
Which projects would benefit from a short developmental hiatus?
Which projects are a priority and would benefit from other elements being PAUSED?
Fast Forward
Which aspects of this project would benefit from an increase in pace?
How might we increase the speed of development?
In the future what might be a block or challenge to the success of this?
Rewind
What have we learned from the story of development so far?
If we returned to the beginning of this project what would we start with?
What can we learn from how this problem was handled in the past?
Challenge
Which assumptions do we need to CHALLENGE?
What bias do you need to talk about and better understand?
What will you do to disrupt and challenge the status quo?
Download your editable PDF
If you are interested in this extended version of the model you can download an editable PDF. Just subscribe to my weekly newsletter and I will send you a copy.
Potential Uses and Applications
You have reached the end of a teaching placement, and you want to capture your reflections.
Your team is making progress with the implementation of a new programme prototype and you want to refine the approach.
You want a simple structure to use with your coach to reflect on the past few weeks.
During a weekly catchup with one of your team, you want to implement a simple structure for personal/professional mentorship.
At the beginning of the term, you want a framework for some collective reflection for your class.
You have moved into new learning spaces and need a tool to review what is working and what needs changing.
In this post, I want to share some reflections about coaching and how we create the best possible conditions for professional growth.
Below I have shared nine different aspects of successful coaching that play a critical role. Many of these ideas also apply to quality learning experiences and might serve as powerful provocations to consider.
If you are after a planning guide to support your coaching programme – download a copy of my resource. All of the provocations and ideas in the post are included.
[joli-toc]
Choice
One of the downsides of the “roll out” of coaching or large scale implementations in schools and organisations are that it forces people to participate when they are not ready. When people make an active choice to participate, they signal they are ready for the challenge that coaching has to offer.
Our advocacy for coaching might mean we want everyone to have access to it. Which is entirely understandable; it can have a high impact. But, that does not mean it needs to be forced on anyone.
I imagine that many of you have had bad coaching experiences simply because it was something you had to do.
When you remove the choice, you also remove a fundamental aspect of self-awareness. This awareness is something everyone I coach has in common. Do you have similar reflections?
You reach a point where you want the challenge. The benefit from the accountability from coaching is clear.
Critically you choose to continue their professional learning, growth and development with coaching, nobody else.
Are you ready for the challenge of coaching? What dispositions signal you are ready?
Commitment to Coaching
In my opinion, coaching is different when it is short term. Long term commitment changes the dynamic of the experience. We work together to grapple with some of your most significant professional development challenges. This problem solving takes time.
Longer commitments also allow for trusting relationships to form and develop. I commit to you and your professional growth; you commit to coaching, the process and the regular sessions. We commit to the partnership needed for success.
Contracting
An extension to the idea of commitment, contracting is all about establishing the appropriate expectations and what coaching means for us both. During my coaching, this is done in a few simple ways.
Below I have listed some examples:
We establish a medium-term or long-term commitment within the coaching partnership.
It is all agreed within a formal written contract.
Regular time is set aside every fortnight for coaching sessions. These are organised in advance.
We agree to a set of protocols and expectations for each session which focuses on high-quality dialogue and collaboration.
In the first session, we share ideas about the roles and responsibilities we have in our coaching partnership.
The Challenge of Coaching
In the first coaching session with me, we spend some time reflecting on a set of provocations I put to you in advance. One of the questions is, “What do you hope coaching will be?”. The most common response I have received is the hope that coaching ‘challenges me”.
Challenge is unique to everyone. You might be seeking an alternative perspective on the challenges you face in your leadership team. Or perhaps you want to increase your self-awareness to help you see your strengths and those traits that need your attention. The challenge might come from the mirror I hold up and the behaviours that I observe.
Whatever it is for you, coaching needs to be challenging. Yes, you want the safety of a trusting professional relationship. Of course, you want psychological safety to be able to share emerging ideas or perspectives. But you also will gain from an independent viewpoint and calm, honesty about your professional growth. You don’t need more platitudes about your success; you need supportive coaching to strive for your next step.
Sometimes that honesty can be uncomfortable and a little jarring, but you will know it is coming from a place of genuine support and commitment.
Download a copy of my planning guide to support your coaching programme. All of the provocations and ideas in the post are included.
Coaching Consistency
New positive habits and behaviours are an essential outcome of coaching. We want to identify negative assumptions we are making, detrimental behaviours that we should reduce, and seek positive change. Consistency is key. Regular sessions that we both rely upon offer a safe and reliable structure to your professional growth.
I often look to regular one-hour coaching sessions every fortnight, which is an effective, consistent pattern for education clients. It allows enough time to apply the new ideas and mental models. Or to reflect and observe our regular daily practise as part of our coaching cycle.
It is not just about timing, though. We also rely upon the consistent expectations and the level of accountability that each coaching session has. I hold you to what you said you would act upon. Those small steps between each session are essential. That is, you get better, and they accumulate over six months or a year to significant change. We celebrate, debrief and explore those actions in a consistent way every session.
Coaching Conditions
We both play a role in creating the right conditions for quality dialogue to flourish. It is not just my job, and it is not just yours. There is a collective responsibility to contribute to the conditions for professional growth and dialogue that supports you.
Collective responsibility means different things for different people. For some of us, it is about focus and being present. To ensure a coaching session is not interrupted or compromised by competing agendas. For others, it is about remaining open to the challenge of learning and hearing another perspective. We both play a role in creating the ideal conditions for coaching dialogue and collaboration.
I often think of it as creating a space for you to step into. Step out of your daily routine into a world that operates under different conditions, an environment intentionally tuned to your needs. A space that is safe yet challenges you. A space that is trusting yet honest and direct. A coaching space that holds you accountable but also provokes new thinking and generates inspiration.
Cognitive Toolkit
Coaching creates the space to explore new cognitive tools. One of the main ways we do this is by focusing on a range of mental models and thinking structures during each session. These mental models provoke thinking and offer different perspectives to the challenges we explore together.
A key goal of my coaching is to help you develop your cognitive toolkit. I am equipping you with a more diverse set of mental models you can use to navigate your face challenges. At the end of each session, we stop and reflect on the mental models we have referenced or used together.
Collaborate
If we are in a coaching partnership, it is highly collaborative. We create something together. That “something” is new ideas, new thinking, perspectives, solutions and potential paths that support your professional growth.
That is an excellent question. I have some ideas already, but before I share them, what do you think?
I use an expectation that we are both ready to generate, share, and explore new ideas without judgment. When we lose track of where the ideas come from or start a train of thought, we know we are exploring in a dialogic way – a collaboration.
Dialogue and Coaching
Ultimately everything contributes to the quality of dialogue that we share. [I also wanted to break the “everything starts with a C”] This is something I actively pursue when coaching. I strive to create the conditions where we share ideas, questions, thoughts and ponderings – where we make new meaning together through talk.
Dialogue aligns with creativity. Through our talk, we create new, original ideas that have value to your professional practice. When we are free to express ourselves in this way, we move away from analysing the problem or feeling isolated to resolve it, we collaborate and develop new ideas.
I coach teachers and school leaders across Australia. It is always a privilege to be a coach and a vital member of a professional support network.
If you are interested in finding out more about how I could support your professional growth with coaching, I have a few places available; please email me at tom@dialogiclearning.com.
Download a free Coaching Planner
To conclude this article on the Conditions for effective coaching, download my planning template and kickstart your programme design. Simply use the form below.
