Learning and facilitation models and techniques

The following are some of the tools and techniques that inform our facilitation and design

Click headings below to read about each technique

• Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

  Appreciative Inquiry is a change methodology developed by David Cooperrider. It offers an alternative approach to achieving organisational growth and development. It focuses on increasing what an organisation does well rather than on getting rid of what it does badly. Through an inquiry which appreciates the positive and engages all levels of the business it seeks to grow, rebuild, develop and build on this.
  Appreciative Inquiry is a collaborative, strength-based approach to both personal and organisational development that has proved highly effective in many organisations, schools and communities around the world. It is a way of bringing about change that shares leadership and learning – fully engaging everyone in the organisation. Instead of asking questions such as “What are the problems?”, “What’s wrong?” or “What needs to be fixed?” AI takes an alternative approach, it asks questions like “What’s working well?”, “What’s good about what you are currently doing?” Appreciative Inquiry looks to use ways of asking questions to look to the future and foster positive relationships and build on the present strength’s and potential of a person, business or situation. Appreciative Inquiry uses a four step cyclical processes although many people like us here at Crocus now add a fifth, Define before Discover: DEFINE: The focus of the Inquiry or the change required DISCOVER: The identification of organisational processes that work well. DREAM: The envisioning of processes that would work well in the future. DESIGN: Planning and prioritising processes that would work well.DESTINY (or DELIVER): The implementation of the proposed design.
  Books
  Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management by Sarah Lewis and Jonathon Passmore

• Change curve

  The Change Curve is based on Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ research into the emotional stages we go through following the loss of someone. This has been developed into a model that can be used to highlight the sequence of responses people go through following a change. It’s useful as once individuals recognise the stages they are going through they can understand that they are not alone and that their reactions are ‘normal’. This can help them to work through the support they need to move forward. The model also enables leaders to balance their approach during times of change by appreciating the potential impacts on their people and working out what leadership they need to provide to minimise disruption.
  William Bridges research on change suggests that people are actually quite resilient to change – as human beings we encounter it on a fairly regular basis! What can get in the way are the transitions that accompany a change. He explains that changes are situational e.g. a new manager, a new office, a new team etc. but that transitions are psychological. Bridges describes three phases that people need to internalise and come to terms with to move forward successfully:

  • Ending
  • Neutral zone
  • New beginning

  Transition management focuses on the work that needs to be done to support people through change and how you can lead employees through to engagement in a way that makes everyone feel more comfortable.

  Books:
  Managing Transitions, Bridges
  Making Sense of Change Management, Cameron & Green
  
  Books:
  Making Sense of Change Management, Cameron & Green

• Circles of concern

  This model was introduced by Stephen Covey in his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. It helps individuals to identify things that are within their control and those that they can do nothing about. It can increase awareness of how proactive an individual is by reviewing where they typically spend their energy and time. It’s also a powerful tool in times of change as it helps people shift their focus from decisions that they have no power over to factors they can control and influence. For example you can ask your coachee to map everything in their circle of concern and then decide what can be included in their circle of influence. This helps the coachee to focus their energy productively on the things they can change and ‘let go’ of those they can’t.

  

  To find out more:
  Books:
  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey

• Emotional Intelligence (EI)

  
  This has been largely popularised by the work of Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis. It is about effectively understanding yourself and others, relating well to people and adapting and coping with the immediate environment in order to be more successful. Goleman describes four areas – self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management as well as a set of emotional competencies. The theory suggests that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence that determines their ability to learn and develop emotional competence. EI helps leaders to understand themselves and those around them. It challenges managers to think less about ‘what’ they know and more about how they interact and manage their emotional states.
  
  Books:
  Emotional Intelligence, Goleman
  Primal Leadership, Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee
  Emotionally Intelligent Living, Orme
  Taming your Gremlin, Carson

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

  
  This is a psychometric tool that looks at individual preferences. It’s a useful tool for understanding how people prefer to operate and therefore the behaviours and communication styles that we typically use. It’s great for understanding and appreciating difference. Once you understand your own preferences you can then start to understand how others are similar and different to you. It has many uses, including working with teams at all stages, enhancing communication, building relationships and also with individuals who want to be more self aware.
  
  Books: Isabel Briggs Myers

• Situational Leadership

  
  This model was created by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey. It states that effective leaders need to be flexible and therefore adapt themselves according to the situation and needs of their people. It describes 4 leadership styles – directing, coaching, supporting and delegating and highlights when to use them in terms of the amount of direction and support that a leader needs to provide for their team member. Situational Leadership helps managers to understand that there are different leadership styles rather than thinking that one size fits all. Adopting these principles helps managers improve their delegation and build an environment of trust and self-reliance in the team.
  
  Books:
  The One Minute Manager, Blanchard
  Self Leadership, Blanchard
  Leading at a Higher Level, Blanchard

• Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

  
  This assesses an individual’s behaviour in situations where there are opposing views. It helps people to discover how they prefer to handle conflict in terms of five styles – competing, accommodating, avoiding, collaborating and compromising. Exploring this provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of conflict situations and helps to identify effective resolution approaches.
  

• Transactional Analysis (TA)

  

• Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development

  
  Tuckman’s model of team development involves the stages of Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. It describes the stages a team go through in terms of their working relationships and productivity. Leaders can use this to identify where their team is and what is needed to move towards high performance. It’s particularly useful for newly formed teams or teams who are experiencing a new dynamic due to changes in membership. Recognising where you are as a team will enable you to think through and agree principles and values for how you want to work together to deliver.
  
  Book:
  Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing, DonaldB.Egolf

• Use of self

  
  This is referred to by Peter Bluckert as ‘the highest order coaching skill’. It involves the coach putting into words the insights they are gaining about what is happening between them and the coachee. These are very intutive moments and the challenge is to be able to describe them in a way that provokes ‘in the moment’ insight in the coachee. The mainlearning here is that the dynamics that play out in the coaching realtionship may be a mirror of what the coachee is experiencing in the workplace in terms of their interactions.
  
  Books:
  Psychological Dimensions of Executive Coaching, Blucket

• The here and now

  
  This technique originated in Gestalt therapy and is about what is being experienced in the present moment. It highlights that most conversations are about the past and future but little attention is paid to what is happening now in the room. A classic here and now question is, “What are you aware of right now as you tell me this?” This focus helps to deepen the coachee’s connections to what they are really feeling and thinking about a particular issue.
  
  Books:
  The Red Book of Gestalt, Houston
  Psychological Dimensions of Executive Coaching, Bluckert

• GROW coaching model

  

  During the mid to late 1980’s Graham Alexander, Sir John Whitmore and Alan Fine developed the GROW model for coaching. Whitmore a motor racing champion and Fine a tennis champion coach brought it to the corporate arena in the early 1990’s.Having worked with athletes it was recognised that people often know what to do but often didn’t do what they know and the GROW model was a methodology that helped awaken their awareness. It is now one of the most widely used and recognised coaching models in the world today.

  Why it’s used

  Coaching is rapidly growing in its use in organisations, and is evolving all the time. The GROW model, although structured is simplistic and flexible to use. It can be used in many situations including individual face to face and telephone coaching, group coaching, and group meetings. It is designed to allow the coach to ask the questions to help the coachee/s to explore their own thought process and awaken their awareness and ensures they work towards some kind of action or outcome to bring about change. The latest CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)Coaching and Mentoring report shows that it is often used for the following:

  • Supporting people through change
  • Lifelong learning
  • The need for targeted, individualised, just-in-time development
  • Improving the decision making of senior employees
  • Individual responsibility for development
  • Employee demand for different types of training
  • Support for learning and development activities
  • A popular development mechanism

  Books:
  Coaching for Performance, Whitmore John

• 70-20-10 model

  
  70% of learning takes place on the job, through solving problems and through special assignments and other day-to-day activities.
  20% is gained when collaborating and when in dialogue through coaching, mentoring and learning from others knowledge and expertise.
  10% occurs through formal learning, this can be in a workshop, e-learning or classroom.
  It fits well with ‘just in time’ learning, we often learn things ‘just in case’ however in today’s world things change very quickly and so weis better to learn what you need when you need it.Here at Crocus all our course participants have access to bespoke online resources to refer too, to support that ‘just in time’ learning via their tablet, android, i-pad, phone, etc.
  At Crocus we use the 70-20-10 methodology when designing workshops. We want to ensure that participants will take away tools, techniques and ideas that they can use immediately in their workplace or in life (70%).We suggest this is followed up with coaching, mentoring or we help the participant and/or organisation to set up the support required to ensure the learner gets the right feedback, encouragement and management (20%). This will help embed, grow and develop the learning and the participant will then become a success.