Tips for Productive Teleconferencing

Teleconferencing is rising in popularity, and no wonder. Why spend hours travelling when you can be doubly productive working from your desk whilst engaging with your colleagues or clients? However, getting teleconferencing meetings to be as productive as good face to face meetings requires a little more thought.  If you want people to do and share their finest thinking you have to create an environment where that can happen gracefully.

Here are a few things that I find helpful on phone meetings – I don’t always use all of them all the time, but when I do, they help! Some of them are from Nancy Kline's inspiring ideas around “Transforming Meetings“.  I hope you find them useful. 

• I prepare agenda items in the form of questions, because questions open up thinking (whereas lists close them down) and I ask people to read the agenda and come with a couple of thoughts to begin to answer the questions – that helps to get things flowing early – eg rather then  “Budgets”  it would say, “What do we need to consider in relation to the budget?" or similar.
  
  
• Once I know who is coming, I send round a list of “order” as if people were in a circle around a room. They then know who they are “sitting” next to.  It seems to help with flow.
  
  
• Others need to know who is on the call and who is not so as people arrive in, if I am Chair I say very clearly –“Everyone – can I just let you know that Fred Blogs has arrived" - and I say, "Welcome Fred” – I do this for each person joining for about the first 3-5 mins. In my pre-meeting email I ask that if people arrive more than 5 minutes into the meeting they stay silent and then I will introduce them at the end of the first “round”.
  
  
• As Nancy Kline would say, “people haven’t arrived till they have spoken”, and sometimes people don’t say much more than hello so they haven't really engaged. So once we feel that the meeting should start (after waiting, as above, for 3-5 minutes) I do a quick “round” with an open question like, “ Can you say your name and then tell us something that’s currently going well for you in your life or work?” or “something that’s going well on this project?” or “something that has made you smile recently?” This gets the pleasant hormones, brain waves and thoughts flowing nicely.  I ask them to go round as per the order I have sent them  (e.g. please go to the right) or go next down the list if I’ve sent a numbered list.
  
  
• Everyone is reminded to say their name before they speak.  And that if they don’t contribute to the conversation they will rob us of their gifts! I ask them to “be abundant” or "generous with their thoughts" and it often works beautifully.
  
  
• One of the hardest things is to get people to pay the same attention as they would in a face to face meeting. If it’s a new group and I think the meetings might need some good boundaries to kick us off the first time, I will ask at the start – “can we think for a minute about the things that drive us mad in other telemeetings we’ve been to? “  Typically they will say things about people not listening, multi-tasking, typing or reading emails, leaving the meeting and not coming back, interruptions, background noises, etc . I then ask – "So how can we make this meeting different?" The ideas will flow and flow. And from that we can agree some ground rules / "a contract" that will make the meeting quicker and more effective. (I personally have to turn off my computer screen otherwise I am tempted to read mails!) These "ground rules" can become the norm for subsequent meetings.
  
  
• When we come to an agenda item, we do a round and each person says something about it. If they want to miss their turn they can, so it goes to the next one but they have to say “I’ll skip for now”. If everyone has said what they want to say I will ask anyone who skipped if they’d now like to say anything. If not we move onto next agenda item.
  
  
• Interruptions are seriously avoided and we make that clear in our contract, but in exchange for not being interrupted, people are asked to be succinct. When they have finished talking on a subject they are asked to say “I’m done” so we know they have finished and someone else can speak.
  
  
• If thinking stalls completely I suggest a break of 10 minutes and ask people to come back on the EXACT agreed time (otherwise we have to start the whole thing again with latecomers!)
  
  
• I personally don’t explicitly tell people they can use the mute button on their phone because if they do, they might then think it’s OK to multi-task because they cannot be heard typing or doing something else. If they do multi-task, the meeting will definitely take longer. And people will not feel as if they have been listened to, which is key to creating an environment where everyone contributes their finest thinking.
  

Just a few ideas, and I hope one or two might be useful for you!

Time for a Rethink - New Pathways in Executive Development

In the ongoing search for ways to help leaders and managers to initiate and manage change, some may feel that there is little that is new out there. But just once in a while, something comes along that has the potential to reshape the way we think and how we work as development professionals. 

How can executives create followership? Or be decisive when swimming in a sea of uncertainty. As development professionals we need to help them to create synchronicity in themselves and with others. The emerging science of neuroleadership offers a new and very exciting perspective ... click here to go to my article in Developing Leaders magazine, October 2011

Mental illness - why is it still a source of amusement for some?

I received an email inviting me to attend the opening of a new trendy bar/venue in town. I didn't know the organisation and they don't know me so I must have got on a list somewhere because our office is in the area. It looked pretty cool so I was initially tempted but then on reading further down the page it said that they had 3 private areas for hire - "The Doctor’s Waiting Room", "The Ward with Padded Cell" and "The Shrink’s office".

I did a double take. Padded Cell?  This is in such bad, cruel taste. "The Shrink" was not exactly funny either, but it wasn't offensive.  But millions of people have suffered with mental health problems and still do, and in times gone by those who were deemed to be mad enough to be forcibly locked up in a padded cell were often deeply anguished and massively distressed, drugged against their will, and treated like criminals.  

I'm generally not one to sound off but this really got my blood boiling. So I wrote to them declining to attend and saying why. They probably thought I should just take a chill pill, but I asked them, would you have a room themed “the leprosy clinic” or the “cancer ward” or the “torture chamber”? I've not yet heard back. 

It left me wondering - whoever thought this up?  Was this a brainstorming session by the creatives that just went a bit too far? Were they trying to be really edgy? Was it a deliberate attempt to get some publicity (no such thing as bad press - which of course in writing this I am adding to!). Whatever their reasons, I'm not sure they were really thinking.  

At least 1 in 5 people in the UK experience mental illness – some research says it's 1 in 4 - during their lives. One in 3 families is affected by it. And people with serious mental health problems are 12 times more likely to commit suicide than others, according to research published by Kings College London. 

Making mental illness a source of amusement or entertainment is not helping anyone, even if it's not intended to offend but just to be quirky. It is a massive issue affecting millions of people and it's likely to rise as times get harder. Organisations cannot be allowed to get away with and profit from cheap publicity ploys when so many others are working so hard to remove the stigma attached to mental illness. 

So if you're  reading this and thinking about what you or your organisation could do to help others out in these times of austerity and anxiety for people, have a look here and find out more about some of the great work being done in this field:

http://www.rethink.org/how_we_can_help/campaigning_for_change/stigma_and_discrimination/index.html

References:  Need to Talk Campaign
http://www.mind.org.uk/assets/0000/9311/We_Need_to_Talk_campaign_for_psychological_therapies_briefing.pdf

Kings College -  Suicide Research

http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/news/?id=479

Can you coach when you're not in a coaching session?

Many managers I train in coaching skills find the idea of finding someone to practise on a little daunting. Understandably it could feel a bit odd if you were talking to someone and they suddenly ask the question "Could I coach you on this?"

Firstly, I think it helps if you start with the idea that you can coach very effectively without "doing" a coaching session per se - just by having a coaching conversation you can help someone to do even better thinking, which is what coaching aims to achieve. So what's meant by a coaching conversation?

Coaching is just a conversation or a series of conversations that one has with another. It's about style and not about context or length; and coaching conversations can take place anywhere, not just in formal coaching sessions.

Let's say you meet someone at the water cooler and they tell you about a situation they’re facing, when you ask a thought-provoking question such as “What do you think the real issue is here?” or “What options do you have?” you are coaching. When you’re telling them what you think or what you’d do in their shoes, you’re not coaching.  

Alternatively, think about a time when someone asked you “How do I do this?” or “This has happened; what shall we do?”  Did you find yourself immediately giving your thoughts and ideas in order to be helpful? Or worse, did you find yourself the one left with the problem that they should have managed? Either way, you probably missed an opportunity to coach.

So - some clues as to whether a conversation is a coaching conversation are:

• Is the focus of the conversation mostly and intentionally on one individual or team?
• Is the intention of the coach genuinely positive towards the other person or people?
• Are they being encouraged and enabled to think for themselves?
• Are the skills of listening, questioning, and reflection being used?
• Is their awareness and sense of responsibility being raised?
• Does the individual think about the conversation afterwards and benefit from that reflection?
• Is there a commitment from the person to doing something more effectively or behaving in a beneficial way after the conversation?

When these are happening, it’s likely that coaching is happening. So if you hold these in mind and use the ideas when you're out and about having conversations, you'll be getting lots of practice in using coaching skills.

Secondly. you need to look for opportunities to coach - it benefits people and it benefits you.  And you might be surprised at how willing people are to "be coached".  Of course it could be a bit impertinent to think you can coach just any old person without asking their permission - in fact it could be quite intrusive unless it's been agreed or is a normal part of the culture. But in most cases, where someone asks you for your opinion or where you manage them directly, it would be perfectly OK to pose a coaching question instead of giving them the answer.  

So - imagine you're having a 1:1 weekly catch up with one of your team. They tell you about a project they're working on and how it's going - OK but there are a few delays and problems. If you were to say "Sounds like on the whole it's going well and you've made great progress; what do you think is really holding things up now?" Or "What else might you be able to do to get it moving again?" You'd be coaching them. They've already started to benefit from the conversation because they are thinking and generating ideas. Then when they tell you a bit more about it, you might find an opportunity to say, "You've talked about how challenging some of the stakeholders are to manage.  If you'd like to generate some new ideas and strategies for yourself, I'd be happy to get together for half an hour or so next week to do a bit of coaching on it". 

The more you get used to asking the more comfortable you and they will feel. And before long, you'll find people come to ask you if they could have some coaching. And then in time it won't feel as if you are coaching, it will just be a part of your style.

Your role as a manager is to help people think well for themselves.  So I'd ask you - what could you do differently tomorrow to help people you manage to do their own, clearest and most inspired thinking? 

Building Trust - focus on relationships not on sales

In the May edition of The Art of Coaching  in Therapy Today I share my thoughts about the importance of building trust in developing work with clients, focusing on relationships rather than "selling".   http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1893/

Learning from Coach Assessment Centres

My April Coaching Column in Therapy Today looks at new forms of Coach Assessment Centres - http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1867/

Therapy and Coaching - what's the difference?

I m writing this on my blog as there have been so many debates on this subject in the coaching and therapy worlds I wanted to take it a bit wider and see what HR and OD folk think too.

The text below is more or less what I have said on a recent posting to a coaching forum on yahoo groups.



I have have long held the view that coaching and therapy are on a continuum of supportive interventions at different points in people's lives. It's often the context and intention (of both the client and the practitioner) that differentiates them rather than the practise.

Equally, I see "therapy" as being on a continuum from simple supportive listening to complex intensive therapy. If we pathologize the term "therapy" it doesn't help. It's in mainstream use for both counselling and psychotherapy (as far as I am aware, there is still no compelling evidence to prove that counselling and psychotherapy are different activities and have different outcomes) and it can mean different things to people, from "talking about the issue" through to "seeing a shrink"!

So I do have some concern about the idea that some seem to have that therapy is for dysfunctional people. Many people find it invaluable during crises that we might all reasonably expect in or around own our lives and communities at some point: bereavement, divorce, infertility, being bullied, serious illness, disability, relationship problems etc. When people seek support to help them to understand, respond, manage or recover from these challenges, many are actually functioning pretty well. EAPs / workplace counselling services see people like this every day; clients have their session and go straight back to work.

Naturally there are individuals who have greater challenges in coping with distressing past and present life events, in achieving good emotional and mental health and who experience repeated or protracted difficulties, and thus who may need more in-depth work. Yet many of these clients at the right point can benefit from a coaching approach too.

I don't think it's useful either to assume that all therapy focuses on the past or that it's all going to be negative and painful, or that the therapist is expert and the client is not. There are many brief, future oriented and client empowering forms of therapy (for example Solution Focused Therapy and CBT) which have been embraced by the coaching world, and many highly generative ideas in coaching that have been embraced in client oriented therapy (for example, Clean Language and The Thinking Environment).

Many skilful and experienced coaches from non therapeutic backgrounds now do life enhancing and healing work with clients suffering from distressing symptoms such as severe anxiety, panic attacks and phobias, situations which would once have been the sole domain of therapists and hypnotherapists. Professional supervision is much better established as a supportive reflective learning place for coaches as well as therapists, and more coach training and CPD is available to support in addressing the needs of more complex clients; these have both helped to widen out the type of work that coaches do. Whether coach or therapist, their skills and experience will be on a continuum too, so ensuring that the needs of the client and the situation are matched with the skill and experience of the practitioner is key to professional and safe practise.

Our challenge is perhaps how to help clients to decide what they need and how practitioners, whether coach or therapist, we can explain how they work so  that clients can make informed choices.