This is the second in a series inspired by Professor David Cooperrider’s recent interview on the Inspiring Impacts podcast – the first article is here. The original interview is well worth a listen! Cooperrider mentioned in passing Wittgenstein’s idea that the…
I love listening to podcasts – if you select them carefully, they can be a real source of learning and new ideas. That was certainly true of Professor David Cooperrider’s recent interview on the Inspiring Impacts podcast. Although I’ve been…
A study published in the Harvard Business Review by Leadership professor Julia Milner and management consultant Trenton Milner has revealed that most executives don’t really know what coaching is. It’s worth looking at what experts generally define as coaching. These descriptions…
Sometimes our attempts to solve a problem cause an even bigger problem down the track. Here’s how to recognise these situations, and some ideas on what to do about it. An article on by Connirae Andreas on the always useful…
‘Confirmation Bias’ is when our minds filter what we perceive of the world around us, amplifying evidence that fits our existing beliefs and playing down or ignoring altogether any information that challenges them. Confirmation bias is inevitable – there’s so…
Note: This article follows on from these others in the series: Questions in Coaching (1): Solution-focused or problem focused? Questions in Coaching (2): Presuppositions Questions in Coaching (3): Open versus closed questions Another important distinction in coaching questions is whether…
On entry-level NLP courses, students are often taught not to ask “Why?” when helping someone to solve a problem. And rightly so – human thought processes are very different from mechanical processes like production lines, not least because their workings…
When teaching coaching skills to managers I have often noticed that it’s hard for them to move on from the habit of using questions that close down thought processes, rather than opening them up. This short series of articles suggests…
A closed question is one that expects a yes or no answer. Closed questions tend to shut down the conversation, and direct it in the directions implied by the question. Examples: Have you thought of taking more breaks? Have you…
Presuppositions are implicit assumptions or background beliefs in a statement (or question, or command) which the listener has to take on board for the statement to make sense. They are important because: They often fly under the radar of conscious…