Here’s a somewhat experimental coaching question that you might find a use for in some circumstances.
In the spoof rockumentary movie This Is Spinal Tap there’s a celebrated scene where guitarist Nigel Tufnel shows off his customised Marshall amplifier, on which all the dials go up to 11 rather than the standard 10: “It’s one louder”.
On the one hand, it’s funny because it’s stupid: merely designating ‘11’ rather than ‘10’ as the top of the scale doesn’t make the amp any louder
On the other hand, there is something gloriously rock’n’roll about Tufnel’s desire to transcend the limitations of normal amp technology – so much so that the phrases “one louder” and “these go to eleven” from this scene have passed into rock mythology.
So could there be something useful in “going to eleven”? If we apply the idea to scaling, I believe the answer is “yes”.
If I were to ask you to describe how good your coaching practice would be if it reached ten on the zero to ten scale, you would talk about the best you could imagine it being – or so you would think.
But what would happen if I asked you to go ‘one higher’ and turn the dial up to 11? What would your life be like then?
A real stickler might object that going to 11 on a 1-10 scale is a logical impossiblity – in the same way that they would poke fun at those candidates on The Apprentice UK TV show who were always going on about “giving it 110%”. In one sense, that stickler would be right; but in another, they would be limiting themselves and missing the important point that over time, our capacities and our ability to make things happen can increase, to the point where they are 110% of what they used to be.
We often tend to limit ourselves by thinking only about what is possible ‘now’ – within the span of our current time horizon. By asking ourselves to go one higher than what we think the best possible outcome would be, we stand at least a chance of looking beyond our typical time horizon, and of moving past any self-imposed limitations, limiting beliefs, or false identifications that might be limiting our thinking.
Do you want to learn more about using Appreciative Inquiry and related methods in coaching? Get my book Practical Coaching With Appreciative Inquiry! (in paperback or ebook format)