In the last of our short series of podcasts on questions, Rob and Ricky tackle the role of questions in critical thinking. From exploring the advantages or disadvantages of different options to making decisions, asking the right questions allows us to cut through and get the best answers.
Great outcomes start with great questions.
Another short podcast in our mini-series on questions, this time Rob and Ricky look at the role of questions in making us think creatively.
Questions have the magical property of making you think, even when you don’t want to, so with small shifts in the structure of the question, you can use questions to make anyone think more creatively.
Ever wondered how to change culture? It’s all about the choices we make in those moments of truth!
In this video, we unpack how one client used a social learning experience blended with gamification, group coaching and psychological safety to create a safe learning space. We brought together a multi-level audience to discuss how they would handle different situations. It was only when team members felt secure that they said what they really felt, exposing knowledge gaps, lack of confidence and doubts about what to do when under pressure.
Our favourite quote came from a junior team member who, in a multi-level audience of 40 people, asked “I know we all have said we’d do the right thing, but can someone tell me what that looks like?” The virtual room fell silent. This one example led to one of the most productive discussions we had.
By learning from your successes and failures, you can create a culture that is conducive to success. Learn how social learning can help you transform your organisation’s culture.
We work with organisations worldwide; in this video, we share how Lowell Financial Group used ‘What Would You Do?’, to embed the FCA Conduct Rules, helping 100% of participants feel confident to apply the rules in their job. What Would You Do? is the perfect learning solution for learning professionals looking to spice up their short-burst learning interventions.
We created What Would You Do? in response to a client looking for something different, engaging, high impact and can be run internally at a moment’s notice. We build a social learning experience that brings cross-functional groups together online or face-to-face to discuss everyday dilemmas faced in the workplace. When team members are uncertain or lack confidence, the last thing you need is them guessing or unintentionally placing your business and/or people at risk.
For more information on WWYD, click the image.
Continuing our short series on the power of questions, in this podcast, Rob and Ricky explore the role of questions in creating clarity.
Questions are one of the easiest ways of engaging our minds. In fact, they are sneaky, as it is almost impossible not to think about a question when asked, even if you don’t want to answer it. Questions can help us sort through the noise to discover exactly what we want, when we want it, and how we will know when we get there.
As part of a mini-series on the power of questions, Ricky and Rob look at the role of questions, why they are an important tool for leaders and managers and discuss why they work.
From the way we ask questions, to using questions to helping others think, this podcast asks questions about questions.
Change in the workplace can be traumatic; most of us are pre-programmed to dislike change, but in the workplace, somehow, the stakes are even higher.
Change in the workplace needs managing, and having access to powerful change tools is a great start when helping people navigate change in the workplace.
In this video, Rob walks you through three simple steps to help anyone, including themselves, navigate change in the workplace.
Change at work, how to deal with it, navigating workplace change, accepting change at work,k adapting to workplace change, modern workplace change
Are you a change agent or a manager responsible for helping people through workplace change – I imagine that means all of you!
We all respond differently to change; our attitudes and behaviours will depend on many factors. This video shares four labels to help you identify change behaviours and attitudes.
Check out this video, too; it will give you practical ways that will help you to help your people through change.
New Year’s resolutions will be on the minds of lots of people; if that’s the case, if you’re serious, you need to get goal setting.
A lot of the time, New Year’s resolutions focus on feelings and confidence, and SMART goals don’t work for something subjective, not until now, that is. SMART goals are great for goal setting, when you know how to set goals using SMART they’re awesome, but what do you do when the subject of your goal is a feeling, a perception or a judgement, something subjective, well we have the perfect solution with benchmark goal setting.
You can take something that is hard to measure and turn it into something that will work with a SMART goal. SMART goals are essential to the Thinking Focus Toolkit for Team Leaders and Managers.
The SMART goals technique is arguably the most well-known of all goal-setting techniques. How to set goals is really important if you want to be more productive, have success, and ultimately achieve your goals.
The acronym S.M.A.R.T. is well used across the world. But knowing what it stands for is only the start, you need to understand the individual components to make it work for you and improve your productivity and effectiveness.
Anyone can set a goal, but if it ain’t specific, you’re saying you don’t care what you achieve or if you achieve it. Denzel Washington said, “Dreams without goals are just dreams”.
So if it’s important to you and you want it, get specific and go for it. In this video, we explore the types of measures and how to make them work for you. SMART goals are essential to the Thinking Focus Toolkit for Team Leaders and Managers. Watch this video to find out.
Social learning is about the way we learn, while the 70:20:10 model concerns where we get our learning from. Both are linked and relevant, we think, to the work that we do at Thinking Focus, so we thought we’d take a closer look at them.
The social learning theory first formulated by Albert Bandura in 1977 shows that we learn best by imitating the behaviour and actions of others. It’s all about people learning from each other; picking up new skills, ideas, opinions and experiences from those around them.
This applies equally to learning in the workplace. Think about it: where do you feel you have learnt most of what you know? During formal education? Or from your own experience and the insights of your colleagues?
Social learning in the workplace is about interacting with others through good communication, knowledge sharing, discussion, collaboration, and being transparent about what you’re doing and why. Colleagues can help each other, either explicitly or tacitly, to understand ideas, experiences, systems, methods and processes. Yet most of us come into work with the rules set that tells us to do exactly the opposite, work it out on your own, don’t share, don’t copy other people’s work. These are the learning rules that schools operate by.
Most L&D professionals are familiar with the 70:20:10 model proposed by Charles Jennings. In fact, it has become a standard part of discussion regarding learning and development processes in the workplace. The model evolved from a report in the 1980s which analysed a survey of 200 senior managers. It found that they reported that 70% of what they knew had been learnt on the job or through experience, 20% had come from social interaction with other people, and just 10% had been learnt through formal education.
Although there’s been some criticism of the 70:20:10 model, some of which we agree with, we nevertheless think it’s useful in showing the rough proportions of experience, social interaction and education needed for learning. It does broadly tell us is that, to meaningfully and effectively learn new things, your experience and the input and experience of people around you is the most important thing. Social learning does tend to fit into 90 per cent of this model.
It’s all a great starting point for reflecting on how individuals within your workforce learn and what the best ways therefore might be for their personal development. It can be used as the basis for a wider L&D strategy that can have far reaching effects on the culture and mindset of the organisation as a whole.
At Thinking Focus, we recognise that we essentially offer the 10 per cent ‘formalised learning’ part of the Jennings model, but we do so as the basis for encouraging people to behave in the 20 per cent of the Jennings model by interacting with people, and to share the 70 per cent, their experience and knowledge.
In our coaching sessions and training workshops, and through our learning resources such as the Strategy Wall and our management development board game What Would You Do?, we are encouraging behaviours that enhance social learning. We create environments where the group learn from other and teach each other, generating conversations and giving people the tools to go and do the 20 per cent in real life. We are highlighting the untapped knowledge and experience that people could access from their colleagues.
We encourage meaningful face-to-face discussion and debate. We offer formalised learning elements and use them to highlight, encourage and create social learning by developing skills and behaviours that cause peer-based learning and self-reflection.
Coaching can help generally in the workplace, and not just when leading sales teams. From a management point of view, it’s a great skill or ability to have, regardless of the team you are leading.
Here, Richard and Graham look at how knowing the way to coach properly can be invaluable in helping develop your people, including sales teams.
The first thing to know about coaching is that many people misunderstand what it is. Mention the word and their first thought is possibly about a sports coach, shouting at their team from the sidelines, imploring them to do better. Or they see it in a negative context, imagining a formalised session with their manager in which coaching is a remedial tool to improve their failing performance.
Although coaching can sometimes be about improving poor performance, equally it can be about helping someone who’s good to get even better. It assumes that the person has some understanding of their role, as well as a certain level of skill and experience. Coaching should unlock the potential of the individual.
Coaching helps give structure, focus and clarity to people who know they want or have to do better. It helps them to move forward by using the knowledge and skills they already have. This can be done by asking questions that cause a deeper level of thinking. If a member of your sales team tells you “I want to get better at sales”, narrow it down for them by asking “What aspect of sales do you want to get better at?”. If, for instance they reply “Lead generation”, ask “What aspect of lead generation?”
Once the questioning has helped someone find their focus, a good coach will then help them open up their thinking by asking more questions: “So now you know what you want to do, let’s think of ways you could do it.” Get creative and try not to tell them exactly what to do. It’s sometimes tempting for managers to say “When I did your job, what I did was…” or “If you look at so-and-so, what they’re doing really well is this…”. Instead, explore options and draw on what the individual knows or is good at.
A good coach encourages people to think for themselves, rather than telling them what to do, which will limit their thinking.
The next essential part of coaching is to ensure that the person is going to take ownership of what’s been discussed. How are you going to make sure they will put things into action, that they have bought into it? Check their motivation and confidence. Ask when they are going to start? What’s the first action? What specific things are they going to do?
Finally, always offer follow-ups: “What can I do? How can I be of help to you?” And remember, coaching doesn’t have to be formal. It can be as simple as a five-minute chat after a meeting, or in the canteen over coffee. If someone starts a conversation with you and you’ve asked them some questions which have helped with their thinking and their actions going forward, then you’ve coached them.
