CORE GROUP101 | The CORE Process Tool & How to Process Learning with Your Team
Part 1 – 15 minutes maximum:
•Welcome
•Test familiarity with foundational tools and vocabulary (Know Yourself to Lead Yourself / Circles of Influence / CORE Process / Support and Challenge)
•Reminder of Core group process and why we use it:
To develop the CORE strength of each of member (IQ / EQ / PQ)
To deepen relational trust between team members
To maximize applied learning - trouble shooting the live issues
To share best practice and learn from each other
To model an imitable process that can be multiplied
Part 2 – 30 minutes maximum: take time to gather the learning opportunities from each participant using the CORE Process Tool:
•Call It: Ask the following starter question: “Looking across your leadership landscape right now what is the biggest challenge you are facing?” If you use the same question to ask about their “Biggest Breakthrough or encouragement” you can use the same process.
•Own It:Have everyone write down answers. It forces ownership if they write it.
•Let everyone share their Learning Opportunity briefly with the rest of the group.
•Ask two questions:
Which circle of influence did they take the learning opportunity from?
Have they truly owned their self-leadership challenge?
•As the Group leader, ask clarifying questions until you are sure you can summarize each persons learning opportunity.
•Summarize everyone’s Learning Opportunities on a flip chart or whiteboard so that everyone can see them.
•As you clarify each person’s Learning Opportunity, ask yourself if there is a tool that might help bring greater clarity in the Own It phase? If so write it down next to their Learning Opportunity on the whiteboard, this will help you decide which to process in Part 3.
•This completes the Own it phase - Avoid the temptation to start solving their challenges as you go!
•I often encourage members of the group to shadow me and write down any tools they might have used in their workbook.
•Sell this as the most strategic 30 minutes of a leader’s week – they get to hear and summarize the major barrier to performance and well-being or breakthroughs for each member of their team. This becomes their leadership agenda for the next 2 weeks, until we meet again. It becomes the powerful reason that CORE groups work.
Part 3 – 30 minutes minimum: this is the chance to go deeper with at least one of the learning opportunities – always aim for 2.
•There is no magic to choosing who; I often look to select two Learning Opportunities that I know will draw learning from different parts of the toolbox.
•Choose one person to share a bit more context, specific details and concrete examples. Challenge immediately if they try to go to plan. We want to make sure they get everything they can from the CORE Process.
•Tell the rest of the group to listen carefully and be thinking about practical insights or wisdom from their own experience that may be helpful to the person.
•Have them Own It, which is really asking the question Why?
•Use any tendency lens vocabulary (Best Fit / 5 Voices / 5 Gears) you are familiar with that might be helpful, but this is not assumed in Level 2 CORE Groups.
•Respond:Start with the person first, then ask the group to add insights.
•Put all the information on the white board so everyone can see it. Its important to be strong at facilitating at this point as it is easy to have it run away from you. Stay focused and manage the louder voices.
•Once all is shared, give the person a chance to respond to the insights that have been offered.
•Then have them start to build their Response or Plan and share it with the group.
•Ask them to commit to an Execution date and how they plan to implement.
•I often get people to go away and refine their plan, and then send a bullet point summary to the rest of the CORE Group. This is great accountability.
•Remind people that this is why we do CORE groups and that they can mimic what you have just done.
•Keep a record of who you processed with in Part 3, it’s good to share it around so you don’t end up processing the same people’s Learning Opportunities.
•Complete your CORE Group Follow up sheet so you know how to follow up with each member.