Organizing

Coaching Skills Workshop

MLD 377 Spring 2014

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Coaching Skills Workshop Guide

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Goals for this session:

  • Begin to learning coachin by practicing it.
  • Give and receive coaching on organizing proects

COACHING WORKSHOP AGENDA
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
6:30 PM / Welcome & Former Student Panel
6:55 PM / Overview of Coaching Agenda
7:00 PM / Coaching Theory
7:10 PM / Fishbowl: Coaching in Action
7:30 PM / Breakout Groups
8:15 PM / Debrief – Plus, Delta, Take Away
8:30 PM / Workshop Ends

What is Coaching and Why Do We Need It?

Coaching is a way to support an individual or team in improving their effectiveness at any given task. In the context of organizing and public narrative, it means coaching for the effective articulation of values through story - linking a story of self, us and now; and increasing the likelihood these values can be translated into action.

Three Performance Dimensions: Motivational, Educational, Strategic Challenges

  • Motivational: challenge of effort/heart. The practitioner is inhibited by fear, needs more courage to take risks, needs to work at developing competence more persistently, etc.
  • Informational: challenge of knowledge and skills/hands. The practitioner doesn’t know what to do or how to do it. They are lacking the skills needed to successfully do one-to-ones, build a leadership, strategize, etc.
  • Strategic: challenge of strategy/head. The practitioner is struggling to put the tools to work for their organizing campaign. They’re struggling to see how tactics fit within their strategy, they’re having trouble articulating a clear theory of change, they’re struggling to build new capacity over the campaign timeline, etc.

5 Step Coaching Process

Coaching involves a five stage process beginning with observation of what’s going on, diagnosing the nature of the problem, intervening strategically, debriefing the coachee’s understanding of the intervention, and monitoring subsequent performance.

(1) Observe: What do I See and Hear?

Begin by listening very carefully, observing body language, and asking very focused probing questions to satisfy yourself that you “get” the problem. It may take time to get the facts straight. But if you don’t get the problem, you can’t help solve it. Don’t be shy about asking specific “stubborn” questions. This process can help the coachee articulate just what the problem is in a way they may not have before. So it’s not only “getting information.

(2) Diagnose: Which one of the three dimensions is the person struggling with?

  • Motivational (effort/heart)

Is the individual struggling because she is not putting forth enough effort? Is he afraid to ask for commitments? Is she quitting too soon because of frustration or fear? Are they afraid of making themselves vulnerable? Is he afraid to give others responsibility?

  • Informational (knowledge and skills/hands)

Is the individual struggling because of not being able to understand the skills necessary for organizing? Are they unclear about the difference between organizing and mobilizing? Is the organizer unclear about how to articulate a theory of change? Do they need practice, training, or modeling on how to do one-to-ones, ask for commitments, structure leadership teams, etc.? Certain thing just need more practice.

  • Strategic (performance strategy/head)

Is the individual struggling to put the tools to work for their organizing campaign? Do they have a clear theory of change? Are they struggling to develop strategies for developing their leadership team? Do they need to rethink their strategy? Do their tactics match their strategy? Are they having trouble finding ways to build the capacity of their constituency?

(3) Intervene

Interventions are “correctional” or “developmental”. Correctional interventions involve showing, telling, teaching the person how to do it and are most useful with informational challenges. Developmental interventions usually take the form of questions and are most useful in encouraging the person to locate their sources of motivation or to figure out how to solve the problem.

Coaching on an Organizing Project
The goal of tonight’s coaching practice is to support each another in coming up with good organizing projects.
A good organizing project is connected to the organizers values, focused on a clear constituency, focused on a
goal that can solve a real problem, and based on mobilizing constituency resources.
You will support each other only by asking questions, not by giving advice. You begin by getting a clear picture
of what problem your coachee is having, referring back to step one of the coaching cycle, observation. This
means you’ll have to ask very specific, probing questions. Who is their constituency? Specifically? Why do
they care? What kind of goal are they hoping to achieve? How?
Then you’ll need to figure out how you can be most helpful, what the coaching cycle calls, intervention?
What kind of problem do you think it is? How can you help?
As your coaching period concludes, remember to check with your coachee to see if you’ve both come up with
The same understanding.
Don’t be afraid to interrupt the person (respectfully) if you are unclear or want to probe more deeply into a
particular area.
COACHING AN ORGANIZING PROJECT:
DO DON’T
Explore their values. Ask probing questions. Why do they care about their organizing project? What calls them to organize this constituency to change this problem? / Don’t let them start with a solution. “I read a really interesting article about nudging low income families into saving money…” STOP. Why do they care?
Focus on the people. Make them get specific. Who are the specific constituency they plan to organize? Students – All of them? In the world? In the US? In Boston? At HKS? MPP1’s sick of the Core? The more specific they get, the more real the organizing becomes. / Don’t let them be vague about who their organizing. If they leave having said they are going to organize people who care about the planet, where do they start? If they are organizing Kennedy School students involved with campus environmental organizations, then they have specific people to begin building relationships with.
Push them to get clear and specific on the problem. The more specific they can be on the problem, the more clearly they can attack it (I.E.: Problem of segregated buses in Montgomery vs. Problem of Racism) / Don’t let them off the hook without defining a specific problem. If someone says they are organizing against poverty, racism, homophobia, etc. that is not a well defined problem. How does their constituency experience this larger problem? What’s a specific problem they can start to organize around?
Explore possible outcomes. What does it look like if they win? They should be able to envision what a potential outcome is, and the outcome should be specific, measureable, and verifiable. / Don’t allow “raise awareness” type outcomes. If their outcome is to “educate” people on an issue or “raise awareness” for a problem, how do they know if they have achieved it? How has it built more power?
Ask them to spell out HOW they will achieve this outcome in a complete organizing sentence statement. “I’m organizing (who?) to do (what specifically?) by (how?).” / Don’t allow broad sweeping organizing statements. “I’m organizing students to end racism by educating the community.”
“I’m organizing 100 HKS students to pressure the administration to increase faculty of color by 25% over the next 3 years by activating alumni and donor supporters for the campaign, building pressure in the media and holding a public forum asking Dean Ellwood to commit attended by 250 students, faculty and alumni by May 1, 2014”

TEAM BREAKOUT SESSION:

COACHING AND FACILITATION PRACTICE

GOAL

Practice coaching around the organizing project. Give and receive feedback on coaching.

AGENDA
TOTAL TIME: 41 min.
1. / Get into groups of 3.
Review the agenda.
Establish Group Norms.
Establish Group Roles for Round One. 1 organizer, 1 coach, and 1timekeeper/observer / 4 min
2. / The organizer and the coach have 7 minutes to talk about what the organizer will be doing for their organizing project. The coach will ask probing questions to elicit values, people, change and power/outcome. (Use Worksheet 1 to take notes while listening to the organizer).
Organizer and observer then have 3 minutes to provide feedback to the coach. (Use Worksheet 2 to take notes on debriefing each round). / 10 min
3. / Rotate roles and repeat three rounds until each team member has been the coach. / 20 min
4. / Debrief and share takeaways. / 5 min

WORKSHEET 1:

COACHING YOUR TEAMMATES’ STORIES OF SELF

Record Feedback/Comments from Your Team Members Here:

Coaching Your Team's Organizing Project

As you hear listen, keeptrack of the details of each person potential organizing project. It will help you to provide feedback and remember details about people on your team later. Use the grid below to track your team's organizing projects.

Name / Values / People / Change / Power/Outcome

WORKSHEET 2:

Debriefing Coaching and Facilitation

Use these questions to help you reflect on your own skills and to help provide feedback to others on their coaching skills.


WHEN YOU ARE THE COACH:

How did you manage the conversation?

What worked?

What could you do differently to elicit more details?

How did you facilitate the organizer’s learning?

What are your key takeaways?


WHEN YOU ARE THE OBSERVER:

What worked?

What strategy for coaching was helpful?

What wasn’t helpful?

What are your key takeaways?


WHEN YOU ARE THE ORGANIZER:

What did you find most useful for your own learning? Why?

What helped you get more specific or clear on your project?

What would have been useful? Why?

What are your key takeaways?

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