Welcome to Coaching for Improvement Facilitated by Maureen Daley

Objectives of Today Gain an understanding of coaching and reflective practice Begin to identify challenging questions Identify the benefits of applying these techniques within a social care setting on a day to day basis Experience the coaching approach as both coach and client Objectives Apply a framework for reflective practice Prepare for individual coaching sessions

Working Agreement Take responsibility for sharing and for your own learning Contribute to creating a positive and safe environment, sharing uncertainties Listen to others, support and challenge appropriately Respect others Keep the confidences of others

Within the context of a culture in which we … Take responsibility for our actions Learn from mistakes Strive for excellence Act on fact Treat people as we would want to be treated What does each statement mean in practice?

Russia

Vietnam

Vietnam

Introducing Each Other In pairs, using questions – not conversation or reflection- discover from your partner: What contributed to that success and what they have learnt as a consequence What is their greatest challenge of the moment A recent success Something others wont know about them Introduce your partner

Assumptions for the day Add link to gorilla clip Assumptions for the day The person closest to the issue/family/practice is most likely to know the answer Rationale answers/explanations are clouded Quality/insightful answers are dependent upon quality/insightful questions There is no failure, only feedback What you look for is what you see

Coaching to encourage excellence - What is it? ‘The facilitation of learning and development with the purpose of improving performance and enhancing effective action, goal achievement and personal satisfaction. It invariably involves growth and change, whether that is in perspective, attitude or behaviour’ Peter Bluckert, The Foundations of a Psychological Approach to Executive Approach to Executive Coaching ‘Unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them’ John Whitmore – Coaching for Performance – first published 1992 ‘A powerful alliance designed to forward and enhance the lifelong process of human learning, effectiveness and fulfillment’

Principles of Coaching Works by asking not telling Engages the client in self-exploration and awareness (external and internal) Encourages self-determination and responsibility Isn’t limited by problem-solving focus Primarily driven by process not content – patterns and issues rather than detail Is transparent and transfers skills self awareness – including where emotions or desires distort perception

Sporting Origins Tim Gallwey – The Inner Game of Tennis ‘the opponent within one’s own head is more formidable than the one the other side of the net’ Remove or reduce internal obstacles, gremlins/restrictive belief systems

Difference between coaching and... Teaching? Counseling? Mentoring?

Value of coaching technique Releases tyranny of needing to have an answer Increases honesty and reduces defensiveness Increases greater self-reliance Can move from problem solving to generative solutions Promotes curiosity and creates a useful questioning culture Identifies what is important

Value of adopting coaching techniques in … Supervision? Case Discussion – SCRs? Direct work with families?

One person acts as coach Exercise Through questions (not answers or conversation) seek a deeper/more reflective understanding of what is going on – and what outcome is being sought Identify an issue which is causing you concern and outline the significant issues/facts One person acts as coach Change roles

Prompt questions At what points have you changed your assessment of the situation? What alternative explanations/goals might have existed? What are your assumptions about this issue? Where is the hard evidence to support these? Can you picture the issue from the perspective of the other person/child? What factors led you to the chosen option? How might others describe and explain what is going on? Does your original hypothesis still make sense?

Prompt questions Continued… Which aspect of this issue are you most worried about and why? Do you need to change your view? Might there be other explanations? Which aspect of this issue are you least worried about? Why? On a scale of 0 – 10 how worried are you about this issue? Looking back from 5 years into the future how will you rate the issue?

Feedback Observations? Questions? Most enquiring questions? Other questions?

Useful Questions What else? If you knew the answer what would it be? What would be the consequences of that for you or others? What criteria are you using? What is the most challenging part of this for you? What advice would you give to a friend in this situation? What would you gain/lose by that? What will happen if you do nothing? What are you getting from not doing anything to change situation?

Break

Reflective Practice -Application of Reflection Reflection is a thought process which involves: Looking back at an event and asking questions (retrospective) Looking forward (crystal ball gazing) and asking question (prospective) Self assessment of practice/competence in a given situation Looking for learning points on which to reflect Identifying learning/development needs Applying learning in order to improve practice

Definitions “… through reflection and analysis we strive to understand the experience” Osterman and Kottkamp(1993) “… an activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it” Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985)

Value of Reflective Practice Reflective practice aims to improve performance It involves critically analyzing one’s actions with the goal of improving one’s professional practice “Reflection in and of itself is not enough; it must always be linked to how the world can be changed” Stephen Brookfield 1995

“The What Format” Driscoll (1994) So What? What Now?

Framework Guiding Reflective Activities Bortons’ (1970) What? So What? Now What? The description and self awareness level and all the questions start with the word ‘what?’ This is the level of analysis and evaluation when we look deeper at what was behind the experience This is the level of synthesis. Here we build on the previous levels. These questions enable us to consider alternative course of action and choose what we are going to do next What happened? What did I do? What was I trying to achieve? What was good or bad about the experience? So what is the importance of this? So what more do I need to know about this? So what have I learnt? No what could I do? Now what do I need to do? Now what might be the consequences of the action?

Model of Reflection - Gibbs (1988) Description Feelings Evaluation Analysis Action Plan Conclusion

Exercise – Stage 1: Description Describe the particular challenge you are reflecting on: Why were you involved/what happened? What were you trying to achieve? What were you doing? What were other people doing? What was the context of the event? What happened? What was your part in this? What parts did other people play? Stage One

Stage 2 – Feeling and Thoughts Try to recall and explore all those things that were going on inside you head How were you feeling when the event started? What were you thinking about at the time? How did it make you feel? How did other people make you feel? How did you feel about the outcome of the event? What do you think about it now? Stage Two

Stage 3 – Analysis – So What What was the importance of this? What did you do well? What did others do well? What went wrong or did not turn out how it should have done? In what way did you or others contribute to this? So what have you learnt? Stage Three

Stage 4 – Now What? What more do you need to know about this? Now what do you need to do? Now what might be the consequences of that action? What would be the consequences of no action? Think forward into encountering the event again – would you act differently or would you be likely to do the same? How can you take the learning forward – replicate what you did well? Stage Four

Wheel of Life

Priorities Wheel

Management Competencies Wheel

Finally …. “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it” “If you can dream it, you can become it”

Thanks!