An exploration into the experience of generating questions in coaching “Good Question” Glenn Wallis

An Overview The Why Questions The How Questions The What Questions The So What Questions Your Questions

The Why Questions 1. Mary and Me2. The Gap

Coaching Related Fields Gaps For what other purposes, if any, do coaches ask questions? Gaps How do coaches generate questions ‘in the moment’? Does the experience level of the coach impact asking? Gaps What are the experiences of coaches when asking questions? Gaps What is the nature of any two-way dynamic between questions and the alliance? Purpose/Role of Questions The skill of asking questions Experience of generating questions Experience of generating questions Relationship Questioner-Responder Relationship Questioner-Responder QUESTIONS

The How Questions Constructionist Grounded Theory Focus Group Heuristic Inquiry 8 Co- Researchers Post- Coaching Reviews Post- Coaching Interviews Analysis

Phases of Heuristic Inquiry Initial Engagement ImmersionIncubationIlluminationExplicationCreative Synthesis Validation * Discover an intense interest, a passionate concern. * Lives the question to get intimate with it. * Retreating from intense focus. * Breakthrough into conscious awareness of themes. * Examining the new learning from Illumination. May include new insights. * ‘Final phase’. Creating a narrative depiction. * Primary researcher depicts essences of experience from all data, process & sources. * Develop a question. * Allowing creative awareness to emerge. * Reflecting is essential but remaining open to tacit knowledge. *Organizing comprehensiv e depiction of essences of experience * Solitude and meditation important to allow creative synthesis. IN THEORY!

Illumination Immersion Explication Validation Initial Engagement Creative synthesis Incubation IN REALITY …!

The What Questions ‘All the things’ Background Precursors ‘In the moment’ Noticing Conscious & non- conscious Asking inc. prefacing ‘Knock on the door’ Decision making The coaching dyad

“All the things …” 1. Background ‘of the coach’ Philosophy Coach education Personal history Role of coach Purpose of questions Coach experience “Make them think better” (Internal-Client) “Forward momentum” (Client-External) “It’s about establishing” (Coach- External) 2. Precursors Coaching contract Contextual factors e.g. state “When all those things have been contracted really tightly, I find it really easy to choose how challenging to be and when to ask the questions.”

“In the moment …” 1. Noticing From the client Extant data “We don’t coach [only] when we sit down and arrive in the meeting room, we coach the minute we’re in their organisation, with the receptionist, in the lift, in the corridor, when you’re making that cup of tea before you sit down, you’re ‘on’.” 2. Conscious and non- conscious Questions ‘popping’ Flow Somatic experiences Qualitative differences The heuristic process “… an arising from somewhere in your centre, ooh (points to abdomen) like that.” “I resonate like a tuning fork..” 3. Asking Not asking – ‘holding’ and challenge Prefacing (see next slide) “… it’s a bit like holding the ball, I’ll hold that question … I put it in my hand, hold it there, I drop it if they’ve moved on, or I’ll bring it back”

“In the moment …Prefacing” Coach benefit To display positive intent To appear to shift the power to the client To protect the relationship To ask questions outside the boundaries of the contract To challenge To ‘get away with something’ For the coach to give themselves permission e.g. to ask or for the question not to ‘land’ well with the client For the coach to get another layer of permission To prepare themselves for what might be raised in the answer Client benefit To prepare themselves for a challenging question To have clear permission to respond as they see fit To hold the question ‘lightly’

“Knock on the door …” 1. Decision making ‘Good question’ – The assessment of questions ‘Shall I … Shan’t I?’ – Inner dialogue of decision-making “What we may think is a great question, may not be the great question for a client. It may be wonderfully clever or smart or relevant or whatever but actually, it’s whether the client thinks it’s a good question or not and we never know” 2. The coaching dyad Ideal bandwidth? Interplay between questions and the relationship “if a coaching relationship is working well, my guess is that it doesn’t matter if you ask a wrong question, it will endure”.

Conceptual conclusion The 3 Question Paradoxes 1. Increasing levels of awareness that results in no awareness 2. Being objective while being deeply subjective 3. Adding value to the client while remaining non-attached to the outcome

The So What Questions Literature & Knowledge Practice Research Methodology Contributions

Your Questions?