1. Cryfhau Sgiliau er mwyn Llwyddo Strengthening Skills for Success
Gweithdy 5 Workshop 5
Defnyddio holi creadigol i wella’r dysgu – dosbarth meistr mewn hyfforddi
Using creative questioning to enhance learning – a Coaching master-class
Allison Holland, Palladium Training & Leaderful Action
Cryfhau Sgiliau er mwyn Llwyddo Strengthening Skills for Success

2. Using Creative Questioning to Enhance Learning
Allison Holland, Facilitator and Executive Coach

3. Aim and Objectives
Use motivational, mentor and miracle questions to enhance coaching skills
Use and generate creative questions to support coachees
Unpick and apply metaphors when generating questions and interpreting responses

4. What makes a good question?

5. L = P + Q Learning = Programmed Knowledge + Questioning Insight
The crucial importance of asking fresh or “insightful” questions about complex problems was further emphasized in Revans’ first real work in action learning, for the National Coal Board, then the world’s largest employer.  He was asked to write an educational plan for its workers  and from this, in 1945, the theory of action learning was born.
Professor Reg Revans (pictured left, 1907 – 2003) pioneered action learning, considered to be one of the most important ideas in the field of organisational development.
Revans, a man of action himself, started his career as a physicist and an Olympic athlete.
His inspiration for the development of action learning came from the sinking of the Titanic, since his father was a marine surveyor and was involved in interviewing surviving crew after the tragedy.  When he later asked his father what he had learned his father replied “to know the difference between cleverness and wisdom”.
Reg Revans, pioneer of Action Learning

6. Getting Stuck
Problem focussed
Past actions
Barriers in the way

7. Getting Stuck I don’t know where to start…
I can’t prioritise my study time…
I should get on with it but…
I could work on it this weekend but…
I’ve never been able to put myself first…

8. Becoming Unstuck Questions which open up new lines of inquiry
Motivational questions to build commitment
Mentor questions to free you of your limitations
Miracle questions to shift constraints

9. Motivational Questions
What would your life be like in 3 years time if you prioritised your study?
How will this change perceptions of you?
Motivational Questions
How will you reward yourself when you succeed?
What’s the next chapter in this story?
What would your life be like in 3 years time if you prioritised your study?
Tell me about a time when you were really motivated – what’s similar about that situation and this one?
What motivates you? How can you use this to help you prioritise your study?
How will you reward yourself when you succeed?

10. Who could give you valuable advice here, what would they say?
How important has this been to their success?
Mentor Questions
How did they get good at this skill?
Think of someone you admire – how do they prioritise their learning?
Who is good at prioritising what would they do?
for skills or confidence barriers to free self to look through their frame – I don’t know the answer but they might:
Who could give you advice here, what would they say?
Who is good at prioritising what would they do? What would they do?
How did they get good at this skill?
Think of someone you admire – how do they prioritise their learning? How important has this been to their success?

11. If you had all the time in the world where would you start?
What of this could you put in place now?
Miracle Questions
What would you spend most of your time on?
If you were really good at putting yourself first how would you behave?
when constraints are in the way – hypothetical best case scenario, to provide a starting point
If you had all the time in the world where would you start? What would you spend most of your time on?
If you were really good at putting yourself first how would you behave?
What of this could you put in place now?

12. The Curve Ball If it was a XXX what kind of XXX would it be and why?
What kind of XXX would you prefer it to be and why?
Session with Rose when we explored all team members as dogs!
Look at problem, situation, person, interview

13. Metaphors
“The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”
Linguist George Lakoff and philosopher Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, 1980
We use metaphor several times a minute
We reason and act in ways that are consistent with our metaphors
When we explore metaphors we can deepen understanding
Facilitating shifts in metaphors can create new mindsets, options, approaches and learning

14. “Metaphors illuminate some aspects of an experience while leaving other aspects in the shadows. Therefore they are a source of creativity; and at the same time they constrain our ways of thinking to that which makes sense within the metaphor. This influences the meaning and importance we attach to the original experience, the way it fits with other experiences, and the actions we take as a result”
Penny Tompkins and James Lawley, 2014

15. Exploring Metaphors You say wall, tell me what the wall’s like?
What does the wall look like now?
You say wall, tell me what the wall’s like?
You say 4 foot lower, what would you do to remove the first foot of that wall?
How high would the wall need to be to get over it?
How does the wall make you feel?

16. on behalf of Palladium Training & Leaderful Action
Diolch yn fawr!
on behalf of Palladium Training & Leaderful Action