Many of you will recognize this key catalytic principle:
‘A student’s bad idea is better than my best idea
… and sometimes it’s way better than my idea!
I was recently consulting with a catalytic team. We were talking through ideas for a ministry strategy that would help them maximize their efforts in a specific area. I had what I felt was a really good idea and wanted to tell it to the team because I was certain that it was what they needed to do … it was hard for me not to share my idea, but I held it in because I knew that this was their process, not mine.
Oh, how I struggled with keeping in my ‘really good’ idea! Maybe you can relate. I wanted so much to:
- suggest my idea as if I were a member of the team … but that’s not coaching.
- use a Leading Question to get them to come up with the same idea – like stating my ‘great idea’ with a ‘what if?’ to make it sound like a question that would lead them to my idea.
I found that I was coaching myself as I struggled to quiet the internal conversation in my head. I had to tell myself to step back from the current topic to help them look at the idea from a different angle.
The coaching conversation in my head played out like this:
A narrow scope question:
- ‘So, what if you approached this situation with the idea that you can’t use the same strategy as you have done? Let’s say that you have to come up with an entirely different idea for this course you want to pursue. What comes to mind?’
A bit less-narrow question:
- ‘How could this new idea (strategy, perspective or thinking process) help you with other parts of your plan?’
A broader scope question:
- ‘How might applying this thinking (to the way you are solving this problem) help you approach your plan for building movements in the entire city?’ (the ultimate goal)
Notice the progression of coaching from the ‘narrower’ specific activity to a ‘broader’ standpoint that might help them see the specific activity in the context of the whole.
My tendency is to suggest an idea and hope that they like it and run with it. But that’s not my role as a coach. This exercise of me deciding not to say a word and letting their discussion run its course caused my thinking and ideas to be broadened and allowed me to think from two to three steps back as a coach instead of one step … and is helping me improve my coaching abilities. And, you know what, it turns out that they came up with an even better idea than my ‘great idea’!
Questions to consider:
How is it for you when you coach KVs or KV teams? What do you struggle with in coaching? How have you coached yourself or others to become better coaches?
Passages to ponder:
Matthew 6:25-34 (Observe the questions that Jesus asked and note the conclusions He wanted them to draw.)