Claire writes: ‘I love the thinking that springs from a conversation on a course. So thanks to Richard for a thought provoking question about conversations.  Hawkins and Smith talk about four different levels of coaching conversations.  Richard and I mulled over them in the context of someone learning to drive:

• Skills – the basic skills are learned in the car.  The environment is an inconvenient but necessary extra.

• Performance – skills are refined on a journey – something needs attention eg braking distance and we work on that – but driver and coach are more aware of the environment and what is going on around us.
• Developmental – the driver is really gaining in confidence and is beginning to go to new places, more confident that they have a companion in the passenger seat who will help them work out what to go when they encounter unexpected new things.
• Transformational – the driver and the coach have time to get out of the car and look at the scenery and understand where they are, notice what is happening in the wider context and reflect on where to go next or where to revisit.

What needs to happen to make more of your conversations at work transformational? Think about it…”

And if you want to learn to work like we do, call us and we can talk over a coffee.

© 2012 3D Coaching Ltd
May be distributed freely.  Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

We are off to Little Gidding tomorrow on our team residential.  It’s our fourth visit and we always go in May – which is when TS Elliot wrote his poem of the same name.  Which sums up what we are here to do with those with whom we work:

“You are not here to verify, instruct yourself,
or inform curiosity or carry report…

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”