Mindful Dialogue for Facilitators and Coaches

(ICF 24 CCE units)

 And here is the rest of it.

Dialogue is an in-depth conversation into the assumptions that structure and interpret our everyday experiences.  Dialogue practice involves suspending judgment, listening deeply, and balancing advocacy and inquiry. These are skills we teach as authentic communication. These can be practiced in 1:1 coaching, mentoring and team conversations.  

Dialogue creates a group field in which members explore potentially un-discussable issues and are able to express their thoughts and feelings without fear.  Dialogue moves a group beyond polarized “right/wrong”, “us/them”, “win/lose” thinking that leads to misunderstanding and communication breakdown. Dialogue produces a deep shared understanding that ultimately helps a group make faster decisions that are better informed, with a stronger commitment to follow through than usual team learning approaches which focus primarily on problem solving and decision making.  Perceiving the Dialogue present within an individual and with their coach opens art of coaching to a deeper level of exploration

For individuals

Dialogue helps create rich work-life relationships and strong personal-life relationships.

Dialogue increases access to innovation inside your organization.

Dialogue skills help you to advocate ideas in ways that generate understanding and commitment.

Dialogue helps develop buy-in instead of defensiveness and resistance.

Introduction to Dialogue offers the skills and motivation to work through tough issues in ways that bring shared understanding and commitment. It builds trust, strengthens relationships, and secures the best thinking as well as new cooperation of all parties.

During the six sections we review the theories about why dialogue is such a powerful personal and team-learning tool.  We use ourselves as a learning team to develop practical dialogue skills for use in your own organizations and communities.

Skills in Listening + Awareness:  As we build a sense of community, concepts of dialogue and organizational learning are experienced and understood.

Practicing Inquiry and Advocacy:  We introduce a practice "clearness committee” in small groups with actual individual issues as a focus.

Fishbowl and Operational Skills:  We introduce practical examples of dialogue in the workplace, demonstrating as individuals and teams how to utilize dialogue in everyday situations.

Practical Result:

Practice dynamics of dialogical process

Understand the flow of ladder of inference

Connect deeper dialogue levels of conversation with coaching role

Experiential intent

Experience I YOU and WE dynamics of dialogical process

Experience distinction of in the flow of dialogue with a client

Time: 05/ 19-21/2017 ( Beijing)

          06/ 16-18/2017 ( Shanghai)

          

Feedback from learners of Dialogue:

From Jun Xue: This three-days program for me was a wonderful journey, not only did I learn about dialogue, but also harvested so many unexpected results! From the beginning, via two activities of "Childhood Memories" and "My Life” with my partner, I opened the innermost memory of mine. Besides, I, experiencing dialogue practice with partners time and time again and then coaching conversation, made myself go deeper to see and learn from the past. It enables me to choose courageously facing everything I had encountered; the most important part was learning how to let them go... Everything was well arranged! Thanks to facilitators leading and setting up a free and open field with love, It helped me to witness how fascinating   dialogue can achieve. The integration of mindfulness, U theory and coaching technologies help us a lot to enhance my sensing, listening and questioning ability. Appreciate again for sharing all knowledge, skills with no reservation!

From Fang Jun: Till now I still can feel the ripples out of the course like “bomb in deep water”. I profoundly experienced how I perceived facts, feeling and values from activities of “Compassionate Listening”. Another practice - “Fishbowl game”, it helped me to face the problem. In inner circle of fishbowl, I felt very safe to speak out what I was thinking on my problem. I noticed everyone was able to express freely, to explore assumptions behind, and to validate others. I truly believe this process is helpful to our future daily conversation and personal coaching.

From Frank: Along with Paulina’s facilitating ‘History of My Life’, I had an opportunity to explore what I had lived from the past to now. I was very much impressed by experiencing ‘be present’. I sensed the benefit of being mindful in meditation exercises. It helped me to feel calmer, freer, and refresher. The course lasted for three whole days, but I felt time flied. I decided to implement more to fortify my learning results.

From Sally: In my work, I understand facilitation as a method, and a skill too. It is quite important and useful when dealing with team problems or building team consensus at work ; however, it also takes lots of effort to facilitate group of people enjoying the process. Whenever I did it, it likes I have to consume all my energy that day to put it into reality. In the course, I observed Larry and Paulina demonstrating a field with free and relax during their facilitation; it just like listening to a country music, I felt very relax, comfortable and being touched by our dialogue too. I am so glad I leant how to enter into a facilitation field without keeping myself in tense. Also, I sensed my self-awareness getting higher than before. 

My Inner Game of Action Learning

A corporation recently hired me. They needed a single topic AL series, so I went through the standard preparations, including my constant ritual reminders that not only do I not know how this will play out, it is my job not to know. Only then am I prepared to be surprised as the group navigates their own breakthroughs.
   And here is the rest of it.

In this case, our group work began in an ordinary way. Then, in the first intervention, I asked: “What is the quality of our questions?" Their response was anything but standard. Together, they quickly formulated and articulated their new awareness that it was necessary for the good of the entire organization for them to now begin to think differently. They called on themselves to prepare to think and act “out of the box.” There’s no way I, or anyone else, could have imposed such a move on them with such powerful effect. From that point on, an observer might have thought I was doing nothing in particular. My only job was to lightly hold the space for them – to be witness to their new way – while the group went through the entire WIAL single set process. I was also prepared to intervene if other intervention was necessary. The truth is that it took me a very long time to learn to do nothing. I’ve found that to do this takes everything I’ve got.

At the end of the final session in the group's reflection, they talked about their learning. They each reported they felt a sense of pride and had grown. The PP said "This solution is far better than the solution I had just 2 weeks ago. It's more thorough and comprehensive." The whole group radiated confidence.

My initial experience as a professional coach and a coach trainer in a large organization led me to wonder, how is it that some of my most impactful coaching sessions unfolded in very non-intuitive ways. That’s when I started to consider what I’d call the spirit of coaching: When I have a group with disparate needs, how can I be of the greatest support to all? I began to realize that I was not personally the driving force behind these sessions. Something else was at play. What was it? Mostly I saw that the less I did – the less attached I was – the lighter my presence was – the more impactful the session was for participants. I heard that people call this “holding the space.” For me, it also points to the spirit of coaching.

This spirit, this holding the space matches a concept from Lao Zi, the ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher. In the words of Chris Corregan (in “The Tao of Holding Space”) “The best leaders are those people we hardly know exist. The next best is a leader who is loved and praised. Next comes the one who is feared. The worst one is the leader that is despised. If you don't trust the people, they will become untrustworthy. The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly. When she has accomplished her task, the people say, "Amazing: we did it all by ourselves!"

Paulina Chu, PCC, MALC

鐵達尼號的省思

今年是鐵達尼號（ RMS Titanic）事件100周年紀念，想到鐵達尼號您想到什麼？蘿絲和傑克蕩氣迴腸的愛情故事，還是那首令人刻骨銘心的主題曲。別怪我煞風景， 我想起的是2010年馬奎德教授跟我講起的一個和行動學習(Action Learning)有關的小故事。

話說1912年鐵達尼號沉沒時，行動學習之祖瑞文斯(Revans)先生的父親是鐵達尼號事件的首席調查員， 那時候瑞文斯的家裡每天都有一些生還的水手，赤腳來到他家去報告他們的經驗， 他一次又一次的聽到這些水手曾嚐試警告那些權威的主事者自己在船上所看到的風險，包括船舵太小，救生艇太少，船頭鉚釘不夠堅固等等，但這些意見卻一再地被忽視，以至於造成災難性的後果，共有1500多人死於這次海難。

當時大家都在猜測，鐵達尼為什麼沉船? 有人說是撞到冰山的原因，有人說是船長的失職，也有人說是船上放著神奇的古代木乃伊，是一艘被阻咒的船。 但對於瑞文斯的爸爸而言 ，他更好奇的是為什麼公司這些主事者對所有的警告都聽不進去？這家海運公司到底發生了什麼問題？

原來鐵達尼號建造時被認為是航海技術史上的一個里程碑，《造船家》（The Shipbuilder）雜誌認為其「根本不可能沉沒」（"The ship is unsinkable."） 。所以鐵達尼號就以“不沈之船” 作為宣傳，據說當時廣告所費不貲，全球屏息以待。在高層強烈地推銷和相信之下，“我們所建造的是不沈之船”的信念堅若磐石，公司主事者一聽到“風險”或“不同的意見”，即使心中有疑惑，都主動閉上嘴巴或忽略，沒有溝通，更沒有空間聽到重要的回饋。

然而，這世界真的有“不沈之船” 嗎？ 如果沒有，為什麼看不到真相呢？父親的思維在瑞文斯心裡埋下了種子，瑞文斯經常思考的問題是:到底“聰明”跟“智慧”的差別是什麼? 如何才能穿越我們看不到的真相呢？ 日後在科學家的訓練下，培養了瑞文斯問“笨”問題的能力， 使他能夠專注於提問，而不會迷失於一昧地追逐答案。行動學習是一個以提問為主體的團隊學習流程，藉著成員挑戰彼此的假設，引發潛能，解決問題。其中，強調平等尊重的精神，重視所有人的意見，不分等級或地位， 也是瑞文斯從鐵達尼號事件學到的重要課題。

我一向喜歡聽故事，聽到這裡，心中對瑞文斯先生升起無限的敬意和感激。感恩他們父子鍥而不捨的探究與追尋，在鐵達尼事件之後，行動學習的概念誕生了，1945年瑞文斯帶領了一羣礦工工人解決了礦場安全的問題。之後世人開始運用行動學習的精神和方法，解決問題，避免不必要的災難，發展領導力，創造平等開放的組織文化。

這個故事是所有行動學習的愛好者津津樂道的故事，每次談起都讓我熱血沸騰，不知這個故事對您的觸動是什麼呢？您的組織是否有鐵達尼號的影子？您又如何處理組織看不清真相的議題？期待您的回應。

行動學習的訓練課程是要培養一批會問問題，同時可以塑造和改變組織文化的人，你是我們要找的人嗎？歡迎加入我們五月的基礎班，一起體驗行動學習的能量。

感謝您，有您的關心真好

親愛的朋友，

這幾天陸續接到關於行動學習課程的詢問電話。謝謝大家對於行動學習的熱情與推薦。以下針對大家關心的議題，稍作說明。

1. 基礎班為認證班的必修課程，基礎班內容為行動學習理論與實踐的結合，課程中您將會體驗到六-七場的行動學習。目前4月12-13日的課程，還有兩個名額。希望深度體驗行動學習能量的朋友，行動要快。已經口頭報名的朋友，敬請上網登記，以利課程作業。

（報名網址:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5PDYXKV)。

2. 參加基礎班的朋友，除了獲得行動學習協會的課程證書之外，同時可獲得國際教練聯合會ICF認證的16個學分( CCEUs)學分。參加認證班的朋友，完成課程和論文後亦可申請成為世界行動學習教練，也可獲得ICF認證的32個學分( CCEUs)學分, 對於學習或從事專業教練工作的夥伴，可謂一舉數得，相得益彰。

3.101(2012)年度的認證班部份已經額滿，目前有一名候補。如果您希望參加認證班，最快要等到年底或明年初，如果有緊急需求者可考慮到深圳或香港（英文）上課。

四月份，培玲在高雄與新竹分別有ㄧ場分享會。有興趣的朋友，請和我聯繫。

再一次謝謝大家的觀注，有您真好。

感恩中的...

培玲