Reflection Entry Week 8 Coaching assignment:

Abhinav Shrivastava

First off all, I would like to thank my team for their support and thoughtfulness all through the coaching call. It was a wonderful and knowledgeable session for all of us. We had an excellent understanding and synchronization while playing the role of a coach, coachee and observer respectively.

We as a team can see the progress and synergy among each of us. At this stage of the coaching session our knowledge and emotional intelligence is at the peak.

The coaching call began, with Ingrid and Grichka conversing as a coachee and a coach respectively. I was the observer.  Ingrid explained about her experience in terms of the four player model. She explained that she always used to take the stand as a bystander as she didn’t want to be wrong in her decision. Later she concluded that sometimes she doesn’t open up, unless she is comfortable with the group. So this reflects that the root of the issue is the communication failure and cultural misunderstanding that restrains her as well as the group from framing the problem.

It is clear that we are all culturally overstrained. Our thoughts and actions are extremely influenced by our cultural background. As a result we fail to think rationally and hence adopt the defensive routines. Thus to overcome this issue, it is important to develop the shared mental models along with consistent dialogues.

What we perceive is often based on our preconceived thoughts, needs and expectations. Sometimes assumptions or projection of ideas along with cultural miscommunication make our cognitive process distorted.

Later Grichka started the conversation and we asked some questions for clarification. He mentioned that previously he always led the team, and hence this time he decided to be a follower. He tried suspending his thoughts and focused more on listening and understanding his partner.

Therefore we can conclude that it is important to provide air time for everyone and make sure that everybody participates. We also realised that it is important to suspend your thoughts to help others engage in the conversation. It provides air time for everyone to think deeply, examine their own perceptions, re-examine their feelings and impulses in order to come up with new ideas during the dialogue. It is significant to listen to ourselves before we can really understand others.

Also, due to our in depth knowledge we could conclude that; initially is it necessary to focus on the other persons thoughts and ideas rather than, on one’s own intended responses. In contrast it is important to involve everyone in the dialogue in turn helping each person to be more conscious of how our thought process works. Also; it is observed that we think and communicate better when in a group because of our collective thoughts.

Finally, I started elaborating on my part of advocacy and inquiry. I explained that, there should be a balance in the conversation between advocacy and inquiry. The balance should be maintained among all the four quadrants. It is a fact that mutual learning is at its peak, when the people in the conversation are over engaged and are having a healthy dialogue. However, while discussing this stage with my coach and observer; they reflected that it is not possible to be in the mutual learning phase at all times. At some point, the dialogue shifts to other quadrants where interviewing, imposing, and explaining and interrogation takes place.

It is very important to involve the group in the process of thinking together in generative and creative way. Therefore, the process of discussion and dialogues can be built and developed over other’s ideas and ultimately reaching a creative solution to solve the complex problem. Therefore dialogues are the vehicle for creative problem identification and problem solving. Moreover, dialogues are the tool that builds common understanding, in that it allows one to see the hidden meanings in our own communication.

Thanks for reading!!

Thanks & regards,

Abhinav Shrivastava