Learning by Walking and Talking

Steps to a Coaching Classroom: Newsletter 17

"I might not be able to pay teachers more money, or give them the public recognition they deserve for the amazing work that they do, but I can teach them about a coaching approach. And that will be my contribution to a better world.", Martin Richards

In this newsletter, I share how to train yourself and your colleagues or students in holding coaching conversations. I also give several essential ingredients for a successful coaching session, and a successful lesson.

Mirroring, coaches have a secret strategy. When you have seen it once, you will see it all the time. It’s this:

Adapt to the coachee’s body language, vocal style, word choice etc

Metaphor, when cooking, we combine different flavours because we can taste 5 distinct flavours. We have our favourites, but it would be tedious if our food always tasted the same.

When teaching, we combine different ways of learning, because students learn in many different ways; typically they are: visually, verbally and physically.?

Here’s an example of a delicious teaching activity that I learned from a Pilgrims (Kent University, England) teacher training course. It’s called ‘Messenger and Scribe’.

A message, a piece of text, is pinned to the wall well away from where the students are sitting, (I like to put it outside the classroom). Students are paired up as Messenger and Scribe. The Messenger goes to the text, reads some of it and runs back to their Scribe who writes it down. This activity can be a competition, where all M-S pairs have the same text, and the fastest time, with least errors, wins. It can also be a collaboration, where each M-S pair has a unique text, which forms a story when correctly assembled with the other texts.

Ingredients: Here are the ingredients and the the learning flavours they represent

• Running - physical
• Reading and Speaking - Visual and Verbal
• Listening and? Writing - Verbal and Visual

Walk and Talk

When I was trained as a coach, most of the coaching practice was done sitting down. When it was time for me to coach my clients I found that we lacked energy when we were sitting down, so I got them to stand up; and pretty soon we were walking and talking. It became my signum to say, “Let’s go for a walk” when my clients needed to re-energise, find clarity and set new goals.

I even use the Walk and Talk method to train people to coach. Of course, they may choose to sit down and talk afterwards, but that’s their choice.

A Wheel at the Start and Questions on the Wall

I assume you already know of the GROW model and the Wheel of Life for coaching (if not, ask me and I will send them to you as a gift). I use the GROW questions - printed on large sheets of paper - to guide a whole class of students or staff of teachers in paired coaching conversations, whilst walking. Here’s how that goes:

• Pin the G, R, O and W questions on the walls along a route (indoors or outdoors) that the coaching pairs will walk along. At the start of the route, there is a Wheel of Life with a self-reflecting survey of eight different aspects of life and work.
• Using the Wheel of Life, the coachee reflects on which aspect of their life they wish to focus on. An essential agreement - that makes the coaching process work - is confidentiality. So they agree to speak only to each other about whatever the coachee chooses.
• The coach asks them to describe it briefly, and gently asks them what made them choose that aspect, “What makes this important for you?”
• They walk together to the first question, and the coach simply makes eye contact with the coachee, pauses, then asks the question and waits for an answer. The coach may then ask a follow up, open-ended question or two as they prepare to move to the next question. Of course, the coach will be observing the coachee’s body language, and that’s how they know it’s time to move on.
• As they walk along the route, the coach observes the coachee’s body language for shifts that might indicate there is something shifting in the coachee’s mind. The coach can ask a question about that, like, “What just happened?”
• When the pair have completed the route, the coachee can reflect on what has changed. Usually they feel lighter (because someone has listened to them) and relieved (they were not judged or ridiculed); and they have possibly made their mind up about an important aspect of their life.

For teachers or students, this walk takes about forty minutes and results in stronger bonds of trust between the pairs, confidence for the coach and clarity for the coachee.

Next

Did you pick up all the essential coaching / teaching ingredients?

They are:

• Confidentiality
• Self-selected topic of conversation
• Good questions (GROW is one example)
• Listening (both ears and your heart)
• Non-judgement
• Mirroring (body language and voice)
• Pausing and making contact before speaking
• Walking together (like a dance)