The opposite side of “Golden Circle”

You must be heard of “Golden Circle” by Simon Sinek. The opposite side of the “Golden Circle” that I would like to talk about is the so-called " dark side of the moon"?which describes something mysterious and unknown.?Don’t get me wrong, I am a 100% supporter of the “Golden Circle”, and I believe that everyone and every organization shall live by the “Golden Circle” rule, and ask themselves by following “Why”, “How”, “What”, and reflect on it all the time.??The “dark side of the moon” is supposed to be the side we never see, the side that faces away from Earth. This side of the moon faces the cold, black expanse of space. You can google it. ?(But in my preferred way, I would prefer to use a “laser light ball” on the disco dancing floor, which shoots many laser lights at different angles, to express the multiple facets of every matter we live around or face. ) ?Recently, I am learning coaching by taking an ACC training course. Surprisingly, I discovered coaches don’t ask “Why” questions in the coaching conversation, with lesser How, but use "What" most frequently to start the questions.?

In the “Golden circle”, “Why” is inside the center, and “What” is most outside with a bigger diameter.?The “Why” question is to go deeper and center on what you may already know, the purpose, and the meaning of why we do it. ?The “What” question is expanding the mind to search and uncover what people may not know and be aware of. Eg: Why do you think it happens? The answer is “It is because of reason A….” and what the coachee already knows, and most of the time coachee starts to blame others, and environments (but not what they can do). (Of course, if you are aiming to do problem-solving with the coachee, you can use “5 Why” to continue to drill down and drive to the actions for the root cause.) ?

If your goal is to expand people’s minds and let them discover and be capable to find solutions by themselves, then start with “What”: What made it happen? Answers could be, A, B, or C….. you can always follow with “What else” to continue to expand their minds. There are many other questions that start with “What”: What do you want to achieve as the end-result? What did we learn? What is true? What is not true? What do you need to know? What positive difference will it bring to you? ?What would you like to have happen? What is possible for you? Have you noticed that to answer all these questions, you need to think and search for the answers, you can’t respond to them immediately? That is the power of the “What” question. ?

In coaching, we believe coachee is able to find the solutions by themselves, the role of the coach is to be an “objective”, without “bias” or “subjective opinions” flat mirror which reflects how the coachee think and increase their awareness, then provoke and challenge their way of thinking, so to create sustainable and transformative mindset shift of coachees. It is done by themselves through the conversations with the coach by uncovering their way of thinking and what they want to achieve. ?

I can’t wait to start my practical training practices with “what” questions instead of “why” questions to discover the opposite side of the “Golden Circle”. ??

(Disclaimer: In the Gemba, coaching is not the only goal, there are many possibilities problem solving, solutioning, bridging the knowledge gap, consulting... It also depends on the situation, whom you are talking to you, which level of maturity they are, and what you want to achieve at that moment… Choose the right questions at right situations)

#Coaching #lean #Gemba #management