Peer consultancy

‘The currency of real networking is not greed, but generosity.’ (Keith Ferrazzi)

One of the skills in Action Learning is to distinguish between a presenter who is wrestling with a question from one who has become completely stuck. In the former case, it’s often most useful simply to sit with the presenter in silence while the question does its work. In the latter, the facilitator may offer the presenter an option of ‘peer-consultancy’ if it might help break the mental deadlock. In order to do this well, however, and to ensure that ownership and agency remain with the presenter, the facilitator can follow a specific sequence of interventions and process steps:

1. Pause the questions for exploration phase of the Action Learning round.
2. Invite the presenter to crystallise the crux of the issue for them now, which may have moved on from what they had raised in the bidding round or opening presentation.
3. Outline the peer-consultancy process steps to the set members as a whole so that they are clear about what will happen next and what they will be invited to do.
4. Invite the presenter to step back from the group to a place in the room where they can still listen-in, or to turn off their camera and listen if the set meeting is online.
5. Explain to the presenter that they will not be expected to respond to anything at all that they hear from their peers.
6. Invite the peers to share insights or ideas framed very tentatively as, ‘If I were in the (presenter’s) situation, I think I might…’, e.g. ‘…be thinking/feeling’; ‘have this question in mind’; ‘do X’.
7. Invite the presenter to re-join the group, or to turn their camera back on.
8. Reiterate to the presenter that they do not need to respond to anything that they have heard.
9. Ask the presenter, ‘Where are you at in your own thinking now?’
10. Move to the questions for action phase of the Action Learning round.

A few words of caution. First, beware of introducing the peer-consultancy approach without checking in with the presenter first. If the presenter is deep in thought, such a shift in approach may feel premature of patronising, as if inferring that they’re unable to work out a solution for themselves. Second, beware of any formal or informal (e.g. age, gender, race) hierarchical dynamics in a group. Presenters may feel that they ought to respond to all insights out of respect for those who shared them, or obliged to agree with ideas proposed by someone they regard as an authority figure.