 Hi, I'm Geoff Watts and I'm here to tell you about different options you might consider when coaching a team. Because not all teams are the same and indeed not all situations that a team face will be the same, so your role as a coach might be different. I'm going to share this model with you, not because it's the one exhaustive or complete model applicable to every scenario. Also, it's not a linear model with bad at one end of the scale and amazing at the other. Every option within this model has the potential to be either a good or a bad option, depending on the context. Now, to get the most out of this video, I'm going to ask you to think of a scenario that a team you're coaching is facing right now. If you're not working with a team right now, or you can't think of a specific challenge they're facing, then try and think of something from your recent path. Shortly, I'm going to invite you to click pause while you write something down. If it helps, think of it in the form of a request that the team are asking for. Perhaps, can you help us resolve some tension between us? Or, can you help us go faster? Or, perhaps it's a request that somebody else is making from outside of the team. For example, can you coach the team on their attention to detail? Okay, so here you go. Now's the time to hit pause while you think. When you've thought of something and written it down, click play again. I'll still be here. Did you do it? Or did you just want to see the answers about putting your own effort in? Well, I'm going to assume that you are someone who wants to get the most out of this video. And you gave it some thought. So, well done you. Okay, the next step is to think of all the things you could think of, that you could do to help the team with this problem. Now, I want quantity here, not quality. So, don't critique or judge your ideas. If you've got sticky notes to hand, then you could use them, because that'll make it easier to group them if we want to later on. But don't worry if you haven't, because a list will work just as well. If you're struggling to think of options, then maybe consider another coach. He's asking you what they could do to help a team in this situation. And you're responding with, well, you could try or you could try this. Remember, your challenge is to think of as many options as you can, not to find the best one or the right one or the one that you think you would do. Click pause and come back when you've run out of ideas. Well done. The reason I wanted you to do this before I shared the model with you, is to try and avoid biasing you with the model. One benefit you'll get from this approach is reflecting on your preferences and your default approaches as a team coach. Now, because unfortunately I can't tell what examples you've come up with, I'm going to have to use one of my own. So, imagine a purely hypothetical scenario where a team that I'm coaching is regularly coming up with things that need improving, but they're rarely taking any action to improve these things. Okay, so on to the model. Speed is the acronym. And it's a handy acronym because there is a temporal element to the model. Starting with S, which stands for Suggestions, this is the quickest type of action for a coach to take, and you'll often see results very quickly as well. Giving the team something quite specific is often comforting to the team as well, because they don't really have to do much thinking. They've got a specific need and you're giving them something they can try. Have a look at your options and either create a cluster of suggestions or write an S next to the ones that you think are things that you think they should do. Back to my example, I could, for example, invite them to watch this great YouTube video by a guy called Jeff Watts, who talks about how great teams swap their actions. Hint, hint. Now, even if you frame this as a question, like, have you seen this video? It will often come across as a veiled suggestion, because why would you be asking about it if you didn't think that they should do it? Next in our speed acronym is P, and this stands for Proof. So here as a coach, you could gather some data that may or may not be of interest to the team when thinking of how to deal with their situation. If, for example, you can see that they tend to come up with, on average, 7.2 ideas for improvements every fortnight, but only actually put 1.4 of them on average into practice, but that the last two improvement ideas have coincided with an increase in the team's happiness rating of 14% and an improvement in delivery, that data might be enough to convince them to use their time differently in their retrospectives without you having to suggest it directly. You could also invite the team to consider what data they're already aware of, and what data would be useful to them when deciding their next steps. This obviously takes a little bit longer than making a suggestion, and it's not as guaranteed perhaps as an absolute killer idea you have for what the team should do, but it does open up alternative reactions and responses from the team. Moving down the speed acronym, we hit the first E, we hit the first E, which stands for Enablers, and here the coach is effectively turning the tables on the requester and asking them what they need from us to get unstuck. So as a coach, I might ask, what could I do that could help you take action? Now back to my example, perhaps I simply ask them that question, or I could also experiment with some enabling constraints. For example, I might suggest that the team pick just two items for improvement and no more next time around, or perhaps I give them a template for framing their actions or commitments to see if that helps, or I might invite the team to write things down, rather than me writing it for them. Again, this has the potential of being a little bit slower than gathering data and certainly slower than me giving them my idea of what they should do, but one payoff here is that we're asking the team to consider a very specific request rather than just say, help us. And the more specific their requests, the more they increase the chances of finding ways to resolve their future issues without your help, because they begin to realize that some of these requests are actually within their control. The second E in speed refers to environment and here the coach is focusing on aspects that surround the team rather than the team itself. What's going on in the wider system that would make it easier for the team to move forward? What tweaks to the surroundings or the context that the team are in might open up new thought processes or perspectives. What might make unhelpful behavior less likely to naturally occur? Or alternative perspectives more easily occur naturally. Again, this can be a slow burner or require a lot of action around the edges, but it can also have a very big impact on the team at a deeper level. Going back to my team who aren't taking as much action as I or they would like, I might look at whether the scope of the team's authority could be extended or whether some publicity could be generated around the changes that the team have actually put in place. The final letter in our speed acronym refers to drivers and this involves getting to know the individuals within the team and the team itself as a unit. What drives them? What motivates them? What are their personal and professional goals? And how do the options that they face tie into those goals and drivers? Or how could they be maximized? If we found out, for example, that helping others or efficiency are things that people in our team hold dear, then we could tie our improvement ideas to these values, which could increase our motivation to see them through. Of course, getting to know people and them trusting you with their motivators and aspirations takes time, but this can be the most impactful intervention a coach can make because intrinsic motivation is much more powerful than extrinsic motivation or a sense of obligation. Now, I did say at the start that none of these interventions are inherently good or inherently bad, but some may have more of an impact for a specific team at a specific time. And there's a good chance that if you look at your list, you'll see that one part of the speed acronym is weighted much heavier with options than the others. Now, this isn't a bad thing either, but knowing where your defaults are can be useful because it's often what we revert to without thinking. Pushing ourselves to think about what other options we have increases our chances of successfully engaging with our teams. So here's a suggestion for you. Look at the proof you created at the start of this video and acknowledge your defaults. Think about how this video could enable you to increase your options, alter your environment slightly, to make it easier for you to consciously evaluate your options and become a better, more effective coach. Because I'm sure that's one of your drivers. You wouldn't be watching this video if it wasn't.