While it’s always best to take at least one hour prior to the Forum meeting to have the presenter meet with the coach, that’s not always possible. So the next best option to not having any coaching at all is to do an Open Coaching Presentation.
Open Coaching creates space in the normal presentation format for the coach and the presenter to challenge in front of the whole group.
The goal of this Open Coaching session is still the same as pre-coaching which is to get clarity on these three questions:
- What’s the core challenge this person is facing?
- What’s the ideal experience sharing this person would like to hear from the group?
- What background information is needed to understand the situation better?
The trick with Open Coaching is that instead of having one hour, the Open Coaching only allows up to 15 minutes to get clarity on these three question. Having done Open Coaching many times, it’s not easy and the time goes fast.
Here are my top three suggestions for creating successful Open Coaching session:
- Shorten up your questions. Don’t waste time on you talking, ask the question and shut up and let the presenter talk.
- Cut off long answers. You don’t have time for long winded responses, so once you feel like the person has answered the question, don’t be afraid to cut them off and ask another question.
- Avoid side tangents. It’s easy to let a conversation run in random directions, but with only 15 mins for Open Coaching, it’s best to keep coming back to the main three goals listed above.
The flow for an Open Coaching Presentation is very similar to the traditional Experience Share Presentation (https://bit.ly/3vP9eUQ) with some minor adjustments as seen below:
- 15 Mins – Coach chats with the Presenter to go over the three main goals.
- 10 Mins – Clarifying Q&A from the group to understand the situation better.
- 1 Min – Solo reflection to collect ideas on what to share next.
- 2.5 Mins Each – Each person shares for 2.5 minutes on their experience related to this challenge.
- 1 Min Each – Final Thoughts – Have each person share their main takeaways on the topic.
- 8 Mins Total – Blind Window – The presenter turns away from the group, and the group engages in a Blind Window.
- 1 Min Each – Next Steps – “If this were my challenge, my next step would be…” (fill in the blank for yourself).