Have you heard of the term, ‘analysis paralysis’?
That’s when we over think/analyze things and as a result, we cannot move forward to the direction we want to go.
That’s a feature of the brain — we think… too much… needlessly ‘spinning our wheels’ and going nowhere!
This might be the case as to why some people — even though they have gone through numerous SAFe trainings — are ‘paralyzed’… cannot move forward.
If you are the coach, to alleviate that ‘over thinking/analysis’ that is crippling the coachee, script the next ‘critical move’ that the coachee must make now (putting a break on the thinking overdrive)! It is like coaching a chess player not to over think about the next 15 moves… but instead have a vision of the play (the strategy) and identity the next critical move (tactical move) towards the achievement of the strategy… knowing that the counter move of the opponent may alter everything.
Go tactical! Script the next critical move… get real by using their context… not theoretical situations and examples.
Example: If the coachee is struggling on how to discover features… ask the coachee to start first in visualizing the impacted customer (have a persona in mind — I.e. Clarence: music lover with a thousand vinyl records collection) and list out the problem (i.e. Clarence wants to listen to his music anytime and anywhere but his thousand vinyl records collection is not portable)
… and then later on list out the potential solutions/customer benefits (a thousand songs in clarence’s pocket)
…. and then later on the product (i.e. the ipod)… with various features (i.e. of the iPod) to deliver the benefits (i.e. to Clarence)
… and make sure that the coachee must do all these series of activities in collaboration with others!
As a coach, you Model it first — make it concrete and real.
Drill it: Then have the coachee do it — make it concrete and real.
Practice it — then have the coachee use the skill… for real
Make it stick — use encouragement… coach to catch the coachee doing it and give the coachee a high-five!
Or… perhaps there is another cause as to why people are not moved…read on…
To be continued…
