Professional Documents
Culture Documents
psychology and related disciplines that consistently finds 8. To what extent have you identified your personal values and your
that human flourishing depends upon people having vision/mission in work and life? How might these be relevant here?
some higher order purpose. 9. What is your peak experience in your work life? Why?
• Organisations are increasingly being called to R eflect 10. Who do you love to work with here?
account to go beyond shareholder value to make on exciting
a positive contribution. possibilities using 11. What really matters to you here?
strengths and
resources 12. What story of how this all plays would be really energizing for you
• Through how they show up, the questions they ask, and
and for others?
the causes they pursue, leaders have
enormous capacity to vary the energy that can 13. If you were having fun, what would be happening, what would you
eFire: a coaching methodology.
ignite organisations – for better or for worse. be doing, and how you be?
Experiment and Execute for maximum impact through Reflect on Exciting Possibilities: using strengths
intentional action and resources
This phase is when some choices are made about taking action that This phase is concerned with stepping back to reflect on the outcome of
matches intention. Inquiry and working with energy to generate ideas on what could be possible.
• The assumption is that action taken as a result of systemic inquiry and reflection • The Leader calls the discussion back to the systemic nature of the inquiry.
is likely to have a positive impact - of some kind. • The Coachee is challenged to think holistically as he or she engages with the
• An action plan is devised by the Coachee that maximises the possibility that detail of designing possible ways to progress.
positive change will occur toward the ideal state. • There are no limits placed here.
• Note that in complex organisational situations there are rarely any approaches that offer • The Leader assists the Coachee in finding areas of high and low energy that
100% success so multiple ‘safe-fail’ approaches is often the best strategy. might inform later decisions about where to place emphasis.
• The mode is of experimentation and of execution.
• A monitoring system is embedded in the plan. Sample questions
1. Now you’ve thought about it, what might be some clear success criteria in this situation?
Sample questions 2. What are possible ways of positively influencing the situation?
1. What emerges as the best approach(es) to take that will have a positive impact? 3. When you look back at the knowledge you’ve gained from the Inquire phase, what do you
2. Which way(s) forward is/are the most exciting? notice how different ideas, people, systems etc. seem to connect?
3. If you experiment in this way, what is likely to happen next? 4. What approach would give the best chance of a great outcome? Who might have some
different answers to this question?
4. What other things might you do (safe-fail approaches) to test the water at the same time?
5. What strengths will help you – yours, others’ in the team, others’ outside the team?
5. What is the first thing you need to do?
6. What are some radical, innovative and/or creative approaches?
6. What conversations do you need to have to move this along?
7. What approaches best tap into sources of power, knowledge and resources?
7. With the approach(es) you are considering, what relationships are critical?
8. If there were no constraints, what would you do right now?
8. Does the plan fit with our team, department and organizational objectives?
9. What are some different ways of telling the story about this issue?
9. How can you/we keep track of your intentional actions?
10. Think of three people you trust? What suggestions would they have?
10. If you drew a rich, colourful picture of your actions and their consequences in and across the
different systems involved here, what would you notice about how things are connected? 11. Have you/we been in a similar situation before? What worked then?
11. How are you/we going to plan this so you/we get the outcome you want? 12. What would you really love to try – just to see what happens?
12. What obstacles might you encounter along and what plans do you have if they happen? 13. What are some ways you will be able to keep track of what is going on?
13. Is the way you/we are going the ‘right’ thing to do? 14. Imagine someone told you that you’d missed the best option. Who would say that and
what might they suggest?
14. Briefly explain why the strategies you propose are going to provide a positive outcome.