Last year, my husband and I joined a bowling league. We belonged to a league over 30 years ago, before kids. Though rusty at bowling, we’re having fun. There’s lots of jibber- jabber within a rotation of 8 people while waiting for your turn with a side of bowling.
Bowling hasn’t changed much since the 1990’s, but the players who we bowl with are much better and we’re trying to maintain our averages. Something that is new to me is a bowling aid available to each bowler after bowling the first ball of the frame. It’s aptly called a spare finder.
If you do not get a strike with the first ball, the spare finder appears on the computer screen above the lane and shows a picture of a ball hitting the pins that remain in just the right place to knock them all down to get a spare. I am usually too distracted to pay attention to it, with all the conversations happening, but one day when I had to pre-bowl for the following week, by myself, I decided to “take the coaching.”
As I was looking at it to get some ideas about where to aim the ball for the next throw, it struck me that there are so many similarities between this bowling aid and the work I do as an advisor and coach to healthcare leaders. Several features of this tool align with helpful coaching.
The learner can experience a full PDSA (plan-do-study-adjust) cycle. It helps you to think about the approach, (plan) before you bowl. Planning in advance and having a clear expectation of what will happen serves as a hypothesis that you can then test in bowling and in any work. With the next throw of the ball (Do), you either pick up the spare or you don’t and, in both situations, you learn something (study). Based on that learning, you think about what you may do the next time those same pins remain. (Adjust). As a coach, I try to help people appreciate the value of the deliberateness of PDSA thinking in work and that rapid cycles can accelerate learning and improvement. What did you learn? How will you apply that learning?
- The bowling aid shows you a visual of what can happen if you hit the pins in just the right place. You can picture the ideal way to hit the pins. When we work with leaders, we often ask; “what is the ideal?” It’s important to have in mind what we are striving to achieve. Are you trying to make incremental improvements to a process that should be redesigned? Visualization of what exists and what good looks like can be made through simple but powerful drawings. Drawing helps people to make meaning of what they are seeing based on operational excellence principles. People codify work designs that are working well and identify vulnerabilities to improve. Next, compare notes with the workers who experience the problems firsthand to validate the drawings.
- The bowling aid provides advice and you can take it or leave it. You must knock down those pins yourself. There may be other ways to hit the pins, but it serves as a suggestion. A helpful coach guides and may advise but never takes the “doing” away from the process owner.
- The bowling aid suggests objective feedback based on observations of facts just like a helpful coach shares. The feedback is derived from comparing actual to a set of guiding principles. In bowling, these are principles of physics. In the case of the workplace, guiding principles of operational excellence help people to learn and improve.
- There is value from continuous learning in bowling and in work. One does not always have to be the doer. Shared learning can be just as powerful. When the other bowlers are bowling you can watch the spare finder and learn as they pick up their spares. You can see the results right away. Healthcare organizations that have systems to allow for learning from problems and improvements across departments and systems can achieve exponential improvement.
- It is helpful for people to know they do not have to go it alone and can pull for coaching expertise when needed. As people learn and apply that learning to their bowling game, they know where to throw the bowl in each scenario. Though they no longer need to refer to the bowling aid every time, the coaching still exists if you want to use it occasionally as needed.
Accepting coaching can be a difficult decision. It is a choice. Accepting typically stems from a need to learn something new, develop skills, or to improve upon the status quo.
- Coaches can be leaders, direct reports, coworkers, a designated coach of guiding principles, or a person who has a different perspective and lived experiences.
- Coaches ask, “would you like me to help you?” They give the other person a choice. A helpful coach knows when to hold back, listen, observe and learn.
- A coach should always be learning. Learning is a two-way street. Coaches share learning from previous coaching interactions, work activities and accomplishments to help people to better understand what they are experiencing in their work.
- Coaches can help us to understand our processes: how our customers make requests, the demand for our services, and how we deliver the services.
- Expertise and experience go hand in hand. One informs and reinforces the other. Expertise is required to do the work, and experience happens every day, every time the work is done. Learning occurs daily. A coach can make observations and learn from them as well as directly doing the work.
Consider all the people you have helped in your lifetime and your career. How did it make you feel?
Is it your turn? When do you need to up your game? What process would you like to improve in your own work? Who are the people in your life who can share a fresh perspective and have a genuine interest in helping you to learn and succeed? Will you decide to “take the coaching?”
Our experienced advisors partner with leaders to build capability, solve complex operational challenges, and create systems that support continuous learning and improvement.
👉 Contact us to learn more about coaching and how we can support your goals: https://www.valuecapturellc.com/executive-coaching