Group Coaching Core Essentials - #11 of 18 - Learning Styles

 This week's blog is written by Evana Valle, our Team Lead for Group Coaching. Evana has

been leading many of our Group Coaching Essentials cohorts this year, after shadowing with me, being an alumni and an amazing group coach herself. 

One of the things that gets pronounced in a group is the different ways people connect in with the coaching process. While there's still debate about the "validity of different learning styles" in the academic world, as a practitioner I see this play out every day in conversations - in person and virtually.

Here's our 11th in the 18 series:

This week focuses on the value and benefit of intentionally considering and including various learning styles in your group programs. For example, approximately 60% of adults in North America have a preference for visual learning. Surprised? Likely not; however, what about the remaining forty percent?

In group programs, various learning styles are likely to be present, and you want to be mindful of who’s in your room (virtual or in-person) and how you can keep everyone learning, engaged, and moving towards their goals in a meaningful way. Here’s a table to help you:

 

Learning Style	Preferences	Possible questions by learning style?
Visual- learn by seeing.	Video over phone call Appreciate PowerPoint presentations and visual images	1.What does that look like? 2. What impact do you envision?
Auditory- learn by hearing.	Prefer conference calls and enjoy supplementary programs through Ted Talks, audios, Podcasts and peer dialogue	1. What does it sound like?
Kinesthetic – learn by engaging with the world.	Love to try things out. Can be challenged in virtual reality IF no hands-on, active exercises are included	1.What does it feel like? 2. What would you do?

*Source: Effective Virtual Conversations by Jennifer Britton

 

Consider how you can integrate learning styles throughout the various elements of your overall program, including marketing and sales (to maximize interest and buyers), session design, in-between session interaction, and fieldwork. 

 

Principle – Consider the four core learning styles (visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic). 

 

Action: Create your programs to include all or a combination throughout each session to support maximum learning and embodiment.

 

 

This week, consider reviewing various aspects of your program (design, marketing, sales copy) to ensure the different learning styles are included. 

Consider the following ideas/ questions: 

 

* How do you ensure all learning styles are incorporated into your programs and marketing? 

 

* How can you leverage technology to support your participants to lean into their natural learning style?

 

*What further learning/development would benefit you as a coach to support you in identifying your participant’s preferred learning style? 

 

*How can you integrate the learning styles in pre-work? 

 

*How can you diversify your marketing and sales copy to include the various learning styles? 

 

*How might you use learning styles to deepen participant awareness? Forward their Actions? Goal-setting? And accountability? 

Enjoy the conversation and exploration,

Evana

What is your unique style as a coach? Take 2-minutes to complete the NEW Group and Team Coaching Superpower Quiz. You can find it at https://bit.ly/gtcoachingsuperpower. Share your style using the comments below and/or follow along on Instagram at our CoachingBizBuilder site.

Join us for an upcoming program including: 

Group Coaching Essentials - Tuesdays 830 - 945 am ET starting Tuesday September 27 - running for 5 weeks to end of October (8.75 CCEs). Best practices for design, marketing and implementing group coaching.

Virtual Facilitation Essentials - One Day Offering - Wednesday October 5 - 830 - 430 pm ET (8.5 CCEs). Come build your confidence and skills with Virtual Facilitation (yes, there still is more to learn about zoom, Teams and the virtual world!)

Coaching the 5 (Hybrid) Work Styles (based on our Hybrid Work Styes Quiz) - Tuesdays 1230- 230 pm ET - September 27 - end of October (currently being reviewed for 14 CCEs). Geared for coaches who are looking for a quick, (and free!), framework to use with teams as a conversation sparker around different styles, approaches and teamwork.

Group Coaching - Back to Basics - It's all about the conversation

Welcome back to another week of the Group Coaching - Back To Basics series. This week's focus is "It's all about the conversation".

Having been a coach for many moons now - coming up to almost 19 years next year, I'm always amazed that even with all the changes in the world around us, the foundational principles and practices are just as relevant today as they were when I started. This holds true whether we are working with an individual coaching client, a group coaching client or team coaching client.

One of the things that makes coaching, coaching is the conversation. It's about multiple touch points and providing clients with the opportunity to hold conversations in a way that works for them.

I see this play out all the time in the virtual space. In a group , we may have people who are more comfortable with voice conversation, others with reflective pause and yet others via chat.

As a coach it's important that we meet them where they are at.

What are the different ways you are bringing "voices into the room"?

What are the different ways you are activating all our learning abililities. Consider :

Visual Learners

Auditory Learners

Kinesthetic Learners

At the end of the day, it's also about having space and time for the conversation. Group size needs to be small enough so people can feel like they are connected and not being talked at.  What are you doing to adjust pace throughout.

Finally, remember that for something to be considered group coaching, it needs to have no more than 15 people in the group for ICF Credentialing purposes. 

This week, what's going to be your focus to make sure it's all about the conversation?

Enjoy!

With best wishes,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Group Coaching Essentials | Effective Virtual Conversations | Potentials Realized
Instagram @Remote Pathways (for remote workers) and @CoachingBizBuilder (for coaches)
Author of Effective Group Coaching (2010), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Check out my author page on Amazon for all publications.
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com

Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us on Monday for one of the last Group Coaching Essentials programs of the year. We'll be meeting on Monday from 9 -1015 am ET on November 9, 16, 23, 30 and December 7th. 8.5 CCEs. 3 spots still open. Click here to learn more and reserve your spot.

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Somatic and Kinesthetic Approaches (10)

This week in the Building Your Team and Group Coaching Toolkit I want you to think about how you

are incorporating somatic and kinesthetic approaches for working with groups and teams. While coaching is a verbal modality, incorporating somatic and kinesthetic approaches provide an opportunity to gain new insight from a different perspective.

What do I mean with somatic and kinesthetic approaches? These approaches incorporate movement, doing and physical action. It may also reconnect people with their body. With this in mind, there is a wide variety of different approaches we might incorporate into our work as group and team coaching including (and not limited to):

• Making things more tactile and physical. Instead of doing a Wheel of Life on paper, what about doing it on the floor? Instead of just talking about strengths, is there a way you can make them more visual? Instead of talking about values, is there a way people can body them.
• Using annotation: In the virtual space we often are focused on dialogue. It is possible to get people more active during the call using annotation. Annotation in most virtual platforms allows us to draw, write and even map things out visually.
• With teams, consider getting them to undertake something hands on. With my own roots originally in the experiential education sector, I find I still incorporate several hands-on activities including building things, or solving problems together with materials. Essential to this approach is giving hem time at the end to not only debrief what happened during the exercise, but to consider how these behaviors, values, beliefs are showing up in their own work.

• Building in reflective walks – For many years I ran multiple summer programs in rustic settings up north. Providing space for reflective walks always created multiple layers of learning. 
• Creating models- Getting clients active with creation is another opportunity to create expanded awareness and insight.  Consider giving the space for people to create a model – whether it’s out of aluminum foil, clay or other materials. IT’s not only the process of creation but the value a structure provides in the coaching process.

For resources around more experiential and kinesthetic approaches you may want to consider exploring:

·         Marlena Field’s work around Body-Centered Coaching

·         Project Adventure’s experiential resources from the 80s onwards

·         What your virtual platform allows you to do. Can you use annotation? Breakouts?

·         Is there something you can send in advance of your next virtual call to make it more kinesthetic?

Note: always ensure people have identified hazards in their own areas before moving around. This holds true for streaming and movement.

Six Questions around kinesthetic approaches: As you consider incorporating more kinesthetic approaches consider these questions

1.       From this exercise, what do you notice?

2.       Accessing your head, heart and guts – what does each one of them say?

3.       What is transferable from this exercise to our everyday experience?

4.       What helped? What got in the way?

5.       Where do you sense this?

6.       What’s going to keep this visible?

Enjoy the conversation,

Jennifer 

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)

Join us for an upcoming ICF CCE approved program - Group Coaching Essentials (starts Friday June 7 - 8.75 CCEs), Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (starts Monday July 8: 10 CCEs) or the Virtual Facilitation Essentials(starts Monday June 3rd  - 4 spots open - 8.5 CCEs)