Jennifer Britton, GroupCoachingEssentials.com. Copyright 2016.
It's the early part of June and a popular time of month for many groups to wind down for the summer. In the Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar, and the Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum, I get a lot of questions about different activities coaches can use to create closure with the
1. Photo Cards - Many of you know my love of incorporating different photo cards. They are a different way to "spark conversation" for multi-lingual groups, and connect with people in a different way than questions do. Whether you are using my Conversation Sparker Cards (TM) or CCL's Visual Explorer, of the Points of You cards, consider bringing these in as part of your closure.
Possible questions can be:
Select the card which represents what's changed for you during our work together.
Select the card which represents what's next for you.
Select the card which highlights your learning.
In a group coaching context you may have each group member select a card, wheras in a team coaching context they may select both an individual card and a shared card.
For more ideas of how to use visual cards check out the 40 Ways to Use Visual Cards e-manual I released a few months ago which includes detailed instructions around how to bring visual cards into your coaching, facilitation and training work around topics like innovation, change, closure, strategic planning etc.
2. Creating a Roadmap of Next steps - Coaching has goals, action and awareness at its core. What are the next steps the group or team members are committing to? Who will they be accountable to? Have people either write these out, or jot them down in a one page plan (check out this month's newsletter for a downloadable One Page Plan). You can also give them a blank roadmap and have them write out their next steps. This is something I incorporate into alot of my own programming, and it has a different impact that just writing it out in a table.
3. Appreciations - This spring I 've been doing a lot of work with global, virtual and intact teams. In today's business world there is not a lot of time built in for sharing with peers. That can be one of the major benefits of team and group coaching processes. Leave time for group members to share appreciations with each other. A small token may help to lock in the learning, or a written piece of paper with comments from peers may solidify the coaching process and be a valuable takeaway for each group member.
4. Closure Metaphors - Metaphors are a powerful tool for coaches. Whether we are creating these through drawings, or photos or verbally, what is the metaphor people are closing off with?
What are some of your favorite closure activities? As always, please feel free to comment below.
You may also want to check out my 2006 post on The Importance of Closure For Groups here.
As popular a time a year it is to close off with groups, summer is also a popular time to start new groups. Next week's post is going to focus on four activities for kicking off your group and team coaching. Stay tuned!
Have a great week,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPCC, CPT
GroupCoachingEssentials.com | Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
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