A Difficult Habit Worth Developing (#PYPCBookClub)

Our PYP Coordinator book club just finished reading The Coaching Habit by Micheal Bungay Stanier and it was the simplist book to digest, but hardest to put into practice. Coaching for professional development isn’t about solving the problem-it’s about focusing on the person themselves in order to support them to become their own problem solvers. And through his 7 Essential Questions, people learn how to troubleshoot their issues and engineer their own solutions.

Sounds brillant right? Only 7 easy questions-Piece of cake!……

Except it hasn’t been. It has been confronting. I have learned that I come into meetings, ready to give advice, to share my wisdom, but it’s not actually helping teachers become better PYP educators. He reminds us that “the problem isn’t with advice…it’s when advice giving is our default response”. Very true.

So, it’s made me reflect and ask whether, as a PYP coordinator, am I Modeler of Inquiry or Inquirer Role Model? In other words, do I lead with an inquiry stance or do I just talk about learning through inquiry? There is a difference. You see, the longer you are engaged in the IB, the clearer it becomes that the PYP isn’t just a Framework, it’s a Mindset. The Learner Profile isn’t something that we teach kids, it’s an aspirational way of being. I think Jennifer Abrams says it best:

“One cannot lead effectively without modeling what it means to be a professional, and it’s also important to model what it means to be changing and growing oneself as well as stretching one’s learning edges and developing. Leaders must walk the talk.” from Stretching Your Learning Edges

Thus, as a pedagogical leader, I have to demonstrate our approach as lifelong learners with my actions and words. Clearly I may be able to explain how inquiry “works” but I need to work on developing my curiousity muscles, and keep my mind open to other possibilities when involved in interactions.

Sigh.

Now do you see why this “habit” might be a bit tricky when the leadership paradigmn is that we are supposed to have all the answers? That myth is simply not accurate. And apparently, not effective.

So let me share with you why advice giving is garbage when it comes to coaching. Questioning is the gold.  (PS. this is also true for teacher-student interactions, and not only relevant to those of us in leadership titles).

My advice might be for the wrong problem.

When others come to you with their “problems”, the first thing they share is often not the heart of their issue. They need to talk out the issue so they can figure out what is at the heart of their challenge. It is through questioning that they are able to distill what is the REAL problem. Once we have discovered, “What’s the real challenge here for you?”, then addressing it becomes more efficient and potent.

Advice giving is disempowering

This hurt the most, but he’s absolutely spot on. As I reflected on his ideas about helping vs. “being helpful”, it made me realize that when I offer up my ideas as solutions, it develops a power dyanmic that creates co-dependency and it sends the message that “you can’t figure this out by yourself”.  If I want to develop authentic teacher agency, then I have to provide opportunities to boost their confidence and give them ownership is solving their own problems. Makes sense, right? So when I drill down to the real challenge and I ask “And What Else?” (The AWE question), they have an opportunity to witness their own capacity to discover the possibilities that exist as solutions while taking on personal responsibility for the outcome. Much, much better, right?

Reflection is THE practice we are cultivating.

All schools are learning organizations, but in the IB being a life long learner is a practice that we wish to embody into our schools. Life long learning is not only seeking knowledge, but reflecting on that knowledge and who we are becoming as we strive to learn more.

Micheal Bungay Stanier shared something in the book that I believe is the genuine reason why reflection as a practice is so powerful:

People don’t really learn when you tell them something.

They don’t even really learn when they do something.

The start learning, start creting new neural pathways, only when they have a chance to recall and reflect on what just happened.

So, as I think about WHO WE ARE as an organization, our goal is always to encourage reflection. Reflection is a habit that I, myself, work to cultivate, but I also wish to develop in others. When I ease off giving advice and instead lean into questioning, “What was most useful here for you?”, I am developing the larger goals of our IB programmes and truly helping others to be leaders of their own learning.

Although this blog post serves as a reflection tool, the real testimony to this habit change comes when I…..

Choose: the question that prompts the reflection in others

Act: in a supporting way to honor the learning and development of others.

Reflect: on how this practice is changing me, as a person, the teachers I support, and the students with whom they serve.

My parting advice to you (Ironic, I know)

The book isn’t lengthy, but starting with curiousity can be a big ask for those of us who haven’t developed “the coaching habit”. Besides reading the book, I would encourage you to watch his Ted Talk  on how to tame one’s “advice monster”. No matter where we are and who we serve in education, I believe if we can stay curious longer, we can make a greater impact.