One of the important objectives of the inquire process is to unearth more choices than what we started with. For e.g. at the beginning the Client may start looking at it as either/or situation where neither action gives satisfaction. The Inquire process could throw up more choices where instead of „either/or‟ choices, „and‟ options could be unearthed. Once more than one choice is available a thorough evaluation of the available choices can be made. The desired outcome that is defined at the define stage should act as a lighthouse to do a proper evaluation. One of the most important questions to be used to do this evaluation could be “What do we really want” Many times it happens that during crucial conversations, though we were clear with the objectives of the discussion at the start, during the discussion, emotions take over and the need for winning or seeking revenge or psychological safety may obscure the objectives that we started off with. The above mentioned question is to try and get the focus back into the actual desired outcome.
E for Enact
It really does not matter what we know. What matters is what we do with what we know. Anonymous
All the analysis and mental thought experiments will bear no fruit unless acted upon. Most people are capable of doing a lot of self analysis but the ability to translate them into meaningful action may prove to be the nemesis. One of the main objectives of a coaching process is to help the Client to translate the outcome of the previous processes of inquiry and evaluate into meaningful, and if possible, measurable set of actions. The action plan, a key outcome of the coaching session, however is still a plan. It may be a good idea to probe the possible hurdles that could come up during the enacting the action plan and a strategy to handle them. This gives an additional impetus to the action plan. The Key questions for this stage would include
- What is the Action Plan?
- How to break them down into easily manageable small steps?
- What are the potential hurdles in each of them?
- How we plan to overcome them?
Though the onus for action is on the Client, the Coach will do well to ask the potential support that he could be in monitoring the progress.