Neurodiversity in the workplace: my pledge for anticipatory inclusion

By Elisabeth Goodman, 13th August 2021

I am an Advocate for Neurodiversity.

This comes from my experience as a parent, and as a Trustee for 5 years of the Red Balloon Learner Centre who support young people who are “missing from school”, some of which will have been as a result of their Neurodiversity.

It also comes from the impact I’ve witnessed as a coach and as a trainer of a lack of understanding and valuing of Neurodiversity in the workplace.

Most recently, my advocacy has come from my self-diagnosis through the Do-IT Solutions profiling tool and the realisation that I gained through participating in Helen Amery’s Space of Transformation programme that I no longer need to choose between fitting in or rebelling but can simply speak up with my own voice.

I have just finished reading “Neurodiversity at work” by Theo Smith and Prof Amanda Kirby (2021). This has been the culmination of the journey I’ve been on so far, and I’ve lots more to learn.

“Neurodiversity at Work” jumped to the top of my bed-side reading pile when I received my copy ahead of the official publication date of 3rd August

The phrase “anticipatory inclusion” really gelled with me during a “Deep Dive” course on Neurodiversity for coaches with Lynne Tapper and Katie Friedman of Gold Mind. That, and my advocacy for Neurodiversity, have consolidated a journey I began in 2017 when Carol Fowler and I co-delivered a seminar, sponsored by Abzena, for the Life Science community at Babraham Research Park in the UK. The number of people who turned up could be counted on the fingers of one hand, but the discussion was rich and enlightening for all.

Since then I have had insightful conversations with my RiverRhee Trusted Partner John Hicks, who describes himself as a Neurodiversity coach and blogger, attended seminars and other courses with Julie Myles of The Spectrum Guru, the Gold Mind team, Jasmine Miller with Barefoot Coaching. I have also followed the learned writing of Dr Nancy Doyle, CEO of Genius Within, and of Prof Amanda Kirby, CEO of Do-IT Solutions. and many more voices on the topic of Neurodiversity who I’ve discovered so far on LinkedIn.

As of next week, I will be embarking on another voyage of discovery, as an associate coach with Genius Within. I can’t wait to begin!

What surprised, delighted and generally enlightened me in “Neurodiversity at work”

Smith and Kirby (2021) do a tremendously thorough job of exploring this topic. They do so to such an extent that I would say this is a ‘go to’ reference work for any coach, HR practitioner and line manager full stop! It’s not a question of whether you have an interest in Neurodiversity: it’s a question of whether you have an interest in understanding, valuing and finding ways to work more effectively with all of the people that you work with.

So the book covers definitions, origins, descriptions of Neurodiversity – as you would expect. It also covers everything you need to know from a legal and practical perspective for managing people through the whole employee life cycle process – something I touched on in my recent talk, with Téa Romero, for the Women in Technology Mentoring Programme (2021).

How inclusive are your HR and line-management practices for Neurodiversity? It’s easy to unconsciously include bias. Paying attention to the wording of your job adds; asking candidates what would help to make their interview experience a positive one; recruiting for strengths rather than all-rounders; making it safe for people to speak up about their needs around working hours, work place environments, IT assistive technology, coaching support to help them and their managers communicate, interact and generally organise their work… these are all things that can make a difference.

Smith and Kirby (2021) also talk about the value and risks of using Neurodiversity labels – another topic that I included in my talk for the Women in Technology Mentoring Programme (2021).

There are many potential labels for conditions such as autism. They will be personal and are best chosen by the individual concerned. The label I’m currently working with for myself is “I have an autistic profile”, but that might change. Labels can definitely have benefits, but they can also feel uncomfortable. There is no legal requirement for individuals to ‘self-disclose’. What I aspire to, as a coach, is to raise all of my clients’ awareness of their needs and of how to make those happen.

So what surprised, delighted me and generally enlightened me in Smith and Kirby (2021)’ s book?

The fact that they include a chapter on how to support both participants (delegates) and presenters / speakers in meetings, conferences and seminars.

Having a full chapter on what line managers can do to create a psychologically safe environment for people to speak up about what they need to be at their best at work.

Step-by-step guidelines for how to make each stage of recruitment and on-boarding neuro-inclusive.

The rich seam of case studies that people can learn from in terms for how to create a neuro-inclusive environment in small as well as large organisations.

Also a series of interviews to hear the voice of influencers in the field of Neurodiversity, including one by Nancy Doyle who warns us to be careful of “elitism, bad science and amateurism”.

The exploration of how to create networks of champions, whilst not over-burdening the champions, and making sure they have the necessary support for their and other people’s mental well-being.

That there is awareness training on Neurodiversity out there from the likes of Right Resources and that it includes listening skills, mental well-being, common workplace challenges and how to access workplace-related support.

That there is a new BSI guide (PAS 6463) in development that will address work place design in the context of sensory sensitivity and embodies the concept that “it should be a fundamental requirement to anticipate and design for neurological differences and wellbeing”.

All in all, Smith and Kirby (2021) fully fulfilled their goal (p.21), for me, “to excite, delight and open up the discussion around Neurodiversity”.

So what is my pledge for anticipatory inclusion?

I pledge to:

• Continue my learning and have an open mind to what Neurodiversity might mean in general and for each individual in particular that I coach, train and generally interact with
• Be alert to how I position my group coaching and courses to make it safe for people to speak up for what they need and what they believe in
• Have zero tolerance of behaviours that are prejudicial towards Neurodiversity
• Invite feedback to enhance my neuro-inclusive behaviour and practices
• Raise awareness of Neurodiversity in my discussions with clients and fellow coaches

What will you do?

And what views, comments and questions do you have on what I have shared here that I can learn from too?

NOTES

References

Elisabeth Goodman (2021, 6 August).  A perspective on Neurodiversity.  Presented in a co-session with Téa Romero for the Women in Technology  Mentoring Programme.  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrqPE9nFWw4&feature=youtu.be retrieved 13 August 2021

Smith, T. and Kirby, A. (2021). Neurodiversity at work. Drive innovation, performance and productivity with a neurodiverse workforce. Kogan Page

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, specialising in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through group-coaching style workshops and courses, with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She and her trusted partners help RiverRhee’s clients to exercise choice and realise their potential in the workplace by recognising their individual values and strengths. Together they explore such topics as enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation, PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

She is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

Beyond situational coaching: being deliberate in how we foster deliberation

By Elisabeth Goodman, Sunday 18th July 2021

My blog on practising situational coaching has been one of my most widely read posts, with about 8,500 hits in 2020-2021 so far! I wrote it for managers who coach, but I suspect that many professional coaches and also coaching students are reading it too. If so, I think you may find that Maria Iliffe-Wood’s “Coaching Presence” (2014) has even more to offer you in this space.

We may be more or less conscious, when we coach, of shifting between pure intuition:

• going with the flow
• “dancing in the moment”

and deliberately choosing the nature of our next intervention:

• what we say or do
• the tools we bring out for the coachee to use.

Whether we go with the flow, or are more deliberate in our choice, either will determine the nature of our “coaching presence”, and the consequent nature and quality of the coachee’s thinking or deliberation.

Professional coaches, student coaches and managers who practise coaching as part of their ‘regular’ jobs, can all benefit from reflecting on what happened during a coaching session, and what they might do the same or differently next time.

Iliffe-Wood gives us a model that can help us be more deliberate in our choices during a session, and more analytical in our reflections following it. I for one have started to apply the insights that I’ve gained from her approach and I certainly feel that they are helping me to ‘up my game’.

Here is a somewhat basic and rendition of the essence of what I took from her book:

Four coaching modes and four levels of a clients’ thinking

As the illustration above shows, Iliffe-Wood suggests that there are four modes for our coaching, and four levels for our clients’ thinking.

The coaching modes

You might recognise that we tend to use some of the coaching modes more than others.

You might also have a sense, whether from your own reflections or from what you’ve been taught by others, that you should or shouldn’t apply some of these modes.

Iliffe-Wood skilfully shows that each mode does deliver value in terms of the impact that it has on our clients’ thinking.

I have a tendency for example to use the “evident” mode less: to not articulate what I’m noticing, and to not share personal examples. However, as I learn to do so more, I do find that this helps to raise the coachee’s awareness of what’s happening and what they are experiencing, to relax more into their reflections and to be more comfortable and find the words to share more about what they are thinking and feeling.

The “invisible”, “emergent” and “visible” coaching modes come to me more naturally. I particularly enjoy the magic that can happen when I offer a client a coaching intervention that enables them to think about their issue or situation in a different way, as in “emergent” coaching. I find that clients sometimes get stuck with simple verbal processing: whereas exploring their metaphors, drawing, using plasticine or even soft toys, or physical movement can dramatically open up their thinking.

Iliffe-Wood also cross-references the coaching modes to the competencies defined by professional coaching organisations. As I am working towards my next level accreditation (PCC) with the ICF (International Coaching Federation), all of this definitely supports “PCC markers” 7.5, which is where a coach evokes awareness by sharing “with no attachment – observations, intuitions, comments, thoughts or feelings, and invites the client’s exploration through verbal or tonal invitation.”

By the way, for anyone who is worried about the apparently over-directive nature of the “visible” coach mode, the ICF PCC markers couch this kind of intervention in terms of invitation or partnership. For instance:

3.1 Coach partners with the client to identify or reconfirm what the client wants to accomplish in the session

5.3 Coach partners with the client by supporting the client to choose what happens in this session

8.1 Coach invites or allows the client to explore progress toward what the client wanted to accomplish in this session

ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) Markers, Revised November 2020. rev. 06.25.21

The four levels of thinking

Iliffe-Wood suggests that we have four levels of thinking: the first being uppermost in our consciousness. This strikes me as somewhat like the most open window of the Johari four-box model: what we know about ourselves and what is also known about us by others. The levels go increasingly deeper into our subconsciousness, until we get to level 4 which includes things that are actually unknown to us.

So a coach can help clients to access the deeper thinking and, Iliffe-Wood suggests, may actually help further in the level 3 and 4 thinking by adding new information and knowledge for the client to reflect upon.

Each of the four coaching modes broadly maps to the corresponding four levels of thinking. However, we would in practice move in and out of each coaching mode, and as Iliffe-Wood says, the invisible coach mode is one to keep coming back to, to allow the client to deliberate more effectively on what they discover during the session.

Conclusion and a reminder of guiding principles

It would be interesting to hear if and how this approach to “coaching presence” deepens the practice of other coaches, student coaches and managers who coach: whether it does indeed offer more than situational coaching.

Iliffe-Wood’s book is definitely worth reading right the way through to get a greater understanding of the approach that she proposes. Her writing is infused with wisdom too: her principle and guiding beliefs are a salutary reminder for everyone and anyone who coaches.

Her principle belief is that:

“Every person that I meet has a deep well of inner wisdom that they can tap into… they can achieve whatever … they are aiming for… they are genuinely striving to achieve it and… they can do it no matter how high the aspiration.”

Iliffe-Wood (2014 p.5)

And her guiding beliefs cover the coach, the client and the coaching relationship. I’ve just pulled out a few of her headings relating to the client as these seem particularly relevant to me in the context of this blog:

“Clients are whole persons. They are not broken and therefore they do not need fixing….”

“Clients learn best when they have worked things out for themselves..”

“Clients know much more than they think they know..”

Iliffe-Wood (2014, p.7)

“Clients are the expert on themselves and their system. ..[they] know the situation, the organization, the people involved…and therefore they are in a better place… to draw conclusions, make judgements and work out any solutions..”

Iliffe-Wood (2014, p.8)

Notes

References

Goodman, E. (2019). The manage as coach: practising situational coaching. Retrieved from: https://elisabethgoodman.wordpress.com/2019/11/23/the-manager-as-coach-practising-situational-coaching/

Iliffe-Wood, M. (2014). Coaching presence. Building Consciousness and awareness in coaching interventions. Kogan Page

Johari window. See for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, specialising in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through group-coaching style workshops and courses, with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She and her trusted partners help RiverRhee’s clients to exercise choice and realise their potential in the workplace by recognising their individual values and strengths. Together they explore such topics as enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation, PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

She is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

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Confidence, visibility and credibility – ingredients for realising our potential

By Elisabeth Goodman, 22nd May 2021

“If you don’t try it, you’ll never know” is a message that Melanie Boyle, VP of Project Management and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), learnt early in life from the elder sister of a schoolfriend.

Chance remarks like these can have a powerful impact on our attitudes, beliefs and self-confidence. As Stephen Joseph (2016 p.6) reminds us, we have “potentials inherent in our nature”. Our internal narrative, and how we choose to interact with those around us will influence how we realise that potential.

Michelle Ware, Head of Blended Learning at OBRIZUM Group and I had the pleasure of interviewing Melanie and hearing about the elements that have shaped her career so far.

Project Management is not one of the highest profile activities in small or larger Life Science organisations, where the pressure is on to discover and develop innovative solutions to patient, scientific and technological challenges and questions.

Yet Project Management, like other support services such as HR, finance, IT, can make a significant difference to the efficiency and effectiveness with which people use their expertise, time and other company resources to meet stakeholders’ expectations. Having self-confidence, being visible, and establishing your credibility will facilitate making this kind of impact in your organisation.

Taking a pragmatic approach

As Melanie has learnt, the success of activities like hers comes from learning and becoming secure in the knowledge and language of her craft, and in applying it, in a pragmatic way, to what the organisation is receptive to and needs. A small biotech does not need the same level of sophisticated plans as a an organisation designing and delivering complex engineering plants. But it does need some consistency in how it goes about its projects, for example to facilitate co-ordination of resources the transfer of learnings between projects.

Having the learning and development to be able to speak up and add value in a pragmatic way is one source of credibility. The other is working on your visibility: finding ways to get to know, and be known by those around you.

Recognising and developing your network

As Melanie points out in the interview, the people we work with and generally interact with in the course of our work are our natural network. We can expand that network, and enhance our visibility, by volunteering to get involved in cross-functional activities, as well as by taking the time to have casual conversations during the course of our working day. (Doing the latter has been a lot more difficult during lockdown, but it might still possible to look for and instigate such casual conversations even if we are working remotely, or if our shifts on location don’t always coincide.)

Widening our network will give us new insights that might inform suggestions that we make in our work. It could also help us to create allies and advocates to support our suggestions, and to enhance our credibility with others in this and future roles.

Developing allies and advocates

There is a lovely article by Leslie John (2021) in the latest issue of Harvard Business Review, full of practical tips on how we can promote ourselves most effectively.

One of the insights in the article is that if we are too active in promoting ourselves we might be seen as braggarts. However, if our allies / advocates promote us then other people are more likely to be receptive to that, and, incidentally, will also think well of the people who are doing the promoting!

Other approaches for realising our potential

I had the opportunity yesterday to engage with other professionals in the project management space, by speaking at an APM webinar on “Unlocking your potential as a project manager in the life science and pharma sector”. I asked delegates to consider what needed to happen for them to be at their best. Themes that emerged included:

• communication
• work / life balance
• well-being
• motivation
• efficiency, effectiveness and engagement
• having a clearly defined remit
• obtaining respect

There may be a common thread here around being clear about what we need and want, and then finding ways to make that happen for ourselves, and through our engagement with others. I would say there is a connection here too with self-confidence, visibility and credibility!

Incidentally, I had an enjoyable time exploring some of these themes further with the delegates, using resources that I typically use in my one-to-one and group coaching and training.

Conclusion

What role have self-confidence, visibility and credibility played in your life and in your ability to realise your potential?

What else have you done, or could you do to help you in this space?

Notes

References

Goodman, E. (2021, May). One step towards realising our potential – Episode 3. An interview with Melanie Boyle and Michelle Ware. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHa8aY-06rk

John, L. K. (2021). Savvy self-promotion. Harvard Business Review, May-June.

Joseph, S. (2016). Authentic. How to be yourself and why it matters. Piatkus.

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to exercise choice and realise their potential in the workplace by recognising their individual values and strengths. They explore such topics as enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation, PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

Hybrid working – considerations for managers and leaders

By Elisabeth Goodman, 10th May 2021

I’m starting to see and hear a flurry of articles and conversations about what hybrid working will mean, as companies open their doors for people to return to the workplace post Covid-19.

I’ve been discussing this with colleagues too who are involved, like me, in coaching and other forms of learning and development with leaders, managers and teams in Life Science, SMEs and other sectors and organisations.

Hybrid working is something that all leaders and managers will need to consider and role-model. It will impact recruitment and retention, policies on inclusion and fairness, the nature and quality of management and leadership, the well-being of employees, creativity and productivity. I’ve probably missed a few other aspects too!

This blog is based on two articles in consecutive issues of Harvard Business Review. The first, by Anne-Laure Fayard, John Weeks and Mahwesh Khan (2021), focuses on how we can re-design the workplace to reflect the different types of social interactions and activities that will take place in hybrid working. The second article, by Lynda Gratton (2021), analyses these interactions and activities, along with other factors that will influence the design of hybrid policies.

A framework for thinking about hybrid working

Gratton (2021) leads the Future of Work Consortium of 100 companies around the world. She has focused their recent research on the impact of the pandemic.

In her article, Gratton describes four critical drivers of productivity: focus, coordination, cooperation, energy and uses these to evaluate their influence on optimum hybrid arrangements.

She has come up with a useful framework for thinking about hybrid working arrangements in terms of both place (location) and time.

I’ve populated Gratton’s framework with my insights from her article: which of the productivity drivers might fit which of the four boxes, and what kinds of activities might fit alongside them.

My annotations are suggestions only, to stimulate further reflection. I expand on them in the rest of this blog.

As the author says, advances in technology as well as personal preferences will continue to influence how this picture evolves.

Different types of social interaction, different types of work

Anne-Laure Fayard and her co-authors (2021) suggest that the workplace will become, post-pandemic, particularly important as a hub for social interaction, enabling people to build closer working relationships and to have the kinds of unstructured conversations that are more conducive to impromptu learning and to innovation.

Gratton echoes this conclusion in her ‘cooperation’ driver for productivity, where she suggests that people need to be in the same space and time for activities relating to innovation. I’m curious to learn more about how some of my clients in the Life Sciences might be managing this with people currently working in shifts in and out of the lab, and communicating virtually to support this.

Teams can be effectively managed on a day-to-day basis without being co-located, a task that Gratton describes as ‘coordination’. My experience of working in and with companies where teams are geographically dispersed certainly bears this out. It can be tricky working across time zones but it’s helped if at least some of the working day overlaps as is the case with teams based in Europe and on the east coast of America for instance.

Although Gratton includes mentoring and coaching as something that can be done remotely (which is certainly my experience with my clients), Fayard et al. convincingly describe how being in the workplace will better support impromptu learning for junior and less experienced staff. Managers and more experienced colleagues can more easily spot, when co-located an opportunity for sharing some helpful insights or guidance. Junior and less experienced staff can more easily learn through observation and ask for clarification in a more casual way than when working remotely.

Tasks that require individual focus (another of Gratton’s critical drivers), such as strategic planning (if done alone), studying and report writing lend themselves well to remote working and more flexible work hours.

The last of Gratton’s critical drivers is energy – something that she describes as being core to those engaged in such activities as marketing. When and where these are done depend somewhat on the nature of the marketing activities, and the availability of clients.

How people derive their energy is also a very individual characteristic. So this is where personal preference and style are particularly relevant.

Design for personal preference and style

As Gratton suggests in her article, people might have different preferences depending on their home circumstances (which by the way could also have an impact on their ability to focus). Some people derive more energy from the interactions that they have in a busy workplace. Others thrive in a quieter environment, which could be at home, or elsewhere.

Fayard et al. describe how offices can be designed to provide different environments to suit different activities and personal preferences.

Gratton also describes how some companies, such as Fujitsu, have created an ‘ecosystem’ of hubs, satellite offices and shared offices, within and outside the workplace, that enable people to engage in cooperative, coordinated or focused types of activities.

Engaging and including employees in hybrid workplace design

As Gratton points out, one of the key criteria for success, as we move forward, is to engage employees in discussing what their hybrid workplace and practices should consist of. Doing so may enhance inclusivity and fairness.

Without such consultation we also risk repeating previous assumptions such as open plan offices and hot desking being good for productivity. Whilst open plan and hot desking might facilitate cooperation and coordination style activities, many of the people that I coach and train have struggled with the negative consequences for their focus and energy. And some people have thrived from the opportunity of working from home that the pandemic has offered them.

Conclusion

As these HBR articles and my own observations and discussions with others show, simply returning to old ways of working post-pandemic does not seem to be an option. Employees have experienced what the alternatives can be, as have employers. There are benefits all round for quality of life, well-being, recruitment and retention, and productivity. But there are also risks to the same if new approaches are introduced without proper consideration of the implications for all.

Managers and leaders have an important role to play in consulting with their teams, and in considering how they will apply and role model different ways of working in place and in time. What will you be doing?

Notes

References

Fayard, A.-L., Weeks, J. & Khan, M. (2021). Designing the hybrid office. Harvard Business Review, March-April, 114-123

Gratton, L. (2021). How to do hybrid right. Harvard Business Review, May-June, 66-74

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to exercise choice and realise their potential in the workplace by recognising their individual values and strengths. They explore such topics as enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation, PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

Flexing our learning muscle for personal development

By Elisabeth Goodman, 28th April 2021

I came across an excellent McKinsey article by Christensen et al (2021) on “intentional learning” – the idea that we:

• set clear goals for what we want to learn about
• give ourselves a timeline in which to achieve the goals
• commit to and gain support for achieving our goals by telling others about them.

The 3x3x3 heuristic relates to 3 goals, a 3-month time-frame and 3 people.

There is more in the article to support this approach. It set off a string of reflection in me on how the biggest breakthroughs happen, for myself and for my coaching clients, when we get intentional and develop habits to support our learning.

Taking a focused rather than a scattergun approach

I love to learn! It’s one of my values in life: to keep learning for my personal development, and to discover resources that I can share with others. It’s no wonder that I am a coach, facilitator and trainer – and of course it feeds my blogs.

My office is stacked with books, and I do manage to read them and draw insights from them. But it comes at a price, my brain gets over-active and jagged, I don’t know what to focus on first, I lose depth, I don’t have enough time for everything I want to do. And then I remember to stop and breathe….

I’ve learnt that there is a time to be focused, and there is a time to take a more exploratory approach. When life and work get busy, when there are things I need to get done, I simplify, I focus, I enjoy going into depth on just one or two things.

When life and work are quieter, and they do get quieter, I start exploring more widely again. And, because I want to make sure I have opportunities for that wider exploration, I also look for ways to simplify my life and work to create that space.

The result – both the approaches are possible and feel good when they are the right approach. Both are a version of being focused: in depth or in breadth. The broader approach no longer feels like a scattergun approach.

Does any of this resonate with you? What is or are your preferred approaches to learning?

Working outside our comfort zones

A book that made a big impression on me during my coaching training was Carol Dweck’s Mindset. If we have a mindset to learn and “grow” then we will get more comfortable about experiencing and experimenting with things that feel uncomfortable.

I went on a really helpful follow-up course with Ted Bradshaw, one of the Barefoot Coaching tutors, on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. One of his suggestions is that we identify some aspect of our behaviour that we want to change. In my case I had an example of shifting my mindset from feeling that I had to be self-sufficient, towards finding opportunities for more interdependence with family, friends and colleagues.

The chances are that making this change, “stepping off the path” of what we are used to, will feel scary in some way. So we have some options. We can:

• Identify a small thing to change and just try that for starters
• Observe how others do things, do a bit of research, to see what we can learn from them
• Enlist a member of our family, a friend, a colleague at work to support and encourage us
• Once we’ve had a go, repeat the experience until it starts feeling that little bit more comfortable, then stretch a bit further…

What I’m experimenting with (in relation to the example that I shared above) is being more conscious of opportunities where I can ask for ideas, and be more receptive to offers of help and support. Recognising the value that I get from that for my personal development as well as in my work. Also that I’m being more authentic in modelling the kind of behaviour that I encourage in others.

What aspect of your personal development could you step out of your comfort zone about and experiment with, to get more of the results that you would like to have?

Adopting a reflective approach

In my days of developing and supporting knowledge management strategies (Goodman 2016), “After Action Reviews” were central to everything that we did. The phrase was coined by the US army. It was about taking time, after any significant activity, to objectively review what happened, how it related to the original goals, what could be learnt from that, and what action would be taken and new knowledge shared as a result.

There is an abbreviated version of this approach that I learnt about from Barefoot Coaching, and that I use and share with my coaching clients:

• what happened?
• so what (can you learn from that)?
• now what (will you do the same or differently as a result)?

It’s very simple, and very effective. It’s also another instance where we need to be deliberate or intentional with our learning. It requires time and attention to make it happen though.

I aim to do this after every coaching intervention, after every course that I deliver, and in my diary at the end of the day. I don’t manage it every time, but it’s enough of a habit for me to come back to it and ‘catch up’ if I’ve missed an occasion or two. I find that going for a walk, or allowing myself some time for reflection on a Saturday morning also help. I know the value that this delivers for me and that motivates me to keep doing it.

Do you do this kind of reflection? Would you like to try? If so, when might be the times of day, or occasions that would lend themselves best for you to do it? What would get you motivated, and keep you motivated to carry on?

Notes

References

Christensen, L. et al (2021 April 19) Intentional learning in practice: a 3x3x3 approach. McKinsey Accelerate. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-accelerate/our-insights/intentional-learning-in-practice-a-3x3x3-approach

Dweck, C. (2017). Mindset. Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential. Robinson.

Goodman, E. (2016). The effective team’s knowledge management workbook. RiverRhee Publishing.

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to exercise choice and realise their potential in the workplace by enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation, PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

Taking your influencing skills to the next level – in seemingly impossible situations

By Elisabeth Goodman, 18th March 2021

My work involves working with managers, and working with team members. The questions they ask are often mirror reflections of each other: how do I work with a difficult team member? How do I work with a difficult manager?

Some possible answers that we explore in our coaching and training are listed in this illustration.

There was an article a few years ago relating to when the difficult person is a boss that I wrote up as a blog (Goodman, 2016). There’s another excellent one in the current issue of Harvard Business Review (Grant, 2021) that gives a number of options for more extreme situations, based on people’s experiences of working with Steve Jobs.

I shrink from directly referencing scenarios that draw on what seem like negative depictions of someone I did not know. However the actual lessons can be generalised and seem valuable enough to share and reflect about here.

Start from the premise that the more diverse the opinions, the more successful a leader will be

Julia Hoggett, currently Director, Market Oversight Division at the Financial Conduct Authority, and soon to be CEO of the London Stock Exchange, gave an inspiring talk on Diversity and Inclusion at the recent Rising Festival. One of her comments that stayed with me was the importance, as a leader, of surrounding yourself with people who think differently to you, and who will, as a consequence, stretch your comfort zone in the opinions and questions that they ask you to consider.

It may be worth, if you find yourself as a team member faced with a manager or leader who is apparently not receptive to different points of view, reminding yourself that it’s worth persevering – for the benefit of the team, the organisation, and also for you own sense of value and worth.

Needless to say, a manager or leader will be less likely to hesitate about the value of persevering with a direct report who is not receptive to alternative points of view.

In both cases, it’s useful to have a few strategies at your disposal. Here are some that I’ve evolved from Grant’s article.

Ask the ‘intransigent’ person to explain how they believe something (that you disagree with) will work

Our intention is of course positive. We want to listen to and understand their point of view. We’re curious. That can be flattering for the person we’re seeking to influence.

But the expression ‘digging a hole’ for themselves might be apt. The more someone seeks to explain something that they have insufficient knowledge about, or that is flawed in some way, the more this will become obvious.

And so the opportunity may then more easily present itself for you to offer help to ‘fill in that hole’. Or they may even ask “What would you do / say in this situation?”

Let the ‘stubborn’ person have control

Some people have a stronger drive to have control over situations than others. If you go straight into ‘telling’ mode with them, they may get defensive, and even do the exact opposite of what you ask them to do.

We know, as coaches, that people are more likely to change their behaviours if they’ve chosen the change they want to make and when and how they will do it.

So this is the ‘ask not tell’ approach again. As Grant says: questions like “what if..?” and “could we..?” might prompt the other person’s curiosity and willingness to consider other possibilities. They may not do so straight-away, but they might think about it and even surprise you by offering alternatives as their own idea! It will be their choice to do so. They will still be in control.

Consider starting with praise!

Hopefully you won’t be dealing with bullies or narcissists but whether you are or not, everyone likes to be liked. Expressing some as close to genuine positive feedback or affirmation for someone is likely to make them more receptive to some challenging remark.

As Grant says, it’s important to give praise in an area that’s different to the one you are seeking to influence. So you might for instance praise a leader for the quality of their strategic thinking, and then suggest that they take suggestions for day-to-day operational management. With luck they might acknowledge that the latter is not a forté of theirs. It’s worth a try!

Be prepared to get involved in an “energetic” debate

Some so called “difficult” people actually enjoy arguments and conflict, and are disappointed when other people don’t rise to the challenge. So, marshall your facts, prepare your arguments, and get ready to defend your position. You may well find that you earn the other person’s respect in the process.

Conclusion

These influencing strategies are not for the faint-hearted. Nor is there any guarantee that they will work. But, according to Grant, they are worth a try. I would be fascinated to hear from any readers who do try them, or who have seen others use them and what results they have had.

Notes

References

Goodman, E. (2016). What to do when the difficult person is your boss? Retrieved from https://elisabethgoodman.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/what-to-do-when-the-difficult-person-is-your-boss/

Grant, A. (2021). Persuading the unpersuadable. Lessons from science – and the people who were able to sway Steve Jobs. Harvard Business Review, March – April, 131-135

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to exercise choice and realise their potential in the workplace by enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation, PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

The impact of metaphors in communication and understanding

By Elisabeth Goodman, 4th March 2021

I’m quite early on in my exploration of metaphors and the role they play in our everyday lives. I have more books that I’m planning to read, and events to attend. However, having just read Lakoff and Johnson’s “Metaphors we live by” (2003) I’m keen to share my insights so far!

Lakoff’s and Johnson’s book has a wealth of information, that I’ll be reflecting on for some time to come. The aspect I’d like to focus on today, since it’s so intertwined with my work as a coach, facilitator and trainer, is how metaphors impact our communication and understanding.

Why the interest in metaphors?

“metaphor is as much a part of our functioning as our sense of touch, and as precious”

Lackoff and Johnson, 2003 p. 239

Since I’ve begun learning and thinking about metaphors, I can spot them in every communication I hear, read and write. For instance, here are a few of the metaphors I’ve used in what I’ve written so far:

• the impact of metaphors (a tool or a rock?)
• an exploration of metaphors (a journey or scientific endeavour?)
• the role they [metaphors] play (personification, acting?)
• a wealth of information (resource)
• aspect to focus on (seeing)
• so intertwined (wool, thread or plant?!)

I may have missed a few because they are so much an integral part of how I think, write and speak.

Metaphors operate at an even more basic level than the above though, as shown in some of the examples in this illustration:

Illustration inspired by Lakoff and Johnson (2003)

What is interesting for me, as Lakoff and Johnson point out, is how these basic conceptual representations arise out of ourselves as human beings and the interactions we have with the physical nature of our environment and the people within it.

In the afterword to the 2003 edition, Lakoff and Johnson also describe how what goes on in our brains (neural theory) creates primary metaphors. So for instance the concept of “affection as warmth”, or of someone being “a cold person” are linked to our physical experience of being hugged as children.

Our brains can also use metaphors to perceive what is happening in real time, and to imagine what might be through a virtual enactment of seeing and doing something. Metaphors not only help us to conceptualise and express something that has happened, or is happening, but they can also help us to express a new idea, create a new insight, and a new perspective on a situation. Think for example of expressing love as a partnership, an adventure, or a war. Each metaphor can convey different aspects of how you and another person might think about your relationship, or could think about it to enhance or exacerbate it!

And by the way, not all cultures regard “time as a resource” or “time as money”. We have a tendency to want to be busy “doing” all the time so as not to “waste it”. If we did not regard time in this way, might we put more emphasis on just “being”?

The impact of metaphors in communication

Lakoff and Johnson’s (2003) analysis of the role that metaphors play in communication resonates very strongly with what I’ve learnt and share with RiverRhee‘s delegates on management, and communication and influencing courses:

The meaning that people derive from a communication, is based on their personal experiences, feelings and intuition.

Adapted from Lakoff and Johnson (2003)

So whilst the words (and metaphors) we use might be representative of our own experiences, feelings and intuition, we have to check that our meaning has actually “landed” in the way that we intended with the other person.

The authors suggest that part of the skill for effective communication is in adapting the metaphors that we use to be more congruent with those of whoever we are speaking too.

Different cultural norms will be one of the factors in this…

For instance, I was talking with friends in Germany recently. At one point they referred to the ceiling coming down. I had no idea what they meant until I remembered an expression we use “the walls closing in”. So yes, a sense of claustraphobia, isolation etc.. brought on by the current epidemic. [It seems like metaphors can also be idioms..i.e. common to a few people or to a culture.

So we might deliberately avoid using some of the idioms common in our language when speaking with someone of a different nationality to ourselves. But what other metaphors are we using that might come across differently to the person we are talking with?

And how do the metaphors we use influence the tone and hence the outcome of the conversation?

Lakoff and Johnson (2003) come back repeatedly to the metaphor “argument is war”. This conceptualisation particularly interests me in the context of conflict – a theme that often surfaces in our work with teams and individuals. If “argument is war” is indeed a common metaphor, then this immediately sets a negative tone to any differences of opinion. Interestingly, the word argument has a few different translations in Spanish, one of which is “discusión”. Could using a metaphor like “argument is a discussion” or “argument is a collaborative exchange of ideas” create a different tone and hence a different outcome to this kind of conversation?

The impact of metaphors for understanding ourselves and others

I’ve started reading another book on my list: “Hope in a corner of my heart” by Gina Campbell (2018). In the introduction she says:

Hidden below your conscious awareness are metaphors… that influence how you experience the world and handle what life brings. Your feelings, your thoughts, your actions, your responses to what happens each day are influenced by these metaphors. And you created them.”

Campbell (2018 p. 7)

Campbell goes on to say in her introduction that the metaphors you created, unconsciously, in the past, will have been a way to conceptualise and respond to something that happened. They will have given you strategies which were helpful at the time, and may be more or less helpful now.

Lakoff and Johnson (2003, pp. 232-233, 235) also emphasise that using and understanding our metaphors can enhance our interactions with others and our self-understanding.

So spotting and exploring the metaphors we use, and those that others use in conversation with us can enhance our self-understanding, and our understanding of others.

I’ve written a previous blog on how we could tune into and explore metaphors through using Clean Language (Goodman, 2020) – and I’ll be writing more about this as I progress through my reading.

Conclusion

What kind of metaphors can you spot in what you think, write and say? What metaphors are the people around you using? How do these affect your interactions and communications with others? And what insights do these bring for your self-understanding and your understanding of others?

Notes

References

Campbell, G. (2018). Hope in a corner of my heart. A healing journey through the dream-logical world of inner metaphors. Bloomington: Balboa Press

Goodman, E. (2020). Tuning into and exploring metaphors with clean language. Retrieved from https://elisabethgoodman.wordpress.com/2020/12/16/the-manager-as-coach-tuning-into-and-exploring-metaphors-with-clean-language/

Lackoff, G. & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to exercise choice and realise their potential in the workplace by enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth recently completed her PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching with Barefoot Coaching and the University of Chester. She is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

The manager as coach: keeping ourselves honest

By Elisabeth Goodman, 9th February 2021

This time last year I wrote about the importance of keeping our personal values in mind in the workplace (Goodman, 2020a). I particularly liked Kouchaki and Smith’s (2020) reference to “eulogy values” – those that we would want others to think of us by. I also liked these suggestions for how we might ‘test’ our behaviour towards others:

• Thinking about how we would feel if our behaviour was publicised (if we did not adhere to our values)
• Considering ourselves as role models to others

Keeping ourselves honest as a manager or coach, for me, goes deeper still. The person we are managing or coaching is essentially in our care. The International Coaching Federation (ICF, n.d.) has a code of ethics that we adhere to as accredited coaches, but what about managers? And what else is involved?

Retaining our humility

Being someone’s manager or coach does not in any way make us ‘better’ than the other person. Linda Hill’s (2007) article “Becoming the boss” remains for me the hallmark article to help us recognise that being a manager does not automatically give us authority over someone else.

As Hill points out, becoming a manager is not something that we can do instantaneously. We do not come ready equipped with all of the skills that we need. We learn through sometimes painful mistakes. Hill’s article is a wonderful description of all that we need to remember about being a manager, and a lot of it is about respecting and earning the respect of the people in our care. Recognising that we have much to learn from them too in order to fulfil our potential as a manager.

One of my earlier blogs suggested ways in which a manager could elicit feedback from their direct reports (Goodman, 2020b). Just asking “What could I do to support you better and to help you be even more effective in your work? ” and taking note of what we hear could help to keep us honest.

The same is true for those of us who are coaches. We can learn a lot from the people that we coach, and I do. Each individual encounter teaches me something new about myself as a coach, and as a person, and I am always on the look out for feedback that can help me with this.

Experiencing vulnerability and growth

The chances are that, as a manager, you are in turn managed by someone else. If you have the sort of relationship with your manager that enables you to learn from them, then you may well have experienced moments of feeling vulnerable when doing so.

How do you deal with feeling vulnerable?

How does your manager deal with your vulnerability?

Is the overall outcome a positive experience?

How could you use what you learn from these experiences of your own vulnerability, and of the quality of support that you receive to influence and improve the way you support the learning of those who report to you?

As coaches, we are also expected to keep ourselves honest through being regularly coached by one or more others, and by having supervision for our coaching.

A recent experience of being coached reminded me of the vulnerability that coachees can experience in sharing what is preventing them or otherwise holding them back from achieving their goals; the barriers can be intellectual (cognitive) or emotional. We might not feel proud of our thoughts or feelings but they are what they are. It’s what we choose to do about them that matters. If we have a coach, or a manager, that we trust, then we can work through these discomforts. I chose to trust my coach in my recent experience of vulnerability, and the learning and new resources that I gained as a result were all the more special for it.

The mantra that I learned through my training with Barefoot Coaching (2020) was that supervision was “formative, normative, restorative and generative”. Having regular supervision does indeed support my learning, my acceptance of what I am thinking and feeling, my well-being, and my ability to develop my practice as a coach.

The equivalent to this supervision for a manager might be to use their own manager, or someone else as their own coach and/or mentor.

Conclusion

How do you keep yourself honest as a manager who coaches?

Do you ask for feedback from the people in your team?

Do you reflect on your own experiences as someone who is managed?

Do you have your own coach and/or mentor – and how does that work for you?

Notes

References

Barefoot Coaching (2020). Post Graduate Certificate in Business and Personal Coaching. Course manual.

Goodman, E. (2020a). Keeping our personal values in mind in the workplace. Retrieved from https://elisabethgoodman.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/keeping-our-personal-values-in-mind-in-the-workplace/

Goodman, E. (2020b). Giving feedback from a mindset of positive intent. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/01/becoming-the-boss

Hill, L. (2007). Becoming the boss. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/01/becoming-the-boss

International Coaching Federation (n.d.). Ethics. Retrieved from https://coachingfederation.org/about/icf-ethics

Kouchaki, M. & Smith, I.H. (2020) Building an ethical career. Harvard Business Review, January-February, 15 – 139

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to be true to themselves and exercise choice in the workplace by enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth recently completed her PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching with Barefoot Coaching and the University of Chester. She is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

Connecting through the screen..

By Elisabeth Goodman, 30th January 2021

Illustration inspired by Dr Robyn Vesey’s webinar for the Association for Coaching on 21st January 2021

Having conversations through the screen has now become a way of life for most of us, whether having a work meeting, pursuing our learning and development, or socialising with friends and family. Some of us have a love / hate relationship with the medium, many of us suffer from ‘Zoom fatigue’.

Dr Robyn Vesey’s webinar was an excellent opportunity to help me crystallise my own experiences and gain insights for making it a more positive one for others.

The psychological positives and negatives of connecting through the screen

I know that being on a Zoom or Microsoft Teams call often makes me conscious of how much I miss being in the same location as people when I’m coaching, or delivering a training course. However I’m not alone in saying that the conversation can seem more intimate too somehow, with more rapport between myself and the other person. That can tip over into feeling more exposed too. The strangest moments for me are when I come back into the physical room after a break only to see one or more people from elsewhere seemingly in the room too!

As Vesey pointed out, it can be more tiring interacting with people in this way because the interaction is somehow more concentrated. There’s less scope to ‘escape’ eye contact. The technology often requires a more formal approach to taking turns. There might be a time delay. People might feel more self-conscious about their image. If either party is sharing their physical space with others, there are more distractions to filter out.

Vesey also mentioned dissonance as something I had not really been aware of but makes a lot of sense now I think about it. How we drift in and out of being associated or present with the other person, and disassociated with or absent from them. It’s almost as though I have to remind myself every now and then that I’m not watching someone on a television screen. They are as real as I am, and what they are experiencing in this given moment is a direct result of my interaction with them and vice versa.

Finally, there is no denying that interacting with people in this way can be very convenient. Several people have mentioned to me the benefit of not having to lose time and energy in commuting. Some people also feel a greater sense of control, of reassurance even, from being able to interact with others from the comfort of their own physical space.

What the coach, manager or other ‘host’ of the conversation can do for a more positive experience

Vesey mentioned three things that we can do as coaches, that could also be adopted by managers and others hosting a conversation through a screen.

Create “containment” for the person we are interacting with

One of the most valuable things we do as coaches is to provide a quiet space for people to think. Vesey likened this to developmental psychology, where a parent soothes and enables a child to think.

We can all create this kind of “containment” through the quality of the attention that we bring to the conversation. We can provide emotional support by responding thoughtfully and generally enabling a productive outcome.

Manage the transition into the conversation

Many people are having back-to-back online meetings, without some of the transition time that physical meetings would normally allow. Or they may be making a sudden transition from whatever they were engaged in, which could be home-schooling, squeezing in a quick walk in the sunshine, dealing with last minute deadlines or other things.

We can do a lot to help others manage the transition to their conversation with us: giving them time to catch their breath, release some tension and generally settle in. Taking some genuine interest in how they are feeling, asking an open question, just listening, could make an enormous amount of difference; make this interaction more special. We might also share a little more about what we are experiencing than we would normally do, to help create genuine rapport.

Increase our awareness of the “systems psychodynamic”

Vesey described this as the whole context that the other person is experiencing and which will have an impact on their perspective and on outcomes: their organisation, their role, their emotions, the changes they are experiencing. It can be harder to tune into this when not co-located with the other person. So we might need to work harder to pick up this information through dialogue and observation.

Conclusion

How do these reflections relate to your own experiences? What might you do the same or differently as a result?

Notes

References

Vesey, R. (2021, January 21) UK Virtual Masterclass: The screen in-between: Coaching at depth online. Association for Coaching, webinar

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to be true to themselves and exercise choice in the workplace by enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth recently completed her PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching with Barefoot Coaching and the University of Chester. She is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.

What if neurodiversity was simply treated as another form of diversity?

By Elisabeth Goodman, 18th January 2021

Some background on neurodiversity

The term neurodiversity was first coined by Australian sociologist Judy Singer, and encapsulates a whole range of cognitive, sensory and behavioural diversity associated with neurological differences from what is deemed to be more ‘neurotypical’ configurations.

Temple Grandin is a well-known author and advocate for autism, who is also autistic. Grandin & Panek (2014) share their insights on early studies of Grandin’s own brain and that of others that go some way to describe these neurological differences.

Nancy Doyle, psychologist and CEO of Genius within is also an author and advocate, as well as a researcher, for the wider range of neurodiversity, such as ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette Syndrome as well as Autism. I was struck by her statement about the relative prevalence of neurodiversity.

“It is estimated that just 59% of people can be considered “neurotypical”. With prevalence data like that, we have to assume that neurodiversity is a natural variation within the human species.”

Doyle, 2019

Spiky profiles

One of the ways in which the estimated 41% of people with neurodiversity are different, is in their ‘spiky profiles’ (Genius Within, n.d.) and the significant strengths that the spikes represent. These spikes cover a range of skills including, creativity and innovation, verbal communication, honesty, empathy and authenticity, focus and sensory awareness. I work with managers and teams in the vibrant Life Science community in Cambridgeshire, UK, where such strengths could confer many advantages.

Whilst I have not sought a diagnosis for myself, and recognise the fallibility of claiming to be ‘a little autistic’ (Doyle, 2021), I am the parent of a diagnosed young autistic adult, and we often talk about how we might have this or that trait in common. We also discuss the strategies that would enable autistic people to address some of the ‘troughs’ associated with their ‘spiky profiles’ and so thrive and shine. These strategies are not so different from those that would enable many so called ‘neurotypicals’ to also interact and communicate with others, and to deal with change more effectively.

Possible strategies for supporting a “neurominority” in the workplace

What if we treated neurodiversity as an under-represented form of diversity, or a “neurominority” (Genius Within n.d.) and focused on the strategies that could enhance the representation, inclusion and general well-being of this minority at work?

Jo Farmer is another advocate for neurodiversity, and for autism in particular. She is also autistic and has written a series of enlightening blogs on how organisations could more effectively access the autistic skill-set, starting with recruitment (Farmer, 2020). Much of what Farmer suggests is to do with:

• clearer communication, with less ambiguity
• creating calm environments
• being more tolerant of the different ways in which someone might need to think and process information
• providing representation or support

As often happens, when I’m exploring a topic, the Harvard Business Review has a very relevant article too. Paul Ingram (2021) has chosen to focus on social class, as a ‘forgotten dimension of diversity’. His article addresses the 32% of of US workers from lower social-class who are less likely to become managers than their higher-class colleagues. His research suggests that organisations are consequently missing out on a potential pool of candidates for leadership that typically demonstrate strengths and values associated with empathy and caring for others, trust and loyalty, and motivation and the courage to change.

Although the situation is very different, if neurodiversity is another such ‘forgotten dimension’, then similar measures might be helpful. These might include:

• Adding neurodiversity to your organisational goals for diversity and inclusion (with measures for success)
• Working with your community: schools, colleges and local advocacy groups to reach out to those who are neurodiverse
• Being open to ‘non-conventional’ academic routes i.e. not just degree requirements but also lived experiences for prospective candidates (see one of my earlier blogs for more on this – Goodman (2019))
• Taking diverse approaches to interview your candidates e.g. through completion of designated tasks
• Including people who are neurodiverse on your recruitment and interview panels
• Having neurominority role models and advocates in the workplace

Concluding thoughts

Finally, how comfortable are people to disclose that they are neurodiverse? Should they have to? And if they don’t, how will that affect their ability to communicate what they need, and others’ ability to support them?

Amanda Kirby (2021) has an excellent article on this topic, which suggests to me that, more important than any advocacy or diversity and inclusion policies, is a mindset amongst all of us to express our own needs, develop strategies to be at our best, and be attentive and receptive to, and supportive of the needs of others.

Notes

References

Doyle, N. (2019, Feb 1). Making the invisible visible – supporting neurodiversity in the workplace. Personnel Today. Retrieved from https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/making-the-invisible-visible/

Doyle, N. (2021, Jan 18). Is everyone a little autistic? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/drnancydoyle/2021/01/16/is-everyone-a-little-autistic/?sh=3ff6c75b5666

Farmer, J. (2020, May 20). Accessing the autistic skill set – 1. Recruitment and interviews. Retrieved from https://jofarmer.wordpress.com/2020/05/20/accessing-the-autistic-skill-set-1-recruitment-and-interviews/

Genius Within (n.d.). What is neurodiversity? Retrieved from https://www.geniuswithin.co.uk/what-is-neurodiversity/

Goodman, E. (2019). Using smarter criteria than experience for selecting the right candidates? Retrieved from https://elisabethgoodman.wordpress.com/2019/10/24/smarter-criteria-than-experience-for-selecting-the-right-candidates/

Grandin, T. & Panek, R. (2014). The autistic brain. Exploring the strengths of a different kind of mind. United Kingdom: Rider.

Ingram, P. (2021). The forgotten dimension of diversity. Social class is as important as race of gender. Harvard Business Review, January – February, 58 – 67.

Kirby, A. (2021, January 27). Is neurodiversity coming out in 2021?.. and should we have to? Neurodiversity 101 Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/neurodiversity-coming-out-2021-should-we-have-prof-amanda-kirby/

About the author

Elisabeth Goodman, ACC is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that specialises in “creating exceptional managers and teams”, through coaching, courses and workshops, and with a focus on the Life Sciences. RiverRhee is a member-to-member training provider for One Nucleus.

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting teams on a global basis.

She is developing her coaching practice, with a focus on helping individuals to be true to themselves and exercise choice in the workplace by enhancing their leadership / management, interpersonal and communication skills, and their ability to deal with uncertainty and change.

Elisabeth is accredited in Coaching (ACC – International Coaching Federation), Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) in which she was a founding member of the Enabling Change SIG.

Elisabeth is working towards her PG Certification in Business and Personal Coaching with Barefoot Coaching and the University of Chester. She is also the founder of The Coaches’ Forum – an international community of interest for coaches to explore ideas and insights as an extension to their personal and professional development.