Introduction

This is the second in a series of blogs that examines the ways in which I, as a coach-educator, handle the external and internal struggles of taking on challenging educational assignments.

In the previous blog, I described the situation where the management team of a particular IT company wants to strengthen their position of being a 'good' company by supporting the reintegration of unemployed people into the IT-workforce. All well and good. To this end, they have entered into an agreement with the local employment office, aligning with some of the government's attempts to reduce the number of unemployed people. They have also acquired the services of a local recruitment company to ensure maximum results. It's supposed to be a win-win for all concerned.

But, it's not working out. There have been challenges. Resistance, from the trainers, is increasing. As a coach-educator, who has strong opinions about using coaching in education, I have been brought in to 'solve the problem'. After some deliberation, I have accepted an assignment to design and run a 3-day 'social skills' course - for the unemployed people who are seeking jobs after three years of unemployment.

In this blog, I will take us through my reasoning behind the design of the course, and arrive at an outline which I leave to you to populate with your favourite activities.

In my blogs, I continue to write in a mixture of rhymes/poetry and narrative/story to suggest different levels of awareness. You will hear me think aloud in different voices.

Although firmly based on personally lived experience, the characters in this story are fictional. The company Ikon does not exist, although many similar ones do.

Transforming doubt into assuredness: Do not make a fool of yourself

 At the moment, it is the night before the first day of the social skills course where I will meet the participants for the first time. I am asleep, in the middle of a dream. Not a nice one.

Dummy, you do not know enough
Give up now, you might just as well
You don’t fool me, you can’t do this
There’s no way you, can do this
You are not smart enough, duffer

 You have been practising for this

You, only you, can lead this course
Do it, you will have a good time
They get you, to clear up their mess
Helen will think, you are OK
If you don’t do this, no more work

Your time has come to show yourself

You are the only one, the best
This is going to, expose you
Ask for a fee, they cannot pay
You can say, you are too busy
You fool, you don’t have to do this

This is the way to move ahead

Shine on, you crazy diamond
Too much risk, for you to handle
This sounds like fun, what else is there?
You have to think hard, what comes next
Now is your time to shine on full 

Be brave and show what you can do

No manipulation, at all
Make sure you research everything
I wonder what, may come of this
Amazing, astounding, that’s you
Do it, for the participants

You can rely on them, fully.

Learning from my inner voices

I rolled out of bed, sluggish and tired from a night filled with nightmare consultations with my inner voices. Some of them had had something useful to say, but which ones were they? Over the years, I have learned that listening to my many inner voices, I could learn more about who I was and what was important to me. I love to learn, so I set about learning, from the best teacher I knew - the one I see in front of the mirror every morning.

I made my way across to the bathroom. I was about to make the best of the bad night’s sleep, by sifting through what my voices had told me. Some of the voices had been there for pure devilment, others for my protection and some for my continued development as a course leader. All of them had something to say, to add, to remind me, to encourage me, to warn me. There were so many of them. Over the years I had identified nine of them, each with their own personality. I was ready to meet them face to face, ready to learn from their mocking jibes, repetitive chatter and wise words. Listening to them was one of the ways I knew would calm them down and get them under control. And once they were under control, for the rest of the day, I would be happier.

The toothpaste foamed in my mouth as I brushed my teeth and sprayed white flecks on the mirror as I asked my reflection aloud,”What did you hear, and what does it really mean?”

Dummy, you do not know enough. That tells me that I don't know enough, yet. I trust that I will find out what I need to know when I am there. I am sure the need will make itself known; it usually does.

They get you to clear up their mess. Don't tease. It’s not a mess, it’s another golden opportunity to learn, share, to lead, to make a difference. Anyway, if there were no messes, there would be no need to go and clear up. I'm happy to get the work.

This sounds like fun, what else is there? Yes it does sound like fun. Oh look, there's another butterfly. Steady on! Keep your focus. Keep it on the here and now.

I rinsed my mouth with clean water and bared my teeth in the mirror to inspect them before I set about on the adventures of the day - writing the 3-day course plan.

”Are we ready yet?”

”Ready, and one more thing.”

”What?”

“It's not surprising that they have chosen me to run an intensive social skills course,” I congratulated myself, “What surprises me is that they wanted it only for the participants and not for the trainers as well.”

Experience and the 3-day Plan

After a healthy breakfast, I made use of one of my most powerful strategies I had for designing and planning courses... a walk with the dog. Except I had no dog. So, I put the leash on my wiser-self, pulled on my jacket and went outdoors.

Walking around the empty local football fields with my jacket pulled tight against the drizzling rain, my aim was to begin formulating a plan. I discussed the assignment with my wiser-self, recalling as many facts that would be useful.

“OK, sleepy head, of all that you have experienced so far what do you think would be useful for this course?"

My wiser-self raised an eyebrow and answered me, "What comes to mind is that different cultures see leadership in different ways. Swedish culture expects and requires self-leadership, self-discipline and self-motivation. It's not even a subject to talk about, it is self-evident. The same applies to collaboration. Collaboration is required. From the earliest moments in nursery school, Swedish children are expected to collaborate, to play together, to create together, to work together. The smallest unit is We, not I.”

"You know a lot about it, for an immigrant,” I mocked my wiser-self.

”It's clearer when you look at the culture from the outside. Two of the things I most appreciated about this country when I moved here, we take care of each other, and we leave each other alone." my wiser-self concluded.

I noted with appreciation the lessons my wiser-self had reminded me, and continued walking, pulling my jacket tighter against the stinging rain, as I recalled working with people who had been unemployed.

“Being unemployed for a long period of time damages self-esteem. Every day of unemployment seems to be a confirmation that you are not worth being employed. It is natural that you find ways of explaining to yourself why it is that you are unemployed. To make sense of the perceived reality, the answers include reducing your self-worth and self-esteem.”

 "All well and good," I thanked myself for remembering that self-worth would be a factor in working with this particular group. "And what do you think of the trainers’ attitudes?"

 "In their defence, if I have to give one," I began, "If someone has been mostly working with highly motivated employees who have likely chosen to attend a course and refresh their IT skills at their employer's expense, it's easy to fall into the idea that your job is simply to be the expert in IT. You probably would not have needed much in the way of social or pedagogic skills in order to get through your working day as a course leader. The Swedish employee-participants are already well motivated to work alone on the self-study materials and comfortable with collaborating with their work colleagues in order to succeed in projects. It is understandable that these trainers have needed comparatively simple pedagogic skills and strong IT skills. Indeed it is for their strong IT skills that they have been employed. The material, the self-study and projects, to some extent replace the pedagogy required to motivate participants to successfully complete the course. But, when the groups consist of participants who have not worked together before, and indeed have not worked for three years or more; the requirement on the trainer becomes more strongly focused on pedagogy than IT skills.”

I patted my wiser-self on the head and said, "This is a lot to remember, and I'm not going to be able to write it down yet, not in this rain. I had better make my way back home."

My wiser-self, pulled at the leash and headed for home, ”I will need to be clear about which leadership style I use. I know that many non-Swedes are used to a more direct kind of leadership. I will need to be firm, but not overbearing. I will need to manage them in the way they can respect, and at the same time, prepare them for the open-hearted management they will get at work. I want to keep it open and trusting, yet still be assertive and keep things moving ahead. So, I will be vulnerable, caring and assertive.”

Noted: vulnerable, caring and assertive / thanks to Alex Choy.

“They have been unemployed for years so they may be somewhat depressed, lacking in energy, or even scared. I must pay attention to their feelings in the present moment, and allow time for us to work with feelings as they come up. They may well be feeling weighed down by a thousand days and nights of being unemployable. I will need to move their focus, attention and energies away from their current troubles and shift them towards their future. That means working with hopes and dreams.”

Hopes and Dreams, noted.

“And first of all, if I am going to lead them for three days, I need to establish trust and connect to the participants, then connect them with each other, create connections within the group, build mutual trust. Then I can step out and let them take charge of their own shared process.”

“In three days?!”, clucked my inner voice.

”We have time. Sixteen hours. If I can arrive at the end of the third day with them knowing a little more clearly who they are, individually and as a group, and knowing that it’s OK to ask for, offer and receive support from each other, then all I need to do is pass the baton to the informal leaders and let them carry on with the next three months.”

 “That’s quite a journey in three days,” my inner voice proclaimed, its voice rising to tell me of my anticipation of observing the change in the participants. Noted.

 Back at my little office, I wrote my outline for the course plan in my notebook.

The 3-day Plan

 Day One (half day)

 Aims:

•  Build trusting relationships

•  Describe the reason for this course

•  Find useful roles for this course

•  Reveal participants’ hopes and dreams

•  Find similarities and connections between participants

•  Clarify roles, aims and activities for this course

Day Two (full day)

Aims:

• Finding the informal leaders

• Increasing self-awareness and self-confidence

• Leveraging the empowered relationships

• Developing mutual trust

• Sharing useful information about how people work together

• Exploring and learning from challenges (being seen and heard)

• Discovering needs (study), mutual support

Day Three (half day)

Aims:

•  Finding and engaging the informal leaders

•  Follow up on ongoing mutual support

•  Plans and promises for the next three months

My sharings

•  I have shared ways in which you can also manage your inner voices, and make the best of them. We all have inner voices that natter away all day and sometimes more loudly at night, especially when we are facing challenging situations, such as leading a group of people who are struggling with their own ongoing challenges and changes.

• I have shown how you can have a structured dialogue between the different perspectives that your mind can take, in order to see the situation in broader detail, and combine them into a stronger whole.

• I have demonstrated that what you have experienced in life influences who you are now, and that even tough experiences can be enriching.

In the next blog, I will share my detailed plan of activities for you to compare with yours. I will also share what actually happened!

• What comes next, in the next blog is the fully detailed plan for the first day. I will take you into the first meeting with the participants and what actually happened. I will leave you, at the end of the blog, to consider what you might do the next day.

Connect with Martin Richards at Linkedin

An author and inspirational speaker in secondary schools, Martin Richards, is an experienced educator and facilitator who began teaching Mathematics over 30 years ago where he applied a 'coach approach' to teaching. He is currently a coach and mentor for teachers, course leaders and coaches in Scandinavia and is passionate about connecting teacher’s purpose with the greater Educational Aims.