By Charles Brassard
Impact Coaching Inc.

Managers often wonder when they can find the time in their busy schedule to pause and reflect on what they have done, what's on their plate, and what's ahead in the bigger context of their job. Learning seems a distant priority when pressure is mounting to produce immediate results. Learning is often viewed as something you get out there, beyond your normal work life, when you occasionally need to fill up with expert knowledge. While this sounds like the learning we've grown accustomed to, the possibilities for integrating learning into our lives abound in our everyday work and personal experiences. The questions we face are:

• How can we tap into our own insights and that of others to be more effective at what we do?
• How can we take advantage of being in the midst of action to learn something new about ourselves, the people we work with, our organization, and the challenges we face together?
• How can we support the people in our team in realizing their full potential?

Answers to these questions may seem trivial but embodying learning in our every day actions is a lot harder than simply getting it intellectually. It requires that we pay attention to what we want to learn and that we practice the things we want to change.

Peer coaching circles (otherwise known as action learning groups) come from this vantage point. They start from the premise that adults learn better under certain conditions:

• When the cycle of action, reflection, and learning is embedded in their practice and focuses on their reality;
• When they are able to observe themselves in action and to have others feedback to them what they see;
• When they have the capacity to ask discriminating questions about their situation and can support others in thinking creatively about the dilemmas they are facing; and,
• When they can explore issues and vulnerabilities with peers in a safe learning environment.

In this kind of environment, managers hold the key to their learning and have the opportunity to harvest the collective intelligence and wisdom of their colleagues.

Peer coaching circles help managers make sense of the dilemmas, challenges or issues they face in their jobs and explore effective actions to resolve them. They also help them gain first hand experience in coaching their peers in ways that open new possibilities for action, reflection and learning. Coaching circles work on the basis of collaborative inquiry. In this context, asking insightful questions and reflecting on the possibilities they create is considered to be more valuable and to have more impact than providing expert knowledge or specific answers to problems.

Typical coaching circles are composed of six managers who meet for one day every six weeks. In addition, an experienced coach helps the group to master the process and build their learning and coaching competence. During group sessions, each manager gets "air time" to address the project they bring to the group. The manager briefly outlines what they have done and the most pressing issues or dilemmas facing them. In response to the manager's specific request, group members ask questions that help to shed new light on the issues and to explore new possibilities for action. They try to avoid providing advice or getting into a problem solving mode. Near the end of the time period, the manager reflects on what was heard, which questions were helpful and what actions can be taken. Other participants also reflect on what they learned from the exchange. The group takes a few minutes to share their insights/observations before moving on to the next "air time".

Over time this way of working together provides managers with a wide range of opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills and performance. Let's look at how managers can use what they learn through peer circles to be better coaches in their job.

1. Managers learn to reflect - This means first and foremost that they learn to stop, i.e. to break away, if only momentarily, from the treadmill of immediate transactions. Reflecting on one's experiences makes learning explicit. In coaching circles, managers practice paying attention to the process they are engaged in, to what they are learning and to what's going on with them and the people in the group. They learn to respect silence and stillness as a means for action rather than time wasted.
2. Managers learn to uphold their commitments - In coaching circles, managers make commitments about the actions they intend to take to advance their project or address their challenge. These commitments can extend to their peers, boss, staff and clients. They recognize that making their intentions public is an important aspect of holding themselves accountable for their learning. They also recognize that competence can only be enhanced through practice in the real world.
3. Managers learn to stand in other peoples' shoes - In order to attend to their peers' needs and to be of service to them, managers learn to detect underlying beliefs and assumptions and understand the way others see the world. They learn to pay attention to the language their peers use and the actions they take in order to access their world and to help them gain new perspectives from which to see their problems or challenges. The questions managers raise challenge their assumptions and push them to consider new possibilities for action. Through this process, managers uncover important clues in relation to their own learning and development.
4. Managers learn about how their organization works - Peer coaching circles bring together managers from very different parts of the organization. Their exposure to other peoples' projects and dilemmas raises their awareness of the organization, how decisions are made, the culture they are embedded in and the opportunities that exist for advancing their own agenda. They also realize in short order that the issues they face are similar to those faced by their peers. Understanding the context within which people take actions and the relationships that support them is an important dimension of coaching others.
5. Managers learn to think in new and different ways - The questions raised by peers often have the effect of shedding a whole new light on one's problem. Creativity comes from people opening up new ways of seeing a dilemma through powerful questions, e.g. what makes you think this is not going to work? What would happen if…? It also comes from the ability to process questions into actions that were not apparent before. Coaching involves evoking new possibilities for someone else so that they can make sense of them in their world. As creative as it may be, giving 'your' advice may do little to build the other person's ability to be creative over the long term.
6. Managers learn about themselves - Peer coaching circles provide a safe ground from which to explore one's strengths and weaknesses and to admit, "I don't know". Humility is a great asset for learning and managers have ample opportunity to practice this with their trusted peers. Learning about oneself also means paying attention to one's mood, feelings, what happens in your body and what triggers these responses. It means being able to detach oneself from the action and to observe objectively what has gone on, e.g. what did I notice in this situation? How did I decide what to do? Gaining access into one's inner world is an essential step to coaching others with compassion and respect.
7. Managers learn how to learn - Coaching circles are more than managers helping each other solve problems. They are about learning new behaviors that enable managers to notice and take corrective measures when their actions are not aligned with their intentions. They are also about becoming more competent at learning on a self-generating basis. Coaching circles are practice fields that help managers make increasingly clearer distinctions about learning that they can use in their work and personal lives.
8. Managers learn how to listen - Listening is often considered one of those skills that are easy to measure, i.e. the absence of speaking. In reality, listening is much more than that. In peer coaching circles, managers develop their ability to suspend judgment so that they can listen fully to what others are saying. Listening requires patience, the ability to hold the other person with our full attention, the ability to hold the silence long enough for the other person to process what may have just happened. Managers learn to listen in ways that generate possibilities for reflection and action. Their challenge is to integrate this skill in how they manage the web of relationships they must count on to meet their commitments.
9. Managers learn to give and receive feedback - In coaching circles, managers constantly practice their ability to observe others and to make assessments about their situations. They use these skills to ask good questions and to provide feedback during the guided debriefing periods scheduled after each 'air time' and at the end of each day. Debriefings are a common tool for managers to review and learn from their actions. Giving honest and precise feedback from a perspective of support and respect (and getting feedback) is probably one of the most powerful actions managers can take to develop themselves and those around them.
10. Managers learn to ask supportive questions - Asking questions are core to peer coaching circles. It's the glue that holds the process together. In an era when knowledge is created at an exponential rate and managers are constantly asked to do more with less, the art of asking questions, if not a survival skill, is a key leadership skill. Questions help people in their reflection, challenge their beliefs and assumptions, and stimulate new ways of taking action. Questions empower others to make their own decisions and to learn while doing so. Telling others what to do is often a short-term fix. As managers develop their coaching skills, they can decide which hat to wear to achieve better results.

Peer coaching circles are one innovative way for managers to learn to be more effective at what they do. They provide a rhythm of action, reflection and learning that supports their development in real time and over an extended period (i.e. one year or more). Some peer coaching circles (otherwise known as action learning groups) introduced in the Canadian Public Service over 5 years ago are still active.

Peer coaching circles help people pay attention to their long-term performance and foster the development of competencies where it counts, on the job and in peoples' own lives.

Even if peer coaching circles are not for you, think of how you can apply some of the lessons from this article in your world.