Serving As a Coach in Idea Competition
As a coach, my role this year is greatly different from last year. Last year as a member, I tried my best to generate ideas and express my opinions. However, this time my role is as a facilitator. Gaining experience from the camp, I was more familiar with my duties as a facilitator.
Role 1: Connect
When the members first came to the classroom, as it was in the early morning, many members were still not awake. So my role as a facilitator was to start the conversation to create a fun atmosphere for them to discuss about their project. At first they were quite but as I asked more questions about their fantastic winter break, they gradually became more talkative and shared about their exciting moments in winter.
Actually in my group, three of them were close friends who were from the same country and one was from another country. At first I was kind of worried that the three of them would get into a heated discussion while the other one could not get involved. But actually it turned out to be great that the other one was really involved in the discussion and came up with many cool ideas.
During the discussion, a member who usually talked a lot did not participate actively in the discussion. So I asked him if he had any comments about other's opinion and encouraged him to express his idea. During the coach debriefing, I learnt from a fellow coach that she encouraged the quiet person to take down notes about what ideas they had so that the quiet person would definitely get involved into the discussion. I think taking turns to take notes is a smart way to include everyone to be involved in the discussion.
Role 2: Listen & Ask Questions
As a coach, I did not express my own opinions whenever I wanted. Instead, I listened to them and summarized what they had said. I asked some good direct questions to encourage them to talk about the detail of their ideas so that everyone would be clear about it. Although most of the time the discussion was really smooth that I did not need to do much, sometimes when someone proposed an idea and no one responded, I asked questions to encourage other people to comment about it. For example, I asked " Are there any more views on this?", "What do you think about his/her idea?", "It sounds interesting, can you tell us more?" And this really worked that they would discovered more details about that particular proposal and get more involved.
Role 3: Feedback
I think this is the most important part as being a coach. A good feedback has to be specific, positive, observable timely and sincere. Because I got through all this last year: we came up with a project that we were passionate about; we applied for SEA Fund; we did not get the fund and abandoned the project; I did another project in my second year. So compared to them, I know more about project management and I think that is the most important part for me to be there. I listened carefully and provided appropriate feedback and suggestions during the project planning session. For example, when they were passionately discussing the number of participants of their project was around 1000, I knew that I would probably not realistic to happen. So I used sandwich approach to give them feedback. I complimented them first that they were ambitious and them I told them some factors to consider like "Do you have enough space?" "Do you have enough fund?" and they gradually realized that they should better change their plan into somewhat more realistic. I also encouraged them on their project that I really liked it and I was more than happy to help if they needed any.
My learning outcome:
As that was my last activity to be with first year member, I really cherished it. At last they got the audience favorite prize and I was as exited as them! During the whole project planning, I tried my best. But things that I can still work on is I can give more feedback with insight and let them find out how to improve but not telling them how to do so.
Role 1: Connect
When the members first came to the classroom, as it was in the early morning, many members were still not awake. So my role as a facilitator was to start the conversation to create a fun atmosphere for them to discuss about their project. At first they were quite but as I asked more questions about their fantastic winter break, they gradually became more talkative and shared about their exciting moments in winter.
Actually in my group, three of them were close friends who were from the same country and one was from another country. At first I was kind of worried that the three of them would get into a heated discussion while the other one could not get involved. But actually it turned out to be great that the other one was really involved in the discussion and came up with many cool ideas.
During the discussion, a member who usually talked a lot did not participate actively in the discussion. So I asked him if he had any comments about other's opinion and encouraged him to express his idea. During the coach debriefing, I learnt from a fellow coach that she encouraged the quiet person to take down notes about what ideas they had so that the quiet person would definitely get involved into the discussion. I think taking turns to take notes is a smart way to include everyone to be involved in the discussion.
Role 2: Listen & Ask Questions
As a coach, I did not express my own opinions whenever I wanted. Instead, I listened to them and summarized what they had said. I asked some good direct questions to encourage them to talk about the detail of their ideas so that everyone would be clear about it. Although most of the time the discussion was really smooth that I did not need to do much, sometimes when someone proposed an idea and no one responded, I asked questions to encourage other people to comment about it. For example, I asked " Are there any more views on this?", "What do you think about his/her idea?", "It sounds interesting, can you tell us more?" And this really worked that they would discovered more details about that particular proposal and get more involved.
Role 3: Feedback
I think this is the most important part as being a coach. A good feedback has to be specific, positive, observable timely and sincere. Because I got through all this last year: we came up with a project that we were passionate about; we applied for SEA Fund; we did not get the fund and abandoned the project; I did another project in my second year. So compared to them, I know more about project management and I think that is the most important part for me to be there. I listened carefully and provided appropriate feedback and suggestions during the project planning session. For example, when they were passionately discussing the number of participants of their project was around 1000, I knew that I would probably not realistic to happen. So I used sandwich approach to give them feedback. I complimented them first that they were ambitious and them I told them some factors to consider like "Do you have enough space?" "Do you have enough fund?" and they gradually realized that they should better change their plan into somewhat more realistic. I also encouraged them on their project that I really liked it and I was more than happy to help if they needed any.
My learning outcome:
As that was my last activity to be with first year member, I really cherished it. At last they got the audience favorite prize and I was as exited as them! During the whole project planning, I tried my best. But things that I can still work on is I can give more feedback with insight and let them find out how to improve but not telling them how to do so.