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 Introduction
Engages in Provocative Conversations
Provocative Conversations involve the use of the 3 D's: The duh, the deep and the doubting questions.  Certified coaches use "duh" questions to determine why there are problems in the clients life in the first place.  They ask "deep
" questions to get to the heart of the story the client is telling.  And they ask "doubting" questions to be sure that what the client is saying is really true.  The way these questions are negotiated determines the quality of the provocative conversation.

What Is The purpose of this learning guide?
1. To show how Certified Coaches understand and use the proficiency "Engaging in Provocative Conversations" in a masterful way.  
2. To help coaches help clients articulate what's really going on in their lives
3. To help coaches know what to do when resonance is lacking between what clients are saying and what is true.


During the one-hour overview TeleClass, the instructor will cover the following...
1.  What Engaging in Provocative Conversations means and why is it important.
2.  How Engaging in Provocative Conversations will make you a better coach.
3.  An Example of Engaging in Provocative Conversations.
4.  How you learn about Engaging in Provocative Conversations.
5.  What mistakes coaches make with Engaging in Provocative Conversations.
6.  The key shifts to make to Engage in Provocative Conversations.

What does engaging in provocative conversations mean and why is it important?
It's more than evocative.
Less than adversarial.
Different from confronting.






What is the model for engaging in provocative conversations?




How do you use this proficiency with your clients?
Suggest something more.
More possibilities. More concepts. More, or a bigger, game.
What most clients really want is to resolve problems.  Certified coaches offer an even bigger game with provocative conversations, of having no problems at all.

Suggest something different.
Offer distinctions, different frameworks, or suggest they make a change.
You come from a place where you are quite interested in having clients that are without problems, period.  That really gets their attention when you offer this option.  

Suggest something less.
Suggest an absence of something, eliminate the source of the problem, or decline to work on the focus. 
It's important to engage in provocative conversations because clients don't want to waste time, energy and money waiting to figure out why they have symptoms or why situations are what they are.  

Going deep fast
Your conversations need to get below the surface story and to the real truth of the matter to really have a powerful impact.  Certified Coaches go deep fast with provocative questions, without probing and pushing their clients as if they were cows being led to pasture.  


What are the greater truths about engaging in provocative conversations?
1. We're all waiting for a life-changing, provocative conversation.
2. Coaching offers a great environment for this.
3. Provocative conversations add long term value.

How will engaging in provocative conversations make you a better coach?
1. Certified Coaches don't take anything at face value.  
That's what makes them better coaches. When you don't take things at face value, you can help your client go deeper and actually resolve the underlying dynamic, not just eliminate the symptom.  

2. They wonder (with duh questions), they pursue truth (with deepening questions) and they provoke (with doubting questions).  

3. The key distinction is provoking vs. evoking. 
The certified coach uses questions to get below the surface. Great coaches don't just evoke what the client wants to tell them.  They gently provoke what the client may be hiding from themselves.  

4. People do hide from things they really want.  
A life with no problems at all is quite often wished for, and yet hidden. Engaging in provocative conversations allows coaches to help clients achieve/obtain what they really want, not just what they think they want.  


What are 12 ways to be more provocative?



What are some questions you can use to engage in provocative conversations?

1. I hear what you're saying.  You are a responsible person but you feel trapped and with no options.  And I'm just wondering, Why are you having any problems at all in your life?
2. 
What do you think the real truth is here?
3.
Are you sure about that?  I have a sense that there's something more.  Are you sure it's about ...(i.e. losing someone or something or approval)
4. Is this the kind of life you want to have?

How Do You Learn About Engaging in Provocative Conversations?
Practice the three sets of questions; the duh, the deep and the doubting.  
Listen to others in their conversations.  See if you can pick these questions out in the dialogue.  
Try NOT using these types of questions and watch how boring things can get!  
Ask yourself the questions around your own life.  Is your life problem free?  Why not?  Certified Coaches walk their talk.

What Mistakes do coaches make with engaging in provocative conversations?
1.  They stay on the surface accepting their client stories at face value.
They are not careful about being seduced to just follow where the client wants to go, thinking they are letting the client appropriately "set" the agenda.  They may actually be letting the client lead them astray.

2.  They fear asking deep questions.  
They are concerned about prying into private areas. They don't realize that their job is to navigate with curiosity so that the client can see more truth and do something about the truth if they choose to.

3.  They don't have a relationship with problem free living
Since they are not on a path to problem free living they don't know how to talk about it. Even if you are not there yet, your process will be highly valuable to your clients.

4.  They misunderstand the distinction between provoke and evoke. 
Consequently their sessions focus on evoking more of the client story rather than provoking them to see more and want more for themselves.

What are the key shifts to make to engage in provocative conversations?
1.  Think bigger.  
Go outside of situations and symptoms and look for the real truth.  Provocative Conversations are provocative because they rise above our ordinary way of looking at things.
2.  Pursue a problem free life.
Do this so that you can have a meaningful conversation about it.
3.  Be fearless, but also guileless in your questions. 
Clients can spot it if you have an agenda or you're leading them somewhere you want them to go. "Duh" really means "duh".
4.  Don't be satisfied with a chat. 
Expect more. Get more.

 

Class Notes

Training Call | here

                                     

                                                                                                                                            


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