If a client can identify these secondary gains/benefits and the goals that lie behind these goals, then she can identify other behaviors that more successfully meet these goals or that meet these goals without hindering the work of other people in the organization. This is an appreciative approach to addressing a seemingly intractable process. When setting up an Interlude of Appreciation, one first acknowledges the secondary gains, then looks to other strategies for achieving these gains. Given the work team’s interest in influencing the overall operations of the company, for instance, one can set up new structures in the organization that enable workers to influence production decisions without having to resort to surreptitious production slowdowns. Similarly, the director of the social service agency can be encouraged to employ alternative methods of being involved in all aspects of agency operations without having to resort to crisis management.
Sequencing and Timing of Goals. Alicia can use a third approach to coaching. This approach involves the re-sequencing of existing goals: one goal is no longer considered to conflict with another goal. Rather, it enables the other goal to be achieved. Two members of a management team, for instance, argue about whether the company should spend its money on a new marketing venture or on a major new research and development initiative. This Sequencing Interlude is established by asking an important question; Is the achievement of either of these goals likely to increase or decrease the achievement of the other goal. Rather than argue about the isolated importance of either of these goals, one can reflect on sequence and timing.
A coach might ask:
- Would the new marketing venture, if successful, increase the probability that a research and development initiative will be mounted and funded?
- Would a successful R&D project enhance the prospects of a new marketing push?
By reframing a conflict in terms of synergistic sequence rather than isolated importance, one can break up many logjams concerning program priorities.
Appealing to a Higher-Level Goal. One can also re-conceptualize a coaching issue by appealing to a higher-level goal. When established, this Higher Order Interlude enables an individual or organization to move from a first-order to second order conceptualization of a coaching issue—in particular a problem or dilemma. A coach might ask:
- You have identified X as a goal, while Ralph has identified Y. In what ways are these goals compatible? Is there an overarching goal about which you can both agree?
- What goal(s) can all members of your executive team agree on?
A coach engaging micro-tactics can often assist her client by focusing on meta-level outcomes, so that the client can negotiate differences with other members of her organization at a point of common agreement and need. (Bandler and Grinder, 1979, pp. 160-162) Two production teams, for instance, might disagree about approaches to quality control. A coach can help one or both leaders of these teams reframe their argument by first seeing if they can agree on a definition of quality standards. Then, given that definition, they can design a series of pilot tests to assess the effectiveness of each quality control procedure.
Managers may also experience internal conflict regarding priorities. Perhaps part of Ralph’s problem concerns the number and diversity of goals that have been assigned to his department. He is confronted with what we described earlier as a rugged landscape. There are many peaks rather than there being one dominant peak. At another level, we might wonder if part of the problem resides not in the landscape but rather in Ralph’s predisposition to dreaming. Is Ralph a bit of a dreamer because he is trying to escape from a set of conflicting priorities? Are his dreams nothing more than a mirror of the disparate or misaligned goals that have been placed on his department by other dreamers in his organization? He might become more effective as a manager if he is given a clearer and more strategically congruous set of goals. At the very least, Ralph and the people who report to him will become more fully accountable for accomplishing departmental goals if these goals are thoughtful and explicitly aligned with one another.
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