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Life Coaching-Explaining the Grow Model: the ‘R’ the ‘O’ and the ‘W’.

12.15.2008 · Posted in Health Articles

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Hopefully, you would have completed the ‘G’ section of your personal GROW model from my last article,establishing a personal goal or issue? Now you are invited to explore the realities, options and a way forward for your current situation. The ‘R’, the ‘O’ and the ‘W’ of the GROW model.

R is for REALITY

1. What is going on right now that tells you that you have an issue or a problem?

2. As well as what is happening, what is missing from your current situation that you would like to have?

3. What is happening now that is good and that you want to preserve to contribute to achieving your goal?

4. What have you done so far to improve things?

5. What were the results you got from doing these things?

6. What obstacles or possible barriers are in your way that prevent or hinder you from moving forward?

7. What resources do you already have to help you to achieve your outcome? (skills, experience, qualifications, personal qualities, talents, time, enthusiasm, money, support etc.)

8. What other resources will you need? Briefly, write down where you will get them.

9. The final step is to look back to your goal for a minute. The one you identified in identifying your topic or issue. Is it still relevant or has it changed? Make any changes or adjustments. If it’s still okay, leave it alone.

Well done! You have completed the REALITY section of your GROW model. You have already had a taste of what coaching is all about – stating the present situation in real and quantifiable terms. Perhaps this is the very first time you have faced up to an issue in this way and actually written down the answers instead of churning them over and over in your mind. If so, you may be experiencing the sensation of a weight being lifted from your shoulders.

Now consider your OPTIONS. This takes about 10-15 minutes. Having developed your topic or issue into a goal and clarified what is going on or not going on, you are now able to decide where you want to start to move forward to set about achieving your goal and considering the options available to you.

The ‘0’ in the GROW model stands for OPTIONS. Options are about what you could do, not necessarily about what you will do. So, let your mind run free. Brainstorm all the possibilities of what you might do in relation to this issue or goal. Keep your ideas free from judgment or criticism.

If you try to think of one good idea, you may fail and get despondent, so try to think of 10 ideas, even if some of them appear too outrageous or impossible. One of them might spark another thought that gives you a brilliant idea. So, remember you are looking for a first step not one idea that will ***** the whole issue. There are 11 questions in this section for considering your options. As in the previous sections, some of them may be relevant, some of them may not. Answer the questions that are relevant to you. What possible options do you have? Remember to brainstorm all the possibilities.

O is for OPTIONS

1. What could you do to move yourself just one step forward right now?

2. What else could you do if you didn’t have to explain what you were doing or be answerable to anybody?

3. What could you do if money were unlimited?

4. If you could devote all of your time to this one thing, what would you do then?

5.What could you do if you did not have to live with the consequences?

6. If you went to your manager or friend with this problem, what might they suggest?

7. If you secretly know what you should do first, what would it be?

8. Have a look back over your list of options and read each of them carefully.

Check to see if any of them spark another idea you could also consider?

9. Choose one of the options. Choose one that will move you forward just one step. Choose the easiest thing to do, or the cheapest, or the quickest, or the one you feel most comfortable doing but choose one right now. Circle it, highlight it.

10. If you do the one thing that you have chosen, just check. Will it move you forward? If not, choose something else. If it will move you forward, stay with it.

11. What is the benefit to you of doing this one thing? Will it make you feel better? Will it mean you will know something new? Will it change your opinion of something? Will it relieve the stress a little? There has to be a benefit. Identify it and write it down.

Congratulations! You have successfully completed the ‘OPTIONS’ section of the GROW model. By now your mind may be spinning with several options, including some you might never have considered before. Now the fun really starts as you begin to create a brighter future for yourself!

The final part of the model is probably the most important, because you can have a goal, know what the reality of it is and be aware of the options but, unless you are willing to commit to it, just forget it, there will be no point.

This section has the most questions – 18 in all. Some of them will resonate with you, some may not. You decide. It will probably take about 10-15 minutes. You have your option and you have your first step to move you forward. So, now do something with it. This session changes an idea into an action and identifies what you will do.

‘W’ is for WILL and WAY FORWARD

1. What are you going to do?

2. What will you do? List the actions you must go through to complete this thing you have chosen.

3. How will these actions meet your main goal?

4. When are you going to take these actions? What’s the time-scale?

5. How long do you think that that list of actions will take you? Can you identify anticipated time-scales for each item?

6. Should anyone else be involved in this list of actions you are going to do to complete this thing, or this issue, or this goal that you have chosen?

7. What do you want this person, or these people do do?

8. When will you tell them?

9. Who else should know that you will be doing these things?

10. When will you tell them?

11. At what point in your plan will you tell them?

12. Whatever your first step is, can you think of any obstacle or barrier that might stop you from doing it?

13. How likely is it to stop you? Is it likely or not likely? If it is not likely, that is fine. But if it is very likely, what can you do to make your first step more achievable?

14. How will you overcome this obstacle or obstacles?

15. What will you do to stop it from stopping you?

16. Earlier you wrote down when you would complete this first step. Is that timescale still valid?

17. Is there anything else you need to consider before you begin this first step?

18. In identifying your goal, you identified when you would have achieved it. You also identified a time-scale in this section as to when you would begin your first step. Put the two together. When will you actually start in terms of date? Be specific – day, time, place. Write it down in your diary.

You are there! You have now completed your own experience of a coaching session. It will have shown you how some very simple sounding questions can yield some very profound thinking and answers. Perhaps you have found that your intuition provided answers that surprised you. Perhaps you have already identified some great new possibilities.

You have worked through all the stages of the GROW model. You have identified your goal, you have worked through the reality, explored your options and identified what it would take for you to be willing to be commit to the action.

Commitment

Using a scale of 1-10, answer these questions.

1 = definitely cannot or could not be lower. 10 = definitely could not be higher.

How strong is your intention to take that first step on a scale of 1-10?

How high is your enthusiasm for taking that first step on a scale of 1-10?

How strong is your commitment to taking that first step on a scale of 1-10?

Experience shows that a score of 7 or below on intention and commitment means that it will not get done.

If you have a score of 7 or less, ask yourself a powerful, incisive question. ‘What has to happen in order for me to raise that score?’ Maybe that is where the first step should be.

If you have worked through this and answered all the questions that seemed relevant to you, you have established your goal, explored the current reality, identified and explored the various options available to you, chosen an option and evaluated your intention, enthusiasm and your commitment towards achieving a first step.

Well done. Congratulations! You are in the top 3% of the population who commit to writing down their goals.

Of course, you can work through the process as many times as you wish to. It can be used for all kinds of purposes and with anyone who wants to commit to living a better life.

When you use the GROW model with others, you will need to follow their thinking by listening fully to their answers and asking related questions. The self-coaching questions are a starting point which you can use, modify, add to, adapt and, in some instances, discard. It’s entirely up to you.

One of the most powerful methods of learning anything is by actually going through the experience yourself. Obviously, the self-coaching exercise does not give you an opportunity to react to and interact with a real coach. However, the purpose of the exercise was to give you the experience of working through the GROW model. Your experience will have reinforced the sequential aspects of the model.

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