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answers.” This is representative of the barriers some may face when mak-
ing the transition to the role of coach or facilitator using the core values
of facilitation. However, if the facilitator models these values successfully,
team members will be provided with the information they need in order
to decide whether and how to improve. If they decide to change, their
internal commitment to doing so will lead to substantive improvements
in the group’s functioning and the potential for breakthroughs. As men-
tioned at the beginning of this chapter, the multi- level learning coach does
not change behavior. He helps others decide whether or not they want to
change, and if they do, supports them and encourages the formulation of
a path forward.
GROUND RULES FOR GROUPS
When groups develop into e ective teams, and when teams evolve their own
community of practice, implicit ground rules become a matter of course.
FIGURE 3.5
The Diagnosis-Intervention Cycle (Schwarz, 2002)
2. Infer meaning5. Test inferences
Intervention Steps Diagnosis Steps
1. Observe behavior
6. Help group decide
whether and how
to change behavior
3. Decide whether
to intervene
4. Describe
observations
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New members of the group often have to learn these implicit rules as they
work their way from the periphery into full participation (Lave & Wenger,
1991). There are two reasons, however, why explicitly stated ground rules
are important for e ective group learning.
First, not all communities of practice have developed norms and ex-
pected behaviors that foster productive re ection and e ective communi-
cation. While the social energy generated by a community can, on the one
hand, “give rise to an experience of meaningfulness,” on the other, it can
“hold us hostages to that experience” (p. 85). As Wenger states:
The local coherence of a community of practice can be both a strength
and a weakness. The indigenous production of practice makes com-
munities of practice the locus of creative achievements and the locus
of inbred failures; the locus of resistance to oppression and the locus
of the reproduction of its conditions; the cradle of the self but also the
potential cage of the soul. (Wenger, 1998, p. 85)
Habits may have developed over the lifespan of a community that
block learning and prevent people from speaking their minds without fear
of retribution. Some cultures or groups may shun the idea of re ection
and learning, ascribing these processes to those who “don’t know what
they’re doing”; this often is the result of ingrained defensive routines that
have evolved to keep things just the way they are, whether they serve the
organization, its stakeholders, and its employees or not. Having explicitly
agreed- upon ground rules that help team members interact in more pro-
ductive ways can create the space for new, more functional routines to
develop that lead to improvements not only in strategies, programs, and
projects, but also in how people feel about their work.
The second reason that ground rules are important stems from the
nature of project work. In project environments, people are continually
rotating into and out of various team roles. New teams are constantly
being formed, and people must work with “new faces” who come from
di erent cultures, business units, and functional backgrounds from both
inside and outside their company, including strategic partners, newly ac-
quired entities, vendors, suppliers, and customers. The demands placed on
these teams require the delivery of quick results before a team is able to
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develop into a community of practice. While project charters and project
plans explicitly de ne objectives and the roles of the individuals involved,
they do not provide direction for how people might interact during group
sessions. And teams from such diverse communities that need to deliver
quickly cannot a ord to leave group norms to chance, especially because
each individual will have di erent interpretations of what constitutes ef-
fectiveness. Explicitly agreed- upon behavioral norms can prevent frustra-
tion among even the most gifted and talented people.
Each group should develop ground rules that enable each individual
to feel a sense of safety when negotiating goals and roles or when re ect-
ing on recent results. In di cult situations, particularly where individuals
may not be accustomed to retrospectives or where a failure has recently
occurred, Norm Kerth (2001) suggests that facilitators conduct a “create
safety” exercise to develop ground rules for group interactions. He begins
with Kerth’s Prime Directive, a statement that is akin to a ground rule, but
that can be used in all retrospectives with teams:
Regardless of what we discover, we must understand and truly believe
that everyone did the best job he or she could, given what was known
at the time, his or her skills and abilities, the resources available, and
the situation at hand. (Kerth, 2001, p. 7)
He goes on to outline the following exercise for creating safety.
First, begin by stressing that the purpose of the session is to learn and
improve rather than to nd fault, and that each aspect of the session is
optional. That means that no one has to participate if he doesn’t feel com-
fortable doing so. The second step is to take a con dential poll of how
safe people feel, especially when their direct supervisors are participating.
If appropriate, this is done by secret ballot. The third step involves asking
people to form “natural a nity” groups consisting of the people with
whom they work most often. Fourth, each group develops a list of ground
rules that its members feel would provide them with the safety they need
if they are to be comfortable discussing di cult issues without fear of
retribution or threat to their careers. Next, these ideas are combined for
discussion by the full group. Another poll is then taken to assess the level
of safety, assuming that these ground rules are adhered to. Again, this may
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