Situation

An operations manager in his late 30s was wearing his colleagues down with continued negative thinking. He was well known for always coming up with the problem, never the solution. Eventually his manager decided: “This has got to change,” and sent him to see consultant and coach Diana Gibbs.

Clean intervention

Diana explained: “I have known this company for seven or eight years, developing the senior management team, facilitating awaydays and coaching, and this person has been around through that period.

“His belief was that he was saying things that needed to be said to protect his staff, or the operation, but he had no awareness of the impact this was having or how frustrating it was for the people around him.”

With a wide range of coaching skills at her fingertips, Diana had no hesitation in choosing a Clean approach for this job. “One reason I use Clean is that it helps people get into a neutral position, to separate the content and emotion. You also get the client to a different, more useful, class of information more quickly. They begin to see connections and relationships they have not spotted before. And with new awareness of what is influencing the problem, that opens up more choices for them.”

In this case, two sessions using Clean techniques led to a transformation. Suddenly, the client shifted his focus away from short-term problems and onto the future, to his desire for happier working relationships and a long-term career with the organisation. From there, more conventional coaching approaches could be used.

“We developed a complete project plan about how he was going to develop his deputy, and discussed the effect this would have on his boss,” Diana said.

Outcome

The results were immediate – and dramatic. “Very soon afterwards I had indications from his colleagues that they were seeing different, more constructive behaviours from him. His behaviour was so different – not that they didn't recognise him, but they were pleased and surprised.”

More about Clean in business