(extracts from December 2002)
South Downs Learning Centre |
Using the Five Questions as a Consultant |
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In an earlier edition of this newsletter we announced that we were going to undertake SML programmes for young people through the Brighton and Hove Learning Institute. This venture has now started. However we changed the name to the South Downs Learning Centre as we found that we were attracting interest beyond Brighton and Hove. We now have six students aged 12 to 15 working as a learning group. They started in October and we plan to create other groups in the new year. Five of the students have been home educated and one is currently at a local school. The latter student joined the group as part of our collaboration with the East Brighton College of Media Arts. The school had been labelled a failing school and it serves the most deprived area of the city. However it now has a new Principal who is keen to work with us to extend the use of SML. One venture we plan is to run learning groups for school students from this school along with two others in the locality. The existing learning
group has been answering the five questions that we use in SML and they
are working now on how to meet their learning goals. The venture is proving
a fascinating experience and fully justifies our faith in using SML with
younger students. We will provide more evaluative evidence on how the
programme has been going in a later newsletter. |
Responding
to the suggestion, following Rob Shorrock's article in the last newsletter,
that people might like to let us know how they have used the Five Questions
outside of a formal SML programme structure, CSML Board Member, Liz Barlow,
reflects on their use in the context of consultancy.
Having used the five questions to structure my learning for the last nine years, Rob Shorrock's article on using them at the start of a new role, prompted me to think about their application to other situations. I realised that unconsciously, I had been using them with clients since becoming an independent consultant almost three years ago. When meeting a client for the first time it is important to elicit as much information as possible in order to ensure that you meet their requirements for the project. You may have worked with the organisation or even that particular client before and so the exploration of the past may not be as extensive on every occasion. However, using the five questions, even if some are brief re-caps, ensures that nothing is missed and more importantly, that incorrect assumptions are not made. Many of the questions that Rob identified would also be useful in this situation and I have tried to build on them. The detail under each of the questions will vary, depending on the type of project that you are involved in, and I have listed some ideas under each of the five questions. WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN?
This is an opportunity to establish if the client has any preferences or is averse to a particular course of action. It is may be that this question is covered in several parts; an initial discussion and then later once diagnostics have been completed and clearer ideas formulated.
Using the information gained with "where do they want to get to", agree in advance how they will know this.
Obviously each organisation and assignment is different, but the notes above have helped my clients and me ensure that we know what is required. It would be interesting to hear other people's views on the above and hear of any other situations where the five questions have been used successfully.
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