Helping Heuristics
Helping Heuristics helps participants understand their interaction patterns when giving or receiving help. Through a series of short, structured interactions, participants explore different approaches to offering and accepting assistance, fostering self-awareness and improved collaboration.
Use this method when you want to improve team dynamics around support, address ineffective helping patterns, or enhance interprofessional coordination.
Solves: Premature solutions, unsolicited advice, mistrust, or a reluctance to ask for help.
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Step 1: Explain the activity and roles (client, coach, observer). Groups of three. (2 min)
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Step 2: Round 1: Client shares a challenge. Coach practices 'Quiet Presence' (compassionate listening). Observer notes interactions. (2 min)
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Step 3: Round 2: Client shares a challenge. Coach practices 'Guided Discovery' (asking questions for mutual discovery). Observer notes interactions. (2 min)
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Step 4: Round 3: Client shares a challenge. Coach practices 'Loving Provocation' (offering advice, accepting and blocking as needed). Observer notes interactions. (2 min)
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Step 5: Round 4: Client shares a challenge. Coach and client practice 'Process Mindfulness' (working collaboratively, noticing novel possibilities). Observer notes interactions. (2 min)
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Step 6: Debrief: Discuss the impact of each helping pattern from the perspectives of the client, coach, and observer. (5 min)
- Encourage participants to switch roles in each round.
- Emphasize the importance of trust and humble inquiry.
- After the initial cycle, allow trios to focus on patterns they want to explore further.
- Invite participants to create a personal profile identifying their default patterns and areas for growth.
- Incorporate the helping progression into other Liberating Structures like Troika Consulting or Wise Crowds.