Unsticking a Colleague: A 15-Minute Protocol

When a colleague is wrestling with a tricky lesson plan, a disengaged learner, or a new piece of technology, our first instinct is often to jump in with solutions. We want to be helpful, to fix the problem. But this can unintentionally disempower our peers and prevent them from finding their own, more sustainable solutions.

Instead of offering advice, a more powerful way to offer support is to help a colleague unpick their own thinking. This simple, structured protocol takes about 15 minutes and helps you act as a sounding board, not a saviour. It guides your colleague towards their own answers, fostering professional agency and building a stronger culture of peer support.

Step 1: The Uninterrupted Download (3 Mins)

This is the most important step. Your role is to listen, not to speak. The goal is to give your colleague the space to articulate the full scope of the problem as they see it, without interruption.

• Start by saying, "Tell me what's going on. For the next three minutes, I'm just going to listen."
• Set a timer. This is crucial for resisting the urge to jump in.
• Do not ask questions, offer suggestions, or share your own experiences.
• Use non-verbal cues - nodding, making eye contact - to show you are actively listening.
• Often, the act of speaking uninterrupted allows the person to make new connections and see the problem more clearly on their own.

Step 2: Clarifying Questions (4 Mins)

Now you can speak, but your goal is only to ensure you understand the situation accurately. You are not solving, you are clarifying.

• Use questions that invite more detail, not opinion.
• "When you said the learners were 'disengaged', what did that look like?"
• "Could you walk me through the part where the technology failed?"
• "What have you already tried to resolve this?"
• Avoid questions that can sound accusatory, like "Why did you do that?". Instead, try a neutral alternative like, "What was the thinking behind that approach?"

Step 3: Probing Questions (5 Mins)

Once you have the facts, you can shift to questions that encourage deeper reflection and challenge underlying assumptions. This is where the 'unsticking' happens.

• "What are you assuming to be true about this situation?"
• "What is the one thing that, if it changed, would make the biggest difference?"
• "If you look at this from the learners' perspective, what might they see?"
• "What would happen if you simply did nothing for a week?"
• "Forgetting constraints for a moment, what would the ideal outcome look like?"

Step 4: Agreeing The Next Step (3 Mins)

The final phase is to move from thinking to action. The focus here is on one small, manageable step, not solving the entire problem at once.

• Ask a direct, action-focused question: "Given everything we've discussed, what is one small, concrete step you feel you can take next?"
• Help your colleague resist the urge to create a huge action plan. The goal is a single step that builds momentum.
• This might be as simple as "I'll redraft that one question," "I'll speak to Learner X before the next session," or "I'll watch that five-minute video on the software."
• Finish by offering continued support without taking ownership: "That sounds like a great next step. Let me know how it goes."

Where this fits in QualityHero

This kind of structured, supportive professional dialogue is a cornerstone of a healthy improvement culture. It builds the collective capacity of teams, fostering the professional learning and expertise that underpins strong Leadership and Governance. While these informal conversations are valuable in their own right, leaders can look for recurring themes that emerge from them. If many staff are getting 'stuck' on similar issues, this may highlight a systemic need that can be captured as a wider theme for investigation in your QIP or a focus for a thematic review in your Toolkit Areas.