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Secrets From a Coach - Debbie Green & Laura Thomson's Podcast
Secrets From a Coach - Debbie Green & Laura Thomson's Podcast
191. Shift From Tell to Ask - Coaching Unlocks Human Connection
In this final part of our 4-part focus on Maximising Human Touch we take a practical look at how to unlock moments of connection. In a time-poor world, being listened to has even more premium and is the most powerful way to connect with people during uncertainty and transformational change. Making the simple shift from telling someone what to do, to asking them what they would like to do is probably the easiest way to get into the habit of coaching.
We share simple ways to bring a coaching approach to life whether it be professional, parenting, partnering or friendship role. It also gives a way to gently steer conversations away from negativity and pessimism as coaching is all about enabling and empowering people to think about what might help them in that moment.
A useful listen for anyone looking for practical tips to bring coaching to everyday practice, or a healthier way to handle the impact of others if they are immersed in lots of change and disruption.
Curious for more? Here are some of our relevant episodes:
Ep. 66 The Gift of Attentive Listening
Ep. 94 Everyday Coaching Skills
Ep. 121 Team Empowerment Through Delegation
secrets from a coach thrive and maximize your potential in the evolving workplace. Your weekly podcast with debbie green of wishfish and laura thompson staveley of phenomenal training. Debs, laura, you all right? Yeah, I'll tell you what I'm enjoying. Well, if there was a word. In fact, we've been using this on our sessions as a way to check in with people. What three words? A beautiful bit of technology that enables us to place where am I in the world within a three by three square foot square. So, rather than a postcode, which could be a one mile difference, you're able to be located quickly. And actually, what three words is quite a nice way to check in at the start of a session. And one of those what three words, debs? That I would use to describe how my working week is going is hampered technology not delivering.
Speaker 2:Okay, wow, and how does that make you feel? Law Enraged, powerless.
Speaker 1:Okay, now let me ask you a question Are you powerless? No, I'm not, in fact. So what can you do? I'm so empowered I've ditched my old phone that was busting at the seams and I went out and I bought myself a super duper one, where it means I can do all sorts of things now that I thought I was going to be able to, but I couldn't. And it's an interesting one, debs, isn't it? Because you and I are firm believers that you know some of the things that can hamper you in your day by day. Actually, if reframe that as an interesting bit of content, and the irony is not lost on me, debs Are you practicing what we preach Laura.
Speaker 1:Well, talk a good game about this high tech, high touch. But there is this reality where, as our colleague Linz calls it, the gloop part of change of where we've got this sort of promise of all of these shiny things that are able to take away all of our kind of burden from our workload. But I'm not seeing a lot of that actual, tangible evidence at the moment, and so we thought it might be quite interesting, in the fourth, in our four-part focus, looking at maximizing human touch. What role those human moments in an ever-increasing automated, algorithm-driven world? What does that then kind of mean?
Speaker 1:So the focus we were going to take on this is the simple acts of shifting from a tell to an ask approach. What might that mean for unlocking human connection? So, debs, just to sort of go back to my sense of being hampered, am I alone? Is it a personal failing? Am I the only person out there at the moment is thinking what is going on? We're supposed to be having all of this shiny technology that we're spending all this money on, but the stress levels don't seem to be magically disappearing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, laura, you are definitely not alone, and I think any change that we make like that, where we get used to using a particular piece of kit or we get used to doing it a certain way, then it becomes our comfort zone. So when we're suddenly given something brand new to work with and play with, it's like why doesn't it not do what I thought it was going to do? And this isn't working the way it is? I can't, because we want it now, and I think this is what we're seeing is people are looking for it. Why would it not work how it used to work? Well, it won't, because it's a new piece of kit. So we're so fast at the moment that we're not actually taking a moment to slow down because we're expecting everything to be delivered now, now, now, now, now, now, now. And it's really interesting because I think our tolerance is getting lessen Lessen Is that even a word?
Speaker 2:Lesser, maybe that's a better word, because we have so much stuff going on. And whether we've got a to-do list on our phone, we've got a to-do list or tasks on our laptop, whether we've got it coming up as a reminder on something else, whether we've got it on our watch, whether we've got it on our watch, whether we've got it hit, it's like. So we have to decide what works for me and giving ourselves time to get used to creating a new habit around it. So, as you said, you've gone into the world of getting a new phone rather than exploding on you, so you're gonna have to just, you know, get used to it. And sometimes we just don't want to because we go yeah, but and it's the yes but that holds us back, that makes us feel hampered so I've just had a little oh my goodness moment how I'm feeling on an individual level with a personal device.
Speaker 1:I mean just infuriated, enraged, hampered, feeling totally like I'm the victim of all of these things around. That is actually what we're hearing a lot in the workshops around it transformation projects and the reality of actually what that then has, and so you might have a few people that are quite excited about something coming in, but there's a lot of people who might then be a little bit further back on that change curve or they've been sold this promise of this amazing technology and it hasn't quite caught up yet with reducing the kind of to-do list. So actually I've just sort of had a little spark moment of how I am feeling. It parallels the amount of emotion that we are seeing in this year around, just how people are feeling on the ups and downs of change curve and we've always had change around, you know mergers and acquisitions and people coming going, but it transformation projects seem to be the hot topic at the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you're so right, lord, because we're relying on so much more of that, and I think I was thinking I was listening on the news. They're trying to um, not to get political or anything, but I know some of them are saying they're trying to get rid of that gp core, eight o'clock in the morning, where you have to either ring up and hang on the phone for 95 people or you have to fill out a form in a certain time frame. So people are creating this. I've got to do it now. I've got to do it now mentality and the impact of that is huge because we don't get that phone call or we don't get heard, or we don't get a return or we don't get an answer. Then we go off on a tangent and go. That's where we feel like frustrated because we couldn't get what we want, because the technology didn't support us, and I think there's a real um dichotomy is that a right word? Dichotomy going on around, how do we adjust and flex to know that when we cannot just have everything just at our fingertips? And I think that's an interesting one, because everybody wants it now and you have to. And certainly in the world of coaching or one-to-one coaching.
Speaker 2:I'm noticing that when you ask the question so what's your preferred timeframe? How long have you given yourself to achieve X, y and Z? And a couple of people recently have said well, actually I thought I'd get this done in a couple of months and I go, okay. But you want to change your whole career. You want to step up a level from being a frontline manager or second line manager into a director, ceo, cto position. What makes you think you'll get that in two months? Well, I think I deserve it and it's fascinating to have that. Ok. So what I'm finding is part of the conversation I'm having with people is to say so let's just backtrack, let's just work out what the plan would look like. You're saying two months, you want to be a CTO? What's your notice period? Well, I've got six months notice. So how are you going to work six months but still start a new job in two? Oh yeah, I hadn't really thought that through. Fascinating what's going on in our minds at the moment Brilliant.
Speaker 1:And actually you just sort of sharing that. So I guess the topic of what you're sharing is around holding your nerve around timeframes, even though the world demand might be demanding instant response from you, but you're reliant on things that might take a little bit more time. So there's a bit of a mismatch almost from those so time expectations yeah, same with the gp appointment thing.
Speaker 2:I'm just using that as an example because I heard it on the news. Um, it's again. The expectations are well, I want a gp, I'm going to ring them and get my appointment. That might not happen how it used to, so people are harping back to oh, if only it was like the old days and if only I could talk to somebody. And yet they're trying to keep up to pace and move forward and have records, because on the flip side of that, I have access to my mum and dad's medical records at the touch of a button. You would never have had that when I first started in the NHS back in 1983. And now I have access to it. Obviously, I've got permission. Anybody listening, I haven't just. They haven't just given me access. I have permission to access their records because I'm their main carer, but for me that's a godsend because I haven't got to trawl through loads of stuff. So that side of it brilliant. The waiting, expecting service. Now I think that's the bit that people are having a mismatch with law.
Speaker 1:But the way in which you described that conversation about okay, so how long is your notice period?
Speaker 1:Using questions, and I guess what that enables is a humane way for someone to unravel what might be an unrealistic vision that they have in their mind.
Speaker 1:I mean, one of our early podcasts actually was about be aware that the impact a goal or a vision can have if you're using it to. But another thing to feel guilty about that you haven't done, and I know I have to watch that in myself. I got all excited and G'd up on a Monday about this vision for the week and then you're melting by the time you get to Friday going well, that hasn't happened. And then so to be able to sort of accept that actually sometimes the world might chuck at the things that you can't negotiate with and you need to negotiate around it to remain, you know, flexible and that kind of stuff just then almost feeds maybe that unrealistic expectation. Someone might have had a whim of an idea and then actually if someone else just tells them, well, this is how I did it, this is what you should do, then it doesn't give that person any fresh air to their thinking.
Speaker 2:No, that's where we look at that moving from tail to ask that. You know you can move up and down that spectrum, but I think where the best thing and the ones that get the best results is when you're being very non-directive and you're, if you like, enabling somebody to solve their own problem. So you're questioning by listening, by summarizing, by paraphrasing, by, if you like, listening to understand, really understand what's going on for them, just asking them the questions. So what is your timeframe? Okay, that's cool. So what is your notice period? You know, and it was like a lot, oh, yeah, I hadn't really thought about that. Oh, so it's not going to happen in two months. No, what's the recruitment? You know it was.
Speaker 2:Then let's ask some more questions specifically around that topic, knowing what I know, which isn't always pure coaching, as I call it. But if I had to make a call in that moment to go, this person is going to not do what they want to do, they're going to let themselves down, they're going to be disappointed. So why I wasn't directing them? I could argue that what I did was I asked them questions. So what I'm hearing you say is you want a job in two months? But I've asked you the question. Around your note that says six months. So you know, when you leave it hanging and the person sits there and goes, oh yeah, you're right, actually, oh, that's not going to work, and then you can say, well, what would work? So that ability to listen and listen, well, so I wasn't telling them no, but I also wasn't agreeing with them. It's a real fine line and I think everybody will be slightly different, but yeah, oh so, Debs, do you ever play poker?
Speaker 1:because I reckon that's the same skills. I just totally can see that you think you've got an ace in your hand and actually it's something it's not, and every part of me wants to go don't lay that card now. But part of that ability to just let the other person take the lead so they leave feeling like they're the one that has gone. Actually, I had this realization in my coaching session, rather than my coach told me I needed to do X, Y, Z, and then the resentment builds and then it becomes reliant and actually probably that's the last thing you want is is is someone feeling like they can't live their life without their coach?
Speaker 2:yeah, and that's not what for me, that's not what it's all about. And it's really interesting because, um, you know, we we've been fortunate to pick up a client, and you know, not just in other coaches. But it was really fascinating for me because when I said, how long have you been working with your coaches? Um, and they had another organization do it. Um, they said we'd been working with them for three years and I went, okay, you know, when you just go, wow, so for me it's always been I'll work with you over a period of time.
Speaker 2:What I won't do is become you won't become reliant on me, because the for me, the idea of a good coach is to give them the tools and the and the ability to question themselves, um, so they do make their decisions, not become reliant.
Speaker 2:Or I can't make a move, like that poker move, without calling my coach and I go that that's not a healthy space to be, because that's not helping that, in my mind, that's not helping somebody live their life on their terms.
Speaker 2:What I believe for me, a great coach will give them the skills for them to self coach. Sometimes, you know, people might come back around two years later, but not to have that for a whole three years I can't make a decision without that blew my mind. So, interestingly, recontracting with how they're going to experience coaching us as coaches was a really interesting conversation and I had to enable them to just explore it and ask questions around it. What's the benefit? How does that help? All those lovely what and how questions um, to the point of them recontracting with them as to what to expect from us now. They could have said, well, we don't want to go with you because we do want a mentor, or we want someone that's going to be a consultant for us. Yet they were adamant. They wanted coaches. So we have negotiated it with them and it is us they're going with, fortunately, but it's on very different boundaries.
Speaker 1:Which I think links quite nicely into well, how might someone listening to this then think about how can I transfer some of these skills into sort of everyday sort of moments? Because I was just sort of musing as I was listening to you talk, thinking, yeah, it's like Mary Poppins, isn't it? You're not there to be with that person all the way through the onward years of their life. It's a specific moment in time where you're able to create that space for that person to have the conversation with themselves, really being able to use that other person. I know, when I've, you know, know, heard people who've had this kind of light bulb moment of, oh my god, coaching is the way ahead and they just become genuinely reignited and excited about stuff, whether that is a frontline manager who's been brought up in a command and control culture, environment, but as sudden now, thinking actually I want to empower and trust my team, I'm going to ask them more questions. It could be that, as a parent, you're thinking actually I think I need to enable my child to be able to make decisions on their own, be able to call, you know, call upon their own reserves of wisdom, rather than always feeling like they've got to kind of ask for permission and, from a partner point of view as well, to be able to support your partner by asking some open-ended questions that enables them to think through things.
Speaker 1:So I think, whether it's professional parenting, partnering, best friending, these coaching skills are just such an amazing suite of skills.
Speaker 1:So if you were to, you know I know we've talked about this because it's quite a bit on various episodes that we've had but the slant I think we're taking on this is that coaching as an approach, as a set of behaviours, unlocks those human moments. That is highly tricky to automate. And could it be that the golden sort of vision we're all heading towards is technology takes all of the labouring of what we do, or some of the laboring, and then frees up time for someone to be able to have a decent one hour with their team and to be able to bring a coaching approach rather than just sort of telling them. So if you were to sort of give us a bit of an overview on a suite of skills, someone listening to this, there might be a trained coach already. They just want to freshen up their sort of love for it, or maybe someone with whom hasn't really had much formal training around a coaching approach. What would be some of the main ticket items, debs, that you would encourage people to to try out?
Speaker 2:I think and you know, I know in our previous pause you've heard me always say listen, listening is, for me, is the number one skill, being having that curious mind to want to ask the question. I think there's that. I think also, trust yourself, because I think we do know the right question to ask, but when we're caught up in I must follow a process or I must follow a particular model, we forget that we're not listening. So that ability, I think, listen to understand, really understand, ask questions, definitely, I think, reflecting back what you've heard, I think is also a skill that you can, we can all do so you know. But what I think, what I've just heard you say, is and it gives that person the opportunity to hear their own words, to always use their language, but also for them to go no, that wasn't quite what I meant. Okay, cool, so what was it you were trying to get across? So again, it leads into um, an exploration and a further understanding, because it's just an open space to just be curious. So I think you know making, you can make suggestions, but I always bear away from that. But on the on the flip, moving towards that ask approach, getting them to solve their own problems is definitely around for me listening, the asking questions, reflecting back at what you've heard them say, holding that space for them. So, therefore, being able to give feedback in the moment because based on what you, you say, what you saw, as I always say, I think that is the gift that we can give to people, because it's like we're holding a mirror up for them in that moment, and that's what we're there for is to create a space to hear them, let them be heard.
Speaker 2:Like today we were running a workshop and we were just starting the conversation around communication. It just opened up a whole nother conversation and I think this is where our human touch comes in, because we were able to listen. We held the space, we let them. You know, a couple of them were just going, you know, not ranting, but it was certainly offloading so much stuff that they've obviously held on to you could hear it. So, giving them that space to talk about how does that make you feel?
Speaker 2:I asked, I think, one question in probably seven minutes of them just talking, and then it there's another seven minutes and it was like they had run out of air, if that made sense, and then we picked it back up for them and say so what I'm hearing you say, paraphrase it back yeah, and how do you? And how do you feel about that? Well, I feel this. I feel that, like you were saying, I feel hampered, I feel frustrated, I feel like I'm not doing anything. It was a real opportunity then for them to just offload it.
Speaker 2:It was out and then we started to work on so what? You know what would be a good fix for you or what would be a good solution, or how do you want to approach it now, and that person, within that probably 20 minute conversation, just went oh, yeah, okay, yeah, that makes sense for me. I now know what I'm going to do. So I think that ability yes, we were supposed to be delivering certain things, um, but the ability to just go now, this isn't. If I continue with what we were supposed to be doing with you know that's not the right thing either. So, trusting your gut instinct, I think is super important. Going where the conversation needs to go for the individual. I think that's the other thing. It should never be about you as the coach, never.
Speaker 1:But, debs, I think that coaching approach you described there in a group environment. So I'm imagining that with every conversation there's a cost and benefit. It costs you 14 minutes in that highly productive environment to have a group of people. There were probably about 15 in the room, so that is yeah, 16 or 17 today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so that is nearly like calculations aren't quick enough. That's about four hours of human time, so 15, 16 people, 20 minute sort of diver, an off scripted conversation. So what benefit happens as a result of that four hours of processing? Well, first off, it's been processed outside, which means it's not worrying around in their mind, impacting your sleep. So, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, am I right in thinking there is a benefit from having that space to be listened to, because it means it it's almost you've got it out and it starts to dilute it, because it's not just your own head that is in with that.
Speaker 1:So, from a stress management point of view, taking a coaching approach, how are you, how are things? That then helps. The benefit, though, then, of then actually listening to someone so that you might have allocated on your one-to-one five-minute check-in, but if, at 45 minutes in, you're still talking with that person, asking them questions about what's going on, I think the other benefit that certainly I've seen work wonders in a training or a group environment is coaching approach. Gives you those forward, focus, positive frame questions to heave people out of the pit into. So what could you do then? So, as you asked me, as we were checking in just before we hit record. So what could you do then, laura, about this sense of feeling hampered and just being asked that you're forced to then go? Well, maybe I could, and then you start to sell it to yourself in terms of what that is.
Speaker 1:So I also think a secondary benefit from taking a coaching approach is for those people who are currently working with lots of people who are on a bit of a downer or a bit gloomy or very riled up and cross and angry about things that have happened. If you tell them to cheer up, that's probably the last thing you can then do. If you are, it should be done If you ask someone. So what might help you? It's a completely different approach. It might take a couple of minutes extra, but the impact that will have, rather than a surface veneer fake conversation where everyone is just masking and pretending they're all right when they're not, which only leads to you know, not great stuff it actually. I think coaching enables you to have that human interaction, but it also keeps it quite productive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does. And also, what we found in the room was even though some people in the room weren't involved in that, and whilst there was no names mentioned, it was very safe space. Um, it was really interesting because you could see people going oh okay, and writing some notes, as in questions they could ask so, even though it wasn't to do with them. The lesson and obviously you know, as we know, as facilitators um, you have to draw a fine line right between just only focusing on that individual and forgetting the rest of the people in that room.
Speaker 2:But there's I think that's an intuition that came into play that said okay, how's that helped you close that bit of the conversation down and then open it back up to the rest of the room to say so, how are you feeling now? You've experienced that. What's going on for you, you know, or you know, what are you learning? So that was fascinating because everybody then contributed to what they're taking away from having witnessed that conversation take place, with initially one person and then there was four others that sort of got involved in the conversation. But, yeah, that was, um, I think.
Speaker 1:I think that was an, again intuitively going with the flow, um, which I think only a human could do because it's only a human that can go, then think, you know, I might not have a similar scenario, but I have felt like that before, so I I can ask some compassionate questions. Um, so you know a lot of things in threes, debs and so sort of, just from what I'm, from what I'm hearing our discussion take us is the, the, the, the choice that someone now take, might now want to take after listening to this, which is, yep, coaching. I sort of know it's over there, but it's a small c rather than a big c. I am a coach. It is a lifestyle choice in that moment to, rather than telling someone, well, you know, what you should do is is to ask in them, so what could you do?
Speaker 1:The benefit of that, I'm sort of thinking, is threefold. So, first off, it enables you to create a listening opportunity, and that is the way that one human demonstrates that the other person matters to them and they have value. So that's really handy reminder for any people here who are working with, maybe, a group of people who disengage, they're not particularly happy in what they're doing. Listening to your people is probably one of the most powerful things you can do and it costs nothing other than time and because everyone's so time poor at the moment. That's why it demonstrates value. Someone took an hour out to actually find out. How are you through this change program? Talk to me, how are you? The second benefit is that a coaching approach, because those questions are so what could you do? So what have you tried? Because they are forward focus questions. They take people up and out of the drama and then into being sort of forced to think about what, what they can do, and that accountability bit, but in a gentle, compassionate kind of way. So it's a very productive conversation tool, particularly if you're surrounded by lots of big sort of drama and you know people are maybe a bit sort of riled up at the moment.
Speaker 1:And the third benefit that I think I have found, debs, from being sort of so exposed to this world of coaching now as a result of all the amazing people that I work with, is that my tummy doesn't go funny anymore, feeling like I have to fix this problem that someone is talking about. And I think that is the other protective power of deciding to take a coaching approach. I can lean into conversations where people aren't happy, where they're really pissed off, where there's loads of stuff going on and I don't own that problem. My my opportunity in that moment is to ask some coaching questions that enables that person to empower themselves.
Speaker 1:So I have found people's problems less stressful in the in the years that I've now decided to take a more of a coaching approach, because it's not I'm not there to fix it and tell you how you can make it better, which means that I'm the one that is equally kind of. You know, as anxious as you are in that moment. I don't have to mirror that anxiety that you're feeling, because I'm not going to be taking it away from you. What my purpose is now is to just spend some time listening, asking you some questions that enables you to come up with what you might do. So I think that's also quite useful for anyone that is out and about in the world at the moment, with lots of people that are having lots of chats and lots of conversations. Rather than you owning the problem, you're owning that space to be able to enable that person to take ownership.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%, that's all. That is exactly what it is about, because we haven't got the capacity to take on other people's problems and it's not ours to own, um, so if you have that ability to just gently I always call push it back to them with a question, why would you not? I mean, there's, you know, there are times when you, you enable people to explore it, and there might be times, depending on who you're talking to, where you might want to catch them in case they do something that's not healthy for them, um, but that you know. On the whole, I would say, yeah, ask the question first, don't just tell them what to do, because they won't solve it and it will be a repeat habit or pattern, because they haven't felt it, they haven't experienced it, they haven't worked their process through, they haven't recognized. It's not going to be a quick fix. So therefore, I can't just access it.
Speaker 2:So I think yeah, I think there's loads of, loads of benefits to it, and for me, that's what makes the difference in a room where you hold the room as a, as a coach, as opposed to, just like we talked about before, just training, because you're imparting skills onto someone. This is a different space we're working in. So I suppose I suppose that leads into my call to action. Actually, though, I know you asked me that before we started as to what it was, I said I'm not sure, but actually my call to action because of our conversation would be to be completely present to hear and listen to what that person is saying and trust yourself to ask the next question.
Speaker 1:Before I do my share the secret, can I just ask you to remind me what's that lovely phrase that you bring out a couple of times about walking beside? Can you? Just because? I think that's such a lovely way to just sort of sum it up that human aspect that comes from deciding to take a coaching approach in your everyday interactions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always say to people that I'm here. I'll walk alongside you as you go through your journey or you go through your experience. Whether that's a one-off conversation, I will intentionally be by your side. I'm not in front of you, I'm not behind you, I'm beside you, and I think that makes a massive difference because it also holds you to account as the coach.
Speaker 1:I think my share the secret would be links to the bit I was saying about looking after yourself. If you're surrounded by lots of waves of change and lots of conversations is if you know someone who is taking a lot of flack from their teams at the moment and lots of conversations left, right, center that might be impacting them and their morale, get them to listen to this and just taking a coaching approach can just help keep not a distance from that person but a boundary line between the conversation. You might be having to support people rather than owning that problem. You're owning that space and taking a coaching approach. So that would be my share the secrets. If you've got a friend you know is feeling a little bit under it all by all these people that are having conversations, then this might be a useful refresh in terms of how they handle themselves those conversations yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:that's so cool. I've really loved talking about this human touch bit and I know we let you loose with the robots and the AI, but actually for me it still comes back. Yeah, you still can't replace a human. I'm still on that Still on that Belly buttons. I'm still on that.
Speaker 1:Belly buttons apparently are the one bit of human anatomy they don't think they're ever going to be able to replicate. Oh brilliant. Do you know what makes me giggle? When I had my wake up and smell the silicon moment. My dear friend had sort of done this lovely blog post and she'd misspelled silicon. So it was silicone, as in, you know, breast implants, and it was just such a funny thing is wake up and smell the silicone. Can you spot the real, brilliant, the real and the fake, oh my god, I love it, so it doesn't.
Speaker 2:You know, you've got to try and giggle at these things, you know when, yeah, you do the real, brilliant, the real and the fake. Oh, my God, I love it, so it doesn't?
Speaker 1:you know you've got to try and giggle at these things, you know? Yeah, you do, and I think what's quite interesting is where it might be in a bit of an out there topic of conversation that we were starting to bring into the. It is so in our faces all over the place now in terms of. So it's been such a delight to all of that sort of thinking and discussions together for our maximizing human touch four-part series that we've done, where we've looked at everything from human beings, not doings let's keep that personal bit where we've looked at maximizing your cognitive potential, so how to think quickly and deftly whilst under pressure. So some practical tools there.
Speaker 1:We've had a look at what might that mean in terms of maintaining that human touch element in terms of our everyday conversations and shifting to ask coaching as the enabler to unlock human connection, and our hope and desire from all of this has been there's a wealth of stuff that's out there, so being able to sift through that and thinking what's relevant for me, what can I try out this week?
Speaker 1:And we've all got our L plates on here, so there's no one can claim to be an expert here, and actually I think that's quite liberating Debs, and this has happened on our watch. So if you are fortunate enough to be in a role where you have impact and influence over others, we're the ones that get to decide whether AI enabled automation, algorithm driven businesses and service experiences. We're the ones that get to decide what remains human, what gets automated, what gets kind of augmented, and, I think, play our cards right. This could be the best thing that has ever happened to our world of work, because I do not want our children working harder and longer hours than we currently are definitely not.
Speaker 2:I definitely not. I've loved it. I've loved chatting about it and I know it will be topics of our conversation, moving forward as well. As things always evolve and get better and smarter, it will bring a whole nother dynamic to it. So, yeah, let's keep chatting. Yeah, defo.
Speaker 1:And, of course, what this means is we've got a new series, we have yes, coming. Cannot wait for that one, as well, so I'll see you on the other side. Have a marvellous week and thank you, as ever, for sparkling conversation. You too Love you lots, and I'll see you next week.
Speaker 2:See you next week. Lauren, Love you Bye.
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