S4 E32 BONUS: Coaching, Teaching, & Classroom Management Strategies Sparked From My Conversation with Dr. Haesun Moon (❤️Olivia Wahl)

Struggling with Your Team? Here's How You Can Transform Group Dynamics

In this bonus episode, I discuss Dr. Haesun Moon's revolutionary Dialogic Orientation Quadrant (DOQ) model for powerful team coaching. 

Discover how this approach creates meaningful conversations by allowing participants to explore preferred futures, resourceful pasts, troubled pasts, and dreaded futures. 

Learn practical strategies for implementing DOQ in both professional coaching settings and classroom environments. 

I share specific "curiosities" (powerful questions) for each quadrant that stimulate deep reflection and agency among participants. 

This episode complements Season 4, Episode 32 featuring Dr. Moon herself. 

Perfect for coaches, educators, and anyone who facilitates group conversations!

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

01:00 Welcome to the Podcast

02:00 Dr. Haesun Moon's DOQ Model Article

04:00 Setting the Scene for the Team Coaching Demo

06:00 Understanding the DOQ Quadrants

08:00 Quadrant-Specific Questions and Curiosities

11:00 Flow and Movement Between Quadrants

13:00 Final Reflection Questions

14:00 Commitments and Moving Forward

15:00 Tips for Implementing the DOQ Model

16:00 Closing and Contact Information

💫Episode Mentions: 

• Team Coaching with the DOQ: Learning with the Hungarian Team by Dr. Haesun Moon

#TeamCoaching #DOQModel #DialogicOrientation #CoachingTechniques #EducatorTools #ClassroomCommunity #ProfessionalDevelopment #ConversationSkills #FacilitationStrategies #PrefutureThinking #SolutionFocused #EducationalLeadership #TeamDialogue

New episodes are released every Monday, with a bonus solo episode on Fridays featuring research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better serve the children in your care.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE to never miss an episode of Schoolutions: Coaching & Teaching Strategies Podcast: 

https://www.youtube.com/@schoolutionspodcast/

👉 FOLLOW me on social:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-wahl-4300811a/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schoolutionspodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/schoolutionspodcast/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/olivia-wahl.bsky.social

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@schoolutionspodcast

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi there. I'm so glad you're here. Your time is precious, and because of that, I want to let you know right away what you'll gain by listening to the very last second of this episode. My conversation with Dr. Haesun Moon focused on her Dialogic Orientation Quadrant model. This model helps us to have more conversations and have them better.

In this bonus episode, I highlight how Dr. Moon's DOQ Model provides a structured, yet flexible framework for facilitating meaningful conversations that can transform team dynamics in both professional settings and educational environments. It allows participants to explore different perspectives through both guided movement and purposeful questioning.

You'll learn how you can use the DOQ model with teams and why giving participants autonomy to choose which quadrant they begin in and move through creates engagement and ownership over the conversation and why the process concludes with reflection [00:01:00] questions that solidify learning and an intentional commitment to future progress. And as I say at the end of the episode, this truly is adaptable for all different settings, from professional team coaching to classroom activities, and even family conversations.

Stay with me. I'm so happy to have you as a listener today. 

This is Schoolutions Coaching and Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that offers educators and caregivers strategies to try right away and ensure every student receives the inspiration and support they need to thrive.

I am Olivia Wahl, and this is a bonus episode. It's an accompaniment to my conversation with Dr. Haesun Moon, season 4, episode 32. And if you have not yet tuned into that episode, I highly suggest you go back, you listen, and then come back to this. 

There were so many points in the conversation with Dr. Moon that struck me. [00:02:00] And truly impacted my coaching practice moving forward. She did such a beautiful job precisely breaking down her Dialogic Orientation Quadrant model, and when I reached out to Dr. Moon and her team asking for other published writing beyond her fabulous book, Coaching A to Z, they sent an article.

It's tucked into the show notes from the original episode, but I wanted to shine a light on this piece that Dr. Moon wrote. It's from November of 2019, and I have to say I am not only very much looking forward to using this approach with team coaching grownups that I have the privilege of serving; I'm also, as I was reading, thinking this applies so beautifully to nurturing classroom community conversation as well.

So what I hope to illuminate for you as a listener is how team coaching with the DOQ cannot only illuminate better conversations and make meaningful differences for moments that matter with grownups [00:03:00] that you collaborate with and work with but also for students in your classrooms. So here we go. 

What Dr. Moon captures in this article is around an experimental demo that she conducted at the 2019 SOLworld Conference in Budapest. And she begins in the introduction, sharing that “it was both delightful and dreadful when one of the organizing team members asked her to consider doing a team coaching demo at the conference just a couple of hours beforehand.” 

And we all know how that feels. It's so scary when you have a presentation planned. Then you have to pivot at the last minute. But then she goes on to say, “the delight came from the possibility of playing with the DOQ idea with an actual team made up of so many people who can support us. The dread, from the possibility of the play turning into a disaster, just a half hour, the inviter assured me.”

So what did Dr. Moon do? [00:04:00] Well, the first thing she did was not panic. That's a great step in the right direction. Instead, she reached out to two of her colleagues that were in the back room, and she worked with them as thought partners. That's exactly what we can do as educators, and it's also what I encourage students to do when they feel stuck or dread an upcoming experience.

And Dr. Moon shares that with their colleagues, Kendra Reddy and Irma Horvath. They created pages and pages of brainstorming notes and even a prototype of what and how they wanted to learn from the team. They knew they needed to share with everyone, including the audience, what the DOQ was as part of the process.

They needed to engage the audience as active observers of the process, and they needed to figure out how to move the team members around the quadrant together to have meaningful conversations. Then Haesun sets the scene: the beginning. They had created an actual [00:05:00] DOQ model on the floor and had all of the team members sitting around it in a circle.

They also had a flip chart set up at the front of the room, and the audience members sat behind them in a fishbowl format. And throughout each phase of this 10-minute process that she engaged in, she poses questions or what she calls curiosities to the group. The first was, “I hope somehow you might find this useful and consider this team coaching as our gift to you for so graciously hosting us. Now, I don't know your team well. What are some of the first things that you want us, myself and the audience to learn about your team?”

And these are some of the things they shared: They heard from everyone, what they wanted us to know about the team. What they wanted to see better and different who came in and out of the team. 

And while this was happening, the audience was taking notes to be able to use them as a resource for conversation afterwards. So I want to pause [00:06:00] there. What could this look like in a classroom with students? What if we used this with book clubs? Or with a structure where we're trying to have kids engage in better conversation?

What if we had book club members around a particular topic or genre or book itself in the center of a fishbowl where the rest of the class members were taking notes and we needed to hear and get to know better all of these questions: What they wanted us to know about their team, what they wanted to see better and different? Who came in and out of the book club, or even how they're struggling with pacing and reading or books on the side. 

And then Dr. Moon and her team moved on to the bedrock of DOQ. And she does highlight that since most participants were familiar with solution-focused dialogue, the Dialogic Orientation Quadrant or DOQ was introduced to the team members and the audience in an abbreviated version.

So again, if you close your eyes, you would picture the [00:07:00] four quadrants. The upper right quadrant is moving toward number one, the preferred future. The quadrant to the left upper quadrant would be two, resourceful past. Below that, the lower left quadrant, troubled past number three, and then four to the right below, number one, preferred future is dreaded future.

And so then the second curiosity was posed to the group. What was fascinating is they were asked, which quadrant would you like to begin with? And it just shows how we have to pivot and shift again as processes evolve because the question was prepared in the back room with the idea that they could get all of the team members to travel through the quadrant together, that they could visit each quadrant and talk about their experiences.

But that changed because as they moved from one member to the next, some wanted to start in above the line quadrants, while others felt strongly about addressing quadrants below the line, [00:08:00] and then the last member of the team spoke up and asked, “Why don't we all begin wherever we feel like we want to begin? And everyone nodded.”

And then they all got up. So think about the possibilities for movement with students trying this model, the autonomy, the agency they would have because they would choose the quadrant that they want to begin with. And so as they were moving, team members moved to the piece of the carpet that belonged to their quadrant of first choice.

They started asking each other about their experiences at that quadrant, wherever they were. And then I thought this was great too. Even as people stood next to each other in different quadrants, they were encouraged to have a conversation using the following curiosities of their own. 

So again, if you close your eyes and you picture quadrant one, which is the upper right corner, this is preferred future, and some of the questions that they were posing: “How might you know that we together are moving in the right [00:09:00] direction? How might others know? How are you contributing with your values and hopes, and suppose…. this happens, what does that look like?” 

So then I'll juxtapose if you are standing directly below that group in quadrant four, which is considered the dreaded future, these are some curiosities that they were considering: Knowing what you know about this, what's becoming clearer to you? What are you trying to protect? What's important to know about this? What kind of preparation might help through this if it happens? What gives you confidence that you might be able to get through this?”

And I want to pause there because this speaks so much to anxiety we are seeing in classrooms with students. What if we acknowledged dreaded future or concerns that they have, but then pivoted by after acknowledging: That sounds really [00:10:00] hard or That makes sense, you would worry about that. Then asking some of these questions or curiosities to help them shift back up to preferred future.

And then if you are standing in quadrant two, also known as the resourceful past, you were considering curiosities like: What keeps you going? What values are you resonating with? What are some of your favorite moments? What is it about yourself you like when you were in these moments?” So that's again, moving back up to positive content.

And then juxtapose quadrant three, troubled past here are curiosities that those folks were considering: “How did you manage to cope with or out of it? Who or what was helpful to you to get through this? What was actually valuable about this experience? How did you know that things were getting better from here?”

And there's a photograph of the [00:11:00] anchor chart that was posted behind the group with different questions that were bubbling up, and there's a plus for positive content, a minus for negative content, and then a 1, 2, 3, 4, representing each of the quadrants. There's also past to the left and future to the right.

And what's always fascinating when it comes to the idea of flow, there are ebbs and flows in conversation. And so Dr. Moon took advantage of little gaps to interject, and she was using a singing bowl that would sound, and that represented an invitation to move to the next quadrant of choice or to stay where they are.

And she says, “after another few minutes of us observing with delight and one last move to their final quadrant of choice. The team members sounded quite warmed up, even though, or because each move was three minutes or less, the team worked hard. 

And so I want to pause there because something I've [00:12:00] been seeing in middle school classrooms, a lot of teachers have been using a jigsaw approach or a gallery walk approach. And what I'm finding is when students know that they have a shorter chunk of time to get the task accomplished that they're being asked to do, they seem much more on task knowing that they have three to five minutes before they're gonna be moving and sharing with other students.

I see that same sense of agency and urgency here with the grownups. And then they all move back to the circle. 

So all I could think about when I was reading this section of the piece was around that workshop approach of where Dr. Moon started with a mini lesson and an objective of really getting to know and have better conversation with their team. She presented a quick introduction to the DOQ model, and then the team was doing the work. The audience had a task to take copious notes so they would [00:13:00] be able to refer back to what was happening, what was being seen and heard by the team members as observers of the process. And then they all come back to the circle.

And Dr. Moon says that “after less than 10 minutes of simply dialoguing with one another, the team returned to the circle and the final curiosities were put forward as options.”

Again, there's the choice. 

“Now that you have had a chance to speak to one another and hear their stories, you might have some insights or ideas. What are some of your pleasant surprises? What do you now know that you didn't quite know before this? What has become clear for you? What resonates with you and what was most useful?”

I adore these questions or curiosities. I think they're directly applicable to students in the classroom after group work, after project work, after a task and partner talk. I think these are so much richer than some of the talking stems that we use of I agree [00:14:00] with you, or I disagree with you. This really gets to the growth that happened after the conversation. 

And the team members ended up passing along a microphone and sharing their reflections. Lastly, there was a commitment beyond the session. And what I mean by that, it's really the idea of setting an intention of how you'll move forward based on the interactions that you had. 

And here's the curiosity or question that was posed: “Now that you have some of these new wonderments, questions, and ideas and so on, emerging for you. I wonder how you may continue to notice some signs of progress until we check in again.”

And then at the very end of the piece, Dr. Moon offers playing tips. She breaks down what this can do for facilitators and says, “Be creative in your design of the DOQ floor model. You can use tapes, string paper, cards, photos, and other available objects.”

She also emphasizes that we'll need to experiment. “The DOQ is a listening tool. [00:15:00] We have to experiment with different ways to listen to other stories.”

And then she asks, “What are some useful experiments that a team can do together? What are some areas that you want to experiment with?”

And she also reminds us to “remember the orientation. Questions, orient people's attention. All four quadrants make valuable resources available. How are we orienting others by exploring further?”

And then her last tip: “Try some of these conversations at home. It'll take a few practices, but you'll get there.”

I plan on not only trying these in classrooms with teams of coaches I'm working with, with teams of teachers, with teams of leaders. I also love the idea of trying this at home with family or caregiver conversations.

I can't wait to hear what you think about team coaching with the DOQ. Email me, let me know and I will plan on seeing you next week. Take care. [00:16:00] 

Schoolutions Coaching and Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me. Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Now I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. 

Let me know how Dr. Moon's DOQ model could benefit teams that you collaborate and work with. How do you plan on using this in your classroom with students? How do you plan on using this as a caregiver with your family members? 

Tune in every Monday for the best research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. And stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday where I reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guests that week. See you then.