In simulation, we’ve often defaulted to debriefing and asking curious questions to our learners to try to understand the frames behind their actions and struggles. This can be hard to balance with the truth many teachers of novices know, which is: sometimes learners just need to be told what to do!
Coaching with good judgment is a strategy based off debriefing with good judgment, with the structure of “Preview, Advocacy, Coach.”
Step 1: Authorize yourself to coach. Sometimes we struggle with wanted to be “learner centered,” when what they need is for us to use our expertise to tell them what would work.
Step 2: Diagnose a coaching situation. Some signs and symptoms of a coaching situation:
The learner begins to struggle and one or more of the following may be true:
1) The task is meaningfully complex
2) You have lived experience of the task being difficult
3) The practice can’t move forward without this step working
4) This error can be corrected just at the level of actions without knowing what they are thinking
5) We’ve agreed that this is a skills session in advance
Step 3: “I see… I think… Try this…” Use the Preview, Advocacy, Coach structure to help the learner understand what to do and why, then quickly take more reps.
Workout of the week: Try out “I saw… I think (the consequences of what I saw and my concerns are)… Here’s what you should try.”
Leadership Coaching from Jenny Rudolph: https://harvardmedsim.org/personal-leadership-coaching-with-jenny-rudolph/