BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 71
Intervention and Leadership
can be prefaced with an observation, some of your own data e.g. an insight or
self-disclosure or with a statement of intent.
Questions may be used to stimulate the group while imparting information
about an individuals or subgroups part in it and are a key form of intervention
either because they help get an issue addressed or because you don’t know the
way forward yourself. Questions are also forms of interpretation (see previous
examples) since they are based on some value or way of seeing the world.
Good questions can reveal alliances or splits in the group, themes about
participation and inclusion, potential struggles or help identify barriers to
moving forward.
The method of questioning, making connections between actions, people and critical
issues must attempt to involve all those in the group so that everyone can see how they
are affected by the demands of getting to an outcome. Actions or issues previously
described narrowly can be reframed and expanded thus giving all group members a
wider vocabulary for action6. The table below (Figure 4) summarises six different
forms of questions.
6. Integrating Observation, Interpretation
and Questioning: Intervening with an
Experimental Mindset
Designing an effective intervention requires one to ask some fundamental
questions. Firstly “why” am I doing this, in other words what is my purpose
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