We live in a business environment where everything is a crisis that must be solved now. We are so busy finding quick answers or meeting the latest timeline crunch that the critical thinking and analysis gets left behind. And yet these are foundational to what we do as business analysts. We need to think critically and we need others to do the same.

When someone is sprinting down the crazy path, how do we get them to pause, assess their purpose, direction and options? At our organization, we’ve implemented a coaching approach to engage business analysts in dialog at various “pause” points. The coach's role is to listen and ask probing questions. Our objective is to ignite thinking on the part of the coachee to clarify issues and strengthen their ability to think critically, problem solve and move forward. Can you see how this might work in interactions with stakeholders too?  

As a leader, can you challenge your BA practice to find creative, practical, and low overhead solutions that increase BA engagement and their ability to be critical thinkers and problems solvers rather than answer seekers?  And in turn increase the value of BA services to your organization? In this session we will share examples and lessons learned from our use of creative coaching and business storytelling practices to promote a learning culture and quest for excellence amidst the day to day crisis.

What Attendees Will Learn:

• Use coaching to engage BAs in critical thinking and learning
• Use coaching principles to get the most from stakeholder interactions
• Use business storytelling to enhance coaching effectiveness