Double ClickingMotivational Keynote Speaker Leadership Coaching Training

Hugh D. Culver, Marathon Communications Inc.

One of the most useful coaching techniques we teach is called “Double Clicking”. I originally learnt this from my friend and colleague Matt MacEachern. “Double Clicking” is simply a way to “mine” down in a conversation and to learn either more about a person’s thinking or to support them in creating a successful action plan for change.

The concept comes from the Internet – you double click on a hit in a search engine to learn more and to narrow down the options. For example, if you are looking for a vacation in Mexico and you enter “ Mexico vacation” you will get hundreds of thousands of hits – too many. So you click on Mexico vacations in Cancun . Now you only have fewer hits. Then you click on January vacation in Cancun all-inclusive. Now you have significantly reduced your search and you are getting close to a decision. Let’s look at a coaching example.

Suppose you are coaching a staff person, you want to know what they think they need to change to feel they are more “on top” of their workload and feeling less rushed and hectic. Your questioning is not going anywhere and they are feeling lost and frustrated. So you ask them “If you could change one thing to create a more positive experience at work what would it be?”. Their reply is “I would want to feel like I was productive.”

You “Feeling more productive anyone would like that! What would be one change you would have to make to get that feeling?”

Them “I don’t know…..I guess I would have to know that I was working from a plan.”

You “Ok, a plan. What would it take to have a plan to work from?”

Them “I don’t know, there are so many distractions in the day. But I guess if I had a list of important goals for the week…”

You “So what I hear you saying is that if you had a list of important goals you would feel more in control of your time and results, even with the distractions that we know are going to come along. Is that right?”

Them “Yes, that sounds good”

You “Alright, how much time would it take to create that list and when would it be best to create it?”

Them “I guess it would only take about 10 minutes and I could do it on Fridays before I leave work”

You “Ok, what I hear you saying is that if you were to take 10 minutes at the end of the day on Fridays and create a list of important tasks for the coming week then you would have a plan you can work from. Is that right?”

Them (somewhat shocked) “Yes, I guess that’s it!”

You “Ok, it sounds like we have a plan.”