Vital Questions Kit

The Vital Questions Framework is a simple, clear but extremely powerful means of structuring coaching sessions. This kit consists of a two by two matrix which looks at the task and the people aspects of any situation and then further divides the areas into those that are external to the person and those that are internal.

As a coach, you can be use this framework as people’s personal preferences, their career development and the way they go about resolving their challenges. It can also be used to look at Team and Organisational cultures. The kit is extremely versatile and allows you as a coach to broaden your perspective and ask questions that cover all areas of a person’s experience.

Description of the Vital Questions Framework

As mentioned it consists of a two by two matrix with task and people on a horizontal axis and then a vertical axis with an external to the person and an internal to the person dimension. This gives four areas. So when looking at any issue the key areas are:

• External Task: What is the environment? What is happening there? What are the good things what are the things that need to be changed? This is the tangible solid world of deliverables, location, and actions.
• External People: This is an area that is often neglected especially in terms of career or work issues. It’s about the relationships the person has and the support or challenge they get. What are the quality of relationships they have? Who are the people that are causing difficulty? And again, what can they do about it?
• Internal Task: What are the skills or competencies that the person has? What are their strengths? What are the areas they need to develop in order to resolve challenges?
• Internal People: This is about the subjective mindset that people have. It is about their motivation and values, their beliefs and their aspirations.

Ralph Lewis

The Vital Questions Frame has been developed by Ralph Lewis, a Leadership Development consultant and coach. He is also a co-founder of the UK Centre for Servant-Leadership. He was a lecturer in Management Development at Cranfield School of Management for four years and is a Programme Director at London Business School.

Key reasons for using the Vital Questions frame in your coaching sessions:

During a coaching session the Vital Questions Framework enables you to:

• Look at all the aspects of the issue or problem the person is bringing to you
• Enable them to look at their issue from many different perspectives
• Develop a more strategic and focused set of actions to resolve the issue. This may well include areas that have not been thought of because they are outside people’s preferences
• Be more confident in the chosen outcomes
• Develop a vision that covers all aspects of the person’s challenge

This kit can be used for interactive plenary or video workshops. The facilitator’s manual will help you to carry out the various exercises.

The kit includes:

1. A PPT presentation for a one day event.  56 slides.

Content :

• The basics of the vital questions
• How to use it to look at your own individual preferences
• Career development
• Problem solving and change management
• Team preferences
• Organisational Cultures and Strategy

 2. A facilitator guide

• Full-day: Detailed instructions per slide for conducting this workshop
• 3 questionnaires for participants (Individual preferences questionnaire, Team preferences questionnaire, Organisational Culture Questionnaire)
• Instructions and questions for the workshop

You can personalise the kit with your logo and colours.

Benefits of the training kit :

– All the materials you need,

– Clear, precise texts written by professional trainers and coaches

– Meticulous page layout

– Considerable time savings when training yourself or others

– Exceptional value for money