When you want to coach for innovation, your challenge is to resist the natural tendency to voice an immediate solution or to give advice. Instead, start an exploration process. Move from telling to asking questions that encourage the other person to refocus their attention and tap into their own potential to generate options and find new, unique solutions. The three main focus areas for your questions are:
1. Information Gathering: explore the background of the problem or issue.
2. Causes: consider what led to the problem or issue in the first place.
3. Goal & Fixes: check the goal and generate options to solve the problem or issue.
Find out more about how to generate multiple options with Coaching for Innovation (2014, Palgrave Macmillan) by Maureen Steele and Cristina Bianchi