Fun, Fast and Furious Decision Making Exercise!

Here's a fun exercise to do with a client who can't make a decision!

Fun, Fast and Furious Decision-Making Exercise

What you need: Your client—and a clear goal or issue that the client wants to make a decision around.

STEP 1) Explain the process

Start by explaining you're going to do a fun, fast-paced exercise and explain the process outlined in Step 2 below.

STEP 2) Do it!

• COACH: Ask the Client to express their issue/goal in EXACTLY 7 words.
• CLIENT: Expresses issue/goal in EXACTLY 7 words
• COACH: Ask a question related to that issue/goal also in EXACTLY 7 words (remind client they have 6 words to answer with)
• CLIENT: Answers in EXACTLY 6 words
• COACH: Ask a question in EXACTLY 6 words (remind client they have 5 words to answer with)
• CLIENT: Answer in EXACTLY 5 words
  And so on until...
• COACH: Ask the final question in EXACTLY 2 words
• CLIENT: The exercise ENDS with the Client making a decision in JUST 1 word!

2 top tips to help:

• It's helpful to use your hands to count off the words as you say them aloud.
• Do this FAST and get a 'pace' going so the client doesn't have time to 'think'! And it's guaranteed laughs as you both struggle to communicate in a specific (small) number of words!

So, how does this work?

The big idea is that due to the limited words used to both ask—and reply, both client and coach have to really focus on the core of the issue or goal. But perhaps more important is that this exercise creates a shortcut to the client's sub-conscious mind (ie. what they REALLY want) because the conscious mind is so "tied up" counting words.

If you liked this fun decision making exercise you may also like:

• Just Make Up Your Mind! 7 Fun Ways To Help Make Decisions Simpler
• The 5 Simplest Coaching Questions to Brainstorm Actions and Move Your Clients Forwards!
• 5 Helpful Coaching Questions to Ask When Your Client Says "I'll Try"

Contributing Author:

Emma-Louise Elsey has been coaching since 2003 and is the Founder of The Coaching Tools Company and Fierce Kindness.com. She's passionate about coaching and personal development. Originally a project and relationship manager for Fortune 500 companies she combined her love of coaching, creativity and systems to create over 100 brandable coaching tools, forms and exercises including 30+ completely free coaching tools. She now serves coaches and the coaching world through her exclusive newsletter for coaches, Coaches Helping Coaches Facebook Group and many other great tools, resources and ideas for your coaching toolbox. The Coaching Tools Company is an official ICF Business Solutions Partner.

Learn more about Emma-Louise & see all their articles here >>