Critical Incident Analysis
Critical incident analysis is a powerful tool for helping clients to analyse and understand issues and problems. It provides a practical tool for enabling clients to learn from their experience.
Key Stages | Coaching Questions |
Select critical incident | · Base the analysis on a real experience, problem or issue |
Describe the incident | · When and where it happened (time of day, location and social context)
· What actually happened (who said or did what) · What you were thinking and feeling at the time and just after the incident. |
Question | · Why did this incident stand out?
· What was going on? · Were there different levels of ‘behaviour’ or activity? · Was there a personal bias or mindset to the event? · Could the event have been interpreted differently from another point of view? · What can be learnt from the incident? · What can be done to progress a resolution to the problem/s? |
Share and Discuss | · Share each other’s perception of the incident
· Discuss the different interpretations · Modify the analysis, where necessary, in the light of other’s ideas, advice and perspective |
Lessons | · What lessons can be learnt from this? What might you do differently?
· What other options for action are open to you in similar situations? |
Action | · What action needs to be taken?
· Who needs to be involved? · How will it be implemented? · How will it be communicated? |
Although often used for one-to-one coaching, critical incident analysis is a good tool for using with groups especially where the incident is complex and a shared analysis would be useful.
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