One of the best features of Cloverleaf is its ability to start and ignite conversations that stimulate awareness and improve communication. Whether you are a coach or consultant working with teams, this activity can be used as a way to open team sessions or workshops.
Cloverleaf Hot Seat was designed at the moment and then honed throughout several team coaching sessions. This is part of the innovation that Cloverleaf provides. You can constantly find new ways to leverage the insights to fuel new conversations for growth and change.
The Purpose of Cloverleaf Hot Seat
To stimulate self-awareness in individuals such that they understand their impact on the team.
To create the space for open, honest team communication that deepens the understanding between team members. This increased understanding supports team trust and productivity.
This activity can be used in several ways. It works best in a live virtual environment, but if you use a large screen and can project Cloverleaf in a live in-person session, it can work as well.
This is not something you would use during the first or second team coaching session or workshop. This is best used with teams that have enough trust to share dissenting opinions, or be vulnerable discussing personal growth opportunities.
You may need to work towards this depending on how your engagement or meeting cadence is structured. It works ideally with a group of 6-15 people.
How It Can Be Used
To open up a team coaching session or workshop that has already been using Cloverleaf as a team and has gone over their results
To launch a group of people being added to a team in Cloverleaf. They should have already gone over their individual results.
How The Hot Seat Works
Make sure everyone has thoroughly completed their assessments and has had some debriefing/discussion of those assessments in previous meetings.
Ask for a volunteer who would like to be in the “Cloverleaf Hot Seat.” Explain that you will share insights from their profile. They will have the opportunity to speak to how some of those insights resonate with them, and their TEAM will have the opportunity to share examples of how they experience this team member in context with these insights.
Each “round” of Cloverleaf Hot Seat should take 15-20 minutes.
Project an individual’s profile into a video conference or live workshop screen (make sure if it's a live workshop screen that it is large enough for people to see).
You will be focusing on the section in the upper left-hand corner of the profile with the blue box that says Insight Search. Ask the person in the Hot Seat to select a category they would like to see insights from.
TIP: One of my clients suggested while facilitating, that another team member select the category for the team member in the Hot Seat. This actually provided another element of engagement that you can use if you’d like.
After the category is selected, randomly click next underneath the box to stop on an insight (think of spinning a wheel!).
You can read, or ask the person in the Hot Seat to read the insights.
Ask the person in the Hot Seat to share how the insight resonates the most with them, and to give a specific work example of that insight. You can do some coaching here if it's appropriate. If it doesn’t resonate, feel free to pick a new insight.
Next, ask the team how they experience or notice the insight about this team member and ask them to share a specific example to illustrate it.
Allow at least 3-4 people from the team to share.
Ask the person in the Hot Seat to share takeaways from their team sharing and what, if anything, is actionable.
At the conclusion of the team session ask a clarifying question:
What are people noticing about our team from this discussion?
What value can it provide to share these types of insights?
What are you working on now that can be positively impacted by increased team awareness?
Repeat this with another team member to start a new round as necessary.
Apply this to a specific project or business outcome by changing up the questions
Ask the person in the Hot Seat to pick a category from the insights that is most important to a specific project or business outcome.
Ask the person in the Hot Seat which insight would most influence the project or business outcome and how?
Ask the team to share how this insight about the person in the Hot Seat would influence the project or business outcome and how?
Ask the person in the Hot Seat and the team what new actions or commitments need to be made as it relates to the project or the business outcome.
Make sure to follow up with those actions/commitments.
Use this activity with a new team that is just forming.
Ask the person in the Hot Seat to pick a category of insights that will be most important for their team to know about them.
Ask the team members to share what this insight about the person in the Hot Seat means for them when interacting.
Ask the team if there are any actions/commitments that need to be made to help the team work at their best.
With an individual
You can use this as part of ongoing individual coaching sessions. Pick a new category each time, or one that is relevant to coaching goals/outcomes and ask your coachee the implications of each insight, if there is something they want to strengthen or be acknowledged for.