The GROW model

There are many coaching models available to help structure your conversations. One of the most widely known and used models is the GROW model (developed by Sir John Whitmore in 1992). It is comprised of 4 parts:

When using coaching questions in your tutorials you may wish to use questions that are orientated around the GROW coaching model: Grow, Reality, Options and Will/Wrap-up to give you a starting point and way to frame tutorial sessions, guiding conversations to a positive outcome.

The questions below can be useful in each part of the GROW model (adapted from materials developed for the workshop Coaching skills for medical educators). You don’t need to use them all; think of them as being useful ways to start the conversation and to help to maintain a conversation that is tutee and solution focused.

The (T)GROW model is based around a set of questions that can be used to frame the tutorial conversation and guide it towards a positive outcome. Example questions, developed by Dr Arti Maini, to use for each part of the (T)GROW model include:

Goal

• What do you want to achieve?
• Where would you like to be with this issue by the end of our conversation

Reality

• What are the implications of doing nothing?
• What have you tried so far?
• What do you want ideally?
• What has stopped you from achieving your ideal outcome?
• What part of this do you have control over?
• What is going right?
• Imagine you’re at your most resourceful. What do you say to yourself about this issue?

Options

• What are your options here?

Will (wrap up/way forward)

• What is your next step?
• When will you take it?