Video Transcript: Making a Plan Part 1

All right, Steve Elzinga. Here again, and we are in our coaching class, I hope it's going really  well for you, we're finally moving off the whole, helping the client make a decision. I know,  there were a lot of sessions on it. But again, that's the hardest thing is to help someone figure out what area in their life that they want to, you know, make progress on or where they're  struggling, or where there's stress, or where there's an opportunity or, you know, whatever it  is, whatever area of life that they want to do something, and you want to help them do it.  That's the hardest part. But we're moving on from that, and we're moving to the second part  is making a plan. Remember, coaching is about getting your client to some form of action.  That's the whole goal. This is not counseling, where you look at the past and, and try to, you  know, try to get your client to understand why they are the way they are, why things are  going on in certain relationships. It's about action, about getting someone to figure out what  to do, how to do it, and hold them accountable to do it. Three things coaches do to  accomplish this coaching. In some ways, it's very simple. Once you understand it, you get it.  It's simple to understand, but it's hard to actually do. But here's the three things, help your  client figure out what they want to do. In other words, make a decision about some goal that  they want to have in their life number two help the client figure out how to do what they want to do. So you know, I want a better marriage, I want to start making that a better thing. That's my big goal. But okay, so what are the action steps to get to that? There's no one thing that  you do to accomplish that goal. Usually goals have a lot of steps to them. So that involves  planning, what's the plan? What are the steps? Where are we going to start? What's, where  are we going to continue to and so on? That's what we're going to look at in the next few  sessions. And then the third thing that coaches do is to help client do what they plan to do.  And that's the management. Once they have a plan of action. Now, when you meet with your  client, you're talking about, Well, what did you do? And what are you? What are you going to  do for the next week? So that's where about management? So we're looking at that second  thing? How do you help your client come up with a plan, they have a goal now, you know, it  might be a goal in their marriage, it might be a goal in their parenting, it might be a goal at  their work, it might be an educational goal. It might be, you know, a dream that they've  always had. And now they finally want to do something about it. So a lot of different areas  where a person might have a goal. But now, what's the plan? How are you going to actually  accomplish that goal? Planning? Well, what is planning, planning is about figuring out a  progression of steps that lead to a desired accomplishment, or, or outcome over time. So it's  a progression of steps. You know, goal usually can be broken down into steps that lead to a  desire to cause accomplishment or outcome over time. So if I want to become a minister, I  want to, you know, I want to plant a church, or I want to be the lead minister in some church  that's out there. That's my goal. But how am I going to get there? Let's say I don't have any  education. Well, step one, I need an education. A prior step would be to evaluate how I could  get an education. Do I have any money? No, I don't have any money. So how am I going to  get free education? So that's what many of you have already gone through. And that's why  you're here at Christian Leaders Institute, you're interested in doing some ministry. Maybe you even have something in mind, you have a goal out there in mind. But how are you going to  reach that goal, you can't just go out and make it happen. You can just plant a church or you  can just take a call to a church. Churches are going to call you to be their pastor if you haven't had the the necessary education to back that up. So you've broken it down into steps, you're  taking classes. And then notice when you're taking classes at Christian Leaders Institute,  there's different levels that you can get different certificates that you can achieve. This one  leads to this one and finally one builds on that, depending on what the ministry goal is.  There's all these different ways we're trying to help you. Manage the steps of your  educational process so you can reach your goal So it's figuring out that progression of steps  that lead to a desired accomplishment. You know, for example, I want to be a minister, or an  outcome over time, okay is that the steps don't just happen all at once. It takes time to do the first step, second step, third step, fourth step, and so on. So we could just come to our client  and say, Okay, you have this goal, what's your plan, that'd be the most direct way, you're not  leading your client in any way you're leaving the whole thing up to up to him or her. And  remember, that's kind of, you know, all things being equal. That's, we don't want to lead our 

clients, we don't want to push them in one direction or another. We're just the coach trying to  help them figure out what they want to do, how they're going to do it. And to help them do  what they finally figured out how to do. We're not trying to influence them, by what we think,  you know, this is what I, after listening to you, I think this is what you should do. That's  counseling, or that's mentoring, or that's teaching, or that's pastoral care, but it's not  coaching, coaching is letting them figure things out for themselves. But so now we're going to help them figure out a plan. But we're going to look at various models or ways that you can  help your clients think about making a plan. Why do people need help planning? What they  decided to do? Okay. Someone has a goal, why do they need help making a plan, why don't  they just make a plan on their own. Number one, a lot of people I think, lack patience. They,  they I want a better marriage. And so now they all of a sudden want to make it happen. It  takes patience to say, Okay, I want a better marriage. But how? What kinds of things would I  have to do to make that happen? See that, I have to stop, I have to think about it myself.  What do I think would make my marriage better? Well it's probably a lot of things. So see, now I have to sit down and figure that out. And then if I had all these things, well, which 1am I  going to start with? And then the second question I might ask is, Well, why don't I ask my  wife? I don't ask my wife, what are the things you think that I could do that would make our  marriage better. And now I have all of the things that she writes down, and I have this whole  list of things. And you know, most people are impatient with it. They don't want to take the  time to figure out what all the things are, or what all the steps are. Why do people need help  planning what they decided to do? Number two, many are not gifted at breaking down a  desired outcome into logical sequential steps necessary to accomplish it. Though most  people, you know, I want to become a minister, but I have no idea what all the steps are. And  many people are not, you know, they're not a logical thing they did, they just do what's in  front of them. And they have a hard time thinking about all the things necessary to make this  happen. If I was going to build a car, it'd be like, if I know nothing about a car, I don't know,  you get an engine you do you get some wheels. and off you go, I have no idea what all the  steps are to build a car, because I don't know enough about a car to do it. And that's the way I think a lot of people are they want this desired outcome or they're unhappy in their marriage,  I just want to be happy, but they have no idea what the steps are to make themselves happy.  They have no idea, you know, I just want to do something I enjoy in life, but they have no idea how to get there. They, they don't know how to, you know, they don't realize that there are  several steps to everything. If you want to bake a cake, there's like 10 steps, get all the  ingredients, put this one in first, you know, put the yeast in all these different steps. I don't  know how to bake a cake. But you put all these you know, this is what it takes to make this  simple, what looks like a simple thing happen. And so a coach is necessary to come in and go, Okay, let's think about the process of how this goal is going to be reached. Number three,  many are too optimistic about how much time it takes to accomplish a desired goal. So  people, they get all you know, you've helped them come up with a goal, I'm finally going to do something I'm finally going to do something about my dream. And they don't have a clue as  to how hard it really is, and how many steps there are. So as a coach, you're helping them  okay. Now before we launch into making this happen, let's think about all the possible steps  and all the side issues that come up with this. Let's just take some time to think about this.  And the reason why by the way, number three, the reason why number three is so important.  People are optimistic about how easy something is. And if you allow them to go and try  something with that optimistic view. They're gonna, they're going to fail quickly, and they  become disillusioned. They thought something was going to be really easy. Henry, Henry  Reyenga and I when we were first trying to get people to have a daily devotional walk with  God, and we had this presentation where we talked about it in such a way that people really  got excited about it. And it seems so simple. You know, you read a little bit, you'd have this  prayer, we had these prayer sheets, everything about it seemed really simple and easy. But it  wasn't, we gave them the expectation, this optimistic view that this is going to be easy. And  then people failed. And then they were disillusioned with themselves. This is such a simple  thing. And I didn't even have five minutes to spend time with God. So it's like getting people  to be realistic about what it's going to take to accomplish something. Okay, number four, no 

discipline process to figure it out. Okay. They, they don't know where to begin to even come  up with a plan. I mean, where do you start? How do I do this? What do I do? And that's where  you, the coach comes in, I'm going to help you in the process of figuring out this whole plan.  Well, how does coaching help people plan out what they have decided to do? Okay, it slows  the planning process down I sort of mentioned that already is, let's just take a moment to  think about this. Number two, with the help of planning models, the coach can help the client  figure out the steps involved in trying to reach a goal. So again, like we've done in other  sessions, we're going to be looking at models and all a model is is a way for the client to think about what they're doing before we were using models to think about how to decide what to  do. Now we're going to use planning models, models, different ways for a client to think about planning, there are different ways of thinking about that. Now, you're not trying to lead them,  tell them what to do, or how to do it. But you're just giving them a structure with which they  can start thinking about three basic model categories. Number one, we're going to talk about  pre planning. Number two, we're going to talk about brainstorm, break down, you know, what  are the possible ways that we can make a plan? And how can we break this goal down into  many steps? And finally, three, what are the different ways that the client can make a  commitment to this plan, there are a lot of different ways of making a commitment. pre  planning models. So we're going to look at this pre planning models. First of all, I want to talk  about cold resources. And you'll see in a minute why I call them cold resources. Number one,  what equipment might be necessary to achieve your goals. Now there might make, you know, for example, you know, I might want to plant a church in Grand Rapids. Okay, so before I get  going, what kind of equipment would I need? You know, well, we need chairs, or we need a  sound system, or, you know, what, what do we need, it's good to start brainstorming about,  because if I think about some of these things, then then I can break down, you know, I want to plant a church. That's my goal. But what does that mean? What are the many steps, I can't  even begin to think about what all the steps are, without thinking about some of these things. So this is before we even plan, we're just getting a sort of a view of the whole. So what  equipment might be necessary? Let's see, we're going to start a business. Your client wants to start a business, okay. Is there any equipment that you need? You're gonna do a pressure  washer business, you're going to wash houses or something, well, what equipment do you  need? Well, you need a way to get there. And you need a pressure washer. And maybe you  need you know, a ladder, he started giving the list of things that you need. Number two, what do you have already? Okay, there might be some things you don't have. And there might be  some things that you already have. For example, I already have a computer. I already have an internet connection. I have an email address. I have some money in the bank. I mean, I have  certain things already there are things that I might need. And then there's things that I have,  so I'm sort of taking inventory. But the process of doing that helps me start thinking about all  the things that I have to plan and all the steps involved. Okay, what could you borrow? Okay. I have this, I have this project or I have this goal thing that I want to do. Is there something I  need to buy? Is there something I need to borrow? Is there something that I have already?  What do you need to buy? What facility space do you need to achieve your goals? So if I was  planting a church, okay, where where are we going to meet? How do we need an office? Do  we not need an office? Do we need a place to worship? You know, I need to start looking into  those possibilities. Is that going to take money? Or is there a free option. So whatever your  goal is, maybe your goal is to start a coaching business, okay, you want to do this kind of  thing? And you want to either make a whole living or partial living at this? Do you need a  space to do that? Do you need equipment to do that? Do you need a computer? Do you need  a phone? You know, what do you need? Do you need a website do you need? What exactly do  you need to make this thing happen? These are all cold resources. This, this isn't people, it's  it's things that will help you to succeed in reaching the goal. What do you need to do to create a space or find a space, you know, maybe it's not a facility, maybe it's just space, maybe it's a space in your own home, you're going to start a business, you're first going to start in your  own home. Okay? Secondly, take a like an inventory of warm resources, what people in your  life can in any way help you achieve your goal. So remember, you're helping the client figure  out an area of their life that they want to change, or they want to go forward, or they want to 

go to the next level, or there's trouble and they want that trouble, relieved? Whatever the  goal is, marriage, family, job, whatever it might be. One way to start thinking about a plan  before you make up the plan. Are there any people in your life that can help you, that would  be good to have on board in order to help you achieve this goal. So make a list of these  people. What we're trying to do is get a little before we get into the planning, this is pre  planning, we're looking at some things that we you know, might want to take into account,  you know, then the action step becomes a lot easier. If there are people that can help me,  then one of the action steps would be to talk to them about that. How could they help you  specifically, if you're going to ask them to help you? Well, how could they help you with with  time or with the expertise or actually help you do the thing or hold you accountable? What  exactly can they do for you? What skill or trade would be helpful for someone to have that  was willing to help you know, if your goal is to renovate your house, you know, it'd be nice to  have people that know what they're doing to help you, if you wanted to do it on your own.  Who do you know, that can support you in achieving your goal, whether it's encouragement,  or money, or connections, a lot of times, you know, if I was to plant a church, I'd want all  those things, I need people that are going to be prayer partners, and encouragers. This is not  easy. I need people that might help support it financially, or giving space or donating some  materials. And I'd want people that are connected. People that know groups of people that  might be interested in helping plant it, The worst thing you can do is just go out and plant a  church on your own, or to build a business on your own, or to don't do almost anything on  your own. So helping the client think beyond just some simple goal. Who in their universe can sort of help them achieve this goal. And now you can include these things in making a plan.  Which people with what kind of experience would be helpful to you in achieving your goal. So  if you're planting a church, you want to talk to people that have planted churches, taking  courses at CLI connects you with people that have done these things going on our  communication network and talking to people that are trying to do what you want to do,  being connected to people that are like minded. So that's what a coach is, like telling  someone. Now you would think these things are obvious, but they aren't. People come up with goals. And you know, I want to do this, but then they have no idea, all the steps and all the  possibilities of steps that could actually help them achieve that goal. So you as a coach are  saying, let's just slow down before we go after that goal. Let's just think about some cold  resources. Let's think about people in your life that can help make this that you might include  in the whole planning process. A lot of times we we have a goal, and then we go after it all by  ourselves with no help or support. And that's why a lot of people fail. intellectual resources.  What do you need to research research before making a plan and how you're going to achieve your goals. So before we just go off and do it, maybe there's things to read Maybe there's  things to look up, or people that you can talk to. So even simple goals like I want a better  marriage. Maybe I should read one book about it before I just go off and make three. You  know, I'm going to start here, I'm going to do this. Your goals could be a lot better if you did a  little research on this subject. What information would be helpful to have before you make a  plan on how to achieve your goal? So you know, what things do you need to know maybe you  don't even know enough about this thing. You have a goal but you don't know enough about  it. To really make a very worthwhile plan. So what do you need to learn about? Okay, so that's, that's it on these goals, planning. That's step one, and we'll continue in the next session.