Leadership Development
Growth Talk: Managing "Got a Minute?" Conversations
Learn to make the most of the unplanned conversations that shape your school culture.
Every school leader knows them: the unscheduled knock on the door, the corridor catch-up, the “got a minute?”
that wasn’t in the calendar.
These moments happen frequently throughout the school day and while they can feel like interruptions, they are also some of the most significant leadership opportunities available, chances to support thinking, affirm progress and strengthen relationships, one conversation at a time.
About
Drawing on the concepts and frameworks in Growth Talk: A Coaching Way of Leading in Schools (Munro & Campbell, 2025), this highly practical one-day course develops the skills and awareness to manage these other-initiated conversations with intention and impact.
You will explore how to bring shape to impromptu exchanges, develop the key skills that fuel learning conversations and learn how to show up in ways that best serve the thinking and progress of the person in front of you.
This course pairs naturally with Growth Talk: Leader-Initiated Conversations and can be taken as a standalone day or as part of the two-day series.
Based on the book
Growth Talk: A Coaching Way of Leading in Schools
Munro & Campbell, 2025
Conversation is at the heart of learning and leading.
What you will gain
Practical framework, for bringing shape and intention to in-the-moment conversations
Enhanced skills and confidence to respond to “got a minute?” conversations in ways that support thinking and progress
Immediately applicable strategies for adopting a coaching way of leading across a range of informal conversational contexts
The foundations to build a culture of growth in your school, one conversation at a time
Structure
Coaching and Leading
Why a coaching way of leading?
Conversation Contexts
The Learning Conversations Map, the contexts for leading learning conversations
A Coaching Approach
Coaching versus a coaching approach and being a conversation leader
Got a minute?
Managing and leading in-the-moment conversations
Fuelling Conversations
Applying the key skills: listening to encourage thinking, asking powerful questions, paraphrasing and summarising, noticing, and sharing knowledge and perspective
Powerful Questions
Problem talk vs Solution Talk - how the questions we ask can reframe thinking
Shaping Conversations
Dancing around the GROWTH framework, bringing shape to brief conversations
In their words
These are from GCI’s participant survey, across their courses rather than this one.
Our facilitators
As a coaching organisation, we endeavour to model a ‘coaching way of being’ in our interactions with our clients by being:
- Respectful
- Humble
- Curious
- Strengths-focused
- Reflective
We encourage a culture of high expectations through our commitment to the ongoing development of our people based on mutual respect and collaboration. Our consultants are expert coach practitioners who draw on a wealth of educational experience to provide the highest level of service as coaches and trainers.
Fees and what is included
This price is for an individual registering on an open-enrolment course.
Savings are available for organisations who wish to run this course for an in-house group.
Please email info@growthcoaching.com.au to request a quote or discuss this further.
Register your interest
If you would like to explore offering this course to your own group, or would like to be notified when new dates are announced, please complete the form below. A member of the GCI team will be in touch.
