Approaches to team coaching

The systemic and cognitive-behavioral approaches are the two main frameworks for team coaching. They act both on (i) the interactional, and sometimes dysfunctional, dimension of human groups and (ii) their modes of operation and interpretation of situations, when they turn out to be counter-productive.

Systemic approach – Smoothing out professional relationships

It allows us to get out of the trap of creating scapegoats and the resulting relational tensions. The problematic behaviors of individuals are not the result of their supposedly negative internal characteristics. They are the result of their own professional parameters and their interpretation of the actions of others. These problematic behaviors produce an escalation of cascading counterproductive reactions (loops).

It is possible to change these loops in order to build a new, more functional reality for each individual (new interpretations and reactions to their environment).

We help to co-design and prescribe actions opposite to the usual problematic ones.

Cognitive-behavioral approach – Developing “solution oriented” and wellness

It allows team members to get out of the trap of mentally constructing professional difficulties as unacceptable, dramatic and unmanageable. Thus they can spend more time actually dealing with them as they are, rather than mentally ruminating on them and making them more dense through counterproductive reactions. This, in order to build a new, more peaceful and solution-oriented professional reality.

We help to co-create an operational action plan to encourage initiative and improve what can be improved, and to do the best (professionally and personally) with what cannot be improved.

Positive psychology – Developing effectiveness, engagement and well-being

It allows us to get out of the trap of the demotivating mental construction of professional situations, in order to (i) defocus on dysfunctional situations to identify what works despite everything and intensify it, (ii) develop what improves working methods and conditions. This, in order to build a new professional reality that is more satisfying (meaning, well-being) and efficient, instead of ending up seeing only the negative.

We help to set up actions allowing to take care of oneself in the face of difficulties.

Solution-focused approach

The goal is not to solve the problem…
… but to activate the solution…
considering that it is already there!

It is not necessary to know a lot about the problem to solve it. If you give importance to the problem… it becomes more important.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS and … ALWAYS focus on what works, the solutions and the future. The more we talk about the solutions, the more they can take their place in the daily reality of the group of recipients.

We help create solutions that work right away.

MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)

MBTI is a personality test, among the most used in the world. The major advantage of MBTI is its ability to help people get to know themselves better. Indeed, it helps the person to better identify his or her strengths and the points on which he or she must improve. It can also tell you a lot about what really motivates you.

Knowing the personalities that make up a team can help improve personal and professional relationships, increase productivity and identify leadership and communication preferences.

We help teams get to know each other better.

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY ® methodology “Real time team strategy” allows to co-construct alternative solutions and to improve team cohesion, around a shared vision, in agile mode.

We help to stimulate individual and collective intelligence.

Example: coaching a distributed Management Committee

Context

A multinational passenger transportation company. The Managing Committee of a branch generating 30M€ of turnover with 500 employees. This Managing Committee of 9 people includes directors and managers of support functions. It is split between several sites, some members being co-located with the Branch Director (the leader). The leader is an operative with 25 years of experience in transportation and the region. The team, which is fairly new, does not behave like a collective. Everyone works in silos. Some managers are very stressed. Two burn-outs. Lost contracts. Loss of turnover. The prescriber of the team coaching is the Director of the region, the manager of the leader.

Analysis of the request

A meeting with the prescriber and her HR, then one with the leader. The two coaches formulate hypotheses and identify the relevant system to analyze. This will be the Managing Committee only. Other stakeholders are not included.
The purpose of the mission is co-constructed with the prescriber and the leade: Create a collective dynamics allowing the Managing Committee to function as a team, to improve communication, and to gain in efficiency and performance.

Remote individual interviews

The coaching mission is presented to the team. It will start with individual interviews, which will be followed by six ½ day collective workshops, which aim to achieve the purpose of the mission.
The interviews are conducted remotely, by visio conference. Each member of the Management Committee will have a one-hour interview, during which the experiences and feelings of each person will be carefully transcribed. The relationships between the members of the Management Committee are described.
The coaches formulate hypotheses on the perception-reaction loops (I experienced this, I told myself that, I felt this, I did that) between the members of the Management Committee, sources of dysfunctions. They identify 3 sub-groups in the Management Committee.
They present these sub-groups and loops to the leader. He agrees on almost everything. The coaches made an alliance with him. lui.

Face-to-face group workshops

First, the coaches present the loops to the members of the Management Committee. They tell the story of the Management Committee to create an emotional shock, to make them aware of the dysfunctions and to put them in action towards the solutions.
In a second phase, the members of the Management Committee imagine and co-construct solutions to resolve the dysfunctions and reach the target. Everyone commits to specific objectives. Their achievement is monitored at each workshop.
In a third phase, they define and communicate what is urgent and what is a priority for each person. This way, they become aware of each other’s ways of working.
In the fourth phase, they define their ideal Management Committee and decide together how to achieve it, in order to reach the goal of the coaching.
In the fifth phase, they confront their own roles and responsibilities with the vision of the others.
In the sixth and last phase, after gathering the strong competences of each person, they produce practical guidelines. Those who have vulnerabilities commit themselves to draw inspiration from them..

Conclusion

Mission accomplished. The leader is happy, and so is the Management Committee. The Management Committee finally experiences itself as a team. Communication between the members has greatly increased, everyone has a 360° view. Rituals have been put in place to anchor the co-constructed solutions. Answers to calls for tenders will come out. See you in 6 months.

The Klaxoon solution has energized the workshops. It has increased interactions, brought a variety of animations and facilitated the recording of activities and decisions. Klaxoon can be used in person or remotely.

Klaxoon

Quotes

Epictetus
“Make perfect what depends on us, and take other things as they come.”

Ronald David Laing
“Pain in this life is not avoidable, but the pain we create avoiding pain is avoidable”

Seneca
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

“Real” is an illusion:

Watzlawick
“The belief that one’s own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delusions.”

Schrödinger
“Since the advent of quantum mechanics, physics is no longer the study of reality but of our interaction with it.

Bateson
“If we take it for granted, it is because we have learned to think of it that way in our culture.”

Certificate “Practice of team coaching ” for Louis-Pierre Guillaume & Nathalie Heritier

Louis-Pierre Guillaume, Founder and CEO de Amallte, and Nathalie Heritier have successfully completed the PARIS-DAUPHINE-PSL University & Cabinet CHRYSIPPE-R&D “Team Coaching” certification.