Coaching Research in Practice – Group Coaching – Are you really doing it?

Posted with permission from ReciproCoach.

While the title of this month’s Coaching Research in Practice, From GROW to GROUP: theoretical issues and a practical model for group coaching in organisations, suggests that its biggest contribution is a new acronym based model for group coaching, even more useful is the review of the research that it provides on the topic of group coaching. Literature reviews appear at the beginning of every academic paper, but some are more useful than others. This one, written by Saul Brown and Anthony Grant (2010), is certainly worth the read if you just want to get an overview of the research, theory and practice of group coaching.

COACHING RESEARCH:

Brown and Grant highlight the distinction between team coaching and group coaching, explaining that while coachees in team coaching are working towards a mutually accountable goal, coachees in group coaching may be working towards different goals. In addition, Brown and Grant make the important point that “group coaches need a strong understanding of group dynamics or group-based dialogue processes” (p.32). They also provide an excellent overview of the various approaches to group coaching that have been documented in the literature to date.

Especially valuable is Brown and Grant’s description of the challenges that coaches need to be aware of if they are engaging in group coaching. In particular, they describe the discomfort members of a group experience when they begin to make disclosures about issues that would normally be avoided by the group. Brown and Grant point out that coaches need to be skilled in handling the anxiety that arises both at an individual and group level and that a judicious combination of individual and group coaching promotes “real change” (p.34).

The paper also provides a useful overview of the difference between group coaching and group facilitation. This is something I’ve debated with coaching colleagues myself. However, Brown and Grant highlight Clutterbuck’s work which explains that while a “facilitator manages the dialogue for the team and focuses them on decision making”, “the coach empowers the team to manage the dialogue themselves and focuses on goal achievement” (p.37).

In case you’re also curious about the new acronym based model for group coaching, it’s just like the GROW model, only with two differences. The GRO are the same, but instead of making your Way forward the group model Understands others and then Performs… so the new coaching acronym model is, quite simply, GROUP!

IN PRACTICE:

So how is this useful to you in practice? First of all, if you’re already coaching groups, or if you’re thinking about doing it in the future, you may like to:

• Be clear as to whether you’re coaching a team (with a shared goal) or a group (with different goals).
• Assess your understanding of group dynamics or group-based dialogue processes and if you find your understanding is lacking, get some more.
• Be aware of the anxiety generated by new disclosures within groups/teams and pay attention to your efficiency in handling it.
• Consider coupling group/team coaching with individual coaching for optimum results.
• Know when you’re facilitating and when your coaching and adjust your focus as necessary.
• Try the GROUP model!

If you’d like to read the full text of this paper, then you can find it in the most recent issue of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice   (Volume 3, Issue 1, March 2010). Coaching Research in Practice is delivered free to all ReciproCoaches (including free members) once a month. As a ReciproCoach, you can access all past issues of Coaching Research in Practice via the members area. To see the titles of our issues to date, visit our public website: http://www.reciprocoach.com/coachingresearch.php

Translating coaching research into coaching practice,

Kerryn

_______________________________________________________________
Dr Kerryn Griffiths
ReciproCoach Global Coordinator
>>> Reciprocal peer coaching, mentoring and supervision

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Sustainable Transformation calls for returning to a zero point; returning to a possibility. It’s pure invention.

Sustainable Transformation is a misnomer as it’s generally used. You’re not really sustaining something. In order for transformation to happen, you have to become present or “real,” in the strongest possible sense, to what is now going on and to the inhibiting influences of the past. The past stops us from thinking about what’s new or could be new.

Sustainable Transformation means let’s look at things as they truly are right now, as we truly are now, with a clear mind. And then we can invent what we want. This may include re-inventing some of what’s already there, or something else.

Sustainable transformation is the essence of creativity. It’s the essence of sprouting something that isn’t already there. My view of creativity in its pure sense isn’t simply improving something. This is our approach to creativity when we are working with people in companies.

I had an interesting conversation with a woman from a food company in China which is working hard to improve a cookie. They’re having a difficult time because they can’t start from a zero point. The improved cookie has to look and taste like the old cookie, but somehow it has to be new and have greater appeal to more people. In such as case the effort at creativity largely goes towards messaging about how to present the cookie. They won’t have invented anything new because they’re stuck with what they already have.

In a similar vein, an awful lot of what’s going on in the world in the name of creativity and innovation cannot produce what companies after or what their customers want. They’re stuck with their past.

In order to have the type of creativity you’re talking about, you have to train yourself to not think about the past and your past experiences.

It’s the notion of “beginner’s mind” starting with a blank slate. If you take a Quantum Physics view you will realize that the world consists of an infinite number of possibilities that don’t come into existence until you ask a question. The real creativity involves coming up with questions for which the answers will generate something that’s actually new. A lot of it has to do with your worldview in the first place.

I’ve recently become interested in traditional Micronesian navigation. Micronesians sailed from island to island without navigation instruments. Their navigation was a discipline, but very intuitive.

Our view is that you move from here into the future, such as you and I are moving into the future right now. Micronesians believe that you’re standing still, and the future is coming to you. If you can put this into your mind, you’ll start to experience things differently. You’ll start to see which aspects of what’s coming to you are attractive, and what aspects are subtle. You’ll start measuring different things.

If we don’t “become present” with one another with the past being in the past, the future in the future, and accept that we’re just here talking to each other, nothing new will happen. You’re going to walk away thinking what you already thought, and I’ll walk away continuing to think what I already thought.

There are so many approaches to inducing the moment of change–that moment when a real transformation or shift happens. If you look at what’s in that moment of change, at the very moment when the altered state occurs, there’s nothing there. The past is in the past, the future is in the future, and the actual moment of transformation is rather like a funnel with a vacuum in it.

Developing skill in achieving this moment of transformation is the essence of our leadership training with executives and coaches.

Executive Coach Charlie Smith is a faculty member at the Leading Coaches’ Academy.

Hi, Leading Coaches!

It’s getting exciting here, not just because of great conversations I’ve been having with many of you about all the cool things you’re up to, but because I’m heading to Maui for my brother’s wedding and I’m already getting in a vacation vibe!

Welcome to our newest members — our community is growing by word of mouth and we are  284 of the world’s top business coaches now!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Below are highlights.  Don’t forget to add your news to the team pages or your profile.

Jacki Nicholas is conducting a global survey on Group Executive Coaching.  You can add your experiences and find out how other coaches are using it around the world using the following link. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/29N3WVL

Kaveh Naficy announced exciting news about a new coaching certificate program at George Mason University!  If you know of folks who would be interested in enrolling please direct them to http://www.ocpe.gmu.edu/programs/org_dev/leadership_coaching.php

I had a great conversation with Lewis Stern, PhD., Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for International Leadership Coaching and if you have any leads regarding funding sources for this very worthy cause, please let him know by commenting below!

See more on the Announcements page!

Need help navigating the site? Start with the Members Only page and find instructions.

Aloha, y’all!

Hi, Leading Coaches!

As always, there’s stuff a-happenin’ at the LCC that you may want to know about!  Check out the latest and add your news to the team pages or your profile.

Stewart Hirsch announced a cool new program coming to the DC area called Trusted Advisor.  Check it out at the Announcements page!

Sue Taylor, in the UK, announced a women’s group she started for sharing skills, advice, knowledge and most of all support.  See more on the Announcements page!

Joyce Odidison, in Canada, commented on the article I’d posted last week about Coach as Consultant in her experience as a mediator and conflict resolution consultant as well as a coach!

Lynn Grodzki posted an article on our Keep Learning blog about Communities of Practice that includes tips for how to start one!

Did you know that Viki Winterton, founder of Insights Magazine, Expert Insights Academy, The Coaches Edge Events, The Coaches Concierge, The Coach Exchange, and Ask The Coach Exchange is also a Faculty  member at our Leading Coaches’ Academy?  If you’re already a member of the Clubhouse, you can access her faculty page here!  You can listen to her Secrets of the Champions interview here! To join the Clubhouse and hear what Viki and the other 10 faculty members have to say about exploding your coaching business success, click here!

On Viki’s faculty page she shares with you how to re-purpose your content (it’s all about leverage, baby!), and provides a recording as well as an ebook called Repurpose Your Work and Diversify Your Way To Success.

Update from last week, in case you missed it, is posted here:

Need help navigating the site? Start with the Members Only page and find instructions.

by Lynn Grodzki, posted with permission.

The Storm

Late Sunday afternoon, after two weeks of a record heat wave, we had a violent thunderstorm. The bad news: electricity went out and 400,000 homes and businesses went dark. The good news: once the storm passed, the sun came out and so did the neighborhood.

I get so busy with my life, it seems it takes an act of nature to remind me that I have a neighborhood of people I appreciate. I sat on my deck for hours as the afternoon waned and the sun set, and waved to people as they walked by, people I hadn’t seen in years.

I reflected on the topic of community and its importance.

During this time of economic uncertainty, I am reminded each day of the scarcity of resources.

But the resource of connection — with community — is free. Having a strong professional community can build your practice, but sometimes attending a professional group feels like a waste of precious time.

So I wondered: What is the best strategy to finding or creating a community that really supports your life and your work?

Communities of Practice

Since time and energy are precious resources,  I only join communities that offer me meaningful opportunity and learning. This type of community is defined as a Communities of Practice (CoP.)

According to cognitive anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, a Community of Practice is a group made up of like-minded individuals who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession. Key to the success of these communities is the process of sharing information, learning, and developing opportunities.

In order to be a CoP, the group needs to accomplish the three criteria. (If you have been attending a professional group or association that feels like a poor use of time and energy, chances are one of these criterion is missing.)

1.    Commitment

A CoP requires commitment from its members. This devotion and willingness to show up is based on a deep interest in the topic or experience delivered at each meeting.

When a CoP is focused around  an area of passion or intense interest, it  provides value for all. As members develop a deep connection to the group and get a lot, they give a lot in return — sharing their thoughts, ideas, and even talents with each other.

Too often, we belong to professional groups that are superficially interesting or we think should be important, and then end up disappointed and bored.  The  group lacks dedication, or the topic is not one we feel passionate about, and too little learning and sharing occurs.  CoPs are exciting and inspiring to attend.

2.    Competence

CoPs are groups of equals who are skillful and talented. They have something to offer each other. You join to learn, help, and share — not to compete. As a result, the members often develop longterm relationships that matter.

While members of a CoP do not necessarily work together on a daily basis, when they do meet it is often memorable: They discuss, challenge, wonder, argue and usually laugh together.

A classic example of a CoP might be Parisian artists in 1870’s, the Impressionists, who formed loose associations of café communities to talk, share, learn from, paint with, and inspire each other.

3.    Practice

CoPs are places of learning because the members are implementing ideas, not just ruminating about concepts.

As Wenger explains, “A CoP is not merely a community of people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction.

“A good conversation with a stranger on an airplane may give you all sorts of interesting insights, but it does not in itself make for a community of practice.”

(http://www.ewenger.com/theory)

CoPs in My Life

If you would like to find or create a CoP, you might use this article as a blueprint to create a group that meets this definition. Let me offer you a few examples of CoPs to which I belong, so you can understand how they work for a me — and can be a resource for you, too.

* * *

One CoP I attend is the faculty forum of a coach training organization.  (Some CoPs exist within associations and organizations.) We (the faculty) meet by phone for an hour, once a month. The group is led by our creative training director who is explicit in her respect and appreciation of the faculty who call from around the globe.

Each month she poses a different, thoughtful, open-ended question for us to consider and discuss. This group has been meeting for years and I am continually motivated and engaged. It keeps my coaching skills on the cutting edge and gives me a virtual connection to a group of very accomplished colleagues.

* * *

Another CoP is one I helped create years ago – a group of women therapists who met monthly for 8 years. Our sharing was intimate and supportive, often more personal than professional, but always fascinating. It generated longterm  friendship, shared collegiality, new ideas, and of course, the occasional referral.

* * *

A third CoP I eagerly await each month, is an intuition study group. A half-dozen doctors, healers, and therapists meet for 2 hours a month, in person, to work together in our pursuit of better understanding and utilizing the way we apply intuition in our practices. We experiment, do blind readings, practice, read and research — sharing our results and questions. We have met for years and each meeting is inspiring, has benefited me personally, and enhanced my professional work on many levels (including becoming a rich resource of referrals for all involved.)

Where to begin

If you are looking to create a Community of Practice, here are some tips:

•    Start with a clear area of personal or professional need (What would you love to learn, practice and share with a special group of others?)
•    Start small and grow over time (it’s easier to manage)
•    Define clear goals and boundaries for the CoP
•    Invite others who can commit to its success
•    Celebrate contributions and appreciate each other regularly
•    Be prepared to adjust the group and goals as you develop and learn

Salutations! (And welcome if you’re just joining us as a new member!)

I do hope you’re enjoying your summer.  I’m too hot to think, so I’m keeping this short…

Announcements and Requests for the community can be found and added here:   Below are a few highlights:

Charlie Smith posted a new article about coachability:

Rita Crowe is looking for resources regarding Learning Organizations, can you help her?

Lynne Waymon posted an announcement about licensing as a Contacts Count coach

I shared an article I just had published in Choice Magazine called Coach As Consultant, and you can add your comments to the dialogue here:

It’s a joy to announce the latest addition to the Leading Coaches’ Academy and our new Faculty member:  Lynne Waymon, who posted her faculty page about how to make your networking contacts count!  This brings us to 11 live Faculty pages jam-packed with powerful tools and materials to get you to take your business to the next level.

Update from last week, in case you missed it, is posted here:

Need help navigating the site? Start with the Members Only page and find instructions.

by Charles E Smith, PhD

“Coachability” is the willingness to be coached, to listen, to respect instruction and act on it.   Coaching — another set of eyes — lets you see what’s missing, which, if you act on it, could make a big difference.

These days, a lot of people know that coaching is a good idea.  They listen to it politely but never do anything differently.  Such pretending to listen is seductive.  Last night I sat with an engineer for almost three hours.  He had suffered for years with his boss’s unwillingness to listen to him.  He shared his insights, hopes, fears, sense of hopelessness, and wishes for a career full of accomplishment and supportive relationships.  I helped him analyze the situation, explore strategies and behaviors, get in touch with his own responsibility for the lack of communication, and actions that would move the situation forward.  Finally, I asked him if he would act on any of what was discussed and he said, “No, I’m not ready.”

It’s said that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.  It’s like that with coaching.  To be uncoachable means that you won’t really listen and follow instructions, or are afraid to try.  You may think you already know, or hear advice as domination, or feel hopeless.  Maybe you won’t be vulnerable, or that you simply accept your current performance, even when you know it is weak.

Before he died, I attended a conference led by W. Edwards Deming, the Quality expert who helped Japan transform its manufacturing practices and capture huge segments of the global auto and technology markets.  He told us that in the West we traced problems to there being something wrong with the people doing the job.  Our solutions typically were to move or change people, or to restructure.

In contrast, he said, the Japanese leaders considered their quality and production problems a matter of training and that their job was to discover or invent the training that would result in resolution and progress.

Every team that wins championships is well-coached.  An uncoached team flirts with extinction.  Welcome to the world as we know it.  Instead of a symphony — the sound of high human purpose, elegance, and flawlessly coordinated action, we have a cacophony of egos without shared meaning, creating disorder by degrees, all the while falsely expecting order.

Imagine how the LA Lakers would do if many players were uncoachable.

Imagine how the Congress, or your boss might do, if they were properly coached.

I could list all the places I know that are less effective than they could be if they were coached, but I won’t.  Make your own list.  We home schooled our boys for several years, and a major success was that they became coachable learners, not afraid of the future nor of being wrong.

But most of my friends and people I know are uncoachable.   I’ve come to think that most of the world’s problems come from lack of proper training — in how to get along, how to cooperate, how to create performance aspirations beyond normal, how to become responsible for an entire business & not just someone’s small part of it.  These are all training problems and most people are untrained.

To be coachable is a choice.  Anybody can do it.  It’s simple, but not easy.  You just have to give up your ego for a while.

Imagine a coachable company, a coachable family, a coachable marriage, a coachable political system, a coachable world.

Can we, as coaches and leaders, help our clients to be more coachable?  Can we become more coachable ourselves? Comment below!

Happy summer! I just got back from picking blueberries with my kids at the local orchard. Yummmm.

Welcome aboard to our newest members! We now number 278, and I love all the activity in the dialogue centers we call Teams! Remember, you can comment on a team discussion or create your own team as long as you’re logged in! (If you’re not logged in, the comment box won’t appear).

Announcements and requests can be found and added here.  Check them out! A few highlights are below, but for details click the link:

• Wendy Capland is looking for a coach in the Greensboro, NC area to do an executive coaching assignment
• Marcia Reynolds launched her book Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction
• Steve Eanes shared a resource (Send Out Cards) and book suggestion (Go-Givers Sell More)
• Viki Winterton shared about a chance to hear 30 inspiring leaders and teachers of personal transformation as well as the link to an interview with legendary Jim Stovall who shares how the super successful choose a coach
• Patsi Krakoff shared a resource (Wordpress Sales Page wizard)

Need help navigating the site?  Start with the Members Only page and find instructions

Recent ICCO Symposium write up at Coaching Commons and on our Keep Learning tab.

A couple of book reviews: Go-Givers Sell More (Burg, Mann) and the Zen of Social Media Marketing (Kabani) as well as a discussion of the differences between business coaching and life coaching are posted on my blog.

New SECRETS of THE CHAMPIONS interviews are posted for members of the Leaders’ Clubhouse here:  (Viki Winterton, Shama Kabani, Jon Ward, Kate Steinbacher, Mike Jay are posted…coming soon are Michael Bungay Stanier and Tom Heck).  If you want to join the Clubhouse to access these and other goodies, you can do so HERE.

Be sure to check out and support the businesses showing in our Village Fair! They are awesome!  Also, you can support the site by posting an ad there as well for very little cost.

Whew! I had more to tell you than I thought! Okay, back to your summer fun!

What is sustainability as it pertains to coaches and coaching programs?

This is one question among many that 40 professionals convened in Washington, D.C. last week (June 24-25) to explore at the ICCO Symposium; a learning event for multiple stakeholders of coaching in organizations.  The beautiful McLean, Virginia office space for the event was generously provided by LMI Consulting.  The space for the dialogue was created and sustained by the co-chairs: Lee Salmon and Susana Isaacson, the design team: Karol Eller, Bill Carrier, Meredith Woodruff, Vicki Foley, and Donna Karlin in the role of Dean.

Participants hailing from as far as Hong Kong and Canada included executive coaches, leaders of coaching programs, coach educators and researchers, as well as executives from organizations that use coaching. Various illustrious organizations were represented: Georgetown University, Cambria Consulting, the CIA, Federal Consulting Group, Sherpa, Lee Hecht Harrison, the State Department, and the case presenters below.

The structure of the symposium, like all ICCO Symposia, included four case studies presented by various organizations looking to dramatically impact coaching in their organizations, and a series of six “animation” questions for reflection and dialogue.  In this event, case presenters from Zappos, Booz Allen Hamilton, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Treasury shared a fascinating window into the complexities and challenges of infusing coaching programs into the culture of their various organizations.  As one participant worded it, the symposium is “a multi-sectoral conversation about coaching.”  The magic happens in the break-out sessions where participants provide either coaching or consulting for each of the case study presenters.

A theme that resurfaced several times throughout the two day event was the question of “for the sake of what?”, and it showed up in relation to developing leaders, corporate social responsibility, sustainability of resources as well as expansion and sustainability of coaching programs in organizations.  The exploration of sustainability began with a look at how coaching impacts people, profit (results) and the planet.  Conversations journeyed through questions of generating sustainability in ourselves as leaders and coaches; being resilient, adaptable, regenerative, and ready to coach leaders on the forefront of crisis and change.  Speed bumps in the road to sustainability include commoditization of coaching, scalability, agility, and budget..  Large scale coaching program sustainability requires political coverage and advocacy internally, and must be aligned with the strategy of an organization operationally, philosophically, financially, and socially, yet we considered how systemically, it changes the planet.  We wondered how to maintain the integrity of coaching as it morphs with the changes of any given organization, its leaders, the economy, and the world. A strong emergent theme was advancing beyond ROI to the effective communication of (and embedding within the culture) the stories of coaching’s impact and results system-wide.

Is sustainability a myth?  Shouldn’t we (and coaching in general) engage in continual re-invention?  Why put sustainability in at all?  To sustain what? If not sustainability, then what should we be exploring and helping leaders to explore?  How do leaders weave coaching into the tapestry of the whole organizations, sustaining the values of the organization while transforming leadership learning into action?  Should coaching become integrated into the culture such that the need to discuss sustaining a coaching program is no longer relevant, and coaching just becomes “the way we do things”?

What role do ethics, boundaries, consistency, oversight, systemic feedback loops, trends, and stakeholder perceptions have in the bigger picture of coaching in organizations?  Six groups met to discuss these challenges during the animation segment of the symposium, and remarkably, in spite of six very different questions posed and explored, each group reported very similar themes.

What, in your experience, is the secret to sustaining coaching programs in organizations?  Is that even a relevant pr meaningful question? Comment below and share your thoughts!

Thanks to everyone who joined in our mastermind call yesterday with Gerhard Schwandt about efficiency in the context of energy flows!  If you missed it, you can access the recording via the Members Only page or use the link here:
http://leadingcoachescenter.com/clubhouse/mastermind-live/recording-of-leading-coaches-mastermind-call-featuring-gerhard-schwandt

I also wanted to point out all kinds of goodies that you may not know about if you haven’t logged into the LCC site for awhile:

1.  Meet Members: We now have 274 members, many of whom are luminaries in the business.  You can search by name or keyword, or you can just go to visit profiles where you can send messages or write on the “wall” of any member. There’s a video of how to navigate that page here: http://leadingcoachescenter.com/blog/how-to/how-to-meet-members

2.  Join the BE A VOICE team: So, one of the annoying limitations of this system is that the real juice of it all (i.e., the conversations) happen in teams.  In order to have one place where we can all be in conversation together, you have to join the Be A Voice team, which is why it’s got it’s own separate tab in the navigation bar.  Please join!  http://leadingcoachescenter.com/groups/be-a-voice/

3.  Post your Announcements and Questions for This Community: Did you know you can now post anything you’d want to announce to our community or engage our community to participate in?  You’ve got to be logged in, and then you can go to the Find A Team tab, and scroll until you get to a team called Announcements and Questions for This Community.  Then you can post away!  Be sure to check out the goodies already posted there: http://leadingcoachescenter.com/groups/announcements-and-questions-for-this-community

4.  Coaching Agenda Debate: Be sure to visit the Keep Learning tab when logged in so you can access the comments field to add your two cents to the various posts there, including the debate about the coaching agenda (yours or your client’s):  http://leadingcoachescenter.com/blog/challenges/coaching-agenda-debate

5.  Leverage the Leading Coaches’ Center for your own purposes: Did you know that you, as a member, can create a team anytime you want?  You can create many teams!  You can specify if the team is private or public.  Here’s how that can help you…let’s say you belong to a coaching team or a mastermind group of coaches.  Or perhaps you are building a coaching cadre for your own business.  You can create a team in the LCC and then invite your group to participate in your team.  You can make it private, if you wish, so that only your invitees can see what’s there and participate in that conversation.  You can use the platform of the LCC, which is already built and free to you to use, to communicate with your group in an online forum specific to them.  Let me know if I can help you think through how you might use the LCC for your business, group, or team.

6.  Post your photo if you haven’t already! Your profile is naked without your photo….and if you haven’t filled out any of your profile fields, you likely are not even showing up in the members area.  Here’s a video about how to post your photo:  http://leadingcoachescenter.com/blog/how-to/how-to-add-your-picture