Case Study: Coaching an Inter-Dependent Team
The Challenge
A global pharmaceutical company approached Organisational Coaching Hub (OCH) to work with a critical team that sat at the core of digital transformation. The senior leader was aware of how important her team was, but the team lacked trust in one-another and no-one agreed on what was the behind that.
This case study looks at how we delivered our services in coaching an inter-dependent team, following the 4Cs of organisational coaching; Connect, Consider, Change, Close.
Connecting
Two of our team coaches engaged with the leader to understand her requirements, aspirations, and to learn more about the team and organisation. After several meetings we then connected with the rest of the team.
At this point we shifted from the team leader being the client, to the whole team being the client. This was important as our team coaching is services the whole team, and not just the leader. Only then can we do our most valuable work as trusted partners.
Change
We initially worked with the whole team to address the immediate challenges between them before going out to the stakeholders. Working outside the team, but with permission from the team, is key to systemic team coaching.
Our work with key stakeholders created new insights for the team, including how stakeholders saw and experienced it, and some of its blind spots.
We worked with the team to create strong inter-dependencies for their direct reports as well as strategic organisational stakeholders. Also, we worked with each team member individually to support a shift in their relationship within the team and with the teams they personally led.
Finally, we conducted workshops with the leadership team to support the shift in relationship from being line managers to being a leadership team.
Consideration for Coaching an Inter-Dependent Team
Our coaches met with each team member individually and contracted with them for confidentiality. The OCH approach to confidentiality sets up a high level of trust and transparency allowing teams to have the conversations that they often find most difficult to have.
We worked with the team members to consider bold objectives that aligned with broader organisational strategies. What was also important was to explore the team’s inter-dependencies to each other and in relation to their stakeholder system.
Three things emerged. Firstly, it was clear that there were some challenges between the members of the team. Secondly, the team members mainly saw themselves as line reports when they had the potential to be a strategically enabling inter-dependent team. Thirdly, many stakeholders were frustrated with the style of leadership coming from the team, because it was incongruous with the new transformational direction.
Close
Storytelling is a great way to close as it helps makes sense of the journey to-date. It also helps teams to tell the next chapter of their story, leaving them with energy and focus for the way ahead once we have stopped working with them.
As we closed the coaching with this inter-dependent team, their story followed a metaphor of being in the vanguard of a flotilla of ships, seeking out new ways of working for the organisation before returning to the main flotilla to share what they had found.
The metaphor helped make sense of the difficult times, their broader role and their relationship with the rest of the organisation. The leadership team, now inter-dependent, smaller and tighter, were open with each other, sharing quality feedback and supporting each other to achieve their bold objectives.
