When the System Changes Your Plan

We thought we had it all worked out. After hundreds of hours of team coaching, we know the value of preparation. We ask the right questions, clarify expectations, design detailed guides with minute-by-minute timing, and even build in Plan B, C, and D. This time, when we arrived at what was meant to be the […]

Surgery and Rehab for Teams – seriously??

Is your team doing its rehab, or is it relying on surgery? If you’re wondering how on earth these ideas are connected, read on. New York-based orthopedic surgeon Howard Luks MD posted something on LinkedIn this week that really grabbed our attention. “Too many people believe that surgery is a finish line. It’s not. It’s […]

SOCIAL MARKETING blah blah blah …

You’ve probably heard it … “𝙮’𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙖 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙬𝙚𝙗𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚, 𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙩, 𝙖 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙡, 𝙖𝙙𝙨, 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙨… 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜.” What’s one marketing “𝘆’𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮” you’ve felt under pressure to follow… and how have you made it your own? For us it has felt overwhelming — especially when our approach is 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙢 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 – building trust through real […]

Psychological Safety at Work

While attending a briefing by a company regarding a contract, our directors Sindiswa Calana and Cecil Murray noted the high priority given to safety requirements. It was interesting to learn that, if your employees are working from home, you are responsible for their safety in that extended workplace. The example they gave was the tripping […]

Change Fatigue

Change Fatigue While facilitating the webinar on “Maintaining a Healthy Relationship System while Delivering Results,” Sindiswa and Cecil shared four trends they have observed in workplaces, and the challenges these present to leaders and their teams. Here is the fourth and final one: Change Fatigue. POLYCRISIS – SAY WHAT? The term polycrisis denotes a situation […]

Why nobody googles ‘Team Coaching’

We hosted free webinars under the title Why does nobody google “Team Coaching”?, one late March, the other early April. We were really pleased with the level of interest, shown through registrations and the number of registrants who showed up and participated in the conversation.
In our work as organisational development practitioners/consultants, we offer a range of services to help Leaders improve Performance through People. This includes
 Change Facilitation,
 Team Coaching and
 Leadership Development.
What we’re finding is that Team Coaching is not yet well understood and widely adopted, with few people searching for the term “team coaching”. While potential clients approach us for assistance with their teams, to resolve conflicts, address unhelpful team dynamics, or to foster greater cohesion, what is often on their minds is a once-off workshop that will fix their challenge and allow them to return to ‘business as usual’. As flippant as that might sound, it is often true. So, we’d like to raise awareness and share with you what team coaching is, what value it brings, and what it might look like in practice.
Team coaching is a process of facilitated team conversations with the aim of improving performance through collective reflection, learning, and alignment. The client being coached is the team and not the individuals so the focus of the coaches, their attention, is on the collective. Our specific focus, as CalanaMurray, is on the quality of the relationship system of the team because we believe that the quality of the relationship system is interdependent with the quality of results delivered. Individuals function, in organisations, as part of a team and it is by enabling at team level that environments to flourish can be fostered.
The value added through team coaching lies in teams functioning more effectively as units. This is achieved by supporting the co-creation and co-ownership of healthy team environments and equipping teams to deal constructively with conflict. Where teams are able to regulate their team dynamics for optimal health, they set themselves up to perform better.
In practice team coaching consists of a series of conversations, facilitated by team coaches, where the agenda or topic is defined by the team. Team coaches support the team with tools and processes that help them learn about themselves, make conscious decisions about what they need to work on, act, and hold themselves and each other accountable.

Team coaching does not replace individual coaching, which deals specifically with the development needs of the individual. It also does not replace individual development, in its different forms. With individuals existing and operating as part of a team, team coaching works at the level where the individuals interact and contribute, with the aim of enhancing collective functioning.

Relentless Rising Demands

In sharing their thoughts on “𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴,” Sindiswa and Cecil shared four trends they have observed in workplaces, and the challenges these present to leaders. Here is the third. 𝗗𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦 We have noticed many workplaces where global events, amplified by our own national economic and other […]

Culture Matters

In a webinar on “Maintaining a Healthy Relationship System while Delivering Results,” Sindiswa Calana and Cecil Murray shared four trends they have observed in workplaces, and the challenges these present to leaders. Here is the second. Trend 2 of 4 – CULTURE MATTERS One of the core principles of relationship systems is that they are […]

Hybrid Working Challenges

In a webinar on “Maintaining a Healthy Relationship System while Delivering Results,” hosts Sindiswa Calana and Cecil Murray shared four trends they have observed in workplaces, and the challenges these present to leaders. Challenge 1 of 4 – HYBRID WORKINGWhere full-time, on-site working was previously the norm, workplace patterns were dramatically disrupted in 2020. Since then, […]