It’s little surprise we’re seeing an increase in requests for team development. Teams are needing to achieve more with less, adapt to hybrid working, break out of silos and respond with agility to our rapidly changing world. Team effectiveness is a business imperative.

A perennial pattern we see in organisations is attempting to fix the parts in isolation from the whole, overlooking the connections in between. This is where systemic team coaching offers something different – and it’s not your typical team building intervention!

What is systemic team coaching?

Systemic team coaching* is a whole system approach that recognises the complexity of organisational life. It works with a broader and deeper frame, considering contextual, individual, team and organisational factors that contribute to team performance.

Working in this way, systemic team coaching attends to both the parts and the whole for transformation at 3 levels:

Individual (e.g. mindsets, behaviours),
Team (e.g. relationships, roles, dialogue)
Organisation (e.g. strategy, collaboration, alignment, stakeholders)

And because these 3 levels are tended whilst the team do their work, the impact on team performance is clear and fast.

What can it involve?

Systemic team coaching can involve a variety of activities across a number of sessions, each selected to meet the team’s unique challenges, always in service of the team’s performance and alignment to the organisation’s purpose. For example:

Coaching the team to align to a shared purpose or direction
Coaching individuals on mindsets and beliefs that help or hinder team performance
Coaching the team together, in live meetings, offering immediate feedback to enhance the quality of dialogue and decision making, and learning as they do the work
Facilitating dialogue with stakeholders and collaborators

Systemic team coaching includes and transcends team harmony. It takes place as the team does the work. It’s about tending the practice of learning together, of attending to both content and process, of talking to themselves about themselves.

What can it look like in practice?

We’ve recently used systemic team coaching with a client to practice the mindsets and behaviours being developed on a leadership programme. Through a mixture of coaching and feedback in live team meetings, 121 coaching, feedback circles and dialogue, the team developed deeper trust, intimacy, and embraced their developmental ‘edges’ whilst doing their work. This resulted in a happier, more trusting and self-aware team who succeeded in navigating a significant transition.

For too long we’ve over-focused on individual and overlooked the potential for developing the collective intelligence, energy and performance of teams. Systemic team coaching is an impactful way to connect the team to each other, connect team development to the work, and ultimately increase the organisation’s capacity to adapt in an increasingly volatile world.

Wondering where to start with Systemic Team Coaching? Let’s talk! Email hello@farleighperformance.com or click here to get in touch.

*Systemic team coaching is a term coined by Prof Peter Hawkins, Henley and Renewal Associates. At Farleigh Performance we are model agnostic, we draw on this and wider research on individual and collective learning and transformation in organisations.