The First Clues when Coaching a Team: The journey starts here

In the first episode of series 3 The Team Coaching Journey – Where Teams Come Alive, Georgina and Allard begin their work with Acme Incorporated, a fictional organisation inspired by real-world team coaching experiences. The journey starts with a familiar scenario: an email from Sarah, Acme's Head of HR, asking for help to support the executive team in becoming "one" and working together more effectively.

As they unpack Sarah's request, Georgina and Allard reveal how the team coaching process begins long before the first team session. From the language used in an email to the expectations of key stakeholders, every interaction offers valuable clues about team culture, organisational dynamics, and what might be happening beneath the surface.

You'll discover:

• Why the first conversation with a sponsor can be one of the richest sources of data in a team coaching engagement. 
• How seemingly small details can reveal important insights about team culture and dynamics. 
• The assumptions, expectations, and pressures that coaches bring into the early stages of an engagement. 
• Why the desire for certainty, structure, and diagnostics can sometimes shape what coaches notice—and what they miss. 
• Questions to consider when preparing for your own stakeholder and engagement conversations. 

Georgina and Allard take you behind the scenes of their thinking, sharing what they're noticing, the hypotheses they're forming, and the choices they're making as the coaching journey begins. This episode sets the stage for a series that explores what really happens when teams embark on the path toward greater alignment, effectiveness, and transformation.

Play along with today’s episode and ask yourself – where would you go from here?

Brought to you by Team Coaching Studio - The world’s leading academy for team coaching. To find out more about us visit https://teamcoachingstudio.com/

Buy the book: MASTERING THE ART OF TEAM COACHING

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Teams Transformed, the podcast for people who want to see real team transformation.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

For courageous coaches, curious leaders, and anyone passionate about unlocking the true power of Teams.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

We your hosts, Georgina and Alard. Here to journey with you through transformational insights on how to coach teams with presence, depth, and emergence.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Let's explore not just the tools but the art of transforming teams.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Welcome to our new podcast series, The Team Coaching Journey where Teams Come Alive. We're going to be looking at what a real team coaching journey looks like. But it's not the team coaching journey, it's a team coaching journey because each team and each journey is distinctly different. You never know what's going to emerge. We're going to be working with an executive team of an organization called ACME Inc., which is a composite organization and a composite team, but we'll be talking about them as if it's a real team. And certainly our experience is like it's a real team. And you'll be alongside us in the room and through our debriefs. And it's in our debriefs where we'll be communicating with each other just the way we do when we're working with a real team, explaining why we do what we do and what we do each step of the way, and how the team coaching journey comes alive. In the first episode, we meet Sarah, who is the HR sponsor, and start gathering some initial data.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Hello. Hi, Georgina.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Hi, looking forward to this new series. What are we going to be talking about?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So we just finished, uh, as some of you may remember, we just finished a series of interviews with uh eight or more different practitioners, um, which we had called moments of emergence. And uh we've completed that cycle for now, and so we thought, what can we do next? And uh the idea here is that we'll um we'll take you along with us on a team coaching journey. And I say a team coaching journey because at no point do I want people to think that this is the only way to move a team through through a series of interventions, but we'll we'll illustrate um a composite team coaching journey, so to speak, a typical team coaching journey. And we've called it Where Teams Come Alive. So welcome to a new series of eight podcasts called Where Teams Come Alive.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Great. And um I like this title of Where Teams Come Alive because I think when you look at a diagram like uh our diagram, Team Coaching Journey diagram, which people can get from my book, or we'll put a handout in with this podcast, um, it it can make it look very processy, like it's a fixed set of building blocks and a fixed set of activities. And um and what would be great to bring alive is actually how different every team coaching journey is, because the data and and the what is is different. And uh, and to give perhaps the listener a little window into how we might um process and debrief what we're experiencing along the way, yeah, and how we use that to then inform where we go next with the team.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yeah, yeah. So it's still a very emergent approach in spite of the linear-looking diagram.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah. And uh and the listener will be walking uh alongside us, messiness and all. So um you can perhaps expect that it won't be crystal clear. This isn't going to be um, you know, a step-by-step intervention where where we're totally clear where we go next. We'll be working that out between us.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah. And um I think of it almost as a um as a mosaic, George. With you know, the different pieces of a mosaic. And I think we'll have to wait until the end of the eighth, uh, the eighth uh chapter of this series in order for the the full picture to emerge and make sense.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yes, yeah, as always. As always, and it and and uh as often with team coaching journeys, you know, they one journey ends up being a phase that then opens up into a into another cycle of work. So after the eight episodes, we might be at um the destination, or we might be at a waypoint and we won't know till we get there. So let's see what unfolds.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Yeah. So if you're listening to this and you're going, you know, I've always wondered what happens in the room when the team coaching's you know, d during a a team coaching kind of intervention, uh, then I think this will answer a lot of your a lot of your questions. Maybe it'll bring up other questions, um, and it'll give you ideas, I'm sure, on on how to develop your own philosophy of of team coaching and the different pieces and bits and that that are involved and how to and how to uh how to deploy an intervention over um let's say uh a six or six or twelve month kind of period.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

I'd love to see that. Yeah. I'd love to see what people come out with.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Yeah, so by all means, you know, keep keep sharing with us as a result of listening to these uh to these chapters. Um so today you will meet our client, an executive team of of a big a large corporation that we've called ACME. And acme always reminds me of those uh of the Roadrunner cartoons, Georgina. I don't know if you remember those.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Why does ACMe remind you of Roadrunners?

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Yeah, because Roadrunner was always I mean, not Road the Why Wiley Coyote was always buying explosives and other things from ACME corporation. Yeah, that was the logo on on the crates of stuff that he would buy. So anyway, but so it's an executive, an executive, you know, a senior executive team, ACME, and of course it's uh it's based on a composite of different clients that we've worked with over the years. And so we'll try to keep it as uh representative as possible, even though the particular team that we're gonna be working with in our imaginary journey is uh you know doesn't exist as such.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

So let's begin with by uh uh going right to the beginning of how how team coaching begins, you know, from the initial email or linked in message or phone call that we get. Um, because we believe that the field, the field of data about the system, the needs of the system, what's there, that emerges from that very first point of contact. There's data in everything. Um, so let's think about this in the in today's episode. Let's think about you know these initial meetings and uh and and what happens in these initial meetings.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

So as you're listening to this, sit back and relax. And now imagine that um uh Georgina and I have just you know come back from a first piece of work, and um, and um Georgina and I are debriefing what happened and um and and you're listening in. And uh and so by the end of this episode, you'll know as much as as we do at this point about uh the executive team of ACME Incorporated.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Great. So what what what we know is that um Sarah, who's uh an HR, head of HR for ACME, uh reached out to me by email and said, you know, I've heard about your work and I've seen some of your LinkedIn posts, and I wonder whether you would be interested in doing some team coaching with our most senior team, our executive team in the organization. And um and and what they want is to become one team and to be more cohesive.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

That's not the first time. That's not the first time somebody phrased it in that way, isn't it? We want to become one team. Yeah. Lots of lots of talented individuals in this team, but somehow they're not doing they're not doing a great job of working together.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

That's what it sounds like, isn't it? And uh and so I I replied to her email and said, yeah, let's have a conversation. And then you and I hopped on that call. We actually spent half an hour with Sarah, so it wasn't that long.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

No.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Um, but we we we gathered some things from that. So what what you know if we use this um frame of self-team and situation, maybe we start with with a situation. What what what do you remember Sarah saying about the situation?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

I I remember more about the team at this point, things that she said about the team. So I'm happy to I'm happy to talk about the larger situation, but before I forget, there's a couple of things that I wrote down about the team that it really stand out in my mind. Is that all right?

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Okay. Should we begin there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Yeah, yeah. And so I think so. I'm looking at my notes, right? And so Sarah made it very clear that team members get on with each other, they're polite, but really kind of focused on their own, on their own piece of the business, their own silos and kind of and reporting in. Um there isn't there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interdependence or mutual accountability at this point, um, as they work towards, you know, what what what what what we've been told is a is a compelling a compelling uh collective purpose.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Yeah, I remember that. And I remember her saying that previously they had done some work um as a team where they'd looked at their colours and some people were blue and some people were green and some were red. Um, I don't think there were any yellows, um, but they'd really enjoyed that session and thought it was useful as a way of them starting to understand each other a bit better, but they hadn't they hadn't done anything since.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

No. But so that's another thing that I noticed that they do they they they they seem to like assessments and things as such. So I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line, George, there's going to be some discovery and assessment work with this team if this all if this all moves ahead.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Yeah, that seems to be their frame, isn't it? That that the team can be uh diagnosed and kind of understood cognitively. It can be diagnosed, and then the you know gaps can be identified and uh and gaps can be closed, and and she was quite interested in in what kind of theoretical frames or models we'd would bring to the team coaching.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yep, yeah, yeah. I also I I noticed, you know, at one point I for I don't know if it was you or me, but we asked her what what what what did she mean by one team or or what did she mean by a cohesive team? Because these are such buzzwords, right? Like almost generic terms that get thrown around so easily in these uh in these types of situations. And I noticed she didn't have a really I I I found she didn't have a really clear answer of what that meant, you know, the one team, one cohesive team. So maybe there's something that we need to go back on and dig a little bit deeper.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

With her or or with the team?

SPEAKER_02 11:46

I'm almost thinking with the team, if we I, you know, I'd love to meet the team next.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

And see what the team has to say and not so not just hear it from an HR sponsor, but hear from the horse's mouth directly.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Well, now you say that one thing I think we missed, I know we only had half an hour. Um, but I'm not actually clear whether she's a team member and whether she's an official member of the um executive team as their people officer, or whether she's more of an HR sponsor and what her role is. So that's something that uh I think we need to clarify a bit more.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah, let's right. I did notice she spoke of the team as as them and they rather than us. So my impression is that she's not part of the team.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

I I did get a real a real sense though that she was very eager to please the CEO, head of the team. And very eager to Well, she mentioned him, she mentioned him several times and was uh, you know, with a lot of deference and uh um and the importance of getting this right and uh qu you you know questioning us on our credibility and making sure that um she wanted to make absolutely sure that we were the right people for the job, etc.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Yes, I noticed that as well. I think that's a really good point. So some some need to establish credibility, maybe she's feeling a bit um like she's got to get this right.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah.

unknown 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Big investment of time and money potentially to to do a chunky piece of team coaching, and uh I can understand that's could be challenging for her.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Yeah. Yeah, so it's um it's there it's a real um it's it's it's all still very vague at this point, isn't it? As it as it often is. There the it rarely starts out with a um with a very with a very precise and and well thought out kind of brief. It's more like something needs to be done. Hopefully you're the right people to do it for. Um and um yeah, and this that this recurring notion of one team, one team, they wanna and and uh what what's your what's your sense of the change that they're hoping for? Are you getting are you getting a sense of of that right now? Or do we will that become clearer after we speak with the team members themselves? Like what's the hoped for change?

SPEAKER_00 14:37

I'm sure it'll come clearer, and I'd love I'd love to ask that question to the team as a whole. There's something for me about who really is the client here? Is it the HR person we met? Is it the team leader? Is it the team? How invested is the team in this? Um, and what what's the change they really hope for? And they might use the same language as one team and cohesive. If they do, I'd really like to to drill into what that what that really means for them. Um, how we know that they've that becoming more one team and more cohesive, what would happen differently in terms of how they think together and how they behave together? What would what would make that materially noticeable?

unknown 15:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

It's gonna be a lot of interesting insight in that. Yeah, for you, any builds?

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Um No, I I I just I just remembered now that um this is this is more of a vibe I'm picking up than anything very specific that I noticed, but the the way in which the appointment was set up, you know, the kind of hurried, hurried short emails um with some typos in them. Yeah um Sarah's tone of voice. Um it all it all it's all data, isn't it, about what the system it well, it's initial data about what the system is potentially like.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see if there's this real sense of hurry up in others in the organization, because that might um influence what we want to contract for, or um how we position team coaching as really needing an investment in time and slowing down. It's not something that we hurry up to do, it's something that we slow down to do.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

So uh let's see how that um how that is when we're in the room. For example, you know, if we if we get this engagement session with them, uh, does it run on time? Is our time for shortened? Do they give it the fullest amount of time? I think that'd be really interesting to to watch out for.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Yeah, yeah. Well, I was just gonna say I've got one one one small regret at this point. And I noticed at one point she asked us a little bit about our approach, right? What our approach or our our philosophy of team coaching was. And and I uh I remember I started to answer that question, and I saw and so I brought up this notion of emergent team coaching. And I'm afraid it went over her head a little bit. And now I wonder if maybe that that was a little bit too soon, and that that that particular answer of mine did not provide her with uh um with a sense of you know, a well-thought-out, strategically structured kind of intervention.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yes, it might be too far away from her or their lived experience and their frame of reference.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

So perhaps when we meet the team, we need to bring more clarity and structure to at least what the early phase of team coaching might look like.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah. Yeah, because I remember Yeah. No, no, you're absolutely right. Because I remember saying to her, um, you don't really know what the work is until you start doing the work, right? I remember using those words. And I remember her looking at me going, but surely we have to know what the work is before we start doing the work. So there seems to be, yeah, there might be a bit of a bit of a disconnect, which I'd love to explore with the team and keep an eye on, um, and see see how much structure we need to be contracting for with them at this point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

How much structure and how diagnostic they they need to be? Something about the liking of the colours and uh the way she lit up when she talked about diagnostics. Is that is that hers? Is that of the system? Where's that coming from? How do we meet them where they're at in order to start the journey? Um, that seems really important.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

So you so a few minutes ago you you you used the term that STS terminology, right? Of in order to kind of structure what we noticed. So what did I notice in the larger situation? What did I notice in the team?

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Um and then and what did you notice in your and what did we notice in ourselves as a a felt sense, more kind of somatic maybe way of noticing. And are is there anything that you're sitting with at this point when you when you go inside, you check in with yourself? What what is it that you notice in yourself?

SPEAKER_00 19:41

I notice uh um a bit of pressure. Um feel a bit of pressure to perform and get it right and maybe to fix something. Yeah. I think that's the main thing I'm aware of. I don't really like that feeling of pressure because it doesn't create the conditions in me where I'm at my best and do the deepest work. So I'm a little wary of that, I think. How about you?

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Yeah, very similar. I feel a little bit like um um like I'm a schoolboy again, you know, who who's got to do who's who's been told that yes, he better do a good job. Better do a good job. Okay, yeah. So um, yeah. I feel yeah, there's this sense of oh, maybe maybe you know, I gotta dig up some interesting models and or conceptual frameworks to bring or some, you know, something that I can hold on to.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

So there's a bit clever.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Yeah, be exactly to be seen as clever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah. Okay, that's that I think that's really valuable insight because without having that in our awareness, we could set up a paradigm where we go in with some clever articles or slides, and and we form a pattern where they're expecting us to bring in something clever, something wizzy. We're feeling the need to kind of prove ourselves and entertain. So I think we need to somehow subtly speak to that with the team and give them a sense of what team coaching might be like um in that first conversation with the team, whilst being open to uh bringing in structure and diagnostic if that's what what they really want. Yeah. Um, what about between us? You know, it when when you think about how we need to shop, um they contacted me. Um, you know, my name's known, I'm out there in the field, so they contacted me about team coaching. I'm conscious they might see me as the lead. And um and I don't really want that. I think it would be much better if we went in on this side by side.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

No, so I think that you know we have an opportunity to establish that when we when we meet the team. So so I I was very happy when that Sarah agreed for us to um that Sarah in this initial meeting trusted us enough uh to let us meet the team a couple weeks from now, which I'm really looking forward to. Um and uh and I'm sure that when we meet with the team for the first time, you know, we'll have an we'll we'll we'll we'll set aside some time to explain our approach and and and really make a case for um for being there, for showing up together rather than just you or just me doing this piece of work. Um what the advantage of that is for them.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Great.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

But yeah, I no, thank you, thank you for saying that. And uh I um I I want to make sure that I uh you know that I that I play full full out and and that I'm there as your equal and not just as a uh you know somebody that carries your briefcase, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

I like that. It's nice having my briefcase carried at times. But you know, um so when we when we meet the team, perhaps you could um open up the session. I always think there's something significant in who who talks first, who opens up, what that signals, and then I can follow in with that, and and then and then we can arrive in a side-by-side place, because that's when we do our best work, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Yeah, so it's interesting. You know, we we haven't met the team yet, but already in my mind, in my heart and in my mind, the team is starting to come alive a little bit already. Yes, yeah, I I yeah, we've only met them through through Sarah.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Um and uh and you know, and and Sarah is Sarah, she seems to be under a lot of pressure, and and as I'm talking through this, I'm thinking maybe uh, you know, some of the the some of that pressure, that that schoolboy pressure that I feel I'm under is part of that could be parallel process. Maybe maybe I'm picking up what Sarah herself is going through, you know, in in her relationship with the CEO. And she's um and she's communicating some of that to us. Um yeah. So but I'm I'm really happy with the way that that you know, we got a lot, we got a lot established in half an hour, and I'm really glad we're having this little chat now to make to start to make some meaning of what what happened.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

In a way, it's a shame that we don't have the opportunity to speak with the CEO before the engagement session. Um, I've got a sort of sense of the CEO through Sarah and that our contact with Sarah, but not I'd I'd like to have a more direct sense. Um so perhaps that's something to consider after the engagement session, as I know he's away up until we we meet them. Perhaps um we loop back in and have a one a one-to-one with him after and talk about how did it how did it go and what his leadership style is like and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Yep, yeah. Yeah, oh gosh, still so so many questions, so many so many pieces of this to unpack and establish. So I'm really glad we're doing this together and uh and talk and talking talking through this these initial this initial meeting that we had with Sarah is very helpful.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Yes, yeah, these initial meetings I can find quite uh quite stressful at times because there's a sense of uh I don't know what we're going to encounter and what the real hope or expectation is of us, you know, and how much magical thinking there is. We we want to become one cohesive team and we want to give you half a day to do that in those sorts of things. Are they really cognizant of of um the time and commitment it takes to really becoming uh a cohesive team? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Well, one step, one step at a time.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Yes. So in our engagement session with the team, um, is there anything uh anything else that comes to mind in terms of how we run that? Anything that we need to be cognizant of today?

SPEAKER_02 26:35

No, let's um I I think we should go in with a bit of an agenda, George, a bit of a bit of a structure. I think it'd be too soon. It it would be too soon to ask the team, okay, we're here, what what do you want to talk about? I think we'll uh we'll talk about it more in the next episode, I'm sure, but uh uh after after we've after we've after we've done the work. But uh let's talk a little bit about what it is that they expect um and um and what they can expect from us and uh get a sense for um get a sense for what it is that they want to get out of this and how much energy they're willing to put in. And and get a first, you know, let's let's keep our STS kind of lens on and and see what we keep noticing in ourselves and what we keep noticing uh in between the team members and between us and the team members and what what else we uh we learn uh about the uh about the larger situation that this executive team is in or a part of.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

I know we have um an hour and a half, 90 minutes for the uh engagement session with the team. Um I'd love to get to asking them what uh concerns they may have and uh what's on their mind that make them that might make them be thinking, I don't really know if I want to do this or even stronger uh against. I'd like to know what resistances might be there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Okay. So as we as we come to a close of this of this first session, uh Georgina, maybe I just like to turn my attention back to the people who've been listening to to us debrief this imaginary, uh yet so typical but and and composite kind of picture of what an initial meeting or a or a series of initial meetings might be like for them as it is for us. And uh and I and and and and I hope that it's answering some of the, you know, I hope that people recognize themselves and some of the things that uh that that that you and I have been speaking about. And that it um and that they um that they recognize some of the questions that you might be struggling with at this point of an of um of a piece of work.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Yes, and how how the coach is impacted by the team and the dynamics, you know, the vibe, the culture that um that we're tapping into, albeit at this stage, through through one sponsor. Um and we're you know, we're trying to get a feel for the team. I think that's I think that's really important at this stage.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

But you know, I have a question for the listener, um, or an invitation, put it that way, is um perhaps you'd like to play along with us and um and write down for yourself where would you go from here? Uh there are any thoughts or feelings that come up for you in relation to an engagement session, any particular questions you'd want to ask? What do you want to find out or or communicate in order to inform where you go beyond that engagement session?

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Well, the engagement session, it's planned. Our engagement session is planned two weeks from now, at which time we hope that you uh tune in again and uh um and help us unpack um this this this ongoing engagement with uh the executive senior executive team of ACME Incorporated.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

See you then.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Thanks for listening. Bye for now.

unknown 30:15

Bye.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Thanks for joining today's journey of teams transformed.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

If this sparked a new insight or a deeper question, we invite you to sit with it, not to solve it, but to let it unfold.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

For resources, community, and reflection prompts, visit teamcoachingstudio.com.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Until the next time, stay present, stay curious, and keep leaning into the art of emergence.