The Engagement Session: Building Trust from Day One

Today, Georgina and Allard take listeners behind the scenes of the early stages of a team coaching engagement session. Following their initial conversations with HR sponsor Sarah, they debrief their first meeting with the executive team at the fictional organisation, Acme Inc. and begin making sense of what they're noticing.

A strong sense of urgency runs through the team, alongside a genuine commitment to becoming more cohesive. As Georgina and Allard reflect on the session, they explore what was shared openly, what remained beneath the surface, and how these early interactions begin to build trust, ownership, and psychological safety.

You'll discover:

• Why engagement sessions are a critical part of the team coaching journey. 
• How small observations can reveal important team dynamics. 
• What coaches listen for when assessing readiness for change. 
• How psychological safety begins to develop from the very first meeting. 
• Why the whole team—not just the leader or sponsor—must own the coaching process. 

Georgina and Allard also reflect on their co-coaching partnership and what it reveals about the wider system, offering practical insights for anyone interested in how teams come alive through coaching.

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_01 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_01 0:23

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

SPEAKER_00 0:31

In this episode, you'll be following Allard and myself as we debrief following an engagement session with the executive team of Acme Inc. And we're making sense of our experience of that engagement session. So you can follow alongside us.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yeah, so we pick up where we left off in episode one. We had the initial meetings with uh with Sarah from HR. This is our was our first opportunity to sit down with the team, i.e. the client, and continue to see the team come alive for us. And we've started to build the container, uh, we've started to build some of the necessary psychological safety to be able to do the work. We've gathered additional data about the team and its members. And we're keeping an eye, Georgina and myself, on our own co-coaching relationship and how that may be impacting the system, and vice versa, how the system may be impacting our relationship. So welcome to episode two of the team coaching journey where teams come alive. Hello, everyone, and welcome. Welcome back. How are you today, Georgina?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

I'm great. Really looking forward to this conversation today and picking up from where we left off.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yes, yes, it is. Uh we we are picking up, aren't we, from uh from episode one of a new series, this being episode two of the team coaching journey where teams come alive. Where teams come alive. And uh and uh we're working we're working with an in with an imaginary team that we've called the uh the senior executive team of um of Acme Inc. We met them, we met them in our last episode. If you've missed that, then do go back because we we did do some initial contracting with with Sarah, the HR sponsor, who's uh um who's you know who shed some initial light on on the situation and what the team is and who who's on the team and who's not on the team. And um and and during that initial um conversation with Sarah, we've started to gather some some data, uh, even even a few hypotheses, I think, are are starting to are starting to come alive uh for us. And uh and so we want to continue today, and um, and we are taking you with us on this uh on this journey in the in the room where the coaching happens, and then uh in our debriefs, where Georgina and I sit down after the work is done, and um as we as we explore this uh this unfolding team coaching journey.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Right. So in episode one, we talked about the initial uh initial meetings, and uh we had our initial meetings and uh and then we went on to have a team engagement session with the team. So we're picking up now with our our debrief post-team coaching engagement session with the executive team of ACME Inc.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yes, it's um this doesn't always happen, but the the the initial meeting with with with HR went well enough for HR to you know to trust us and uh and um and give us the green light for um a 90-minute sit-down session with with the with the actual team, including the uh the CEO. And um that's so that felt like a bit of a luxury, 90 minutes with a team in a in a uh in a larger context, which felt to us rather hurried, didn't it?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, I mean an engagement session uh for those for the listener who does one-to-one coaching, you could compare it to uh perhaps a chemistry meeting with a client. It's an opportunity to meet the team as a whole, to see the team as a client, as your client, and uh to get a sense of what the team feels like, what's on their minds, and and whether there's a good fit, whether we think that our approach and our way of working is a good fit for them, and vice versa. So um, very rarely do I like to do team coaching without an engagement session, really the opportunity to connect with the team in that way. I've learned my lesson by driving straight in uh without that. Yeah, so let's begin our debrief. What do you remember? You know, our we use this frame self-team and situation. We call it STS. It's one of our favorite meaning-making frames, the team coaching studio. Uh, we could use that again and maybe uh think about what do we remember about the situation? What was it, what was it like?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Remember how after the uh after that initial meeting and uh there was something there was something in the air about that felt very hurried, and just you know, get on with it, and we don't have a lot of time, and the emails were short, etc. And uh and and here too, the the the situation just felt felt hurried, even though, like I said, you know, we had 90 minutes with this team and and you and I had prepared a bit of an agenda of the different things that we wanted to cover and which we will unpack as we go along. But um it felt it felt that that so that initial theme of hurriedness was to just carried through uh to this engagement uh session. Um the session started late for one, didn't it?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yes, I think it was about 15 minutes late. And um so our 90 minutes was cut down to 75.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Because they had another meeting following after, you know, another agenda item following on from us. And I so I felt a time pressure and thinking, how are we gonna get through the engagement session in this in a good enough way in that time?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was um so so so so even though that late start, what what what I what I liked was the fact that they were all they were all there.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

And by all, I mean the CEO and um and eight additional team members. So the full group of nine people made it and and stayed until and stayed until the end of the engagement session.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

And they were actually um engaged. Uh nobody was doing their text or email in the background, they were all uh in the meeting and on and participating.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Um, which is a good sign to me.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah. Yeah. So I remember as I look back to this session, I think it started with uh, you know, we asked them some some fairly generic questions of, you know, can you please introduce yourself and and maybe speak to any previous experience you've had um with team coaching or other other forms of team development and and and you know what that was like for them and what they'd learned from it and how they how they experienced that.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Yeah, I thought that was great because they they started talking about that session they'd had last year with the colour wheel and how much they'd enjoyed that session, how they'd learnt about each other. And I think we asked them what they individually, well they learned about themselves individually, and what they had learned about themselves as a team. And they were pretty open. You know, I remember a few people being quite open and vulnerable, saying they learned that their pace was too fast uh and they tend to hurry things, whereas there are a few more reflective team members who really need more time to do sense making.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Um, and and also as a team, I heard them talk about you know, sometimes at this stage, teams I think are quite well defended, and they they talk about where they're already strong or brilliant, um, which is good to hear. Uh this team did some of that. You know, said I think we're a good team, we're all very committed to this organization, we're very committed to the purpose. Um, and I felt I really felt that was genuine. And uh, but they also said, you know, I don't think we go deep enough on some conversations. I think we avoid conflict. And that's quite open for this stage.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yeah. And which is an initial indication that we've started to build what we call build the container, right? We've started to build some of that. It's still all very polite, of course, at this stage, but we've started to build, I think we're starting to put in place the conditions for people to feel that they can can speak their mind.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yes, which is so important because without that, we're really not going to be able to do any work at the team level unless they can really open up to each other and open up to learning.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Um, if they put all their energy into just proving how great they are, then then uh it's very difficult to create a learning journey. So I I felt there was real appetite there at that stage for learning.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

I would underline that there's a real appetite for um, I think one of them said, you know, we need this is we need to step up. We this is the this is the time uh for us to be at our best as a team. There's a and there was real energy around that, I think, which that was echoed by other people that were there.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Yeah, there was a lot of nodding around the room when they said that.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

And um, and somebody else responded to that and said, you know, I think we're good, but we're not at our best as a team yet. There's more to do, more to go.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

And and at that moment the energy really seemed to pick up.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah, and and and I agree with them. I mean, there's um there, you know, they're they're there's a lot happening in their industry. Uh there's a lot of mergers, acquisitions going on. There seems to be a lot of consolidation. At the same time, uh, they're going through some crazy high growth kind of phase. And so this really calls for them to be more cohesive and more strategically aligned and to play more to that theme of, you know, we want to be one team uh than ever before in their in their history as a team. And I think they've got the the right people on board to do it. I mean, there's a lot of talent. A lot of talent.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

I like when you asked the uh chief executive and you said to him, so why team coaching, John? Why now? Why is that important? I thought that was a great question. And um and I'm and I was impressed that uh he really brought that to life for me about the the purpose of the organization and the mission they're on, and how it feels that they're on the brink of an opportunity. Um that AI is both an opportunity and a threat, existential threat, really, to the organization, and how they want to harness that at this stage. And it's the I I heard him say, you know, uh as a team, we need to shift from operating down into the organization through the silos to really looking upwards and outwards more as a team.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Uh which is very common, I find. What did you think about his response there?

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Uh clear and um and um and and expressed with authority. And um, and so I think uh it clearly is it seems to be a well-respected CEO in the team. John seem John seems to be well respected as as uh well established as as as their leader. It's a bit of a there's a bit of a top-down power dynamic, I think, going on. I think um and and um and I'm sure there's there's there's there's more that some team members wanted to share, but it's just not the right, the right time yet. I think the container's not strong enough to or is not deemed strong enough to um and rightfully so at this point. To to hold, you know, to hold uh clearly differing opinions or dissent of any kind.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, so more more a sense of of positive will, uh wanting to signal that that they're in and this is important and they want to do this work together. Um but we didn't really see anyone disagree with each other or any signs of uh conflict at this stage.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

No, no, no, no. No, there's a to me there was a real theme around um um like we said earlier, you know, they they really wanting to step up and this need to be at their best, uh, which which led to a bit of a conversation around you know what what good looks like or what what the being at our best what looks like. And I noticed I felt um um so this is the first S of STS, right, on myself. Um I felt um I felt invited uh to be an expert and and start to explain what what what being at your best looks like for a team. Felt a bit of pressure to be an expert. Did you did you have that at all?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Well, yeah, I think we both started responding, didn't we? I remember I was talking about, well, uh, in my view, um, you know, if you take uh Katzenbach and Smith's wisdom of teams, uh team has a strong, clear, compelling purpose. It's a small number of people who hold themselves mutually accountable. I think I probably even said something about there's a load of research that supports that. And uh I think at that stage I was um I was feeling the need to um to show that we're credible, but also to give them some frame, I think, about I I do wonder if they if anyone on the team has has worked, has been part of a cohesive executive team, and they you know their experience may be more that the the team members have been really great managers leading down into the organization, but perhaps not part of a collective team. I really wanted to bring that collective teamwork lens to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Hey, it's it's as we're talking about it now, it seems like it was all um it it it it feels it the the way we describe the team is that wow, this is just the perfect team and with and you know, perfectly set up for six or twelve months of team coaching. But I also noticed um, I'm not gonna name names, but I noticed one one or two team members that were that that felt a little bit more ambivalent, perhaps than the rest, who I'm not sure what that what that is yet, but they're they're you know the the the the the the this work of making the invisible visible takes time, right? And right now I think at least with two of these team members, there's there's still some some concerns that are not being well that were not expressed in the in the mere 75 minutes that we had with them.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

But there's something looming underneath the surface there, I think.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you remember when we um asked them about what concerns they might have?

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

And one of the team members who was more reserved said um he really doesn't like um conversations that invite him to share anything personal about himself. He's a very private person. And uh so I wonder if that might be one concern that he might be uh worried about, revealing more than he wants to reveal about who he is and um and what he thinks.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

And I like how you normalized that and accepted that. And I I think you even went as far as thanking him for for speaking up with the candor that he did.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah, and he seemed to respond well to that.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

So a bit of a smile and a bit of warmth.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

And it gave it gave other people permission too, to maybe not feel uh singled out by not uh sharing their deepest secrets on day one.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yes, yeah. You know, in in the bit about the concerns, um, as one thing that we need to work work at how we're going to be with, was um they said that their diaries are very busy, and uh, you know, 60% of their time at every team member's in meetings, and then and then the remainder time they've got to try and get some stuff done. So I I did find myself wondering how they're going to commit to the both the length of journey and the time they need together to really uh do some transformational work as a team. I'm not sure we address that concern enough in the room. We might need to come back to that. Well, what do you think on that one?

SPEAKER_01 18:27

You know, I'm I'm I'm very happy that we um that we're being asked to at least you know submit a proposal for for how how we see this, how we see, you know, what how we see see this unfold in unfold, I'm sorry, and what we uh believe would be um the necessary time involvement and we'll and we'll see what pushback we'll see what what pushback we get. I also think that uh the next step in the in this journey, which which um which which as you know, they you know they they they want us they want us to do a team selfie with them. So a bit of you know, what are the a bit of a SWOT analysis, so to speak, of the team, like what what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, what are the opportunities and the threat. And um we'll see if that if if that notion of um of time pressure keeps you know is revealed there too. If it comes up again.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yes, I they certainly got the sense that they really wanted a bit of uh diagnostic, which give them a a way of getting into the work and starting the work. And and they were keen on that. Uh and as you know, I'm less keen on diagnostics myself because I I I think all all the information you need, all the data is already there. It's there in the room if we're uh uh attuned to it. But I think doing the team selfie would really help them um get going with the work and give a chance to build a container and do it in a way that's relatively safe and on their terms at this stage. So I'm I'm I'm happy to do that.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah, so a team selfie for people who don't know the team selfie, it's an it's an in-house, uh quick and easy-to-use assessment tool that we've developed, but uh which really looks at the team from different angles. It looks at the relationships between team members, uh, not as individuals, but really as as you know, what's going on between between the the team members. It talks about um the team leadership, uh talks about um the resources that the team have access to. So it's a it's a real, it's a complete kind of snapshot of uh of what's going well and not not so well in a team at what at a particular point in time. So yeah, George, I I think they wanted that because at one point they mentioned they would want to then repeat that at the end of our intervention, whenever that end may be, so that they would have some sense of what has shifted and be able to um um um to to to feel that there's been some form of return on investment that way, I think is what I got from them.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yes. Yeah. And I I notice in myself I feel some resistance to that because through my own lens, I always think, well, team coaching isn't the only thing happening in the organization that would shift the dials uh on the things that team selfie's measuring. Um however, I do think it's important that the team feels a sense of progress and uh a sense of the dial having shifted for them and that they've done that. And uh if this is what would give them that feeling. And I think it's really useful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah, so just to recap a little bit. So, you know, so we we asked them to introduce themselves. We got all the voices in in the room, which was nice. uh we answered a a lot of questions about about our approach and and what the different what the different build what the different building blocks so to speak of a of a of this team coaching journey might might might uh might be um so we gave them that we I think we we gave them I think they certainly know us better not not just through what we said but also how we showed up with them and how we answered the questions that we did. There was some initial initial talk of uh around what it is that they expect from from the team coaching. So all of the important kind of agenda points uh were were were covered. Another indication that I got that they that they're really on board with this and that they want to make the most of of our time together, if the proposal is accepted of course for the next phase, but is um is the fact that they asked for some one-on-one coaching uh alongside the team coaching with the CEO and with the different team members. Yeah I think that was a real sign of yeah we're we're we're all in and we want to make the most out of this.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

We're all in and you know sometimes I think when there's um a bit of ambivalence for team members uh maybe they're thinking well even if we don't get anything out of this as a team I'd really like to get something out of it for myself and get some growth out of it for myself. So it so it really gives them something additional. And also I think being a team member can be quite challenging. And you know what if your uh goal is to become a cohesive team but you really struggle to get on with or collaborate with one or two or more of the other team members um and you're not sure they've got what it takes or you're not sure about your own commitment to the team. So I think it's great that they've taken that up and the one thing that um uh would be good when we put in the this in the proposal is to frame it as that's one-to-one coaching in service of the team's effectiveness and the and the and the team becoming one team becoming a cohesive team which is ultimately how they're describing at the moment what they want it's not about their own career development or how they lead their individual teams it's really in service of that. So if they already have a coach that they're working with they can keep that coach and have this you know our coaching alongside um because it's a different context that we'll be looking at in this program. And I think it's important to frame that well in the in the proposal.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

I looking back I'm um um I'm happy that we went in with a bit of an agenda like I said and uh that it seem it seemed to be the agenda points that they you know that that were that were on their mind so we connected and I'm really glad uh that we went in with one slide and one slide only um namely as you know the slide of that of the team coaching journey. Because that little diagram seemed um seemed to land with them and answer some of the concerns that were there around uh well what what are you going to be doing to us or with us um what is this gonna look like and so and what what can we expect it it seemed to create it could to contribute to some of the it it it seemed to give them enough structure to start creating a bit of safety. Yes I agree I agree yeah yeah they certainly did dictate that so again in our proposal let's just uh make sure we um put a pit a picture of the team coaching journey visual in there but also say this is um um subjects change i'm trying to think of some some helpful wording for that but very rarely does a team coaching program actually f unfold exactly like like um like this this visual there may be more team coaching sessions we might want to do some live action coaching or some shadow coaching um or some coaching between them and other teams some diet coaching well I don't know we'll have to see what what's needed along the way I think all all we can ask for at this point is is this notion of good enough right yeah um there seems to be good enough energy with um amongst the team um to do the work and and I think that we've got a good enough initial contract to start working with like you said it's not going to be perfect because things will emerge along the way so before we finish uh our debrief on this team can we just talk about um how how did we do in the room together with the team how was our dynamic Well I'm glad um that I took you last in our last debrief on I think it was in episode one you suggested that maybe I kick off this meeting. And uh I almost did right because we we we let the CEO kick it off and remind everyone why we're here. But then of the two of us I was I was the first one to speak and kind of explain what this was going to be what we were going to be doing together and what you know what we would start with and and uh and how we how we would be interacting for the next 75 minutes. And um so and I so I'm I'm thankful for your suggestion that I do that because I think that right from the beginning it signaled uh that we were equals and and and uh not one guru and one briefcase holder like we s we like we joked about in episode one.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yeah I did find myself um pulling back quite a lot um wanting to give you space and um and then something I'm mindful of uh uh is this is uh this team has a male chief executive with a lot of females on the team um so we'll see how that dynamic goes over time we don't want to lock into the other way around of you know you being perceived as the lead and me as the second and then we'd be paralleling kind of what's happening in the team so we may want to just be conscious of how our dynamic is influencing how they uh how the team are responding to the chief exec so if you notice people um kind of going along with you more not pushing back uh you know how people seem to be looking at the at the at the chief executive in the room as though they're looking for a bit of approval with when they speak I'd be really interested to see if you if you find a similar experience and quite how we how we you know make sense of how of what dance is happening between them by noticing what happens between us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

All right so we're gonna we're gonna stop our our debrief here and maybe just remind uh you know maybe maybe just a quick message to the listeners just to under to underline um Georgina the importance of having a team engagement session as part of your overall approach to to you know a tea to to your own team coaching journeys whatever they end up looking like um but but I remember a few minutes ago at one point when we were talking Georgia you you you said something about yeah I've learned from experience not to skip this stage and um that really resonated with me and and echoes my own experience too that it's it's um it's it's sometimes tempting and easy to jump into doing the right into in in you know to jump straight to these coaching into these coaching sessions after those initial meetings with in our case Sarah from HR without having met the team and having been having an initial reading of the room so to speak in an initial kind of bilateral sniffing each other out kind of meeting.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yes yes in fact I I used to um request a meeting with the team leader and and kind of take the brief as it were from the team leader and out of my awareness I didn't realize that what I was doing then was setting up um a dynamic whereby I'm really seeing the leader as my client and taking their view of what the work is with greater emphasis than than the sense of of of what the team's making of it. And uh and that can can create a bit of passivity in a team uh and a bit of lack of ownership of the work. And so I'm really interested in how with this team how we we build on what we've done so far and you know how we get the team to to really co-own the work or ultimately so they own more of it than we do. They're really holding this as a as a as a whole team yeah so that's I think our our our parting message in this episode is don't don't don't skip it.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

There's different ways of designing a team engagement session. We've we've kind of in our debrief outlined outlined um the agenda that we worked to with acme but feel free to adapt that of course as always but don't but don't skip it. Do meet the team do start building the container do start to bring the different voices into the room before before you're ready to uh before before you think you're ready to to to kick off the actual coaching. Wonderful so we'll see you we'll see you soon for episode three remember uh we're now um acme have asked us to uh submit a costed proposal and um and start thinking about doing some discovery work and so we can unpack that more in episode three see you soon see you soon thanks for joining today's Journey of Teams Transformed 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 for resources community and reflection prompts visit teamcoachingstudio.com Until the next time stay present stay curious and keep leaning into the art of emergence