2014 Trends in Group and Team Coaching Work

Copyright 2015, Jennifer Britton

2014 Trends in Group and Team Coaching Work

By: Jennifer Britton, All Rights Reserved.

Last month I hosted two year end calls. One a traditional year end phone call (30 minutes), and the second a year end screencast (45 minutes) If you missed them you can View the 45 minute screencast at my From One to Many Resources page (scroll to the bottom of the page)

It's become an annual tradition for me over the past ten years to provide an overview of some of the trends from the past year, and an overview of what might lie ahead with respect to group and team programs. In both calls I shared some of the trends from last year as they relate to group and team coaching, along with possibilities I see for 2015.

Today's post is going to cover the some of the trends from 2014 I have seen around group and team programs, with an emphasis on group and team coaching. My next post will look at 2015 possibilities for group and team programs.

There were a number trends I saw in my work, which was reflected through the hundreds of conversations I had with coaches at coaching conferences I presented at, training sessions I led and peer dialogue. Some of the key coaching trends last year I noticed were:

Group and team coaching becoming more embedded - Group and team coaching became even more embedded in learning processes during 2014, especially in the realm of leadership development. It is much more common today to hear of how group coaching is being used to follow-up with leadership training, or how organizations are turning to team coaching rather a one-off team process. There is still a long way to go, but many organizations are seeing the value of a sustained series of conversations for groups and teams in their organizations.
Questions to consider: Where do you notice coaching becoming an integral part of your client's lives and work? What opportunities does this create?

Time Crunch on the part of our clients. Clients continue to be even more time crunched. Savvy organizations are realizing that coaching (individual, group and/or team) all provide important pause points in a frenetic day. Coaching not only focuses on supporting our clients into action (ICF Core Competency # 9) but also supports our clients in deepening awareness around issues that are important to them and their work (ICF core competency #8). The one hour a week (or every few weeks) spent working with a coach individually, or with peers and a group or team coach, provides a critical pause point for many of clients to stop, look strategically at issues, gain insights and make better decisions.
Questions to consider: What do you notice about time availability on the part of your clients? What types of solutions are they looking to? 

Teaming - Amy Edmonston coined the term teaming in her book Teaming several years ago. the ability for all workers to enhance their competencies in the area of team work, and their ability to move in and out of quickly forming (and disbanding) teams is becoming a reality for many today. Again coaching can provide an important role in supporting teams in creating common visions, and creating sustainable frameworks which they can carry from team to team.
Questions to consider: If you coach teams, what do you notice about the types of teams which exist? What is their life-cycle? What coaching support could they benefit from?

Integration of coaching - The establishment of coaching cultures is becoming embedded in many more organizations today who are looking at many different ways to integrate coaching into their learning and development processes. This enhanced understanding of what coaching is, and what coaching is not, makes our work as internal and external coaches easier in many respects, as organizations can select from a variety of different coaching solutions (internal/external, group/individual/team). Personally I like to look at it as an "and" rather than "either-or" and most of my clients see it that way as well.
Questions to consider  - What does integration mean for you? For your clients?

Partnering  - I included partnering as a trend for 2014 as I am increasingly seeing coaches recognize and leverage the enhanced abilities and impact created through co-faciltation, and other collaborative approaches with fellow coaches and other professionals. I know how important partnering was in creating results for last year, and would like to thank those who I was able to collaborate with!
Questions to consider: What role did partnering play for you last year? What results did you get? What opportunities for partnering exist in 2015?

What trends did you notice last year? What opportunties does this create for you and your clients?

Have a great start to 2015 - and stay tuned in the next few days for my post on 2015 possibilities. You can also listen into what I shared last month at the 11th Annual Year End Group Programs Call which is now at the From12Many ("From One to Many" ) Resources page (scroll to bottom).

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPCC, CPT
GroupCoachingEssentials.com | Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-8326

Join me for a 2015 program including the Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar(6.75 CCEs) starting Thursday January 8th (6.75 CCEs),  the 10 week Virtual Facilitation Skills program starting Thursday January 15th at 11:45 am ET OR one of the Mentor Coaching Groups (for ACC Renewal and ACC/PCC portfolio routes) starting Monday January 12 or Friday January 30th.