Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Annotation (15)

In this week’s post we are zooming into the topic of annotation. In my mind this is an essential tool to shift the conversation from a training environment to one of coaching. There are many different ways we can incorporate annotation including what I shared in the 2018 newsletter on 8 Ways to Jazz up your next virtual call. You can read that at : https://conta.cc/2HYQdq0


For individual group members, it is likely that annotation can be useful in helping the group see the differences and common ground


Many virtual group coaches are now using annotation as a check in space, having the group notice for themselves what themes are emerging, Rather than going around the room verbally and hearing from everyone in a check in around what they want to focus on, you can also invite group members to turn to annotation and share the theme or question they want to explore. This then allows for a creative way of prioritizing and identifying where you are going to focus.


As a team, we can use annotation to create real time. You might consider asking the team questions like:

Draw your vision for the team – individually (on the slide) or Together, create your vision using this slide (coach steps back to let them do this)

Annotate the metaphor that comes to mind

Share on the screen “What you are known for” OR “the 3 adjectives that describe your team culture” or “what’s not being said”.


Your questioning can be as “risky” or “curious” as needed.




Six questions:

1.       What do you want the team or group to see more visually by using annotation?

2.       What’s your vision? Draw your vision for your work. (can be used for a group or team coaching focus - As a team, create your vision using the whiteboard. As a group, have people individually grab a piece of the screen to draw it out).

3.       What do you bring that’s unique to the group? Share with us the logo you are bringing to the group.

4.       Share the three words you’d use to describe ____ (team culture, work-life, your current priorities etc)

5.       Use the whiteboard to share what you want coaching around today. Use this and have people notice the connections

6.       What’s not present?

For resources on this topic check out

My 2017 book – Effective Virtual Conversations (444 pages) – pick up a copy at Amazon (almost all of the 13 chapters of the book have relevance to this topic, including part 3 which is geared to supporting virtual team development)
Check out the EVC Calls I host on a monthly basis. They can be found at my YouTube channel.