Guidebook

CoachingOurselves is excited to announce our newest topic by authors Otto Scharmer and Eva Pomeroy titled Awareness-Based Systems Change: Planting Seeds for Change.

The key leadership challenge of our times is to cultivate creativity, innovation, and leadership capacity at all levels of our systems. But what makes the difference between an organization where people regularly take new action and step into new territory and one where people prefer to ‘keep their heads down’ and play it safe? It likely has much to do with the quality of the social field. 

The social field in organizations, as defined by Scharmer, is the quality of relationships that give rise to patterns of thinking, communicating, and organizing which in turn produce practical results. Transformational change comes through cultivating this deeper “soil”, not by trying to force the visible outcomes. This module invites you to dive into the generative field of your organization to see and sense behavioural patterns which may be giving rise to unwanted results. 

When we can attend to what we see, say, and do (what is visible) while simultaneously attending to the inner source of attention and intention from which we operate (what is invisible), we can break free of patterns rooted in past experiences to create powerful breakthrough ideas. 

Reflective exercises and dialogue guide participants through this exploration. It is an opportunity to move beyond simply reacting to the forces around you and into your potential to shape and influence these forces. When we do this as individuals we contribute to an upgrade of the entire system. When we can do this as a group, we step into a field of vast possibilities.

Otto Scharmer is an author and action researcher who co-creates pathways of transformation for individuals, institutions, and larger systems. He delivers these innovations in learning and leadership infrastructures through classes at MIT, MITx u.lab, the Presencing Institute, and through innovation projects with organizations in business, government and civil society around the world.

Eva Pomeroy is Research Lead at the Presencing Institute and core faculty at U.Lab. She is Co-founder and Managing Editor of the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change and co-founded the ConcordiaU.lab Social Innovation Hub at Concordia University, Montreal. She researches in the areas of transformative learning, systems change, social field change, and eco-system activation.

In every organization the quality of learning, advancement, and efficiency, depends very much on the sharing of Lessons Learned.

We are pleased to announce our newest CoachingOurselves topic, “Learning from Mistakes and Successes”, written by Dr. James Kass. Dr Kass’ career has spanned research in human spaceflight to knowledge management with the European Commission. James brings this unique blend of expertise to our latest offering.

This topic challenges you to investigate some of the personal barriers to realizing and sharing lessons learned, and then presents some organizational approaches to successfully integrate these lessons. You can look at which aspects of your culture need attention and what sources of lessons learned you should draw on. If your situation calls for it, take some time to begin developing a process or discuss problematic privacy issues.

“Learning from Mistakes and Successes” is not just the domain of project managers but is for every employee in an organization. If individuals can be supported in overcoming a sense of vulnerability around sharing mistakes and their competitiveness around sharing successes, all employees can increase their personal effectiveness and contribute to the overall positive legacy of the organization.

This session challenges you to explore:

• the impact of personal and organizational Lessons Learned and not learned;
• the key barriers hindering the sharing of learnings;
• promoting a process and culture of Lessons Learned in your unit/organization.

Dr. James Kass has had a multi-disciplinary and multi-national career. He has worked in the domain of human spaceflight (since 1980), across the very different infrastructures of academic research, industry, and national and international agencies including the European Space Agency, NASA, and the European Commission. His work spans various disciplines such as nuclear physics, neurophysiology, applied psychology, human spaceflight, integrated applications, knowledge management. and artificial intelligence (AI). He currently running his own consultancy, James R Kass Space Consulting.

Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo movement, and the pandemic, among others, have shone a cruel but necessary light onto some of the gaping disparities within our societies. Systemic change is called for. As a result, we are seeing more organizational stakeholders pressuring leaders to be accountable for their diversity and inclusion initiatives. But how we have traditionally gone about our diversity and inclusion initiatives has failed to achieve the desired results. How might we do better?

Simon Fanshawe, OBE has some ideas about this. Simon is a diversity consultant based in the UK and co-founder of the groundbreaking gay rights organization, Stonewall. He is the author of our newest CoachingOurselves module, “Global or Worldly: Diversity in the 21st Century”.

Simon advocates reframing diversity so that it is meaningful for everyone. While the diversity deficits within organizations must be tackled (and they are stark), enhancing diversity should go beyond compliance towards recognizing the power of difference. By unblocking talent in dealing with diversity deficits, diversity can and should be pursued for the real value it brings to our organizations.

Here is an excerpt from Realizing the Power of Difference: Thinking Differently About Diversity:

The way we go about achieving greater diversity needs a rethink. Because, while there has been progress, it has been too small and too slow. So, we are either not doing the right things or the things we are doing, we are not doing right.

My experience with clients and in working on social and organizational change over many years tells me that, first, we need to change our view of diversity from a thing that companies do, to the way they do things. Diversity can no longer be a separate strategy. It needs to become the way your organization or team recruits, manages, and retains the talent you need to tackle your significant challenges. Amongst them: the changing world of work, the transformation of the skills required in your sector, and the digital future.

This topic is designed to help you to:

• Give a distinct focus to each of the two separate elements of diversity – the diversity deficits and the diversity dividends;
• Reframe diversity as a talent strategy to achieve your team/ department/ organisation’s strategic goals;
• Articulate the precise reason why diversity will enhance your organisation/ team’s ability to achieve its strategic aims;
• Provide you a brief introduction to a way of putting together those teams of difference that you need.

Simon’s new book The Power of Difference will be out in August, 2021 published by Kogan Page.

Contact us for more information

What a year this has been. Collectively we have been facing multiple inter-related challenges personally, in our workplaces, and in our communities. And yet I think most of us could now say that we seem to be turning a corner and there are glimmers of hope on the horizon.

We all know intuitively that hope can get us through tough times. In the workplace, hope has been correlated with increased engagement, higher performance, and less job stress. But how do we bring the lofty concept of hope down into our daily lives to operationalize it in our workplaces? Beyond wishfulness, positivity, and encouragement how do we actively build and sustain hope in ourselves and in our teams?

Our new topic “Hope at Work” by Professor Peter Williams explores how to harness the power of hope to create tangible pathways to our goals. Professor Williams was inspired to write this topic after attending some of our open virtual CoachingOurselves sessions that we provided to support our CoachingOurselves community at the onset of the pandemic.

Here is an excerpt from Hope at Work:

Your visions of the future can impact your present if those visions excite you enough that you choose to pursue them. That’s when visions of the future become hope. In this topic, you will consider the concept of hope as something actionable, that can drive behaviour (of a person or a team), and that can be nurtured to enhance engagement and performance.

The capacity to be hopeful and to generate hope in others is an important leadership skill. This topic challenges you to think about how you will lift yourself up through hope and how you will take practical actions to harness the energy of hope in your workplace.

The goals for this session are to:

• Understand how we can be more hopeful at work;
• Explore a few ways hope can motivate people;
• Discuss ways to help our teams be more hopeful.

Peter Williams, PhD, teaches applied research and human research development to educational leaders at Texas A&M Commerce. He has coached managers and leaders (since 2009 mainly through doctoral academic programs) in their use of evidence-based practices. He researches how adults learn, work, and thrive in technology mediated environments, focusing on spirituality and the nature of social support. He believes we can create hospitable, productive social spaces that allow organizations and individuals to flourish.

CoachingOurselves Peer Learning “Hope at Work” w. Peter Williams on February 17th

The “Hope at Work” public session was on February 17th. Practicing managers, leaders, and HR professionals from around the globe alongside Peter Williams experienced the topic for the first time!

We are very excited to present this brand new leadership training and group coaching topic by CoachingOurselves’ author Edgar Schein! Helping is not about what you think would be good for the other person and not necessarily the advice that you want to give to them, but figuring out what is really needed and supplying that.

“The Art of Helping” invites you to explore the dynamics of helping in order to contribute to a climate of mutual help so your organization can flourish. Today’s work challenges can be complex. Teams are working within a multicultural context sometimes across great distances. Team leaders must rely more on their reports in areas where they lack expertise especially in regards to safety issues. Additionally, as organizations become more socially responsible they will need help from other sectors such as government or the community to better thrive in a newly structured world. This leadership topic guides you through the pitfalls of the helping process.

In this topic we will:

• Nurture a climate of trust in which coworkers feel they can come to you to both offer and receive help.

• Appreciate the roles a helper can play and when each is appropriate.

• Practice an inquiry process to learn how best to help.

This topic is available for immediate download. It is ideal for advanced leadership training for new and senior leaders alike. The CoachingOurselves approach blends reflection, dialogue and expert content so that each session follows the 70:20:10 learning model. CoachingOurselves is a powerful tool for leadership training for new managers, and for peer coaching and group coaching programs.

Fireside chat w. Edgar Schein, Peter Schein, and Jeremiah Lee

To highlight the release of this topic, we are proud to present this “fireside chat” with CoachingOurselves authors Edgar Schein and Peter Schein. We are delighted to have Jeremiah Lee, a senior innovation leader and leadership adviser at Spencer Stuart, host this fireside chat.

Nathalie Sabourin: M.Sc, CRHA, organizational development expert, collaborative facilitator, and CoachingOurselves partner. Nathalie is co-author of the book Collaborer et agir | Mieux et autrement : guide pratique pour implanter des groupes de codéveloppement (A practical guide to implementing professional co-development action learning groups) (2017).

Our organizations are trapped in a cycle of ongoing, rapid change due to global competition and environmental, technological, and social transformation.  Author and organizational expert Frédéric Laloux  writes : « The way we have been running our organizations has been stretched to its limits. There is something currently wrong with our organizations.” (p.13) We now find our highly skilled team leaders are ill-equipped to deal with the pressures of upper management.  They are stuck between a rock and a hard place – between the expectations of upper management and actual capacity of their co-workers.

Professional Co-development  – From idealism to practicality

Professional Co-development allows organizations to evolve their culture, accelerate the development of competencies, remobilize their leaders, and put in place organizational change through collaboration and the co-creation of novel solutions.

The process involves 6-8 people, coming from the same organization or diverse settings.  They provide beneficial feedback to each other regarding real situations they are currently facing.  This is a collaborative learning space, where participants apply the Co-development values, principals, and methodologies to improve their individual and collective practice.

During a workshop, one participant takes on the role of the “Client-Coachee” and describes an aspect of their professional practice they wish to strengthen, a project to implement, a challenge to resolve, a goal to achieve, or a complex decision to be made.  The “Client-Coachee” benefits from the collective intelligence of the group thanks to the help of their peers who take on the role of “Consultant-Coaches”.  The Co-development methodology outlines 7 steps that enables the “Client-Coachee” to enrich his/her understand of their challenge and accelerate their capacity for action.  In addition, the challenge serves as a learning opportunity for the entire group, allowing the “Consultant-Coaches” to identify potential solutions that can be applied to their own professional practices.

To achieve this, Professional Co-development is based on the principle of goodwill, built around the following pillars : mutual help between participants; respect for each person’s ideas and the capacities of each person; individual and collective engagement in the process, and of course confidentiality, discretion, and authenticity in regards to what is shared.

How to integrate Co-development into your CoachingOurselves practice?

Option 1 – We suggest running a Co-development workshop alternating with a CoachingOurselves topic. For example, if your group has just done a topic on Engagement, the following month, a participant could take the role of the “Client-Coachee” to present a challenge in engaging their team. Co-development then becomes an accelerator to competency development in action!

Option 2 – Following up a training workshop to consolidate competencies

If you are leading a training workshop with more theoretical content ( ie. 1 day or a half day) you can invite participants to meet a second time to consolidate their professional practice with a Co-development workshop.

Option 3 – During a Leadership Forum or workshop with a large group

You can use this Co-development topic during a leadership forum or a workshop with a large group. We strongly suggest familiarizing each “table host” with the Co-development process so they are comfortable with the methodology and topic content.

In the words of Albert Einstein “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results!” Enjoy the Co-development process and its benefits on your personal practice and organization.

We invite you to learn more about the CoachingOurselves peer learning topic on Flash CoDev: Accelerate Goal Achievement and Consolidate Competencies

Nathalie Sabourin, M.Sc, CRHA  nathalie@sabourinconsult.com

Références

• Sabourin, Lefevre (2017). Guide pratique pour implanter des groupes de codéveloppement professionnel – Collaborer et agir, mieux et autrement, lulu.com/shop.
• Laloux, F. (2017). Reinventing Organizations : la version résumée et illustrée du livre phénomène qui invite à repenser le management.  France : Les éditions Diaetino.
• SABOURIN, Nathalie et LAFRANCHISE, Nathalie (2017). « Les groupes de codéveloppement professionnel comme moteur de transformations organisationnelles ». Coin de l’expert, Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés du Québec, Montréal, Québec. Repéré à http://www.portailrh.org.

CoachingOurselves, the world leader in peer learning  is reinforcing our commitment to CSR with the publishing of our new sustainability topic “One Planet Business: Sustainable Organizations” by authors Jean-Paul and Sally Jeanrenaud.

This topic is ideal for middle management teams in organizations that are a key part of the solution to making their organization sustainable.

As our co-founder Henry Mintzberg has stated in his blog, the obvious theme on which to focus the efforts to rebalance society is climate change. Mintzberg states, “We need to swamp the problem of climate change with all kinds of clever initiatives… the good folks of the world [must] come to realize the potential of their power, and become the force needed to address the future of this planet and our progeny. After all, what major social change ever began without a groundswell of concerned human energy?”

We are proud to join forces with the Jeanrenauds who exemplify expertise and commitment to practical action.

Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, MSC (Oxford) is Senior Advisor to WWF Switzerland and former Director of Corporate Relations at WWF International. He cofounder the One Planet MBA at the Business School University of Exeter, One Planet Leaders, for senior executives delivered in collaboration with IMD, and OPEN for Business (One Planet Education Network). He is a Visiting Professor at Audencia School of Management, Nantes, France.

Dr. Sally Jeanrenaud is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Business School, University of Exeter, UK. She cofounder the Green Economy Coalition, and OPEN for Business. She researches sustainability-oriented innovation, and the role of business in delivering the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. She teaches on the One Planet MBA and is a Visiting Professor at Audencia School of Management, Nantes, France.

Contact us if you wish to run this topic in your organization.

With each passing day, the need to transform our organizations, whether they be for-profit or not-for-profit, into a positive force for sustainable action becomes ever more critical. We only have one planet to support us—this may be stating the obvious but the serious social and environmental challenges facing the world today stem from viewing the planet as an infinite source of clean air, clean water and free ‘natural capital’ on which to build our global economy—without regard for future generations. Organizations that get ahead of the competition by integrating sustainability into their core business will be the ones who flourish.

Managers can play key roles within organizations by lobbying for new business models and practices, and by helping persuade their senior management and inspiring their employees to create innovations that foster sustainability.

The objectives for this topic are to:
• Learn how sustainability can be a driver of innovation and value creation in your organization.
• Examine current organizational practices through a 5-step process to get a preliminary sense of what lies ahead for your organization.
• Challenge existing thinking and envision practical solutions.

Are you someone who can influence others to get the necessary results?

Your reports assess you every day and their engagement and willingness to follow your leadership depends on their perception of you. Our new topic “Influencing Others: Leading through Trust” focuses on how you relate to your colleagues and how you use yourself as an instrument to get things done. Highly respected Harvard management professor and author Linda Hill and her co-author Kent Lineback, experienced author and executive, provoke invaluable discussions to stimulate action with this thought-provoking topic.

You will examine two common managerial pitfalls: relying too heavily on formal authority and relying on close personal relationships as methods of influencing others. You will then explore the only enduring basis of influence: trust. How do you establish trust with others? By building your own competence and character. What do you need to do differently? This topic will help you answer this question!

This session will stimulate you to:

• Reflect on how you relate to others as their boss.
• Explore some classic managerial pitfalls in regard to
  influencing others.
• Determine how you can strengthen your influence by working on your competence and character.

Linda Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is the faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative and has chaired numerous HBS Executive Education programs. She is the author of Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership. She and Kent Lineback have co-authored two books: Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives of Becoming a Great Leader and Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation.

Kent Lineback is an author, collaborator, and coach. For more than 25 years he served as a manager and executive in organizations of all kinds – public, private, not-for-profit, and government. In those leadership roles, he piloted the rapid growth of a highly successful internal start-up, oversaw ongoing operations, and guided a public company through strategic change. He has written or collaborated on 17 books and co-authored three Harvard Business Review articles. He is the co-author of two books with Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill.