Well, wherever you are in the world today, thank you for joining. It’s good to see some familiar names on here as well.

I’m calling from a very murky looking southeast England, so I hope it’s a bit brighter where wherever you are. Yeah. We’ve worked with I’ve worked with Facetify personally for, getting off for seven years now.

And, we build Fastify into many, many programs and offerings that we we offer as a as an organization.

When, I was asked to put together this, Fastify live session, because I really like doing these. So we usually think of something that we’re working on or something that’s pertinent to what we’re doing. So, we’ve done an awful lot of work and have done over the years on on team and group coaching. What I wanted to do today was to share some of our experiences with you based on work we did last year where we actually looked into it in a little bit more detail from a research perspective.

So what what I’m going to do is take you through some things which you may or may not already know about group coaching, and then I’ll I’ll give you some some experiences I’ve had and also some thoughts and ideas that you might wanna take away, and use. So, I can see all of the, screens, or everybody on the screen here. What I like first of all is just give me a a wave or a reaction using the button. That’s great.

I like that. Or you can do it on camera. That works too.

If you if you do already do some kind of coaching, and that could be one to one or any other kind of coaching. So just give me a give me a thumbs up or a wave or a whatever, just so that I know sort of know your audience.

Lesson one. Okay. That’s great. Lots of thumbs up. Brilliant.

Thank you. And then secondly, give me a reaction, whatever you whatever you want. Yeah. If you’ve ever done any kind of group coaching or facilitation of any kind, I’m pretty sure that that will be most of you as well.

Just so we know. Okay.

I think the first point really is thank you for that.

The first point really and the collective advantage was an ebook that we wrote.

We did some research on and put together last year. So we called it the collective advantage.

And one of the things I think we wanted to get across with this is that, obviously, coaching is a is common practice in most businesses now. You, you can’t go into many clients these days without them having some understanding of what coaching is.

But what we’ve tended to see, for quite a long time is is a is a one to one approach.

And a lot of organizations are still switching on to the, significance of actually coaching in groups.

The great thing about this is that if you are a coach, you’ve kinda got half the skill set already to be able to get the most out of teams and groups.

Plus if you are also a facilitator, you, also have the skills there. And and I see it, and I do a lot of this. I see it as put it’s just putting the two together in a in a very simple way. But as you do that, you you you start to have questions. So, really, the the idea that the benefits of group and team team methods of coaching are are overlooked a fair bit.

And we’ve got some I’ll throw some numbers at you just to start with. Excuse me.

Referring to my notes here.

But you can look at organizational research on the impact of learning, and wherever you go, you’ll see different figures. The figures we that we that we got was that productivity increased by twenty two percent through learning initiatives.

That twenty two percent actually became eighty eight percent if leaders and groups were put together in a group coaching situation. So, really, the margin you get by using group coaching in a in a team setting is is is quite big.

So, I significant. It also it’s also been seen in some cases to increase leadership effectiveness by about sixty percent as well. A lot of my experience in this comes from working with groups of leaders, on their, either their joint accountability or their individual accountability. So I’ll come back to that.

So, really, what we’re just to kind of define it, what we’re talking about, really, is bringing together groups of employees to focus on something specific, like you would with a one to one coaching session.

I will, I’ll give you some different scenarios in a second and some some questions to think about. But, really, the the idea of, the harnessing the power of the group is what we’re talking about here. And you can either harness the power of the group to work on somebody’s personal challenge, and that requires a different context. But you can also obviously harness the power of a group to work on their collective, collective challenge that they have.

I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but, I will briefly mention TeamScape now. I was in the TeamScape yesterday in Germany, and that team were, working on the collective purpose of of what what it is that they need to achieve.

And as an example, anybody that runs TeamScape will be a group coach in some shape or form. So, really, the idea of, bringing together groups of people in organizations and supporting them using coaching techniques is really what we’re talking about. It is actually it is that simple.

However, it raises a lot of questions. So what what I’m going to do is is, take you through some of those. And I would really like to have a conversation with, any any of you. So please send me any questions you have as as we go.

You can raise your hand if you like. And I’ll also I’ll also try and stop shy of the end of the session, to see if anybody wants to sort of say anything on the end of this, what I’m gonna do here. So types of team.

We may have seen this before. So this is a cat’s and back idea. Anyone who’s done any kind of organizational psychology or similar will be familiar with, the different types of teams that exist in groups. And this is a piece of research done a while ago now.

But when you’re thinking about types of team, there are actually different ways in which people group together in organizations. And the idea here I think this is quite significant. It’s a very simple simple graph, but the idea that team’s effectiveness can increase the impact of the team is that it’s no surprise. Think of any sports team. Sports teams that gel well, win more win more games, win more trophies.

However, if you look at the work the idea of a working group on the left here, a working group is probably a bunch of people all all working away on something.

And they may be successful to a degree, but the idea that working them working with them on their collaboration and their and their their social understanding of each other really helps them go from that that kind of mid mid range impact to having a much higher impact. So the the research really focused on different types of team, and there are lots of different models for this. But the high performance team that we’re talking about here and that and that’s team in any regard is is a team that has maximum effectiveness as well as its impact. And they will to to separate impact from effectiveness, effectiveness is one of the processes going on within that team to help them achieve.

And so thinking about the different types of groups that you will work with, we know that there are intact teams in, workplaces. So, lots of us will be asked to do team sessions using TeamScape, for example. The group I was with yesterday were an intact team, but they’ve been recently brought together for a specific purpose. So, that was, a team of experts leading teams.

So almost it almost fell into the second category there where it’s teams of leaders. When you’re bringing teams of leaders together, you they will have a common purpose, which is obviously to lead whatever function or or business that they’re based in, but they will also have a purpose together as a group.

One of the things I find really interesting is when you’re when you’re coaching leaders at senior exec level, I’ve got a couple of these on the dial at the moment, is your your primary focus is to allow that team to focus on what their purpose is around that table at that particular point because I use a spokes on a wheel analogy.

If you imagine a group of leaders sat around the table, they all have functional responsibilities to lead the different areas, finance, IT, sales, logistics, whatever it will be. And they, to some extent, face in their relevant directions outwards like the spokes.

But if you ask them to turn one eighty degrees and face inwards to the hub of the wheel, what’s that hub? So the idea of, using, teams of leaders is to focus them on what it is that’s important to them. And group coaching is a really good way of, helping leaders have those conversations.

You then you then have nonintact teams where they are teams of, disparate individuals brought together who may not normally work together. Again, if it’s a let’s say let’s say it’s a particular initiative within an organization to to, I don’t know, to grow business in a particular area or to refine a process, you’ll get nonint or nonintact teams with experts that aren’t traditionally used to working together. So, the other really important aspect of nonintact teams, and this is where group coaching is really powerful, is thinking about, programs. So most of us here will have been on a a learning program or a leadership program of some kind where you sit with other leaders probably from across your organization unless it’s an open program.

And you you all have something in common, but, you don’t work together on a day to day basis. So the non the nonintact team idea there becomes really powerful.

So this really this is really a way of thinking about what kind of what kind of teams we we can use group coaching with. And it so there’s group coaching and team coaching, and they they kind of overlap, but it’s really defined by the context.

So here’s some things to ask yourself, about is it so question one here. Is your investment in more formal training and leadership development programs having an impact where it matters on the job, or is the investment being under leveraged?

So the point there, which is reinforced by the figures that I’ve that I mentioned earlier, is that you can roll out the the the best program in the world to people. It can have great content and, everything that goes with that.

But what really, really makes the difference there is what what difference is that content making in the workplace, and one of the ways in which you can harness that, and, create more of a difference is to work with leaders on it. So I think that’s a really, really important question to ask.

And those of you who work with different clients, that’s that’s a really key a real key differentiator in in what it can achieve.

And we will build this into a lot of what we do, and it will I can talk to you about what that looks like shortly.

Second question, do you have key teams that would benefit from having focused time in bespoke coaching sessions to work on themselves as a team, optimize their dynamics, help them realign as a team, and go from good to great. Picture your your own position at the moment and picture those that you work with, and imagine the opportunity to spend time together with a with an external party or a facilitator, a coach, and getting them to work with you on how you how you work together. The whole good to great idea is is really important. Most teams generally get that, but do they get there in the best way? So the idea of organizational teams, improving their working processes, how they work together, really common way of using team coaching. And then finally, and this is a really useful one, if most organizations are shifting and changing all the time, no matter how what size they are or what they do, some more than others right now because of the because of the climate.

Do you have people going through challenging transitions, headwinds, and so on, who need the time to talk and to share maybe anxieties, to share what they want to do, but they need to do it in a structured way that creates some kind of purpose or outcome. That is a really, really, fantastic way of using team and group coaching structured time to talk about the things that everyone is experiencing together.

What you’re also doing there, the byproducts are creating levels of confidence, peer interaction, and so on. And we all know that, when people work together at their best, the result’s better. So three questions really to think about different different context of ideas that that may feature in the conversations that you have, with the teams and clients that you work with. I’m just gonna pause there.

Has anybody got any questions at the moment on the stage? Do do do ask or put them in the chat.

Okay.

So just to summarize, enhancing and embedding learning, we’ve already seen that, situations that you’d use group coaching, is what the the the first purpose is to help people get the most of what they’ve already, what they’re already working on.

In that way, group coaching is tends to be relatively free of content.

What you need to have as a group coach is a number of tools and models up your sleeve in case you need them, and that’s where the experience helps.

So enhancing and embedded learning to enhance team prefer performance, cohesion, and alignment in whatever context those teams are working, and then theme thematic group coaching to support individuals with shared issues. So those shared issues can be organizational change. They could be increasing sales. They could be refining processes, all the kinds of things that go with that.

So there’s three key examples of of of what what we do and the situations that we that we deliver group coaching. So you’re probably thinking about, okay. So what does it actually look like in practice? And those of you that coach, and I know most of you that do, and those of you that facilitate, it’s almost it’s almost to me like putting the two together.

There are programs and, qualifications you can do in facilitating group coaching and so on. But but really if you marry the two up, you’re you’re you’re kind of half half the way there. So I’m gonna show you some things that we do, ways in which you can, kind of enhance your own capability and what you what you do with your client.

So first of all, things you might want to consider before people get in the room. So and these these ideas are based upon challenges that I’ve experienced on working with different groups of leaders. So I’ll draw I’m drawing these ideas from a from different contexts. So I might be working with leaders who are going through a development program together.

So they they will have an individual focus on their own achievement. But as a group, they bond and they work together on the different topics of leadership that we that we bring to them. Context is really important. So three ideas here.

When you set the context of group coaching, I’ve had situations where groups of leaders so when I’m talking to a group of leaders, let’s say it’s six leaders, and you’ve got them for three hours.

Need to understand the purpose of of group coaching versus being on a being on a learning program. So it really helps to set the context properly.

I’ve got purpose, role of coach, and mindset there.

If people are expecting to turn up in a room and be taught, in inverted commas, new new ideas, new content, that context needs to be aligned for them because it can be a really weird experience if you go into a group coaching session and you sit down, and then your group coach starts asking you questions because, when you’re expecting some kind of more direct teaching style of of session. So setting the purpose and the context of people before they come is really, really crucial, and that often involves conversations around what the what the coach actually is there to do. And we know, as coaches, that generally our role is to, allow people to realize their own goals and aspirations through predominantly through using using questions and challenging and all of those great things that we do. And that could be a very different experience to to expecting that you’re gonna you’re going into a classroom.

So setting the context and getting people thinking about what their challenges are ahead of the session is really, really important. And that includes if it’s an intact team as well, thinking about, okay, what it is what what is it we wanna do here? And some of the some of the group coaching you will spend sometimes you have to rewind and you you you spend the time actually getting them to focus on what their goal is. So the the context, and the mindset that people have to bring in is a a different one.

The mindset has to be, that which you associate with, being in a coaching position. So having a growth mindset, for example, kinda sums it up really well. So so the idea that you have to bring in your your curiosity and you have to bring in a level of, vulnerability, I’ll come I’ll come back to that. The group coaching involves teams being being vulnerable with each other, which is something you have to work on.

And that’s a very different mindset sometimes than if you if you’re going into a lot of learning programs. And you’re also bringing in your own challenges.

You’re it’s a very, applied situation.

The the idea of the role of the coach becomes really important as well. So not everybody in a setting like this will understand what the coach’s role is. I got called a teacher yesterday. I don’t mind it. I get it all the time. But it’s a very different position to be a coach.

And sometimes people aren’t always ready to be asked that many questions and challenged by the person at the front of the room. They’re they’re sometimes expecting them to share wisdom and knowledge with them, and we know that that secondary when you’re a coach is more of a mentoring role. But when you’re when you’re group coaching, you’re you’re you’re manipulating the the questions and the conversation in the room, and you’re helping people grow from that. So that role of the coach is really important.

And the and I’ve already mentioned the mindset, the willingness to to to to challenge, to be challenged, and the willingness to kinda look into yourself, really.

All of that needs decent context setting. Otherwise, the session could be can run-in a in a in a very different way.

So the next point will be around getting the tone right. So the tone of a coaching session. So if you if you picture picture individuals who’ve come together for a for a program, Their primary interest will most likely be on getting as much as they can from that program in order to grow. And to get the tone right for group coaching, you need to generate some kind of commonality in the room, and that involves building trust. So as an example, the the idea of psychological safety is really important here.

And anybody who who does any work on psychological safety, it’s about looking at, I we tend to think of it as four levels, which is that Tim Clark idea, where you’re looking at making sure everyone has a point of inclusion to be in the room. So making sure everyone feels like they belong in that room. You’re giving them the the, creating the space for them to learn, which involves making mistakes, which involves, being vulnerable in that sense.

You’ll then get you’ll then acknowledging the, capabilities and the contribution of everyone in the room. So that idea of contributor safety is the is the third area where you you you respect and, you kind of honor their wisdom and experience. And that involves giving people time to talk and appreciating their individual perspectives.

And then, ultimately, you want to have a environment where people feel free to challenge each other.

And commonly within organizations, that can exist. But when you’ve if you think of having two disparate functions in a room, say you’ve got a leader from a commercial team and you’ve got a leader from a sales team, for example, done this quite often, where the the end goal of each of those is slightly different, but you need them to work together. So you need to you need to be able to build that trust.

Contracting with them, people understanding the purpose of the session, what your role is as a coach is really, really important. We we do that a lot at the beginning of our sessions.

But really understanding the fact that this is on if you like, it’s on them. That it’s their accountability.

So your role as the coach is to move them towards that.

And I think that’s really important. Sometimes people people need to we need to work to achieve that. And I put TeamScape in there.

Setting up a group that is gonna spend several periods of time together, what better way is there to get everybody comfortable at the start of this of of of a of a run of coaching sessions than doing some kind of self awareness familiarization activity like a TeamScape. Not only will it allow people to see who’s in the room a bit more clearly, but also it allows the facilitator, the coach, the group coach, let’s say, to look at the nuances of of what might happen in the room. We you know, those of you that have run a TeamScape, you always prep it beforehand, and you can always have a look and see, okay. What kind of group are we gonna get? So it kind of prewarns you as a as a as a group coach what the situation is gonna be like.

Groups, work with a group fairly recently. We had a a predominance of high will and high energy in the room. When you can imagine that that felt very different and low affection. So you can imagine that that had a particular feel to it compared to teams where you have much higher affection, lower will. So when you are talking in those terms, you’re doing a team scape with a with a to get a group engaged is really a really great way of setting it up.

One of the one of the little tricks we would use in a in a session like this is to balance support and challenge. Now, you can assign roles to this. So when when the team are having the conversation, whether regardless of what challenge they’re focused on, you can assign roles. And any of you who, remember that the old Edward de Bono, books, kind of way back, It’s a similar idea. You you can you can play with it a bit, and you give people roles. We often we often give a support and a challenge brief to people in the room so that what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna act as a supporter when we’re talking about this issue, and other people are gonna act as a challenger.

That works really well because it helps you manage the dynamics. You turn it into almost an activity.

I’m gonna I’ll come back to Eleanor, thanks for the question now. I’ll come back to that in a second. I’m sure there’s plenty of people on on the on the group that can that can answer that as well.

But, I’ll come back to that in a second.

Getting, yeah, getting permission and, also, permission to challenge, permission, mutual mutual permission to be open, be vulnerable, all of these things that you’ve built in the in the contracting and the trust building. And, also, the crucial role of a group coach is to feedback and observe. So a, feedback and observation role is inherent in being a group coach, but you need permission to do that. So ask the group.

Something I often do is how scale the one to ten. How how how direct would you like the feedback to be? It’s never without in the in in the absence of showing that you care, but how direct do you want the feedback to be? Gauge it and get permission.

So balancing the support challenge is important. I see this as being like caterpillar tracks on a, on on a construction vehicle. You if you engage both caterpillar tracks, you go forward. Anyone who’s driven anything like that or anything similar, if you pull back on one and push forward on the other. So if you’re applying too much challenge and not and not not enough support, you’re whizzing around in circles.

So getting it right is important. I’m gonna go to the questions. So, Eleanor, thank you. What makes a group with low affection more effective? Wow. That’s a that’s a big question. I was, I was actually with the team I was working with yesterday, had a had a kind of basically a plastering of mid to low affection.

And I don’t know what makes them more effective, but asking I was in they they couldn’t really be, it was a blind spot. High affection, support, trust, you know, being open was was a really, really big blind spot for them. So I was talking to them about, what kinds of behaviors are you are you not seeing when you’re having group discussions? We’re using the work cycle model to think about, okay, when you’re solutionizing, what does that look like? And, it was a it was a a tech organization, so it was very solution oriented.

So asking them to think about how they’re going to show more appreciation, show more recognition, because they all freely admitted they didn’t do that.

So encouraging them to think of behaviors that will fill that space that is generally seen in the high fashion was was something that I that that I, was encouraging them to do. They took a they took a takeaway, which was to celebrate success more and to show recognition a lot more in small ways, not not not big ways.

So some ideas there, but I might I might even use that opportunity to coach the team on it. So there there’s a there’s a goal and a purpose for a coaching session already.

Ruth, thanks. Would you use Teams, like, even group coaching to embed a support transfer learning on a absolutely.

Yes. Entirely.

I think what we what what we’re saying there is, individuals from different parts of the business can can learn a lot from each other, and that’s one of the real benefits that we have from running any kind of program. TeamScape will if they’re gonna spend any extended period of time together, TeamScape will help them understand how they’re similar and how they’re different and and make use of that. And and and it would need we need to facilitate, obviously, how what they do with that information. But I think it’s always a really valuable part of a of a program. It also helps them think of other people differently as well.

So they’re happy to have a conversation about that, beyond this.

Everybody happy? Any other questions?

I hope this is useful.

Act action and outcome focused.

So you’re spending whether you’re ninety minutes for two hours or whatever in a room, and you’re focusing on a challenge or challenges.

The goals, the accountability, and the commitment come from the group.

So have you ever sat in the circle with your with your colleagues and been asked to make a commitment? I’m sure we’ve all been in situations like that. The power of making that commitment in front of people is infinitely more powerful than just taking it away as a note in your notebook. So that accountability is really, really important.

So, how you move a group towards actions and commitment around those goals is really, really, really important. So it has a purpose. It’s like a it’s like any good meeting. It has actions and outcomes.

It’s it’s not a ranting session, and it’s not it’s not a there will be ranting within them sometimes, but you need to drive the energy towards some kind of accountability.

One of the things I do is, make people, assign buddies within the group and make sure that they check-in on each other. I was part of a development group recently, and I stayed in touch with a couple of the people that I was with. We still, talk to each other occasionally, just each other and nudge and find out what we’re doing and celebrate success. So that kind of thing really helps you build up all part of a group coaching dynamic that’s really, really helpful.

Okay.

So I’m not gonna read through this. Don’t panic. Maybe I can make these slides available afterwards. I don’t know if that’s something we can do.

Process. We every coach needs a process. It’s not just chatting about stuff. It’s it’s a process. So, just to just to move you through this.

Focusing on the challenge is really important. Remember, if you’ve got a group of in if you’ve got an intact team, you might have one challenge for that whole team. They might be trying to reduce their waste or lower their cost or whatever it is.

That’s the challenge. So focusing on the challenges is point one. If you’re a coach and you use the GROW model, I’m gonna mention that in a second, that’s your goal. What are we focused on here? And sometimes it takes a while to to arrive at that. We know that when we’re coaching. Some people walk into the room with an idea of what the challenge is, and you realize that you you’re walking away with a completely different challenge.

So that’s really that’s really important.

The idea of collaborative inquiry, you set up space for discussion and opening open questions. I’ve got a client, who have in Lennox. They’re they’re engineering client. And in their foyer, in their reception, they have a massive sign, and it says love the problem.

So we are all, as coaches will know this, we’re all desperate to solve problems as generally, as human beings. When you work with engineers, they’re even worse. They want they want to solve problems straight away. Love the problem is the the whole, Einstein quote that people always use. You need to ex explore what the problem is to make sure it’s not a sticking plaster over the symptom, but it is actually a proper solution. So that collaboration inquiry collaborative inquiry is really important. And a coach does that by creating that space and directing people towards questions.

So that becomes really, really important.

The reflect the reflective part of the process, is giving people space to think. Remember, we all know as Facet five practitioners and and coaches that not everyone has their best ideas straight away. Not everyone comes up with a resolution immediately. Sometimes you even have to go and sit in a dark room with a coffee and think about it. So thinking about how you build the reflection time into the session is important. It is important.

Having reflected, team members generally need to share what kind of insight they’ve gathered. One little trick we use sometimes, if you’re with a small group and if you’re working on leaders with individual challenges, you can have a conversation about that leaders challenge without them being part of the conversation. I’m sure many of you have done this. You can either tell you you can either ask that problem owner to turn their back or to sit in the corner of the room once you discuss the problem in their absence, and they’re just listening.

So what happens there is you you don’t get to interfere with what people are discussing, and you get interesting insight by doing it that way. But playing back what’s what’s important to you is is is a key part of the process. And then the commitment, which I’ve already mentioned, signing people up to what they are going to do is important. Time, place, who, how, all of these things, becomes really, really important. And then you can either assign buddies or you can follow-up with them yourself as as a group coach. So this is this is a a like, a typical process that you might follow.

So, just gonna pause. Did any anybody got any thing they wanted to ask? That’s fine.

We know what Grow is, most of us. If if you if you are a coach or have coached, Grow will be familiar to you, I would imagine, as the Whitmore model.

If you tweak it slightly, we’re going from grow grow to to a group idea kind of works really, really well. So you still have your goal, your reality, and your options. So remember I said, setting the goal is important as a group.

Raising awareness, loving the problem is the reality, and then thinking about what the options could be is the is the third part. But what you’re also building into group coaching is encouraging the group to observe and thanks, Grant. This I can’t take credit for it.

The group observes deeply and notices their differences. So you’re actually working with team group dynamics a lot more as a group coach.

And that allow and really opening people up on questioning and asking each other, ideas, is is absolutely crucial to sort of getting that dynamic right.

And then you you as a group coach assist them in determining what the next steps are, and that will be either as an individual or as a or as a collective. So, really, if you imagine running a grow session with people, you’re just considering those additional dynamics. I’ve actually run a lot of group coaching sessions based around grow itself where you are bringing a bringing a problem in as a leader, and then the whole team is taking turns to ask questions and explore it.

And what I would tend to do there is I will I will get a volunteer to lead the questions, and then I will and I will, kind of allow everyone else to kinda join in with that.

That tends to that tends to work really, really well, provided you’ve done all of your groundwork with with context and and, contracting and so on.

So there’s an idea for you there. There’s some questions there that that you may be familiar with.

But thinking about how you can use a grow model in a group setting is a is a fairly fairly natural natural drug there. Killer questions for the collaborative inquiry phase.

They tend to come to me at the moment, Ruth. I will often say, well, what happens? Questions like, I and I don’t know if people here might want to, want to help out as well, actually. But, you know, if you do nothing, what would the outcome be?

Who do you know who would be good at this?

Questions which are a bit more sort of just jabbing people in the ribs a bit more and being a bit more provocative.

Feel free to put your others in there if anyone can think of them. I’ll write you a list and send it to you, Ruth.

So we’re just shy of nine forty five, and I I just wanted to, just sort of conclude here and see what questions people have, because, I think it’s, it is a real going back to my original point about the enhancement to learning that group coaching provides, I think it’s a really, really underused, way of people learning in our in our, programs that we run.

And this might be something that you some of you do already.

But making sure it’s goal oriented, connecting to issues that matter for participants in their organizations. So when we say that, you if you’re on a leadership program and you’ve got a a module around influence, then obviously you’ve seen it around influence so people can notice the context.

Balancing support and challenge.

So the supportive supporting questions might be questions that allow you to bear your poll questions, the ones that pull things out of, all questions out of people and, all information out of people. Sorry. And then the challenge questions are the ones that are sort of open the bear, and be more provocative with permission, of course.

And then it helps employees and teams review, reflect, and learn by examining challenging their values and assumptions. So it actually goes quite deep, in solving issues, generating new perspectives and ideas. And the one thing I would say that is a really, really good byproduct is group coaching and when it’s done well is that the groups that are involved remain intact beyond the sessions that you’ve set you’ve set up with them. That’s always a sign of a great outcome is where people within organizations connect with each other and they stay connected outside of the scheduled program.

And I think that that’s a really, really good way to, to use it, to think about it.

So there’s the conclusion. I’ve got a couple of couple of questions here.

Tools other than Grow.

So the thank you, Barbara. The so Grow Grow is obviously quite quite structured.

I’m just trying to think of other things that other ways of doing I mean, I I wouldn’t I I would often keep it more loose than grow. So every every coaching challenge every coaching session starts with some kind of goal or challenge. So what what I what I often do is is I ask the individual to perhaps bring their challenge in, and then we we explore it using just the idea of support and challenge. So we don’t use the grow structure. It’s very hard to get away from the growth structure when you start using it. Because you you do need an outcome and and an action.

But the idea of a chat a support and challenge session is a really common thing to do. So you don’t you you’re you’re not slavishly following the reality and the options element, but you’re you’re you’re generating a conversation around what works well, using the support and challenge idea, using the hats. Again, the idea, of having hats which are designed to see opportunities. One’s a critical hat.

One’s a one’s a kind of blue sky hat. All the all of these kinds of things. They’re all great ways of having, conversations. But there are other models.

There’s a really good model for looking at contacts called I think it’s called Space, which, is is one that’s worth looking up. But you can use whatever and there’s a coaching model called Oscar as well. They’re all acronyms.

And I remember all the different names, but, I think quite often they they suit the conversational structure really, really well.

Thanks for the question, Barbara. Any any other questions from anyone else?

That’s really good.

I think, hopefully, if you if you came on on the session today, having a rough idea of what you thought group coaching might be, then, hopefully, I’ve either added some confirmation to your thoughts and that and if I have, I hope that I’ve given you one or two one or two.

It is a really massive topic. And what I would say is that I tend to find when I’m working on learning programs for leaders, I tend to find the absence of group coaching now feels a bit strange because, we all we all attend learning events programs, and we go back to our busy worlds. And it’s only the one person in ten that actually often kind of signs up to something really sustainable, and so it really helps, to sustain the learning and create those connections.

Amanda, yeah, great thought, actually. I haven’t thought about group size. So, typically, the kinds of size of group I would I’ve worked with groups of around so, obviously, if it’s an intact team, you don’t really have as much control. But if you’re gonna work on a group of leaders each with a challenge and then you move the time around the challenge, you could you could work with a group of I’ve worked with groups of six leaders for half a day, going really deep into each of their challenges.

I mean, six leaders, half a day, that gives you about half an hour to focus on each person. So if you imagine that you’re rotating it and then you’re rotating roles around the group, that could work. I tend to find six is enough. I’ve I’ve had groups that are bigger, and then you you kind of you can then split them off.

So you can if you get eight people, you can put two groups of eight, and you split them into two groups of four, and then you can move between them just listening to the questions and so on.

So there’s some ideas there. Evaluating it. The evaluation that I mean, you build all the evaluation features into the program. So, you know, are you seeing an impact back in the workplace? What feedback are people getting?

You can actually help people to account as part of group coaching and bring when you’re seeing them again, you obviously, you write tons of notes when you do group coaching.

You can go back to them and play about what they were doing. So I was with the group the other week. We see each other three times, and I always take away the commitments that people are, signing up to, and then you check back in on them. So you you can you can evaluate it at that level. You can ask them for feedback. You may even send people away with actions to, kind of take it take something to their to their there’s all kinds of ways that you do it, but we build it into the evaluation of the program as well. So what kind of impact are people seeing?

Managing the follow-up with six different goals. So assigning a learning partners to that is is helpful.

If you’ve got a group of leaders who each take away a different goal, which could be entirely, makes sense because of the the different challenges in their different areas, You you you might as yeah. You might pair them up or, sometimes I keep in touch with people and, I I give them a I send them a three week reminder.

That’s something we do a lot of.

And and then I bring them I bring them back to the when you’re working with the same six leaders each time, you’re bringing them back and they’re they’re they’re growing their relationship and understanding of what they’re doing. So there’s different ways you can manage follow-up with six different goals, in that way. But buddy really helps.

Thanks for the questions.

Anything else?

That’s brilliant.

Thank you very much.