Individual Coaching

We are delighted to have finalized the development of our new coaching service for Innovation and Change Management Coaching.

Up ahead, we want to offer this service in a Group Based Coaching structure.

We welcome your feedback via email to talent (at) gdg-earth.com or by responding directly below to this blog entry.

Tentative Launch Date and Schedule

Updated! Click for GBC info

At this point our goal is to get everything lined up over the next few weeks and then have a couple of information sessions (via the web) on September 23rd and 24th. After the information sessions we anticipate beginning two groups of participants with a target of four per group (maximum of seven).

We foresee running each of the two groups for six months from October, 2010 through March, 2011. Based upon some very preliminary feedback we predict that one group will run Thursdays twice per month (second and fourth) while the second group will run Fridays twice per month (first and third). In each case we’ll develop an exact schedule to accommodate holidays and other conflicts.

The Thursday sessions will probably occur at 2PM, PST and the Friday sessions will likely occur at 9AM, PST. Each session will last 90 minutes.

Probable Agenda

Expectations for the session
Questions from portal answered
New topic/tool/issue introduced
Focused coaching of one peer
Peer coaching
Next steps

Web/Phone versus In-Person

At the least, the majority of the sessions will occur via web and phone conference. An unknown for us at this point is to what extent the sessions may include in-person meetings.

For example, suppose the Thursday group consisted of participants primarily in the Seattle-Tacoma area (our headquarters). It is possible that some of the sessions could occur at some of the peers’ locations; perhaps a rotation schedule would be informative as we learn about each other.

Or, perhaps we end up with 4 - 6 participants from one company that happens to be in the same city. In that case it may make sense to schedule some of the sessions on-site to maximize the power of face-to-face communication.

Professional Fee

What does it cost? For our other group based coaching services we typically offer a per person hourly rate. We are examining an optional flat monthly rate for this one.

For specific fee information please send an email to Nancy: nmoran (at) gdg-earth.com

Seeking Questions and Recommendations

Since this a product that is “in development” we anticipate that there will be some questions and we certainly welcome suggestions on how to best make this work for those participating. Again, we welcome your feedback via email to talent (at) gdg-earth.com or by responding directly below to this blog entry.

Are you ready for new business results?

The observation above comes from Laurel Rolls, executive, professional and business coach at Laurel Rolls & Associates.

We’ve never met Laurel in person.  That doesn’t stop us from capturing the wisdom of her remark.  Her quote prompts some additional questions.  Perhaps you’ve got some additional remarks or even questions of your own.

What is the difference between a successful trainer and a successful participant?

What is the difference between a successful mentor and a successful protege?

What is the difference between a successful strategy leader and a successful team leader?

P.S.  The picture above reminds us that there are all kinds of coaches.

The headlines and blogging about the Social Security Administration abusing budget dollars for a posh team building event while nearly 10% of the national workforce is struggling to obtain work really made us say, “Whoa Momma!”. 

It wasn’t just the AssHat of the Week award that prompted us to reflect on occasions when team building is simply not the right intervention for organization and/or talent development.  Our list is below.  We know it is incomplete.

1. Not all team members are included – Consider an example of ten team members:  one formal team leader, one admin, three technicians, one IT professional and four people whose roles are not clear about sales and customer service.  Out of the first three team building sessions, the admin and one of the four without a clear role simply are not present - ever.

2. One team member really needs to be cut out of the organization – We’ve all probably seen something like this in our experience.  Here’s this one person who is continuously choosing not to perform.  Rather than legally and ethically cutting that one person out of the organization, the formal team leader gives the person one more chance; and one more chance.  The latest last chance to turn around is by having everyone participate in team building.  Can we say low morale?

3. The formal leader is about to be re-assigned – The leader knows that in approximately 30-60 days she will be given a different assignment and the team roster will change.  Most of us are familiar with the four stages of team development.  We recognize that even if one team member changes the team will need to revert to the first stage called “forming”.  The timing is just not right to do team building.

4. One (or more) participant (s) really needs professional assistance – Last summer we were facilitating a session when one of the participants prompted us to raise our eyebrows.  With all sincerity, the participant whispered – in a just too loud voice – “Make sure he’s taken his medicine.”  The person to whom the participant was referring was suffering from a form of depression.  Consider the challenge of team building with a sociopath, a person with a particular phobia, a person suffering with bi-polar depression, and two people who feed off each other by demonstrating passive-aggressive behavior.  Team building probably isn’t the right intervention.

Our turn to whisper:  Check your knowledge about abnormal psychology by taking this quiz.

5. The right participants are not selected – Over and over again, we need to ask, “Who is the team?”  Sometimes thirty people may be invited, in a good intention to be inclusive, when the team that needs to be developed actually consists of eleven people.  The head-turning news that the Social Security Administration sent 700 managers and their spouses to the Arizona Biltmore at a cost of nearly $750K catches everyone’s eye because we cannot resist asking, “This is a team?  700 people?  Really?”

And speaking of numbers and headlines, we reflect on our own blog offering:  Five Occasions When Team Building is Misguided. There’s gotta be more than five.