September 10, 2025 • 35 mins
Join Claire Pedrick as she sits down with her colleague Su Blanch to explore the nuances of team coaching, the significance of simplifying processes and understanding the unique dynamics of each team. Learn about how 3D approach team coaching. And the challenges and rewards of working with neurodivergent coaches and the evolving landscape of coaching.
If you're inspired by Su's work and want to explore coaching or team coaching further, visit 3D Coaching's website www.3dcoaching.com. Subscribe now to stay updated on our latest episodes and insights!
Contact:
- Contact Su by emailing su@3dcoaching.com or through LinkedIn
- Contact Claire by emailing info@3dcoaching.com or check out our Substack where you can talk with other listeners.
Further Information:
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- Find out more about 3D Coaching and get new ideas and offers in our weekly email.
Coming Up:
- Open Table - How to describe the ROI of coaching
- Unlearning - The Key To Effective Coaching with Fran Cormack
Keywords:
coaching, career transition, purpose, 3D Coaching, team coaching, personal growth, professional development, neurodivergent coaches, rightsizing, mood, vibe, organizational success, Su Blanch, Claire Pedrick, coaching journey, learning and development, self-discovery, coaching insights, coaching transformation
We love having a variety of guests join us! Please remember that inviting someone to participate does not mean we necessarily endorse their views or opinions. We believe in open conversation and sharing different perspectives.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
Hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Coaching Inn.
I'm your host, Claire Pedrick, and today I'm talking to my friend and colleague, SuBlanch.
Hello, hello.
And because I want to know what she's doing about team coaching.
I thought you might want to know too.
So we thought we'd talk about it together in front of you.
(00:38):
So Su, tell us about your coaching journey.
Coaching journey.
Okay, yes, so I, my background way back was in recruitment and HR.
did all of my qualifications there, post degree.
(01:00):
And I discovered as I traveled through the generalist world of HR that my heart justwasn't clear in dismissing people as I found that I was doing.
quite a lot of and was instead in learning and development.
So that became the broader pathway that I was travelling.
And then I bumped into this organisation, I don't know if you've heard of it, called 3DCoaching.
(01:29):
As a person who was looking into my sense of purpose, vocation, mission, what am I beingcalled to?
That opened up my eyes to what coaching was as I discovered that I might have the answersrather than somebody else having them on my behalf.
(01:53):
So that was what intrigued me, what made me curious.
um And then working that through, my training in coaching with 3D Coaching, of course,didn't I?
Absolutely great fun.
I remember that in a...
in a quite cold hall near Milton Keynes in the UK, I remember that, yeah.
(02:21):
one.
Yes indeed, way back.
last week who was also on that one.
It was a very, very good group.
have to say what a cohort we were.
em yeah, so did my training and was just delighted to be able to use uh coaching um and toenable people in quite a specific place to begin with work that I'm still doing, work that
(02:51):
I'm doing with us, um which is uh for clergy.
as they are considering what their next post might be, how do they discern that?
How do they think about coming through appointment processes and so on, which sometimesfeel a bit clunky and so on?
(03:12):
And how to do that with a real sense of them, rather than having to make themselves kindof fit something that doesn't feel like they quite fit.
So that was kind of like the first...
uh First coaching work that I was doing, it really connected so deeply with um what I feltwas important for me.
(03:35):
um And I'm, yeah, as I say, I'm still doing that work a bit, but I'm also doing all sortsof other uh coaching, coaching work as well, um which includes team coaching, as well as
facilitation of groups, uh as well as action learning sets.
(03:56):
as well.
know, the kind of difference between the one-to-one coaching, coaching in different sortsof groups that are there for different sorts of purposes, all of that stuff is fun eh and
good to do.
Yeah.
(04:16):
I know that you've made the team coaching your own.
Mmm.
was a wicked mm.
Yeah absolutely yeah no absolutely I'm uh
tell us about that.
Yeah, yes, I will, but I wonder if I can ask you first, actually, if you don't mind,supervision community.
(04:39):
Can you just tell me where we are with all of that?
What's going on?
community is going really brilliantly and we've got team coaches in there actually.
So we have different layers depending on how many hours people coach.
We've got people from around the world and people can move up and down depending on howmuch work they've got, which is a bit, I don't think when we set it up, we realized how
(05:05):
important that was going to be.
And hot off the press news.
In October, I'm starting a silver group, which is for coaches who are doing like five to20 hours for neurodivergent coaches.
So I already have a platinum group for coaches who are neurodivergent, who are doingmostly coaching most of the time.
(05:27):
And yeah, this is really exciting.
this will be people.
So it's lower cost.
It's £36 a month plus tax.
and it's for any coach who is neurodivergent.
And let's see what happens.
It's a kind of trial.
We'll see how we get on and if it doesn't work, we'll stop.
(05:49):
And if it works, we'll fly.
Thank you for asking.
That sounds very exciting.
mean, the thing about the supervision community and um how that is and how people are witheach other is fascinating, isn't it?
Because it is about not being by myself, um but this group who I'm able to just...
(06:19):
Rest my elbow on somebody else's shoulder for a bit.
And also the neurodivergent thing is so interesting, isn't it?
Because even since Nathan and Kim and I started thinking about the book, the stats aboutthe number of people in the population globally who are neurodivergent is, it keeps being
(06:42):
recalibrated because there are so many of us.
so we've always, coaches, some coaches have always been neurodivergent.
And that's true in teams that you work with, isn't it?
Some people in teams have always been your edgervegent.
It's just that the people didn't know they were and the team didn't know they were.
(07:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
The team didn't know they were and there might have been, we're not quite sure what'sgoing on here and how great that there is now language ability, bit more wisdom.
I'm sure there's more wisdom that could be collected generally, but, oh know, yeah.
(07:26):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I noticed there are some significant things that we do differently that make life a loteasier.
Like when I say to you, please tell me the thing I'm most worried about before we starttalking about anything else.
Because otherwise I won't listen.
(07:49):
Yeah.
There's all sorts.
Yeah.
Good.
I wanted to check in.
Back to Teams, back to Teams.
Okay.
So what was your question?
What you doing?
Okay.
So, m
(08:12):
There are a few different things that I want to about kind of exploring a little bitaround the kind of team coaching that I'm doing.
Can I offer a slightly different question that might help frame it?
Well, given simplifying is our thing, I wonder what simplifying team coaching looks like.
(08:35):
Yeah, nice.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Because also as simplifying is our thing, and we also know that the simplifying isn'teasy.
You know, that's it's it's clearly the same in in team environments, too.
em And so some of the things about simplifying in team coaching.
(09:03):
I'm just chewing over as you're asking.
Some of the really key things would include marvelous rightsizing, know, really, you know,like...
And of course, what we do in the room, what I'm doing in the room here, it actually startshere because, and I know there'll be people listening on their dog walks.
(09:32):
so dog walkers.
seconds if you need to go and look on YouTube.
There we go, absolutely.
It's also not a beautiful description.
So maybe dog walkers, look at the tree beyond the one that you're seeing in the plants.
yeah, the simplifying around the rightsizing of the contracting with the sponsor.
(09:55):
What is it that needs to happen here?
Where do we need to get to?
What does this need to look like?
What needs to be different?
And the systemic nature of that, what needs to be different for the organization, whatneeds to be different for this team, what needs to be different for the individuals.
uh And that question is really interesting, I find, because that question about what needsto be different.
(10:27):
Often the
Answer is hard to come by.
Even if, you know, there's been lots of conversation in the organization, let's say about,well, we think that team coaching would be useful for this team.
(10:50):
Yes, but yeah, exactly.
So maybe there's a sense of, yes, it would be a useful thing, but actually what does thatlook like in terms of the what would be different?
Perhaps hasn't been identified as closely as it could do.
(11:13):
So it just seems like a good thing to do, but that...
kind of rightsizing with the sponsor or organisation or leader or whoever it is, uh feelslike such important work.
As you're talking it reminds me of the work that I've been doing on deeper rightsizingabout recognising that there's a thing and a mood.
(11:43):
And I'm wondering whether often the thing that needs to be different is the mood.
Mmm.
The vibe there.
em And that the...
(12:04):
I think it's really tough when organisations are very clear on metrics that are numbersbased and sales based and so on to start talking about the mood or the, you know, it's
hard, isn't it?
em So there might be a couple of different sorts of what needs to be different, but weknow, don't we, that if the heart isn't in the room,
(12:34):
then actually the numbers aren't going to change anyway, you know, so this feels very,very significant.
And then the other thing, as you said that, em is that the sponsor who may be, think of acouple of examples, who may be the leader in the team or maybe
(13:00):
external to the team, there's possibilities there.
So this person, the one that's external, this might be the L &D person, it might besomebody else who's commissioning the work.
Really the depth of knowledge about what does it feel like, the mood, the vibe, it'sreally too distant for them to have much of a...
(13:22):
I feel now, I think there will be people that disagree with me about that, but I think onthe whole,
you know, they're quite distant and potentially their understanding of mood and vibe andso on has been chewed through various other people to get to them.
em So, so what does it feel like, the mood and the vibe?
(13:49):
em And so I find it really useful to...
be speaking to the team members before we all get together in the room to be able to checkout that question.
em So I have a few questions.
They're very broad.
very kind of, they're very, they are open.
(14:09):
They give space for however people want to answer it.
em The easier ones are the starting ones.
And then I would get to.
something like and so how does it feel?
Very lightly put, em almost as if that's a question that doesn't matter.
(14:32):
How does it feel to be in this team?
And then that gives a bit of a sense of what you're talking about.
em So that I have, before that I get into the room, a bit of a sense of what I might feel
knowing too that the answer to those that question was asked, you know, it was asked on aMonday afternoon and something rubbish had just happened or whatever, you know, it's
(15:02):
never, it's never the, it's the truth and it's not the whole truth.
em And so, so that's data to hold quite lightly, em I think.
em And that all of those questions are then, are then asked again in the room, even though
Yeah.
(15:23):
Yeah.
Have you read the art of gathering yet?
I have, I've...
It's not here though.
Yeah.
says, Priya Parker says that 80 % of the work in the room is before you get in the room.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(15:43):
Yes, and that is for everybody, isn't it?
And I'm just thinking about that number for the team member.
Let's say the team member who
may not feel delighted, right, that this is how they're going to spend this time andthen...
(16:10):
But the knowledge that the outside bit of work is significant, it's not all what happenshere, they will continue to learn as they go through a bit of a journey.
But to begin with, they're not coming in with 80 % having been done, but actually overtime.
(16:31):
I think that's true.
my 80 % is one bit sponsors, you know, all of the people who've been involved ahead oftime.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
So.
else does simple look like?
Because it's not simple, it?
(16:52):
Because it's deep.
No, no.
So absolutely.
So the deeper rightsizing beginning in the room and throughout so that the rightsizingcontinues past session one every time we meet.
How are we doing now?
What's changed external to this room?
(17:14):
What else?
What do we need to change now?
You know, this thing that we've talked about, you've talked about
All work is work, you know, know, and when we join together for session three andeveryone's having a coffee or whatever and a bit of a chat, chat, that lovely kind of
(17:40):
pre-conversation stuff, there's so much data in that as well that we can use.
So, so keeping on attention on the contracts.
is part of the simplifying.
Let's not make assumptions.
I was in a coaching, team coaching session and I made an assumption, Claire, and I knewthat it was happening as well.
(18:08):
could feel, do you know what happened to me in that moment?
It was I lost confidence.
um And so I did the thing of going,
em I am going to assume that we all know something.
(18:32):
and instead of asking the question about what's going on here.
And even as I did it, I knew that that was the wrong thing, but it was great because Icould then go, oh, look, everybody, that wasn't helpful, it?
Because now we're all a bit baffled and let's take a step back.
(18:53):
So, the contracting all the way through, I think the significance of
officials in this too.
So I think one of the
One of the things that we need to be engaging with as a team is that we need to be able tolook at stuff.
(19:20):
um And the looking at stuff might be if we're doing something online, we've got awhiteboard or something that we're all able to look at.
uh In the room, lots of lovely paper on the walls.
Something, things that we, think the...
(19:41):
simplifying is quite attached to what we can see because it's complex, you know, there'sso many complexities going on that being able to focus in and hone in on, okay, we have
talked about this thing, we are now talking about this thing, what does that thing looklike?
(20:04):
Yeah.
something about noticing in what you're saying, but there's also something about distanceand getting a little bit further away.
Yes.
Yep.
Yeah.
you go.
There you go.
Yeah, yeah, I think so too.
And do you know, and this is slightly sidebar-y, but um the significance of the visualthing being one that we are all looking at together um as if it's a separate thing, I
(20:42):
think is quite interesting.
So separate to us.
It's us.
but it's separate to us.
So, so we can ponder and look and see something, notice something different, which isdifferent from us looking in here, in to ourselves.
(21:08):
Yeah, nice.
Yep, absolutely.
how the team is and how we are in the world.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's really true.
I think another simplifying thing, you know, is about me, you know, in the nicest possibleway.
(21:29):
In team coaching, em
I feel like the coach has got to be...
at their simplest and clearest themselves.
(21:49):
So, so.
The presence.
of me, I'm speaking slowly Claire to get my words right, the presence of me, theexperience of me needs to feel quite simple as well.
(22:14):
My presence as the team coach needs to not add into the complexity.
So I need to come feeling kind of internally clean so that my presence is one in which theteam are not experiencing a totem to run to.
(22:54):
Equally, they are not experiencing ah anxiety, the complexity.
So all of the thinking that I will have done beforehand, I need to know, but to put downso that what they experience, the presence that I bring is about a human meeting humans.
(23:20):
um
Mm.
you talked earlier about when you'd messed up.
Mmm.
The image that came to my mind was that when we suddenly lose confidence, which is whatyou described, it's like a little door opens to a tsunami of stuff and all the things that
(23:46):
you've just described about being clean and suddenly we are overwhelmed by the overwhelmin the room, which is usually when that little door opens, isn't it?
And then in comes everything.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
of the fact that in that effort thing isn't the thing you need and that there's somethingyou don't know.
(24:06):
yeah, absolutely.
mean, you know, it's so great.
It's everything, isn't it?
And the time when it all went horribly wrong before suddenly appears and, you know, thatperson, that one person, Claire, there's always one person, I think, who is looking
(24:26):
suspiciously at...
at me, you know, like, what's she doing here?
And I don't really trust her and all of those, all of those things, they all become reallybig, don't they?
Well, yeah, yeah.
So, um so cleanness and presence, also vulnerability.
(24:48):
So, um and there, there is a line about being vulnerable and safe.
because I can't be so vulnerable as to be unsafe.
But I also need to know that they know that I don't know what's going to go on.
(25:09):
You know, I can hold this.
It's lovely to think about our container, which I can hold, but actually I don't knowwhat's in it.
And em I like to be able to describe that em so that they can feel confident.
that this isn't going to be like some other interventions that they've had where the teamcoach, where I'm at the front telling them what to do or telling them what they should do
(25:38):
or telling them what they did wrong or some other thing, but that I'm here safely holding,being the host of their space so that they can do some great work.
I that host word.
Hmm.
Yeah.
(26:00):
It feels just right, doesn't it?
I was working, Claire, this morning with a group of people where we were talking about thelanguage of what that person does, and host was the one that worked well then.
(26:20):
But it's good to be able to...
also say the other things of what I'm not.
So being able to articulate that to a team too, and I'm not your leader and I'm not amanager and I'm not mum, I think it's good to name that as well.
um I am a holder.
(26:45):
I am here to be a safety net, although I am not just a
We are all safety nets here, but I am a safety net.
um I am sometimes the holder.
of the door, I'm at the doorway.
(27:06):
there's various things that I think are useful to say and I will notice, you know thisClaire, the kind of the ting in people's eyes when they recognise the thing that connects
for them about, yeah, now I get what you're here for.
(27:30):
I just think that in team coaching and one-to-one coaching, really, there is still somemisunderstanding that's not a judgment there, but just some complications, some confusion
about what is we're doing here.
And actually, even we could take away all of the language around this.
We don't need to call it coaching, team coaching, whatever.
(27:52):
This is what I'm doing here.
This is what we're working on together.
And noticing the ting is the only way to get the temperature, isn't it?
Hmm, that's right.
Apart from checking in and asking.
awesome,
(28:13):
In one of the chapters in the Art of Gathering she says don't be a chill host.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
about how actually in order to look like you're not doing anything, you have to do quite alot of work.
Yeah, yep, yep, yep.
And there's a difference, isn't there, between that chill host of absolutely havingnothing, and she uses this great example, I think, of a dinner party or something like
(28:42):
that, or a game at a dinner party which went really badly wrong, which is quite fun.
em Yeah, so it needs to be there.
I need to come with something which is foundational.
em
We use the language of partnership and in team coaching, which we describe as one-to-onecoaching.
(29:12):
Coach, team, we're entities.
em
You know, that's what's going on is that I am not the chill host bringing nothing.
Come on, everybody just gets on with it.
(29:32):
But my part of this is process and your part is content and therefore we have uh apartnership in that.
Where are we?
How are we doing Claire?
just wondering if there's anything else about simplifying team coaching that...
(29:57):
is in your pocket.
I wonder about just saying something about...
live action coaching.
Because, you know, there are different sorts of ways of working with teams over time.
(30:17):
And I think there is something really beneficial about, you know, what are we doing thistime and how are we going to work this time?
But I think there's something really powerful and also fun about live action team coachingum where the structure is I'm coming into whatever a team meeting or something that's
(30:49):
already in existence.
it feels like ah instead of them coming out into a different space,
I am coming into their space.
m and uh with that kind of work, it's quite interesting to set it up.
(31:11):
It's got to be set up in a simple way so that we all know what's going on.
Once again, this is your team meeting that you normally have.
I'm here.
I'm going to be noticing some stuff.
We can all be noticing stuff.
So,
I just think this is interesting that the permissions that I ask at the beginning of asession like that, which is I'll be noticing some things.
(31:40):
We've talked about all sorts of things.
I'll be noticing some of those things.
em And I might stop us, pause, let's have a think about that.
em And then we'll...
go back in, is that okay everybody?
Yeah, they're like, wow, yeah, okay.
But the interesting thing, Claire, is that the permission that they seem to give to me byme asking that question.
(32:06):
The team then also...
gives themselves the permission to do it too.
press pause.
That's right, not normal in our normal ways of working.
I've just noticed, you know, it's just brilliant.
You know, I'm intrigued about that.
(32:28):
So once again, it's a simple.
Permission.
And what's great then is, is that helpful?
Was that useful?
You know, like the coming back to that, what did we learn from that?
What from how this team meeting works might you take forward into other team meetings?
(32:52):
And sometimes that in the moment noticing with contracting around it, permission and soon, is a really useful thing that they didn't know.
Because you're jumping into real observable data in the moment and not diagnosticself-reported data afterwards.
(33:14):
Nice.
Yeah.
like we do, isn't it, in one-to-one coaching of the real play sort of work, you know, thedoing.
Yeah, exactly.
That thing.
Yeah.
Pointing to it.
So Su, if people want to talk more to you about team coaching with 3D, how do they dothat?
(33:41):
So they can look me up on LinkedIn.
I'm Su Blanch.
I'm the only one.
um Or through our website, 3D Coaching.
Or I am Su without an E, Claire, at 3Dcoaching.com.
We did have a Su with an E, didn't we?
So, yeah.
(34:02):
somebody who was on that coach training with you in Milton Keynes calls you suh.
Ha ha ha, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So if you're listening and you're the person who calls Suh, we send you our greetingsacross the world.
Big hello!
(34:23):
And thank you all for listening and we'll be back next week with another episode.
Bye bye.
Thank you, bye.
Hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Coaching Inn.
I'm your host, Claire Pedrick, and today I'm talking to my friend and colleague, SuBlanch.
Hello, hello.
And because I want to know what she's doing about team coaching.
I thought you might want to know too.
So we thought we'd talk about it together in front of you.
(00:38):
So Su, tell us about your coaching journey.
Coaching journey.
Okay, yes, so I, my background way back was in recruitment and HR.
did all of my qualifications there, post degree.
(01:00):
And I discovered as I traveled through the generalist world of HR that my heart justwasn't clear in dismissing people as I found that I was doing.
quite a lot of and was instead in learning and development.
So that became the broader pathway that I was travelling.
And then I bumped into this organisation, I don't know if you've heard of it, called 3DCoaching.
(01:29):
As a person who was looking into my sense of purpose, vocation, mission, what am I beingcalled to?
That opened up my eyes to what coaching was as I discovered that I might have the answersrather than somebody else having them on my behalf.
(01:53):
So that was what intrigued me, what made me curious.
um And then working that through, my training in coaching with 3D Coaching, of course,didn't I?
Absolutely great fun.
I remember that in a...
in a quite cold hall near Milton Keynes in the UK, I remember that, yeah.
(02:21):
one.
Yes indeed, way back.
last week who was also on that one.
It was a very, very good group.
have to say what a cohort we were.
em yeah, so did my training and was just delighted to be able to use uh coaching um and toenable people in quite a specific place to begin with work that I'm still doing, work that
(02:51):
I'm doing with us, um which is uh for clergy.
as they are considering what their next post might be, how do they discern that?
How do they think about coming through appointment processes and so on, which sometimesfeel a bit clunky and so on?
(03:12):
And how to do that with a real sense of them, rather than having to make themselves kindof fit something that doesn't feel like they quite fit.
So that was kind of like the first...
uh First coaching work that I was doing, it really connected so deeply with um what I feltwas important for me.
(03:35):
um And I'm, yeah, as I say, I'm still doing that work a bit, but I'm also doing all sortsof other uh coaching, coaching work as well, um which includes team coaching, as well as
facilitation of groups, uh as well as action learning sets.
(03:56):
as well.
know, the kind of difference between the one-to-one coaching, coaching in different sortsof groups that are there for different sorts of purposes, all of that stuff is fun eh and
good to do.
Yeah.
(04:16):
I know that you've made the team coaching your own.
Mmm.
was a wicked mm.
Yeah absolutely yeah no absolutely I'm uh
tell us about that.
Yeah, yes, I will, but I wonder if I can ask you first, actually, if you don't mind,supervision community.
(04:39):
Can you just tell me where we are with all of that?
What's going on?
community is going really brilliantly and we've got team coaches in there actually.
So we have different layers depending on how many hours people coach.
We've got people from around the world and people can move up and down depending on howmuch work they've got, which is a bit, I don't think when we set it up, we realized how
(05:05):
important that was going to be.
And hot off the press news.
In October, I'm starting a silver group, which is for coaches who are doing like five to20 hours for neurodivergent coaches.
So I already have a platinum group for coaches who are neurodivergent, who are doingmostly coaching most of the time.
(05:27):
And yeah, this is really exciting.
this will be people.
So it's lower cost.
It's £36 a month plus tax.
and it's for any coach who is neurodivergent.
And let's see what happens.
It's a kind of trial.
We'll see how we get on and if it doesn't work, we'll stop.
(05:49):
And if it works, we'll fly.
Thank you for asking.
That sounds very exciting.
mean, the thing about the supervision community and um how that is and how people are witheach other is fascinating, isn't it?
Because it is about not being by myself, um but this group who I'm able to just...
(06:19):
Rest my elbow on somebody else's shoulder for a bit.
And also the neurodivergent thing is so interesting, isn't it?
Because even since Nathan and Kim and I started thinking about the book, the stats aboutthe number of people in the population globally who are neurodivergent is, it keeps being
(06:42):
recalibrated because there are so many of us.
so we've always, coaches, some coaches have always been neurodivergent.
And that's true in teams that you work with, isn't it?
Some people in teams have always been your edgervegent.
It's just that the people didn't know they were and the team didn't know they were.
(07:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
The team didn't know they were and there might have been, we're not quite sure what'sgoing on here and how great that there is now language ability, bit more wisdom.
I'm sure there's more wisdom that could be collected generally, but, oh know, yeah.
(07:26):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I noticed there are some significant things that we do differently that make life a loteasier.
Like when I say to you, please tell me the thing I'm most worried about before we starttalking about anything else.
Because otherwise I won't listen.
(07:49):
Yeah.
There's all sorts.
Yeah.
Good.
I wanted to check in.
Back to Teams, back to Teams.
Okay.
So what was your question?
What you doing?
Okay.
So, m
(08:12):
There are a few different things that I want to about kind of exploring a little bitaround the kind of team coaching that I'm doing.
Can I offer a slightly different question that might help frame it?
Well, given simplifying is our thing, I wonder what simplifying team coaching looks like.
(08:35):
Yeah, nice.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Because also as simplifying is our thing, and we also know that the simplifying isn'teasy.
You know, that's it's it's clearly the same in in team environments, too.
em And so some of the things about simplifying in team coaching.
(09:03):
I'm just chewing over as you're asking.
Some of the really key things would include marvelous rightsizing, know, really, you know,like...
And of course, what we do in the room, what I'm doing in the room here, it actually startshere because, and I know there'll be people listening on their dog walks.
(09:32):
so dog walkers.
seconds if you need to go and look on YouTube.
There we go, absolutely.
It's also not a beautiful description.
So maybe dog walkers, look at the tree beyond the one that you're seeing in the plants.
yeah, the simplifying around the rightsizing of the contracting with the sponsor.
(09:55):
What is it that needs to happen here?
Where do we need to get to?
What does this need to look like?
What needs to be different?
And the systemic nature of that, what needs to be different for the organization, whatneeds to be different for this team, what needs to be different for the individuals.
uh And that question is really interesting, I find, because that question about what needsto be different.
(10:27):
Often the
Answer is hard to come by.
Even if, you know, there's been lots of conversation in the organization, let's say about,well, we think that team coaching would be useful for this team.
(10:50):
Yes, but yeah, exactly.
So maybe there's a sense of, yes, it would be a useful thing, but actually what does thatlook like in terms of the what would be different?
Perhaps hasn't been identified as closely as it could do.
(11:13):
So it just seems like a good thing to do, but that...
kind of rightsizing with the sponsor or organisation or leader or whoever it is, uh feelslike such important work.
As you're talking it reminds me of the work that I've been doing on deeper rightsizingabout recognising that there's a thing and a mood.
(11:43):
And I'm wondering whether often the thing that needs to be different is the mood.
Mmm.
The vibe there.
em And that the...
(12:04):
I think it's really tough when organisations are very clear on metrics that are numbersbased and sales based and so on to start talking about the mood or the, you know, it's
hard, isn't it?
em So there might be a couple of different sorts of what needs to be different, but weknow, don't we, that if the heart isn't in the room,
(12:34):
then actually the numbers aren't going to change anyway, you know, so this feels very,very significant.
And then the other thing, as you said that, em is that the sponsor who may be, think of acouple of examples, who may be the leader in the team or maybe
(13:00):
external to the team, there's possibilities there.
So this person, the one that's external, this might be the L &D person, it might besomebody else who's commissioning the work.
Really the depth of knowledge about what does it feel like, the mood, the vibe, it'sreally too distant for them to have much of a...
(13:22):
I feel now, I think there will be people that disagree with me about that, but I think onthe whole,
you know, they're quite distant and potentially their understanding of mood and vibe andso on has been chewed through various other people to get to them.
em So, so what does it feel like, the mood and the vibe?
(13:49):
em And so I find it really useful to...
be speaking to the team members before we all get together in the room to be able to checkout that question.
em So I have a few questions.
They're very broad.
very kind of, they're very, they are open.
(14:09):
They give space for however people want to answer it.
em The easier ones are the starting ones.
And then I would get to.
something like and so how does it feel?
Very lightly put, em almost as if that's a question that doesn't matter.
(14:32):
How does it feel to be in this team?
And then that gives a bit of a sense of what you're talking about.
em So that I have, before that I get into the room, a bit of a sense of what I might feel
knowing too that the answer to those that question was asked, you know, it was asked on aMonday afternoon and something rubbish had just happened or whatever, you know, it's
(15:02):
never, it's never the, it's the truth and it's not the whole truth.
em And so, so that's data to hold quite lightly, em I think.
em And that all of those questions are then, are then asked again in the room, even though
Yeah.
(15:23):
Yeah.
Have you read the art of gathering yet?
I have, I've...
It's not here though.
Yeah.
says, Priya Parker says that 80 % of the work in the room is before you get in the room.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(15:43):
Yes, and that is for everybody, isn't it?
And I'm just thinking about that number for the team member.
Let's say the team member who
may not feel delighted, right, that this is how they're going to spend this time andthen...
(16:10):
But the knowledge that the outside bit of work is significant, it's not all what happenshere, they will continue to learn as they go through a bit of a journey.
But to begin with, they're not coming in with 80 % having been done, but actually overtime.
(16:31):
I think that's true.
my 80 % is one bit sponsors, you know, all of the people who've been involved ahead oftime.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
So.
else does simple look like?
Because it's not simple, it?
(16:52):
Because it's deep.
No, no.
So absolutely.
So the deeper rightsizing beginning in the room and throughout so that the rightsizingcontinues past session one every time we meet.
How are we doing now?
What's changed external to this room?
(17:14):
What else?
What do we need to change now?
You know, this thing that we've talked about, you've talked about
All work is work, you know, know, and when we join together for session three andeveryone's having a coffee or whatever and a bit of a chat, chat, that lovely kind of
(17:40):
pre-conversation stuff, there's so much data in that as well that we can use.
So, so keeping on attention on the contracts.
is part of the simplifying.
Let's not make assumptions.
I was in a coaching, team coaching session and I made an assumption, Claire, and I knewthat it was happening as well.
(18:08):
could feel, do you know what happened to me in that moment?
It was I lost confidence.
um And so I did the thing of going,
em I am going to assume that we all know something.
(18:32):
and instead of asking the question about what's going on here.
And even as I did it, I knew that that was the wrong thing, but it was great because Icould then go, oh, look, everybody, that wasn't helpful, it?
Because now we're all a bit baffled and let's take a step back.
(18:53):
So, the contracting all the way through, I think the significance of
officials in this too.
So I think one of the
One of the things that we need to be engaging with as a team is that we need to be able tolook at stuff.
(19:20):
um And the looking at stuff might be if we're doing something online, we've got awhiteboard or something that we're all able to look at.
uh In the room, lots of lovely paper on the walls.
Something, things that we, think the...
(19:41):
simplifying is quite attached to what we can see because it's complex, you know, there'sso many complexities going on that being able to focus in and hone in on, okay, we have
talked about this thing, we are now talking about this thing, what does that thing looklike?
(20:04):
Yeah.
something about noticing in what you're saying, but there's also something about distanceand getting a little bit further away.
Yes.
Yep.
Yeah.
you go.
There you go.
Yeah, yeah, I think so too.
And do you know, and this is slightly sidebar-y, but um the significance of the visualthing being one that we are all looking at together um as if it's a separate thing, I
(20:42):
think is quite interesting.
So separate to us.
It's us.
but it's separate to us.
So, so we can ponder and look and see something, notice something different, which isdifferent from us looking in here, in to ourselves.
(21:08):
Yeah, nice.
Yep, absolutely.
how the team is and how we are in the world.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's really true.
I think another simplifying thing, you know, is about me, you know, in the nicest possibleway.
(21:29):
In team coaching, em
I feel like the coach has got to be...
at their simplest and clearest themselves.
(21:49):
So, so.
The presence.
of me, I'm speaking slowly Claire to get my words right, the presence of me, theexperience of me needs to feel quite simple as well.
(22:14):
My presence as the team coach needs to not add into the complexity.
So I need to come feeling kind of internally clean so that my presence is one in which theteam are not experiencing a totem to run to.
(22:54):
Equally, they are not experiencing ah anxiety, the complexity.
So all of the thinking that I will have done beforehand, I need to know, but to put downso that what they experience, the presence that I bring is about a human meeting humans.
(23:20):
um
Mm.
you talked earlier about when you'd messed up.
Mmm.
The image that came to my mind was that when we suddenly lose confidence, which is whatyou described, it's like a little door opens to a tsunami of stuff and all the things that
(23:46):
you've just described about being clean and suddenly we are overwhelmed by the overwhelmin the room, which is usually when that little door opens, isn't it?
And then in comes everything.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
of the fact that in that effort thing isn't the thing you need and that there's somethingyou don't know.
(24:06):
yeah, absolutely.
mean, you know, it's so great.
It's everything, isn't it?
And the time when it all went horribly wrong before suddenly appears and, you know, thatperson, that one person, Claire, there's always one person, I think, who is looking
(24:26):
suspiciously at...
at me, you know, like, what's she doing here?
And I don't really trust her and all of those, all of those things, they all become reallybig, don't they?
Well, yeah, yeah.
So, um so cleanness and presence, also vulnerability.
(24:48):
So, um and there, there is a line about being vulnerable and safe.
because I can't be so vulnerable as to be unsafe.
But I also need to know that they know that I don't know what's going to go on.
(25:09):
You know, I can hold this.
It's lovely to think about our container, which I can hold, but actually I don't knowwhat's in it.
And em I like to be able to describe that em so that they can feel confident.
that this isn't going to be like some other interventions that they've had where the teamcoach, where I'm at the front telling them what to do or telling them what they should do
(25:38):
or telling them what they did wrong or some other thing, but that I'm here safely holding,being the host of their space so that they can do some great work.
I that host word.
Hmm.
Yeah.
(26:00):
It feels just right, doesn't it?
I was working, Claire, this morning with a group of people where we were talking about thelanguage of what that person does, and host was the one that worked well then.
(26:20):
But it's good to be able to...
also say the other things of what I'm not.
So being able to articulate that to a team too, and I'm not your leader and I'm not amanager and I'm not mum, I think it's good to name that as well.
um I am a holder.
(26:45):
I am here to be a safety net, although I am not just a
We are all safety nets here, but I am a safety net.
um I am sometimes the holder.
of the door, I'm at the doorway.
(27:06):
there's various things that I think are useful to say and I will notice, you know thisClaire, the kind of the ting in people's eyes when they recognise the thing that connects
for them about, yeah, now I get what you're here for.
(27:30):
I just think that in team coaching and one-to-one coaching, really, there is still somemisunderstanding that's not a judgment there, but just some complications, some confusion
about what is we're doing here.
And actually, even we could take away all of the language around this.
We don't need to call it coaching, team coaching, whatever.
(27:52):
This is what I'm doing here.
This is what we're working on together.
And noticing the ting is the only way to get the temperature, isn't it?
Hmm, that's right.
Apart from checking in and asking.
awesome,
(28:13):
In one of the chapters in the Art of Gathering she says don't be a chill host.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
about how actually in order to look like you're not doing anything, you have to do quite alot of work.
Yeah, yep, yep, yep.
And there's a difference, isn't there, between that chill host of absolutely havingnothing, and she uses this great example, I think, of a dinner party or something like
(28:42):
that, or a game at a dinner party which went really badly wrong, which is quite fun.
em Yeah, so it needs to be there.
I need to come with something which is foundational.
em
We use the language of partnership and in team coaching, which we describe as one-to-onecoaching.
(29:12):
Coach, team, we're entities.
em
You know, that's what's going on is that I am not the chill host bringing nothing.
Come on, everybody just gets on with it.
(29:32):
But my part of this is process and your part is content and therefore we have uh apartnership in that.
Where are we?
How are we doing Claire?
just wondering if there's anything else about simplifying team coaching that...
(29:57):
is in your pocket.
I wonder about just saying something about...
live action coaching.
Because, you know, there are different sorts of ways of working with teams over time.
(30:17):
And I think there is something really beneficial about, you know, what are we doing thistime and how are we going to work this time?
But I think there's something really powerful and also fun about live action team coachingum where the structure is I'm coming into whatever a team meeting or something that's
(30:49):
already in existence.
it feels like ah instead of them coming out into a different space,
I am coming into their space.
m and uh with that kind of work, it's quite interesting to set it up.
(31:11):
It's got to be set up in a simple way so that we all know what's going on.
Once again, this is your team meeting that you normally have.
I'm here.
I'm going to be noticing some stuff.
We can all be noticing stuff.
So,
I just think this is interesting that the permissions that I ask at the beginning of asession like that, which is I'll be noticing some things.
(31:40):
We've talked about all sorts of things.
I'll be noticing some of those things.
em And I might stop us, pause, let's have a think about that.
em And then we'll...
go back in, is that okay everybody?
Yeah, they're like, wow, yeah, okay.
But the interesting thing, Claire, is that the permission that they seem to give to me byme asking that question.
(32:06):
The team then also...
gives themselves the permission to do it too.
press pause.
That's right, not normal in our normal ways of working.
I've just noticed, you know, it's just brilliant.
You know, I'm intrigued about that.
(32:28):
So once again, it's a simple.
Permission.
And what's great then is, is that helpful?
Was that useful?
You know, like the coming back to that, what did we learn from that?
What from how this team meeting works might you take forward into other team meetings?
(32:52):
And sometimes that in the moment noticing with contracting around it, permission and soon, is a really useful thing that they didn't know.
Because you're jumping into real observable data in the moment and not diagnosticself-reported data afterwards.
(33:14):
Nice.
Yeah.
like we do, isn't it, in one-to-one coaching of the real play sort of work, you know, thedoing.
Yeah, exactly.
That thing.
Yeah.
Pointing to it.
So Su, if people want to talk more to you about team coaching with 3D, how do they dothat?
(33:41):
So they can look me up on LinkedIn.
I'm Su Blanch.
I'm the only one.
um Or through our website, 3D Coaching.
Or I am Su without an E, Claire, at 3Dcoaching.com.
We did have a Su with an E, didn't we?
So, yeah.
(34:02):
somebody who was on that coach training with you in Milton Keynes calls you suh.
Ha ha ha, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So if you're listening and you're the person who calls Suh, we send you our greetingsacross the world.
Big hello!
(34:23):
And thank you all for listening and we'll be back next week with another episode.
Bye bye.
Thank you, bye.
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