acorn-transform

Unleashing the infinite Power of your Team

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:32:40 GMT

In todays evolving workplace individual talent is essential, but it is how the individuals work together, to become a cohesive, high performing team which is indispensable to organisations. Team coaching is a powerful way to explore your potential as a team, and put steps in place to work towards your goals, ensuring that you achieve more as a collective team than you can as individuals. Let us explore what team coaching is, how it works, and how to implement a team coaching journey.

Team Coaching

2. What is Team Coaching?
Team coaching is a structured approach, where a coach works with an entire team to enhance performance, communication, and collaboration. It fosters a collective mindset, emphasising mutual accountability, and a unified purpose.

The team coaches role is to hold the space for the team, to explore their ways of working, identifying challenges and opportunities that the team have both within, and with their wider stakeholders.

3. How does team coaching work?
Teams are the function in which 60-70% of all 'work' is completed in organisations, and are increasingly cross functional and global in nature.

Team coaching usually starts with understanding is this truly a team? by identifying if there is a shared purpose that the people come together to serve.

The Core principles of team coaching is to empower the team to;

Understand their purpose

Have clear and aligned goals

Have clear role alignment

Build Trust and Psychological Safety

Commit to their journey and goals

Become a learning, and reflective team

4. How to implement a team coaching journey?

Teams usually have between 6-12 core members, and before we begin assessing team readiness is critical. Initial discovery meetings will ensure that team coaching starts at the right time for the team.

Understanding the current challenges the team faces, may include some one to one stakeholder meetings, as well as perhaps using some psychometric tests such as;

Gallup strengths

Engage coach

Personalised questionnaires designed with the sponsor

Coaching can then begin with a ' team session ' to agree the challenges, opportunities and journey that we will be entering.

The coaching journey will be fully personalised to each teams needs, and may include elements such as;

Team building

Team facilitation

Group coaching

All of which will support the journey of the team towards understanding and maximising their collective strengths

Integrating learning into daily work practice becoming the new 'normal' for the team is critical, so that the work and progress may occur when we are 'apart'. Cultures are then re-defined and teams start to truly move towards being high performing.

Evaluation is also key to the 'team coaching' process. Setting clear goals at the start, allows the team to check in with their progress, and continue to refine their journey, and the coaching needs at each step.

5. Conclusion

Team coaching is a powerful tool to build high performing and value adding teams. By focussing on the teams purpose, shared goals, trust, open communication and collaborations teams can reach higher levels of performance and also satisfaction. When teams are aligned in their purpose, and embrace individuals strengths they contribute positively to all stakeholders and support workplace culture, and ultimately organisational performance.

Positive Community Impact

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:30:16 GMT

Having lived for nearly 40 years in Suffolk, and calling this wonderful county home, I wanted to support our impact locally. As a child I had been a member of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, enjoying many a pond dip, and as an adult have spent many hours with my children walking through the reserves.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust

2. Why does this matter?
As a child our home had a lovely garden, with an oak and sycamore tree framing the view from my bedroom window. We had many birds in our garden, and I loved being in nature from a very young age. We had dogs, chickens, rabbits, and ponies, with the occasional additional visiting cat, and often ducks.

As I progressed with my education I had been to University at Leicester, living for 2 years amongst the botanical gardens in Oadby. Following my, graduation I had moved back to Suffolk, was considering my future. I happened to pick up a newspaper that my father had been reading, and in it was a job advert with an image of a great oak, with the proverb ' from little acorns mighty oaks grow' . This inspired me, and I applied for the role. This was my first ever job, and began my journey to where I am today.

3. Sustainable business
As I mapped out what was important to me in establishing AcornTransform, values were critical to me, and the idea of ensuring I was behaving in a mindful way about any carbon impact, and most importantly supporting my local community were elements that I felt compelled to prioritise.

I also need to thank a wonderful colleague and friend at this point, who as I left a wonderful lunch to end my previous role passed me a gift. This gift was an Acorn. He had remembered my story and why I had been compelled to start my journey 23 years earlier. This simple and powerful gift and true friendship, empowered me to consider my legacy. Like the oak tree who grows for the first 40 years, and then provides a haven for a colossal 2300 species of wildlife providing vital spaces for feeding, sheltering, breeding and living all across the globe.

I wish to leave positive footprints on the world, and therefore pledged for every new client I would plant a tree...

The Suffolk Wildlife Trust are working on a network of hedges, connecting ancient and important woodlands across many miles to sustain wildlife at many levels. I wanted to contribute to my local community, and alongside my investment in nature, every 6 months I will sponsor the hedge programme that they are establishing. This supports their pledge to;

Have 30% of lang by 2030 managed in a wildlife friendly way

Have 1 in 4 people taking meaningful action to support wildlife

4. Supports SEO

Therefore this is my pledge to support them, by taking my own meaningful action, and leaving my Acorn legacy. Planting hedges, and trees in my own local community, investing in the wildlife I hold so dear is a true privilege.

AI Coach? To be or not to be?

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:27:07 GMT

AI is a rapidly growing part of our society, and it is starting to become more prevalently discussed as to its place in 'coaching' .

Is there a place for AI in Coaching?

2. AI development
During the 1950's the first exploration of Artificial Intelligence began when Alan Turing published Computer Machinery and Intelligence, which proposed a test of machine intelligence called The Imitation Game.

John McCarthy in 1956 at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence brought together over 100 researchers to look at clear goals;

Help machines use language

Form abstractions and concepts

Solve problems that were previously reserved for humans

Improve machines

Since this early research there has been huge research into the field of AI. Significant growth coming after 2000 with examples such as IBM Watson as an AI quiz show contender, and Siri in 2011 as an early command and control AI system. The surge since 2020 has been largely down to generative AI - the ability for AI to generate text, images and videos in response to prompts. ChatGPT is an example of generative AI from OpenAI released in 2022, and was also able to ask follow up questions and recognize inappropriate prompts.

The step into coaching perhaps first started in sport, where in 1997 a computer vision tracking system called Prozone was used. In 2001 Hawk-Eye computer tracking for umpiring in tennis was introduced, to in 2017 Zone7 leveraged AI to predict Athlete injury risk.

All of these elements of AI in sport give data, providing more insight that we as humans can capture alone.

As AI expands into many fields including education, healthcare, and many more, there is a definite transition into the business world.

So how can AI support 'coaching'?

3. Overview
It is estimated that there are over 1 Million coaches worldwide. With a very conservative estimation of each coach having 10 clients a year (2022 average was 12) we can propose that around 10 Million people access coaching worldwide. Considering the population is now over 8billion, this is around 0.12% of the population who access coaching in this way.

Coaching is an opportunity for individuals and teams to develop and grow. Coaching may impact on;

Self awareness

Confidence

Communication

Engagement

Prioritisation

The ICF have a vision statement of 'A world where coaching is integral to transforming societies'. Therefore I wonder how can we increase the opportunity for people to receive coaching? could AI be part of the solution?

I first started using AI in coaching in 2020. The system I used was a video that analysed three components of a conversation, voice, being the tone and delivery, but also the text (the words used), and also the visual signals from each parties micro facial movement. This system (KAI conversations) is an example of gaining of AI being able to generate data above that of a human. It gave insight into the impact during a conversation, and how engaged the parties are. It shares elements such as confidence, and emotion, which allows the coach to fuse together 'data' with great coaching.

The challenges faced were mainly due to fear, and misunderstanding of the system and what it may provide. However once people experienced the fusion of combining new data (which the AI provided), with coaching around the value of this data and the clients goals, nearly all were impressed of the insight and opportunity that AI combined with human intelligence could offer. AI can also provide datasets across functional areas, allowing trends to be seen, and bespoke learning journeys therefore offered. This is where the AI becomes truly scalable to impact on team or organisational learning journeys.

Since my first experiences, Generative AI through ChatGPT and other sources have taken off, and many AI coaches are now available on the market. I have explored a few, and have found them to be useful adjuncts to personal learning journeys.

AI can now be used for;

Personalized guidance
Roleplay
Automated assessments against criteria and goals
Observational feedback around behaviour or language patterns
Identification of common strengths or challenges

Examples of other AI tools are;

Rypple AI
Loopin
Nadia (Valence)
AIMY (CoachHub)
Attensi AI
Coach Vici (AI Coaching)

These are just a few of the tools available, and all have certain characteristics to enable you to decide which may suit you and your organisation. Many of these are based on expert system (ANI) principles including chatbot technology.

So what may be the Benefits of AI Coaching?

AI is accessible 24/7 globally. Therefore whenever you need the support it is there.
AI coaching could also be considered cost effective, as it is perhaps less costly than one to one coaching so could more people globally access coaching
AI coaching has been seen in some populations to have benefits in supporting 'goal setting' from a coaching perspective (Dr Nicky Terblanche has written a paper on this)

And what are some of the potential risks?

This is currently a fairly un-evidenced field of study, no one is quite sure currently of the benefits especially on behaviours in the long-term
AI must be used as a development tool, not performance management metric
Ethically, are the AI systems applying the same human level to objectives set? and are the AI systems maintaining the same standard of ethical practice as human coaches?

The ICF have produced a set of AI coaching framework and standard for all 'coaches' . Bodies such as the ICF, and EMCC (2 large coaching bodies) have clear frameworks, and ethical requirements to which their credentialed or associated coaches adhere and spend time studying. Whilst we can sum up risks and benefits, returning to why people want coaching, it is usually to create some form of 'change' . What we do know is that for this change to happen AI or human need to consider, the goals of change, readiness for change, what may be the barriers, what is your motivation, and what might trigger 'un-change', none of which happen overnight. For true change time is needed. A study in 2009 (European Journal of Social Psychology) states on average it takes 66 days for a new habit to become automatic.

So how can humans and AI ensure change becomes real?

What is the place for AI in coaching?

4. What does AI say?

AI (using my i phone) indeed states that 'AI coaching is a process that uses AI to provide personalized guidance and support for professional and personal development'.

The ICF definition of coaching is; 'partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that helps clients maximise their personal and professional potential'.

An interesting word used in the ICF definition is ' partnering ', and I truly believe this is critical to any coaching relationship. Trust enables a true partnership to develop. This is an area that AI may find harder to generate 'trust and partnership'; however as it continues to evolve, and the AI user base is driven by Gen Z then we may see this emerge.

The partnership also implies that coaching should take place over a period of time, therefore allowing potential behavioural change. Most human coaching partnerships establish a timeframe at the contracting stage, and therefore ensuring time for the transformation. If AI is also used regularly, over a period of time, it could also augment 'behavioural change' and as it is used more this evidence will grow, however I am currently unsure of the commitment to partner with AI.

As is stands today, my view is that AI coaching has a place, and could potentially be a very good way to augment the human 'coaching' experience, bringing together new insight for their clients, and allowing increased access to coaching tools to support the coachees personal growth journey.

Indeed using ChatGPT today and asking 'what is the place for AI in coaching?' the final statement is;

' AI's role: Enhancing not replacing human coaches . AI provides efficiency, objectivity, and scalability, while human coaches bring emotional intelligence, empathy, and intuition - qualities which remain irreplaceable. Together they form a powerful partnership for driving meaningful growth and change.

Thank you ChatGPT, as a human, I couldn't agree with your AI answer more!