Mapping the dynamics of team coaching

I’m very pleased to post some resources for team coaches, supervisors of team coaching, and their organisational clients.

I’ve produced a new version of my map, ‘Mapping the territory of team coaching’, which expands and gives more detail to the factors at play in team coaching. I hope it also offers a better visualisation of the intense dynamism and interconnection of the relationships that may exist and arise during a team coaching assignment.

Download the map here:

Landscape version
Portrait version

Also available is a paper, ‘Team coaching and supervision’, which explains the purpose of the map, what to do with it, and how to use it as a resource for team coaches and supervisors of team coaching. This too is a free resource primarily for use in group supervision. However, it need not be restricted to those who facilitate in this domain. It may also be of interest to organisational teams looking to explore their own processes for change.

Download the paper here:

Team coaching and supervision

In the paper, I cover four key themes:

• the context in which team coaches practise
• the demands facing the team coach
• the role of supervision for team coaches
• mapping the territory of team coaching – a method that enables the team coach with their supervisor to reflect on their practice

The map does not provide a linear analysis of how to do team coaching, but rather offers a reflective foundation that allows us to explore and model what may be happening in the client system, including the wider context in which the work is taking place. Informed by the work of Nora Bateson and warm data, as well as what we learn from the natural world, I hope the map will allow us to engage with the non-linear, dynamic complexity and inter-connectedness within a system when groups or teams come together.

My hope is that through dialogue and inquiry with colleagues and teams, you will deepen your understanding and appreciation of the complexities involved. Needless to say, what emerges is the significance of supervision and its relevance in the reflective process as it provides the container for us as practitioners to explore and reflect on our team coaching practice.

The team coaching map has been many years in gestation. See this blog post from 2023, Mapping the complex territory of team coaching and supervision, which relates some of the steps on the journey.

The paper is reproduced, with changes and updates, from chapter 8 (402-29) of the book, Team Coaching: Mastering the Art of Synergy (2023), edited by Angelos Derlopas. My thanks to Angelos for permission to make this work available as a standalone paper.