COACHING AT WORK COACHING AND MENTORING AT WORK: BEYOND FRONTIERS CONFERENCE, LONDON, 23 NOVEMBER
By Jane Campion
Many deem top-level support essential if change programmes are to stick, but for Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP) NHS Trust, not having the board on board proved an advantage.
A community of solution-focused (SF) managers and leaders has been created by stealth at AWP in the past three years.
“We called it guerrilla coaching. Coaches working with non-SF people would simply reframe the coaching as a solutions tool, and when it worked they passed the techniques on,” said Justine Faulkner, deputy HR director of AWP.
Mark McKergow, whose Centre for Solutions Focus at Work (sfwork) delivered the programme, said there are three types of people: “The reds who say ‘over my dead body’; the ambers who sit on the fence waiting to see which way the wind will blow; and the greens, who are keen. Invite them, and resistance is not an issue.”
Managers reported spending less time on problems and “it’s not fair” conversations; a decrease in anxiety in their teams and an increase in people’s ability and action.
sfwork’s Antoinette Oglethorpe attributed the large take-up to teaching the coaching model as tools rather than a process. “It didn’t matter which part of the model they used or in which order.”
It was about finding what worked and amplifying it. “We taught them to start pushing in the direction of a better future, taking small steps based on what was working” said McKergow.
Ten cohorts have so far gone through the six-month programme, which includes two days on SF coaching, six coaching sessions per participant, two supervision days and a final review day.
Hear Mark McKergow’s and other speakers’ conference podcasts at www.coaching-at-work.com/2011/12/01/podcasts/
An AWP case study will run in a later issue
Coaching at Work, Volume 7, Issue 1