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What is sustainability as it pertains to coaching programs?
This is one question among many that 40 professionals, who convened in Washington, D.C. explored at the June 24-25 ICCO Symposium: A learning event for multiple stakeholders of coaching in organizations seeking “a multi-sectoral conversation about coaching.”
The beautiful office space for the two-day event was provided by LMI Consulting, while the dialogue space was created and sustained by the co-chairs: Lee Salmon and Susana Isaacson, the design team: Karol Eller, Bill Carrier, Meredith Woodruff, Meredith Woodruff, and Donna Karlin as Dean.
Participants hailing from as far as Hong Kong and Canada included executive coaches, leaders of coaching programs, coach educators and researchers, as well as executives from organizations that use coaching. Various well known organizations were represented: Georgetown University, Cambria Consulting, the CIA, Federal Consulting Group, Sherpa, Lee Hecht Harrison, the State Department, and the case presenters below.
The structure included four case studies presented by leaders looking to impact coaching in their organizations, and a series of six “animation” questions for group reflection.
Case presenters from Booz Allen Hamilton, NASA, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and Zappos opened a window into the complexities and challenges of advancing coaching and infusing coaching programs into the culture of their organizations. Then magic happened in the breakout sessions, where participants provided either coaching or consulting for each case.
A theme that surfaced several times was the question of “for the sake of what?” in relation to developing leaders, corporate social responsibility, sustainability of resources as well as expansion and sustainability of coaching programs in organizations.
The exploration of sustainability began with a look at how coaching impacts people, profit (results) and the planet. Conversations journeyed through generating sustainability in ourselves as leaders and coaches; being resilient, adaptable, regenerative, and ready to support leaders on the forefront of crisis and change. Speed bumps in the road to sustainability include commoditization of coaching, scalability, agility, and budget. Large scale coaching program sustainability requires political coverage and advocacy internally, and must be aligned with the strategy of an organization operationally, philosophically, financially, and socially. We considered that systemically, it changes the planet.
We pondered how to maintain the integrity of coaching as it morphs with the changes of any given organization, its leaders, the economy, and the world. A strong emergent theme was advancing beyond ROI to the effective communication of (and embedding within the culture) the stories of coaching’s impact and results system-wide.
Is sustainability a myth? Is continual re-invention what’s really needed?
If not sustainability, then what should we be exploring?
How do leaders weave coaching into the tapestry of the whole organizations, sustaining the values of the organization while transforming leadership learning into action? Should coaching become integrated into the culture and aligned with the strategic bottom line such that the need to discuss sustaining a coaching program is no longer relevant, and coaching just becomes “the way we do things”?
Six groups met to discuss these challenges during the animation segment, and remarkably, in spite of six very different questions posed, each group reported very similar themes in terms of ethics, boundaries, consistency, oversight, systemic feedback loops, trends, and stakeholder perceptions.
What are your thoughts about sustaining coaching programs in organizations? Comment below!
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