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Group and team coaching has been shown to enhance individual and group performance due to the broader awareness, alignment and accountability achieved through the process of dialogue with others. Many coaches are familiar with the GROW model used widely in one-to-one coaching, which typically follows the simple structure of Goal, Reality, Options and Will (or Way forwards). Researchers have shown that for team coaching, this can be usefully extended into the GROUP model:
An important addition to this structure, acknowledged by the acronym's creators and reflected in our team and group coaching, is RE-GROUP: the review and evaluation phase. Here, we assess commitments and actions since the last session and evaluate their impact before setting new goals. Research highlights a coach's ability to facilitate looped learning. Reviewing actions since the last session is single-loop learning, which is helpful. However, a skilled coach goes further, encouraging reflection on and challenging underlying assumptions and mental models, known as double-loop learning. In some cases, the coach may prompt even deeper questioning—triple-loop learning—where the team asks, "Why are we doing this?" and "Does this matter?" This deeper learning can lead to transformative outcomes.
Beyond addressing current issues or goals, team coaching enhances long-term team performance by developing shared mental models. This alignment improves team effectiveness by harmonising members' thought processes on optimal team operation, their understanding of their context, and future actions.
Shared Mental Model (SMM) are the ways that collective knowledge and understanding is shared among members of a team.
In simple terms, it’s their shared understanding of how to function as a team. The stronger the Shared Mental Models (SMMs) within a team, the more effectively they can coordinate and communicate, even implicitly, resulting in smoother and more efficient operations. SMMs manifest in the non-verbal, highly coordinated actions seen in high-performing teams, where members seem to intuitively understand each other’s needs, thoughts, and actions.
Having strong SMMs allows team members to anticipate and predict the needs of other team members. When there is a change, either in the internal or external environment, shared mental models allow the team to identify the implications of the change for them, and adapt accordingly. This is increasingly important for distributed teams, where communication may be hampered, but also teams in fast-paced environments, where
that strong shared understanding allows people to act and adapt in the moment, without needing to announce and discuss the change they are about to make, which ultimately introduces delays.
SMMs are particularly important in high pressure situations when the ability to communicate overtly or at length is restricted by pressures such as time, or workload. In non-pressure situations, team members can freely discuss their next move; they don’t have to depend on pre-existing knowledge or understanding. Under conditions of excessive workload, time pressure, or other significant stressors, this often isn’t possible or would significantly impede performance outcomes if they did. Instead, teams need to rely on their SMMs of the situation, the environment they’re operating in, and the interactions between their team members,
which has been shown to increase a team’s ability to perform under pressure.
To find out more, why not download our brand new eBook 'The Collective Advantage: Group Coaching Solutions for Organisational Success'.
