What is sustainability as it pertains to coaches and coaching programs?
This is one question among many that 40 professionals convened in Washington, D.C. last week (June 24-25) to explore at the ICCO Symposium; a learning event for multiple stakeholders of coaching in organizations. The beautiful McLean, Virginia office space for the event was generously provided by LMI Consulting. The space for the dialogue was created and sustained by the co-chairs: Lee Salmon and Susana Isaacson, the design team: Karol Eller, Bill Carrier, Meredith Woodruff, Vicki Foley, and Donna Karlin in the role of 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 illustrious 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 of the symposium, like all ICCO Symposia, included four case studies presented by various organizations looking to dramatically impact coaching in their organizations, and a series of six “animation” questions for reflection and dialogue. In this event, case presenters from Zappos, Booz Allen Hamilton, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Treasury shared a fascinating window into the complexities and challenges of infusing coaching programs into the culture of their various organizations. As one participant worded it, the symposium is “a multi-sectoral conversation about coaching.” The magic happens in the break-out sessions where participants provide either coaching or consulting for each of the case study presenters.
A theme that resurfaced several times throughout the two day event was the question of “for the sake of what?”, and it showed up 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 questions of generating sustainability in ourselves as leaders and coaches; being resilient, adaptable, regenerative, and ready to coach 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, yet we considered how systemically, it changes the planet. We wondered 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? Shouldn’t we (and coaching in general) engage in continual re-invention? Why put sustainability in at all? To sustain what? If not sustainability, then what should we be exploring and helping leaders to explore? 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 such that the need to discuss sustaining a coaching program is no longer relevant, and coaching just becomes “the way we do things”?
What role do ethics, boundaries, consistency, oversight, systemic feedback loops, trends, and stakeholder perceptions have in the bigger picture of coaching in organizations? Six groups met to discuss these challenges during the animation segment of the symposium, and remarkably, in spite of six very different questions posed and explored, each group reported very similar themes.
What, in your experience, is the secret to sustaining coaching programs in organizations? Is that even a relevant pr meaningful question? Comment below and share your thoughts!