Organizational coaching is an evolution and development as a response for organizations that want to develop and grow more holistically. To create successful businesses through coaching, we consider organizations as living organisms, self-created systems that are constantly in motion. The learning organization becomes authentic and resilient; a great place to work and do business with, producing superior results that are sustainable over the long run.
EffectChange gives their view on the key difference between business coaching and organizational coaching:
Business Coaching was built on the principle of coaching the people in the organisation to be better at their role so that the organisation could be a better business. Organisational Coaching is a much more holistic coaching approach, that looks at the business objectively, treats the organisation like a person and provides a coaching framework to make the organisation a better organisation (person). As a consequence of the implementation of the Organisational Coaching Framework, the people in business are coached towards long term, sustainable organisational outcomes.
Their Organizational Coaching Framework consists of:
1. The Organisation has a Vision and Strategy developed by the key stakeholders and embraced by everyone inside and associated with the organisation.
2. The Organisation has improved its operational efficiency and productivity of both staff and the business through purposeful Operational Planning with each part of the business aligned to the strategic ambitions of the organisation.
3. The Organisation has clear Performance Benchmarks for everyone in the business from the top to the bottom, which are measurable and reported on regularly.
4. The Organisation has an Implementation and Accountability Framework that makes everyone accountable for the success of the business with clear Strategic and Operational Milestones, Key Performance Indicators they are regularly reviewed on and coached through and a Communication Framework that engages every Stakeholder in the organisation and monitors the rhythm of the business.
Organizational coaching means to understand the living organism first, understand how healthy, what the implications are and then start to coach teams and professionals to be better at their role. Doing a better job in a challenged living organism is less sustainable. In a broader context, a Dutch survey (from last year) among employees showed the interest and need to get training and education very important, the opportunity to be able to develop oneself is an important aspect of their job. Employees eagerly look forward to the introduction of personal training budgets and personal training.
But what is more interesting in relation to organizational coaching is that employees want structural training linked to the business strategy to have more impact. We know that impact is a common denominator for business performance and hapiness, but what is the "organization organism" is weak. (see link with number 1, a vision and strategy that is embraced by everyone inside).