What's the best thing about your team coaching offering?
The best thing about our team coaching offering is its adaptability.
What do you mean by that?
An example: we experience it quite often that customers approach us with a very concrete inquiry on the topic of "team coaching", e.g. "we want to go to the high ropes course". We then like to ask: "To which question on the topic of "team development" is "high ropes course" the answer? So we first want to understand what situation the team is in. This clarification of the task is essential for an effective offer. Often clients do not have a clear picture of the team's situation and the support formats best adapted to it. Our consulting is therefore perceived as very helpful.
And then what do you do with the findings from the order clarification?
We have a huge advantage here at offstandards compared to competitors. Due to our broad expertise ranging from organizational consulting to outdoor training, we are able to make very specific team coaching offers after clarifying the assignment.
Give an example please.
Ok. A team that has just been put together certainly doesn't want to do a high-intensity feedback session or team supervision, but rather wants to get to know each other first, perhaps exchange expectations for working together, and simply have a good, motivating start. We then design, for example, a kick off with lots of interactions and opportunities for personal encounters beyond the function. And then maybe we build in some outdoor activities as well. In contrast, there are also very difficult situations in team development that require a completely different, conflict-solving approach. In such cases, for example, interviews must first be conducted with all team members in order to gauge their willingness to engage in joint team development. That's why broad expertise is so important. We don't just want to create an optimal concept, we also want to provide the right team coaches for the job. Our team coaching offer combines coaching experience, moderation competence, consulting skills and also specific training elements. This is already a high demand for the team coaches.
Is it at all realistic to positively influence team development in the long term with a workshop?
It doesn't have to stop at one workshop. Especially when teams are in a difficult phase, we can't resolve all conflicts in one day. We tell our clients this very openly. We always view team coaching as a process. A workshop is certainly a very important building block in this process, but it must not stand in isolation. Terms like "holistic" or "sustainable" are a bit hackneyed. Therefore, we accompany many teams in the same way as a personal trainer accompanies you in a rehabilitation or fitness program: with exercises that build on each other over a defined period of time with measurable successes and goals. This is sometimes very intensive, but always effective. We don't just want to inspire the teams for one day, but to make them stable and fit.
What about your product creates bright eyes - for you and/or the customer?
It is important and it is wonderful when something moves. What moves is alive. And what lives has the potential to become or create something new. These are not necessarily insane leaps, but often the small details that are clarified, but can be very effective in everyday collaboration. When something like this happens, everyone's eyes light up. This experience is most likely to occur when development is understood as process coaching rather than a one-time event.
What is offstandard about this product from your point of view?
Methodically, we always proceed in a somewhat sporty, also challenging, if necessary confrontational and at the same time always very appreciative way. Everyone is involved, it is fun, there is a lot of interaction and movement. Teams and individuals work intensively and come to realizations. It is always also about commitment and agreements. Otherwise it might just be an end in itself and in the end nothing has moved.
What is the basic conviction or theory behind it? Is there a scientific foundation?
Here at offstandards, we all come from systemic consulting. I don't want to get too academic now, but especially in the context of "team coaching" a systemic view helps enormously, e.g. to avoid creating guilty parties or losers in team development processes.
Is there a nice anecdote that describes your product well in the result?
Actually, you shouldn't end an interview on a negative note, but if you ask for an anecdote that is significant for our work: We once had a job clarification meeting for a team development in a still quite young IT company. The CEO greeted us with the words: "You can turn everything and everyone upside down here, but I'll tell you one thing right away: I'm not going to change". The conversation was then quite short. We don't do "wash me, but don't get me wet".
Thanks for the interview, Sven