Team coaching & facilitation
Smart people.
Not yet a smart team.
Every coach defines team coaching differently. I see it like this: every leadership team runs two meetings at once, the one on the agenda and the one underneath it. I work with both, at the same time.
Over the sessions, you will:
See
The patterns between you. Who talks, who doesn’t, who notices when someone checks out.
Say
What usually remains unsaid. Positions, trust, the decisions nobody quite digested.
Work
On the actual business. The deal, the plan, the review. That’s where it happens.
Keep up
A rhythm. A check-up every few months, not a repair once it’s broken.
How I see it
Every team has questions nobody asks out loud: Where do I stand? Who really decides here? Who trusts whom? You can’t read these dynamics directly, but you can see their effect on behavior: who talks, who stays silent, and how speaking time is shared. Thomas Malone, who leads MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence, found these patterns predict a team’s performance more than the intelligence of the smartest person in it. A team of smart people isn’t yet a smart team.
Many facilitators like to say: “let’s not get into the business side of things.” But I believe that’s precisely where trust is tested and interests collide. If you can only talk about your feelings in a session, and not when discussing business, nothing will happen on Monday. So I work on you as people, your direction and your dynamics at once. A session can have a focus. You can’t switch the other two off.
How it works
01
A reason
You have a conflict, a feeling that your team is performing below its potential, or a strategy that isn’t yet sharp. Your reason dictates our focus, but it’s rarely the whole story.
02
A retreat
Usually it starts with two or three days away. It becomes team coaching when the team says: we need more of this. About the retreat →
03
The rhythm
Usually once a quarter, half a day or a full day. Each session is a debrief: what happened, and how you got there together. Research shows that teams that debrief perform 20 to 25 percent better.
04
Each session
No fixed curriculum. At year-end it might be a peer review instead of the director reviewing everyone. Or a deal with plenty of snags. Or a team member who’s quietly checking out.
05
In practice
Vetico’s leadership team, every three to four months since 2016. Kiona, five companies becoming one. Read the story → A global retailer, twenty markets. Read the story →
Rhythm
Half a day or a full day, usually once a quarter
Good fit
A leadership or executive team that wants a regular check-up, or is merging
Language
Dutch or English
Where
Wherever your team is
What it isn’t
Not every problem is a team problem.
I don’t believe everything should be solved as a team. An individual performance problem, or a feud between two people that’s poisoning the rest, belongs with the people involved and you as the leader, or with a coach or HR. I’ve seen teams take it on anyway. They compensate, talk around it, or find a scapegoat, and the team gets worse.
Team coaching works when the pattern sits in the whole team and people suffer from it. So my first question is often: is this a team question, or yours?
In their words
“I thoroughly enjoyed working closely together with Govert in building & developing my leadership teams in 2 different regions. […] On top of that he is a great facilitator.”
Jelle Nederstigt, former Regional Manager, Worley
“Govert knows how to connect and challenge thinking styles while also having fun.”
Seth Winterscheidt, CFO & Group Managing Director, Numidia
What I work with
I don’t apply a favorite method for every team. I start from what you need, then reach for what fits. Often that’s one of the methods below. Just as often, I develop something new for the occasion: an exercise, canvas, or a way to get a quiet team talking.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
Strategyzer canvases
Design Thinking
Liberating Structures
Future Search
Positive Psychology
Is it a team question, or yours?
Bring me one question about your team. 30 minutes, no pitch. Or message me; I always reply within a day.