Learning alliances and the coaching continuum

RiverRhee Consulting's work is about giving teams the right conditions for dealing with their challenges. It is a kind of facilitation that sits at whatever point in the coaching continuum that is most appropriate to clients’ requirements, and it relies on forming a strong ‘learning alliance’ with them. The latest RiverRhee Consulting Newsletter explores this issue.

Giving teams the time, environment and skills to reflect

As Elisabeth Goodman wrote in her recent blog – Feel the fear and do it anyway – our work at RiverRhee Consulting is all about giving teams the right conditions for thinking about their work and dealing with the challenges that have been getting in the way of their productivity and positive morale.

It is a kind of facilitation that sits at whatever point in the coaching continuum, from the most directive, where we are in instructive mode, to the least directive where those that we work with can simply reflect on what they are doing.  And it relies on forming a strong ‘learning alliance’ with our clients, so that we can listen and respond to exactly what they need.

Lorraine Warne and Elisabeth had the opportunity to provide just this form of blended and responsive approach in a recent 1½-day workshop for an EU organisation. Our combination of presentations, interactive discussions and break-out groups enabled the team members to develop fresh personal insights on their communication styles and values, build a stronger team spirit and collectively identify solutions to improve their efficiency and performance.

The teaching end of the continuum

Although our workshops usually combine teaching new skills with opportunities for practice and reflection, we do occasionally put a little more emphasis on the teaching.  John Riddell did just this in a 1½-hour taster on Lean and Six Sigma for people in Abcam, one of our existing client organisations, who had not yet attended one of our 1-day workshops.  We’re hoping they will be amongst those signing up for a further workshop for the client in the autumn. (A full case study of our work with Abcam was included in the June issue of the One Nucleus TrainingNews.)

Mentoring our existing/returning clients

Four years into our business and our list of returning clients is starting to grow.  John and Elisabeth previously introduced a client to Lean and Six Sigma.  Elisabeth has now begun mentoring them as they work their way through the DMAIC approach to define what constitutes value to their customers, and how they can deliver that more efficiently.

Coaching SMEs for business development and innovation

Elisabeth is now a registered and approved GrowthAccelerator coach, which means she can provide “expert, tailored advice to help ambitious businesses achieve rapid, sustainable growth”.  You can find out more about the programme at www.growthaccelerator.com

Other forthcoming and recent activities

We have several workshops and seminars coming up during June and July.

Two of these are new collaborations with The Training Manager when Elisabeth will be delivering introductory evening seminars in Royston on Social Media on June 11th, and also on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) on July 4th.

(Elisabeth delivered a presentation on the ROI of Social Media to members of the Cambridge Network during April.)

Also coming up, for the third time, is ‘Getting Better at Everything you do: optimizing the way you work’, with UKeIG, on 19th June in London.

And finally, just to confirm that we are still busy in the Knowledge Management space:

  • John and Elisabeth’s series of KM articles has started to appear in Aslib’s publication (Knowledge Management Surgery – How to get started in Knowledge Management. Managing Information, vol 19 (8), 2012 pp. 54 – 55)
  • And you can view Elisabeth’s presentation Where does information management end, and knowledge management begin? from the APM evening seminar in Birmingham in May.

Find out more:

Do get in touch if you’d like to find out more about RiverRhee Consulting, our range of off-site and in-house workshops, and how we can help you to enhance team effectiveness and create an exceptional team.  See the RiverRhee Consulting website or e-mail the author at elisabeth@riverrhee.com.

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