Here are my reflections on what I learned from Michelle Lucas and Sue Roberts about group supervision and organizational learning – thank you both for a really enlightening session, and to Michelle for sharing your experiences and resources subsequently. Michelle – feel free to add/edit anything that you feel I missed!
I learned (or re-learned)…
- …the double value of coaching supervision…both as a tool for coach development, and for organizational learning
- …contracting is vital, so that no-one is making any assumptions about the supervision or coaching – especially if you are going to debrief with other coaches about organizational themes – this must be discussed openly with coachees during contracting.
- …supervision led to more self-reflection closer to the end of a coaching session
- …supervision led to more long-term coaching, from previously short-term interventions
- …supervision led to increased maturity in the coaches’ stage of development
- …we (as supervisor) must not contaminate the organizational themes discussion, with our own hypotheses
- …to “prove” that supervision helped to surface these themes (and is a worthwhile investment), we need to do a “before and after” audit. What themes do people know about before the supervision? Which are verified in the supervision? Which are additive?
- …call supervision reflective practice, as it’s less “scary” for people who don’t know what it is. One way to do this is by discussing case studies of coaching dilemmas, and over time building up to people bringing their own, real cases for discussion
I was surprised…
- …at the simplicity of the approach to gleaning organizational learning…ask 2 or 3 observers to sit outside the supervision circle; brief them to put on their organizational hats, and ask them what they notice; their role is to stay silent during the 2 or 3 consecutive group supervision cases, and only afterward to comment on what they noticed thematically.
- …or the alternative, to all be part of the group supervision, then take a break and then everyone looks back at what was discussed, with their organizational hats on (no going back into the detail of the cases)
I am going to…
- …offer small group (virtual) reflective practice sessions in the organization
- …contract thoroughly!
- …start with dialogue around coaching dilemmas, to get people to identify the multiple possibilities available to them
- …move towards “real” supervision of their own case studies, and build in observation of the organizational themes
- …figure out how we scale this cost-effectively to more internal coaches, with our more experienced coaches facilitating and learning supervision skills
