Organisational Development

Posts

Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo, co-authors of articles on leadership and team coaching

Building Bridges: An Organisational Culture for Success

March 27, 2025/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the spring 2025 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

A common purpose, a shared vision and dreams allow us to face change more agilely and effectively, and transform leaders, teams and organisations. They create a connection between minds and hearts that enhances communication, collaboration, commitment and teamwork.

Organisational identity provides a sense of community and inclusion and reinforces a set of norms and values that build bridges and contribute to a feeling of belonging.

In one of the organisations we worked with, values such as transparency, autonomy and trust, defined as essential by their leader, were incorporated into their leadership practices and behaviours. This transformed the culture and made the organisation more efficient and better prepared for the future.

Transparency was incorporated to promote clearer communication and proper management of expectations. The structuring of processes and the delegation of tasks reinforced the value of autonomy. Trust, as a way of looking at others, was expanded and integrated into leadership practices to create psychological safety and develop relationships and collaboration.

Authors such as Amy Edmondson and Timothy Clark, and studies in companies such as Google—project Aristotle—, show that psychological safety is the basis of the most effective teams. Based on the perception of inclusion and security, team commitment increases, collaborators develop their curiosity and enhance innovation, and productivity and performance become sustainable.

Amy Edmondson explains that psychological safety helps people take the interpersonal risks necessary to achieve excellence in a rapidly changing, interdependent world.

in the book The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, Timothy Clark identifies the following dimensions of psychological safety: safety to feel included, safety to learn, safety to contribute, and safety to question.

Leaders, using emotional, conversational and collaborative intelligence tools, coordinate diverse and inclusive work environments. In this way, they enhance relationships and continuous learning and contribute to the whole being more than the sum of the parts.

Relationships are the context that allows us to successfully face change, and sharing helps to strengthen them. As Richard Boyatzis points out in the book The Science of Change, a shared vision drives hope; In shared compassion we experience solidarity, and through shared energy we vibrate at the same frequency as others.

Through systemic team coaching we work on relationships and connections between people, teams and external stakeholders, building bridges towards a successful organisational culture in contexts of uncertainty and complexity.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

Leadership in Challenging Times: Between Uncertainty and Inspiration

October 30, 2024/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the fall 2024 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

In our work as executive and team coaches, and as leadership trainers, we recognise the difficulty leaders have in do more with less and keep their teams motivated in a context of continuous changes, in which commitment decreases and levels of satisfaction increase. burnout.

Leaders suffer tensions at different levels, coming from internal and external stakeholders. They feel pressured to react, to focus on short-term results and to choose the least bad option, instead of acting proactively and working towards the vision of the desired future, developing organisations more focused on human and ecosystem sustainability.

We hear the feeling of disconnection with current leadership, due to the perceived distance between the values communicated and the values present in the daily actions and practices of the organisation.

How to navigate ambiguity, as our caravels navigated previously unknown oceans, and build teams and organisations capable of facing challenges?

Through coaching we work with leaders and teams to identify what they need to change in themselves to promote the transformation of their teams and organisations.

We help them identify the internal and external resources they already have and those they need to develop, to increase their ability to influence and act proactively in creating their vision of the future.

We work on beliefs, emotions, mentalities and relationships, considering a purpose that creates value for both the business and all interested parties.

We create intentional spaces of learning and celebration throughout the development journey, to evaluate progress and recharge the energy that drives change.

We address horizontal development—knowledge and competencies—but also vertical development—being and mental models—considering evolution:

of the «yo» al “us”,
of opportunistic value creation a the creation of value with and for a broad base of stakeholders,
of the time as a “scarce” resource al time as an “opportunity” to do better every day,
of the thinking focused on current performance al strategic thinking in three horizons: the present, the future and what we can start doing tomorrow.

In this development journey, which includes doing, but also thinking and being, we work on skills such as communication, with special attention to active listening, which enhances the commitment and impact of leaders and teams.

We promote psychological safety, trust and the construction of inclusive teams, in which creativity and the implementation of more agile processes and structures are encouraged, and where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

There is hope and each of us can make a difference in building a promising future for ourselves and for generations to come!

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

Leadership Teams Ready for the Future

March 8, 2024/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the spring 2024 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

According to Michael Porter, strategy is what will differentiate an organisation: it will provide it with a competitive advantage, create distinct value for the consumer, and allow the company to prosper and achieve superior profitability.

In the current context, strategy is increasingly a dynamic process that involves permanent interaction with a complex and ambiguous environment, evaluating threats, trends and opportunities. To drive this process, the organisation needs teams with the ability to anticipate the future and lead change.

The effectiveness of teams as a whole is, more than ever, essential for the success and sustainability of organisations. These cannot depend solely on the talent of a leader who has all the solutions and controls that others execute their decisions. It is necessary to invest in shared leadership teams because of their potential to achieve higher performance than teams with vertical leadership.

The development of teams with collective leadership skills is crucial for organisations to consistently and lastingly achieve a high level of performance and innovation. These skills allow the whole to create more value than the sum of the parts and for each member to assume responsibility for their contribution (individual leadership) and for the functioning of the entire team (collective leadership).

An effective team needs clarity and alignment around its purpose and vision for the future. Based on this clarity, work together to define the strategic axes that will allow you to achieve results and reflect on the culture, governance, processes and leadership necessary to support the execution of the strategy. The team reviews the best ways of working, the technical and behavioural competencies and the internal dynamics necessary to fulfill its purpose.

Leadership Teams Ready for the Future

Clarity of purpose
Future vision
Shared leadership
Learning culture
Strategy Sustainability

Creation of value with and for all stakeholders.

The internal environment of the team includes: a) a shared purpose, b) support among its members and c) voice—psychological safety and willingness to express oneself—elements that precede shared leadership. Trust is another vital element: it is built on integrity and credibility, and is developed through direct communication, clarification of expectations, keeping commitments and an environment of continuous learning. Coaching support is especially important when the team’s internal environment is less favourable.

We work in alliance with leadership teams, in a process that stimulates reflection and creativity from a systemic perspective. We help them clarify the purpose, vision and strategy, and lead the change towards a sustainable transformation of organisations, creating value for all stakeholders.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

Essential Skills for Thriving Organisations

November 22, 2023/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the fall 2023 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

Did you know that companies that moved from a purely individual view of “I” to a collective view of “we” show a higher return on investment than the average of companies that are part of the S&P 500?

Various authors, such as Jim Collins and Richard Barrett, point out that the sustainable performance of an organisation is only possible when its leaders put the interests of the organisation as a whole before their own interests and ego. This approach allows us to build a sustainable future for everyone and also constitutes the best business strategy for the success of the organisation.

In this article we address crucial competencies for organisations and how they can be developed through coaching. This contributes to increasing awareness and evolving mental models, and enhances leadership development, the transformation of organisations and the creation of a better future.

Barrett points out the need for an organisational purpose and a systemic vision of the business that includes the different stakeholders of the company and aligns the interests of the organisation with the long-term interests of society. The most resilient organisations have strong alignment of values, a high shared commitment to the organisation’s vision and mission, and a deep sense of personal responsibility, which enhances collaboration, commitment, and performance.

The work we develop with leaders and teams invites them to clearly understand their current reality, to discover their purpose and vision, as well as the value they contribute with and for all stakeholders. Through coaching we enhance the evolution towards new levels of consciousness, the basis for the transformation of leaders, teams and organisations.

Barrett identifies five essential characteristics that have driven the evolution of human beings since their origins and that continue to be fundamental in the current VUCA context: adaptability, continuous learning, the ability to connect, the ability to cooperate and the ability to cope with complexity.

Five essential competencies

Adaptability
Speed and resilience.
Continuous learning
Memory and logic.
Ability to connect
Compatibility and trust.
Ability to cooperate
Alignment and empathy.
Ability to manage complexity
Internal and external.

Fuente: Barrett, R. (2011), The New Leadership Paradigm, Lulu.com.

With our clients we work on these competencies to develop more adaptable leaders and organisations, capable of managing complexity and uncertainty and establishing internal and external alliances. This is how we promote long-term sustainable organisations, with a positive impact on society and the world.

Our coaching process, systemic in nature and intrinsically creative and thought-provoking, unlocks hitherto unexplored sources of imagination, productivity and leadership. It is a simultaneous exercise of clarification and motivation for the sustainable and integrated transformation of leaders with their teams and organisations.

We invite you to explore and integrate coaching into your organisations.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

Developing a Leadership Team: A Business Case Study

June 16, 2023/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the June 2023 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

Currently, organisations perceive the need to develop shared and more humanized leadership that, at the same time, reinforces trust, collaborative work and mutual responsibility for performance, well-being and learning. Team coaching has emerged as one of the best ways to drive this transformation. But how does it happen?

As an example of the value that team coaching can create in the context of new leadership trends, we share a project developed with a management team.

The leadership team, made up of the CEO and five managers, faced several starting challenges:

· Those of the general context, such as the economic slowdown and changes in business and work models associated with the pandemic and the global crisis.

· Those of the team and organisational dynamics, since three of its six members had been on the team and in the organisation for less than a year, including the CEO himself.

During the process, the team faced other challenges, such as the departure of the CEO, changes in internal teams, and the need to restructure processes to respond to changes in the internal and business environment.

Development work with the leadership team was conducted virtually between March and November 2021, in five main phases:

Five Phases of Leadership Team Development

1. Scope and initial agreement
Meetings with sponsor and team leader (CEO), and kick-off meeting: March 19.
2. Interviews with the team and stakeholders
360° interviews, identification of strengths, shortcomings and opportunities, and presentation of results: March and April.
3. Team coaching agenda
Joint creation of work agreements, desired future and objectives: May 14.
4. Execution
6 coaching workshops; 5 management team meetings; leader coaching; 3–4 meetings with leaders; 3–4 follow-ups with team members and 2–3 with sponsor: June to October.
5. Review, evaluation and learning
November 17.

1. Scope and agreement;

2. Research on the team and its context through 360° interviews with the team and identified internal and external stakeholders;

3. Joint creation of the team development agenda, based on the desired future and taking into account the results of the 360° interviews;

4. Execution of the team’s agenda through coaching meetings, participation in its work meetings and a continuous monitoring structure with its members, its leader and the sponsor (shareholder and administrator); and finally,

5. Review of the process and integration of learning.

The team exceeded the performance objectives for the year, despite facing challenges derived from changes in the team itself, in the organisation and in the context.

In the transfer of the coaching process to the team, some of the main results identified were:

· Improving team performance;

· The increase in individual and collective self-knowledge;

· Greater awareness of the impact of their actions and behaviours on other stakeholders, both internal and external; and

· Greater team alignment.

The team itself also identified opportunities to continue its development, maintain co-responsibility and alignment, and be more connected to creating value with and for other stakeholders.

In April 2022, almost six months after completing the team’s systemic coaching process, the sponsor and team members were asked to submit a testimonial. The testimonies collected remained consistent with the main results identified during the transfer of the coaching process to the team, demonstrating the sustainability of the benefits of the developed process.

We invite you to explore this methodology in your organisations.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

Systemic team coaching, why now?

November 22, 2022/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the October 2022 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

Systemic team coaching, why now?

In today’s world we are increasingly aware that change and uncertainty are constant, and that the context can change rapidly, with uncertain consequences and complex challenges.

We know that the leadership of the past will not be the best fit for the solutions we will need in the future. In organisations there is a perception that it is essential to develop shared leadership, reinforce trust, collaborative work and mutual responsibility for performance, well-being and learning in teams and companies, transforming processes and creating connections with a systemic and interdependent vision.

In most organisations, development plans essentially focus on individual competencies, through training, mentoring or executive coaching processes. We observe that development plans for teams, the driving forces of organisations, are mostly non-existent or scarce. They concentrate on training or team building, more oriented towards the development of individual skills or the relationships between team members, but with results that, in general, do not directly influence the performance, well-being and learning of the team as a whole. There is still no perceived sustainable impact on the team’s daily work dynamics nor a significant influence on its interactions with other areas of the organisation.

Systemic team coaching emerges as a response to transform leadership and organisations. Its simultaneous focus on purpose, processes, people, aligning expectations, creating value with and for its stakeholders and collective development promotes a culture of learning and the sustainability of results. It allows the team, as a whole, to respond more effectively and creatively to the main current and future challenges.

The support of the organisation’s leaders is essential to obtain the desired results. It is essential that the team has between 4 and 10 participants, autonomy to implement changes in its scope of action and commitment to the process.

Team coaching is a process that evolves over time, not always linearly. Establishing agreements and continuing alignment of expectations between the sponsor, the team, and the coaching team are important aspects to consider.

The transfer of the coaching process to the team begins from the first meeting, since the objective is for the team and its members to be co-responsible for their future development.

Most organisations work primarily with teams. Therefore, not investing in its development is contradictory, considering current and future trends and challenges. Systemic team coaching is a response to this need. We invite you to explore and integrate this process into your organisations.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

Poster of the Systemic Team Coaching workshop: Expanding Borders, with Susana Azevedo, Bianca Aichinger and Fátima Ribeiro

Systemic Team Coaching – Expanding Frontiers

August 10, 2022/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On August 9, from ICF Brasil Charter Chapter, in a workshop with more than 50 coaches from Brazil we shared our experience on Systemic Team Coaching.

Thank you to the ICF Brazil Charter Chapter for the opportunity to share and to all the participants who joined us!