Systemic coaching is a process of understanding your past and current reality to create systemic changes that will lead you towards success. It's about looking at the big picture while keeping eyes on ground level, taking an all-encompassing view where necessary, and making sure not to get too far ahead/behind - it can be easy for beginners or experts alike to lose sight. When they're traveling fast!
People often ask to define systemic coaching. Systemic coaching explores how individuals are connected to the system they live and work, including family members, colleagues, community members, or society at large.
Systemic Coaching also looks at how systems influence each other; for example, our work life can affect our health, and relationships between parents affect family dynamics within a home.
The systemic perspective is essential because it allows us to explore the systemic nature of organizations - that they function like living organisms comprised of interrelated subsystems. Understanding this concept will help you in your systemic coaching practice.
Systems Theory Applied to Coaching
To illustrate systemic thinking in coaching, consider an executive recently appointed CEO of a large corporation. The soon-to-be CEO reports that he has "a lot of new ideas for the company" and wants his managers to share these new ideas. However, when they are presented with the CEO's suggestions, they often say things like, "That would never work here," or, "The board would never approve that change."
Systemic coaching looks at systemic thinking in corporations. To this end, systemic coaches might ask questions such as: How do you know your idea won't work? What is stopping it from working? Who in the system is interested in keeping things 'the way they are'? Systemic coaches realize there are many systems within a system. This means people can be working within the same company at different systemic levels.
Systemic Coaching in Action
The systemic coaching process starts with identifying how an individual lives and works. The systemic coach then explores what people are doing to change their personal situations. For example, they may be trying to get a promotion or relocate to another department. Next, systemic coaches use this information to help individuals see how they may be connected to other people and systems beyond themselves - have their actions unintentionally created resistance? Finally, systemic coaches ask questions based on simple principles of systemic thinking so that individuals can explore alternatives. For example, instead of saying "I don't know," systemic coaches will ask: "What if?" or "what might you say?"
To do systemic coaching, systemic coaches need to know how systems behave and what systemic shifts might be necessary for people to change. Therefore systemic coaches often support the process of systemic thinking with some systemic tools such as:
- Systemic diagrams
- Maps
- Systems models
- Flow charts
Systemic Coaching Requires, Knowledge & Skills
A systemic coach must have extensive knowledge in systemic theory, concepts, practices, and systemic tools. They also need excellent listening skills to hear when an individual has said something that is not helpful or relevant to helping them achieve their goals. By focusing on these fundamental principles - how individuals are connected in systems and what they can do within their own design -, you can use systemic coaching effectively in your own context.
How Does Systemic Coaching Work?
A lot goes down during systemically guiding someone through their personal journey back into balance again. Hence, we tailor our work accordingly depending upon what needs doing... Of course, there are different styles and approaches to systemic coaching, as with everything else. Still, generally speaking, firstly, we'll take a look at how you've currently got yourself in this position before chipping away at the systemic brickwork.
What Are Systemic Coaching's Benefits?
- Avoids having to determine what specific therapy/coaching works best for you
- You get out of it, exactly, what you put into systemic coaching (the whole 'you get back out what you put in' thing), so if your mind is open to transformation and change, then systemic coaching will definitely support that!
- There is no right or wrong way with systemic coaching - at any point during systemic coaching, we can easily make changes if need be; because systemic consulting ensures everyone remains accountable for their actions throughout the process, there isn't room for any nonsense... it's an independent journey towards personal transformation!
Anyone and everyone who wants to change their life for the better can benefit from systemic consulting. From those who want to take responsibility and those who want an external perspective, systemic coaching allows you to discover new things about yourself or maybe just reconfirm what you already know... either way, systemic coaching is rewarding for those willing to put in. The work!
In systemic coaching, the coach looks at the interaction between group members when it is stuck.
The systemic approach is very different from most other kinds of coaching. Systemic coaches look at a situation in a broader context and do not focus on individual behaviors but explore relationships within groups or teams.
What Are Systemic Coaching Duties and Responsibilities?
In systemic coaching, apparent causes may come from outside the team or organization. Systemic coaches will try to identify these factors and how they interact with the elements inside the team to provide new perspectives on the coachee's issues. For example, a systemic coach can help people with limiting patterns arising from external forces such as organizational culture by providing new insights into their behavior. This allows people to work out how they can best manage any situation.
The systemic coaching framework offers a systemic way to understand the dyadic and triadic relationships between those involved in an incident. The systemic approach is suitable for organizations and teams, as systemic problems often arise from systemic forces such as organizational culture or unconscious bias, which do not affect one person but impact others so that they unconsciously collude with each other to continue the "unsafe" practice. Systemic coaches can help people deal with these limiting patterns arising from external forces such as organizational culture by providing them with new insights into their own behavior or that of others which helps people work out how they can best manage any given situation.
This understanding allows systemic coaches to apply techniques such as systemic interventions, systemic mapping, and systemic coaching conversations to help people work out how best to resolve systemic problems by working together.
Some systemic coaches suggest that systemic coaching can be helpful when everyone agrees about what they are doing, but no one knows why. For example, people may be doing something without considering the consequences of their actions. By exploring the context around people's activities, systemic coaches may find new patterns that enable them to identify what is going on under the surface so that changes can be made. You can learn systemic approach and coaching. Join IIENSTITU's Systemic Coaching Course.
