The Medical Research Council has made a radical decision to apply coaching feedback to organisational strategy and matching is key to the process The decision of the Medical Research Council (MRC) to apply information from coaching sessions to organisational strategy could open the way to greater use of such intelligence, leading to a widely used management practice. Key to the ambitious move of gathering organisational themes is a solid matching process. Sue Holland of the independent provider Laughing Phoenix, and the MRC’s programme co-ordinator, pay close attention to matching individual and coach, and in the process itself to individual personality and preference. At the MRC, matching has been carefully planned in three phases. Myers-Briggs profiling gave baseline information on personality. This was followed by structured conversations between Holland and each client. She then combined these results with her own intuition, and knowledge of a network of coaches gathered during her career at Laughing Phoenix and earlier at Unilever.
She strongly believes that matching is most effective when personal preference and ‘gut feeling’ are combined with the formal results from structured conversations and profiling. “Chemistry is important,” she says. “If you don’t get on with a coach, then say so. They are robust and this is part of the game.” But personality profiling is not enough. “We’re using the structured conversations combined with Myers-Briggs. If someone wants to be more assertive with senior managers, we may match them with someone of the opposite profile.” Her strong emphasis on personal preference provides the bedrock of trust for coaching to be effective and for the organisational information to be shared. And when one takes into account the seniority of those typically receiving coaching, the significance of the information gleaned could be considerable. Holland identifies three core areas for this: training, communication, and preparedness for change (see Learning Points). At the MRC, the first phone discussions between coaches have provided vital information on training needs and the change programme. This is due to be followed up by full-scale facilitated discussions between coaches, Holland and Frances Green, the MRC’s HR director.
Green sees great potential in the practice of using employee surveys. “What I will get is a good generic sense of what the population as a whole is feeling.” At a practical level, Holland and the coaches need to distinguish between an organisational and a personal theme. “If we hear something once, we note that we haven’t been hearing it from others; but if we hear it three times it is probably a pattern.” She then feeds that data back. It’s not the first time Holland has used information from coaching in this way, though she notes that the practice is innovative. “At Unilever I spent time pulling executive coaches together from different regions of the world to hear about what they were noticing as organisational themes. It was useful for the coaches in terms of calibrating what was a cultural norm and what was unique for the individual.
When I started working with the MRC I put it to Green that it [this practice] could be an added benefit, and she said ‘absolutely’.” The feedback has been enormously positive, says Green. “People say that it enables them to take some of the learning from the more formal training and create the space to say, ‘This is difficult’, and get some support.” The MRC is moving from a traditional HR/ personnel department towards specialist administrative services from a shared service centre, while in-house HR individuals are trained as business partners. Green says it is the most radical organisational change it has seen in that time. There is a neatness to the dual outcomes from the programme: HR business partners become more commercially aware, and information from their development programme helps strategic planning. This pooling of organisational themes may come to be seen as a pioneering venture. And far from being a departure from core coaching disciplines, the exercise will only be effective if close attention is paid to careful matching, personal requirements and respect for confidentiality.
The Medical Research Council
Medical Research Council is a government research council dedicated to improving knowledge and treatments in all areas of medical and related sciences. It employs 3,500 people, mostly research scientists. There are 37 research units in the UK and two in Africa; most are attached to university departments or hospitals. Coaching has featured at the Council before. Over the past five years scientists and senior executives have had access to coaching to help with personal leadership skills. For this work, Frances Green worked with another provider, Alison Hardingham of Yellow Dog Consulting. One feature was a written guide for coaching, helping clients to get the most out of the practice, giving guidance on questions such as ‘Can I change my coach?’ and ‘How should I approach my first meeting?’. The coaching is formally evaluated a practice that a largely scientific audience appreciates.
Learning Points
What organisational information can coaching provide?
- Training – Clear themes can emerge on whether the training is achieving its objectives.
- Communication – The pooling of themes from coaching can spot gaps in the communication programme. If one or two individuals are unaware of an aspect of the organisation’s strategy, that could be down to them; but where this occurs with several people, it is likely that communication is not working well.
- Preparedness for change – Inevitably, the transition is smoother for some than others, and while the very purpose of coaching is to focus on the individual’s preferred pace and style, there can emerge a common theme that change is more difficult or easier than anticipated.
About the author
Philip Whiteley is an author and journalist,specialising in people management. He is the author of Motivation; People Express; Unshrink (with Max McKeown); and Complete Leadership (with Susan Bloch).