The story of the Coaches in Government Network is a lesson in what can be done when practitioners get together. Ken Smith, its founder and co-ordinator, shares the tale of its success
One afternoon in 2006, after coaching a client who clearly experienced something important, I knew I wanted to do more of this work.
Yet I found myself wondering why more people were not taking us up on our one-to-one coaching. I was head of learning and development (L&D) in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, so I sounded out L&D practitioners in other departments. Three years on, the Coaches in Government Network has 173 members from 48 organisations.
Membership is made up of coaches and L&D managers in central government departments and agencies. Our jobs include coaching, managing coaching services or some other aspect of L&D. We came together to increase opportunities for our people to have coaching, by making more use of the internal complement.
Through our informal brokering system of 22 volunteer members, the Network provides more than 400 hours’ coaching in other members’ organisations for colleagues who would not otherwise have had it.
One client, in a middle management role in the Department for Health told me: “I went through an enormously difficult period, with my health, family and career all suffering acutely. My new manager picked me up, dusted me off and, with my agreement, arranged a Network coach for me.
“Within the first couple of sessions I was back on my feet, and by the third there was such a turnaround that my coach wondered if the original terms of engagement were still adequate. Time will tell, but I expect I will look back at coaching as one of those truly life-changing moments.”
Clients have a wide range of issues: to be better organised; manage working relationships more confidently; be clearer on career moves; overcome anxiety in interviews; have a richer understanding of what it means to be in leadership, and how to act on this understanding.
Flexible arrangements
I strongly suspect that our flexible arrangements for accessing Network coaches means we can work with clients presenting a greater diversity of issues than in a closely defined programme.
To be a coaching member and to work with a client in another member’s organisation, you need to have a coaching qualification and complete a simple profile. The latter gives information on the coach’s experience, credentials and approach, and helps the potential client and brokering member choose a coach. Beyond that, we leave it to members to manage their own development and credibility, to act ethically with clients and to make their own arrangements for supervision.
The Network is a very effective vehicle for CPD. Our newsletter, The Listener, allows members to publish book and training reviews, case studies and discussions. It has contributions from the wider coaching community, often those who talk with us at our half-day conferences –another key CPD.
Members host the conferences and we have had input from distinguished practitioners, including Alison Whybrow, past chair of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology of the British Psychological Society. She sees the Network as: “a hugely valuable resource of internal expertise and peer learning that is accessible to individual employees and government organisations alike. What is particularly striking is the informality of the development and the organic growth of the group”.
Growth industry
Paul Jackson of Solutions Focus noted: “This is a voluntary network that thrives and grows through the passion of members.”
The energy was very clear to Wendy Sullivan of the Clean Change Company: “We expected an interesting half-day with skilled coaches, but we had not expected them to be so enterprising and innovative. The Network will surely have an important long-term role to play for coaching and continue to provide a model for how to achieve sustainable inter-agency collaboration.”
And of course there is a wealth of knowledge in the Network, which members are ever ready to share.
Some of the more experienced coaches and L&D managers have helped members devise coaching strategies. Justine Ballard, who set up an internal coach pool at the Home Office, says: “It was through the Network that I met Elizabeth Crosse from Legal Services Commission who set up a pool of internal coaches there, with ICF-accredited training. She inspired me to keep working to introduce internal coaches in the Home Office, and then through highlighting the benefits and issues to be aware of, I found it much easier to make it happen.”
Caron Twining in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) describes a similarly productive reciprocal process: “When I was tasked with developing DWP’s coaching and mentoring I contacted a member. The Network was a great source of support, sharing good practice and flagging up lessons learnt. And the DWP strategy is now being used by some Network members to inform their own departments’ approach to coaching and mentoring.”
A valuable resource
The coaching profession still has a slender evidence base and in this the Network is a valuable resource.
Members contributed to the recent EMCC research project on the ethics of internal coaching (see ‘Moral support’, in Coaching at Work, vol 5, issue 1). Katharine St John-Brooks, who carried out the research, says: “It was enormously useful to have access to the Network to reach experienced internal coaches. Interestingly, the results support the Network approach in that it retains the benefits of being coached by someone who understands the Civil Service while avoiding some the disadvantages, such as role conflict.”
Word of mouth
The Network is a community and not an initiative; it’s an example of how something can grow organically by word of mouth.
It has minimal structure, leaving members free to develop their practice autonomously. Keeping a light touch and taking an inclusive approach also allows members to make a discretionary contribution to the collection of organisations in ways that are in members’ control.
By not charging for coaching we have removed a barrier to access, achieved substantial savings in fees, avoided administrative burdens and maximised the resource. And all this from one speculative email.
Ken Smith is skills strategy manager at the Department for Transport. Email: ken.smith@dft.gsi.gov.uk
Volume 5, Issue 2