A history of Apian Coaching Ltd
By David Tinker
I created a company called T4 Coaching Ltd for two reasons. Firstly out of frustration with people saying they had attended a team building event that was great fun, but had little impact on their business performance. Secondly because I was aware of how embarrassed I felt when people poked fun at the concept of this management consultant who told them how to read the time on their watch and then charged high prices for the pleasure. These two factors lead to the research and development of web-enabled blended team coaching solution.
I, and I'm sure many before me, have given much time to finding the objective links between team dynamics and business performance. We can have a nice warm feeling inside when in the team, but how can we really add something to the bottom line?
Like many consultants I've had training experiences that have got me thinking. Here are a few examples of mine that stimulated me to create the Apian Team Coaching System.
At many 'team building' events I would be asked "How are we doing as a team?" I could see in their eyes that they wanted me to say "Wonderful, one of the best". Of course I gave the appropriate answer for those who were interested in more than just an ego stroke. All the time I was thinking how can we make this more effective and sustainable?
So with an HRD Masters in one hand I explored existing research to find out what makes a team 'high performing', and more importantly find a way of measuring their performance. I took several of the characteristics already described by management guru's and asked 50 people from different organisations the question; "When you were part of a high performing team what mattered to you?". Back came the results with characteristics such as "An ability to confront difficult issues" and "Ideas being freely expressed". I took the top seven and created a profile that would enable a team to assess itself. A blueprint for bench marking team working capability.
So many team events still seem to be run with little or no input from stakeholders. When on the phone to a customer or supplier you can very quickly gauge whether the person you are talking to is part of a supportive and successful team. External feedback seems crucial to me, so after detailed research I put together a profile to enable a team to know how it is seen from the outside. On reviewing their profile a recent team was surprised at how transparent its poor loyalty was.
Meanwhile the Apian name was created by some clever marketing people who managed to see the link between teams and bees. When I showed 'mood boards' with different brand designs to friends and clients the one with the bees created the most 'buzz' (!). After a few hours in a library I was convinced that bees were the way forward. Bees run highly effective organisations and are a key part of the ecosystem. Perhaps Apian Coaching Ltd could be this too!
Knowing 'who we are' is vital in team development. There is immense value in psychometrics as a tool to explain what's going on with people. I was often caught up in those discussions where people would say "I'm an INTJ.what are you?" When asked what INTJ meant to them I noticed a blank look and change of subject. They had attended an excellent workshop run by a qualified HR person but couldn't transfer the theory into everyday reality. This anomaly got me thinking.
I am guilty. I too have held on to the position of being the 'Team Coach' and created a neat dependency to make me feel good and bring in the cash. Now I notice team leaders who wait for the HR department to initiate a team building activity, or plan their annual team event with an external consultant. I, and many others, have colluded in 'deskilling' team leaders in the art of building strong working units. One of the key elements of TCS is that it gives team leaders the tools to do their own team building.
During team events I'd set up an 'experiential project'; many of you will be familiar with the 'drop with egg from the window with a piece of A4 paper and nine inches of string' task, or the now popular 'team jenga'. As the task was progressing I'd ask someone how they are feeling. "Fine" would be the reply. I'd also ask how the project was going "Good" they'd say. When asked to respond to the same questions with a score between 0 and 10 the response would be "About three". When asked "How are you?" the default response seems to be "Fine" or "Okay". Fine means ****ed-up, insecure, neurotic and exhausted! There had to be a way to gather more useful information than this. So I created the Apian Team Tracker a means of collating team development information enabling us to measure progress and quality.
Team event success seems to be measured by how many actions, commitments or promises are written on the flip chart..where they stay. Weeks later I'd meet with the team only to find that follow-up action was weak to non-existent. The team leader or the flip chart was to blame!!
In a previous existence as a helicopter pilot I learned the value of coaching. You can't just read a book about flying a helicopter and then take off; it takes the full integration of technical knowledge, skill and self-belief/confidence. Teams seem to go for the short sharp one-day hit of team building and then expect things to change. Then they feel the disappointment when very little impact is felt back at work, which has an insidious effect on future programmes. A longer term coaching process gives us the chance to have a go at something new, feel the success or failure, learn and then have another go. In the macho world where we want answers to everything now, asking a team to take on a long term team coaching process can feel like mum telling the kids to eat their greens.
So there had to be a way to produce quick wins and sustainable growth. With all these experiences I've just shared with you I created The Apian Team Coaching System (TCS) a tool for team leaders to coach their own teams towards higher performance. At its core is a 3 - 4 month coaching programme with step-by-step instructions for team leaders. The whole system is on-line and very easy to use. Teams can use personal profiles without the need to refer to a 'qualified' HR professional.
There are team profiles where the team can benchmark itself and where people outside the team can express their view about the team. There is an action planning system where the team can post actions and monitor progress. Team Tracker enables the team to monitor the emotions of the team in the same way you might monitor the speed, oil and fuel in your car. A 'resources' facility gives the team handouts, an up-to-date book list and web links on team, personal and organisational development. There's a support facility for both the technical and process questions.
The whole system is there to enable a team to hold new conversations that will enable higher performance. It is there to highlight and understand similarities and differences. It provides an anchor. It supports the team's sense of purpose. It gives the team the system and tools to do the team development work itself.
It delivers quick results in a cost effective time efficient manner.
The Feeling Alive programme was created in response to a request from a client to enable members of a senior project management team to live longer. We didn't want to put together an event with empty promises, nor did we want just a few days of chilling in the grounds of a rather expensive hotel.
During research for this programme we realised just how important stress management was becoming. When I saw a recent CIPD report quote £800 per employee per year as a cost of stress related illness I knew that a good business care existed to take the new programme to market.
The 7 perspectives for the programme are inspired by the Whitehall II research commissioned by the Cabinet office. We have added the Spiritual Intelligence to their findings as I don't think the government would quite go as far as to name this as a key perspective.
