Mental health charity, Norfolk and Waveney Mind engaged Arden & GEM’s Health and Care Transformation team for a 12-month period, to deliver coaching interventions for the Trustee Board and Executive team.
The aim was to improve inter and intra team dynamics following the merger of three predecessor charities which had resulted in a period of change and challenge.
By developing safe spaces for conversations and employing a systemic team-coaching approach, members of these two critical groups were able to clarify, connect and co-create effective ways of working collaboratively in service of both their customers and wider stakeholders across the health and care environment.
The challenge
Successfully delivering mental health services across an Integrated Care System (ICS) requires a collaborative approach between system partners, including the VCFSE sector.
As a mental health charity offering an extensive range of mental health services in the local area, Norfolk and Waveney Mind had an aspiration to become an increasingly significant strategic and operational part of the ICS. However, a period of membership change for both the Trustee Board and senior leadership (Executive) team, changing demands on the organisation, and the challenge of new risks and opportunities had impacted group dynamics.
The Chair and CEO recognised the need to align thinking and behaviours, and to transition towards more flexible, responsive structures. Greater clarity was also needed about leadership roles and responsibilities, both to each other and their wider stakeholders.
Our approach
With experience of delivering organisational development (OD) interventions at board and executive levels for a range of health and care organisations, Arden & GEM’s Health and Care Transformation (HCT) team proposed a series of systemic team-coaching sessions.
Recognising that there is often a tension between the strategic role of any Trustee Board, comprising volunteer lay people, and the operational role of the Executive team, it was agreed that interventions would be run separately with the two groups, over a 12-month period.
The coaching interventions would seek to establish:
- Clarity with regard to each other’s roles and responsibilities
- Collective purpose and associated success criteria
- Collaborative working within and between the Board and Executive team
- Connections and relationships with their wider stakeholders
- Alignment with the wider organisational context
- How core learning needs were being addressed, individually and collectively, to deliver greater value for the organisation, customers and stakeholders.
An initial discovery phase adopted a systemic-coaching diagnostic tool (Team Connect 360) providing valuable insights from both an organisational and stakeholder perspective. This was complemented by 1-2-1 coaching conversations with Trustees and Executives to better understand the history, mindsets and dynamics embedded within each.
A series of team workshops and live coaching sessions followed, with the latter delivered as part of existing meetings. An experienced coach joined these forums to support Trustees and Executives through an ‘in-the-moment’ feedback structure, employing observational inquiry and designed with multiple stakeholder viewpoints in mind to bring greater awareness and reflection, and to challenge thinking and behaviours.
Arden & GEM’s role focused on partnering with participants to co-design and create safe spaces for shared exploration, in order to move forwards as collaboratively and collectively as possible.
The outcomes
The programme of coaching facilitation has helped to create an environment of collective leadership where individuals are able to challenge and support each other more appropriately both within and across the two leadership groups.
Relationships within and between the Board and Executive team have become considerably more productive and the organisation continues to grow as a key ICS partner, with increasing strategic influence across the health and care environment.
"The collaborative coaching approach delivered by Arden & GEM bought appropriate challenge and support, and helped Trustees and Executive both individually and collectively understand roles and responsibilities better. This enhanced relationships across and within both leadership groups, improving understanding of responsibilities and creating the environment for improved decision making."
Nick Francis, Interim Chair at Norfolk and Waveney Mind
Find out more about our Health and Care Transformation service here.