Developing a strong coaching pool at NHS Yorkshire and the Humber
NHS Yorkshire and the Humber was set up by the Government in July 2006 to act as the regional body for the NHS. It was formed by merging the three former Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) of West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire. NHS Yorkshire and Humber serves a population of 5.12 million and covers an area of 15,510 square kilometres.
The coaching pool
For a number of years NHS Yorkshire and the Humber has been committed to providing cost-effective
coaching for their senior leaders, in order to support them as they work to improve the healthcare service. To this end they have pulled together a local coaching pool made up of both external and internal coaches. Their external coaches have all been recommended by senior leaders in the region. The internal coaches are managers, typically from an HR or Organisational Development background, who have undertaken varied levels of coach training and made a commitment to providing coaching within the region.
When Jo Valentine, Senior Leadership and OD Manager, decided to improve coaching within NHS Yorkshire and the Humber she found herself meeting two challenges. The first challenge was how to quality-assure coaching. With such a diverse group of coaches - all of whom had differing levels of training and experience - it was hard for the SHA to confidently prove that a high quality of coaching standard was being consistently provided. The second challenge was to develop the type of coaching community that would enable coaches to develop their skills on an ongoing basis. With many different coaches working independently across a wide region, there was little chance for the coaches to meet, explore their coaching philosophies and undertake skill development. At a system level, this also meant that Jo was missing the overview of coaching that would help her understand where to focus future coaching development investment.
The Performance Coach
NHS Yorkshire and the Humber decided the best solution to these challenges would be to create a coaching development centre. The centre would assess all coaches within the coaching pool, both internal and external, giving the Organisational Development team a better understanding of the coaching skill levels available. It would also aim to encourage coaching development and foster a sense of coaching community.
Jo put the coaching development centre project out to public tender and awarded the work to The Performance Coach, a boutique coaching firm that helps leaders and organisations reach states of high performance. The Performance Coach has a solid track record in developing coaching skills and extensive experience of working within the National Health Service.
The Vision
The core of NHS Yorkshire and the Humber's coaching philosophy is helping people to use the resources they already possess in order to move forwards. Jo knew that in order to be congruent with this coaching philosophy she had to trust the resourcefulness and intelligence of the coaches. Her vision for the development centre was therefore that it would be less a place for external assessment than an opportunity for self-regulation and professional development.
The Development Centre
Charles Brook, Managing Director of The Performance Coach, spent a full day with Jo designing the development centre. They both knew that the tension between development and assessment would be a difficult one. If they solely concentrated on development, they might not be able to assure a high coaching standard. If they swung too hard towards assessment, it would be difficult for the coaches to open up and learn.
The first development centre ran over three days with two cohorts - each consisting of three participant coaches - attending each day. The cohorts overlapped over lunch so that they could meet each other and share favourite tools and techniques. In preparation for the centre, each participant was asked to prepare a commentary on their practice and two presentations; an overview of their coaching philosophy and a favourite tool or technique to share. On the day itself, participants gave a sixty-minute live observed coaching session, presented their coaching philosophy to one of the assessors and a peer, and undertook a twenty-minute discussion on a coaching topic with an assessor and one or two peers.
Working against pre-agreed criteria, each participating coach was given considerable feedback. Coachees completed a detailed feedback form for their coach; and the observing assessor also provided detailed written feedback. These were forwarded to participants along with a video of their coaching session. Participants were then invited to reflect on their own experience and review the feedback before engaging in a 1:1 telephone supervision session with their observing assessor in which they were supported to identify a tailored development plan for their practice.
The results
In the end, Jo's fears about the tension between assessment and development proved unfounded. All the coaches were able to demonstrate both skill and insight into their practice and recognised the development work they needed to undertake in order to further improve their practice. She now realises that the interplay between assessment and development is an ongoing tension, with the natural tendency being to revert to assessment. However, she would advise that moving towards a development agenda is more productive - after all, if you are investing in coaching, why wouldn't you take the extra step to help your coaches develop their own resources and perform at their best?
Of course, as a coach herself, Jo was also going through the development centre as a participant. She found the day highly productive, saying that it was “a massively useful process and a great experience.” Feedback from the rest of the coaches was also glowing, with participants appreciating the newly emerging coaching community. Many remarked that it was unusual to have a day that was both so stretching and so enjoyable.
In the future, NHS Yorkshire and the Humber are planning to train their most experienced coaches to run the development centre themselves. Supporting other coaches to reflect critically on their practice will give the coaches yet another chance to further build their skills. Given NHS Yorkshire and the Humber's track record on sticking to a development agenda, it would be too good a trick to miss.
“What I liked most about working with The Performance Coach was the sense that we
were developing something together. It was a process of co-creation.” - Jo Valentine, Senior Leadership and OD Manager, NHS Yorkshire and the Humber.