In today’s VUCA* world, organizations face more and more complex challenges, and leaders regularly face challenges for which there is no obvious answer. Until now, experienced leaders have been rewarded for having the answers – and not having the answer has been seen as a deficit. As well, leaders often have few places where they can think out loud without needing to appear certain.
What if there was another way to do this without knowing the answers?
Collaborative Coaching Lab
The Collaborative Coaching Lab is an offering that provides a structured space to bring challenges to trusted peers, slow down their thinking, examine assumptions, and discover perspectives they may not have reached on their own.
Rather than receiving expert advice, participants explore the situation from multiple perspectives and identify new possibilities for action. Learning happens on multiple levels: presenters gain new ideas and potential solutions, participants gain knowledge about the content of the case, and also learn from the approach and questions that their peers ask.
In the process, participants strengthen skills essential to leadership: deep listening, inquiry, reframing, systems thinking, and the ability to stay with complexity without rushing to solutions.
* VUCA = volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous
WHERE THE COLLABORATIVE COACHING LAB CAN BE USED
The Collaborative Coaching Lab can be adapted for a range of leadership-development settings, including universities, organizations, professional associations, and cross-organizational leadership cohorts.
I have conducted this lab with a range of configurations: practitioners and nonprofit leaders from multiple organizations; practitioners and leaders within a single organization, such as the Boston Medical Center and the May Institute; and leaders from multiple state agencies.
- University Programs
- Organizational Leadership Development
- Cross-Organizational Cohorts (such as state government agencies)
- Leadership Associations
UNIVERSITY-BASED FORMAT
The Lab can be incorporated into:
- An academic course for credit
- A Continuing Education program
- A non-credit Professional Education offering
Participants may include graduate students, practitioners, and organizational leaders, creating opportunities for learning across levels of experience.
Delivery options
The Collaborative Coaching Lab can be adapted to different settings and group sizes, and can be set up as a single session or multi-session series.
A full lab with multiple case presenters typically runs 3–3.5 hours. The session moves between plenary and small-group work: case presenters introduce their challenges briefly to the full group, participants work in small consultation groups for approximately 60–90 minutes, and the group reconvenes to hear reflections and learning from each presenter. When time allows, participants return to their small groups for a final debrief.
- 1 credit course – 15 contact hours
A course might entail 2-3 labs over 6-9 weeks, with presenters returning for the 2nd and 3rd sessions, to describe the progress that they’ve made so far and to continue the consultation. To earn course credit, students can be assigned readings and related written assignments.
2. A Continuing Education (CE) workshop or short series for professionals eligible for CE credit under the university’s approved offerings.
The lab can be presented as a one-off workshop or as a series, depending on the CE requirements of the program.
3. Professional Education, as a non-credit program for practitioners, leaders, alumni, or other working professionals.
The lab can be presented as a one-off workshop or a series, depending on the number of case presenters, and the overall design of the lab.
Organizational Leadership Development
The Lab can be incorporated into an organization’s leadership-development program as a single intensive session or a multi-session series.
Leaders bring current organizational challenges and use structured peer inquiry to deepen their thinking, examine assumptions, and develop new approaches. A series allows participants to return with updates, reflect on what they tried, and continue working on emerging challenges.
The value for leaders: In one organization, when the leaders reported out from their small group discussions, they were surprised, and relieved, to hear that they weren’t the only ones experiencing similar problems – and that only came out through participating in this program. The key takeaway is that if several leaders independently report the same challenge, the issue may be systemic rather than individual.
Leadership Associations and Cross-Organizational Cohorts
The Lab can also be offered through professional associations, leadership academies, or networks that bring together leaders from different organizations.
I have used this format as a Peer Consultation Forum for senior leaders from multiple state agencies. Participants worked on real organizational challenges while benefiting from perspectives outside their own agencies and learning how peers approached similar issues.
The value for leaders: In one cross-organizational cohort, one director discovered that a peer from another agency had implemented a group home model that he was trying to introduce. Without this forum, he likely would not have known that this experience and expertise already existed within the system.
Testimonial:
“One of my favorite programs that Abby conceived of was the Collaborative Coaching Lab. The thing I loved about it was because Abby is always about learning. And this had learning at these different levels. It had learning for the client, because at the end, the client would stand and say, “Well, here’s what I got out of this.” And almost universally, the client got something valuable out of it.
And then the tables would report, “What did we find?” And then we would say, like, “Well, I found out that my approach is completely different from Scott’s approach. And Scott’s approach is very different.”
All of a sudden, we see these perspectives of how to do things. So the learning was buzzing around this room and the benefit coming out of it for the clients, which was great, but also for us, as well. I thought the design was magnificent.” PM, BFR Board Member
Interested in bringing the Collaborative Coaching Lab to your organization? We can tailor the format to your needs.
