How to Systemic Team Coach with Design Thinking?

As always there are many parents for success. Design Thinking probably originated with psychological research studies, applied over the decades in collaboration with creative professionals, and possibly formalised as a practice now generally accepted as being from Stanford, IDEO etc. In any Design Thinking approach, credit needs to be given to original thinkers like De Bono, and learning thought leaders such as Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer and others.

With the increasing adoption of AI to automate routine work, creative, innovative and disruptive work skills and mindset will be at a premium. Design Thinking principles can be very powerful in this space. At one level, individuals need to be creative. On another, collaborative creativity needs to happen with teams systemically through co-creative visioning, collaborative planning and acting in collective accountability. Design Thinking concepts will, be valuable to systemic leadership team coaching in these areas of leadership development.

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5 Elements of Design Thinking Approach

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1. Empathizing and Understanding

?Empathy is the foundational principle of design thinking. In the context of leadership development, it means truly stepping into the shoes of team members, stakeholders, and customers. This deep understanding allows leaders to grasp the underlying needs, motivations, and pain points that drive behaviour and decision-making. In systemic coaching terms, this would apply to a coaching mindset, creating a psychologically safe and trusted space and being present.

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2. Defining to Frame the Right Questions

?With empathetic understanding established, the next crucial step is to define the core challenges. This principle encourages leaders to look beyond surface-level symptoms and identify the root causes of issues. By framing problems accurately, teams can focus their energies on addressing the most impactful areas for improvement. In systemic team coaching terms, this definition must create the goal post to aim at an endpoint, why the goal is meaningful, how the goal impacts the organisation and ecosystem and what could be intervening obstacles.

?3. Ideating to Unlock Creative Potential

The ideation phase is where creativity takes centre stage. It's about generating a wide array of potential solutions without judgment. This principle challenges leaders to break free from conventional thinking and embrace innovative approaches to problem-solving. Processes such as 6 Thinking Hats, Theory U, Polarities etc can be very useful in this brainstorming stage. In systemic leadership team coaching terms this stage aligns with curious and co-creative communication to explore options to achieve the desired goal.

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4. Prototyping to Bring Ideas to Life

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?Prototyping transforms abstract, often fuzzy, ideas into tangible concrete concepts. In leadership development, this might involve creating mock-ups of new processes from vision boards, team structures, and communication strategies such as focus groups and town halls, and where it involves products and project prototypes to test out for feedback. The goal is to make ideas concrete enough to be tested and refined before deployment.

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5. Testing to Learn to Act

?The testing phase embodies the iterative nature of design thinking. It's about putting prototypes into action, gathering feedback, and using those insights to refine and improve. This principle fosters a culture of continuous learning and adaptation – essential traits for modern leaders. In the end, this set of activities would create a viable product or service that meets the original measures of success.

Systemic Team Development with Design Thinking

1. Co-create and Collaborate to Team Goal Setting

?Why: Design thinking's emphasis on empathy dovetails aligns with the ICF coaching competency of establishing clear, unambiguous SMART team goals, aligned to organisational needs. By encouraging leaders and team members to deeply understand each other's perspectives, coaches can facilitate a more cohesive and empathetic team environment. This heightened awareness becomes the fertile ground from which innovative co-creation can sprout resulting in shared vision and goals with purpose and direction.

?How: Conduct empathy mapping exercises where team members share their experiences, challenges, and aspirations to bond emotionally. This not only builds understanding but also helps identify common themes and potential areas to co-create a shared vision.

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2. Facilitate Team Building and Communication

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?Why: The Defining principle of design thinking aligns with the ICF coaching competency of building the team in trust and safety, facilitating open and vulnerable communication. ?By helping teams frame their challenges accurately, coaches can guide them toward more meaningful and impactful communication to explore and discover solutions that work for the team, its members and the organisation.

?How: Use collaborative problem-framing techniques like "How Might We" statements to help teams articulate their challenges in a way that invites creative solutions.

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3. Evoke Team Awareness

?Why: The ideation phase of design thinking resonates strongly with the ICF coaching competency of evoking team awareness. By facilitating brainstorming sessions and encouraging out-of-the-box thinking, coaches can help teams tap into their collective creativity and discover new possibilities they might not have considered otherwise.

?How: Implement ideation techniques like reverse brainstorming, 6 Thinking Hats, Theory U etc. to help teams generate innovative ideas for addressing their defined challenges.

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4. Facilitate Team Learning and Growth

?Why: Prototyping and testing, the final two principles of design thinking, align perfectly with the ICF coaching competency of facilitating team learning and results. By encouraging teams to create tangible prototypes of their ideas and test them in real-world scenarios, coaches can foster a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement.

?How: Guide teams in developing rapid prototypes of new processes or strategies, and create safe spaces for testing and feedback. This could involve role-playing exercises, pilot programs, or small-scale implementations.

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?Reflection

?Integrating the Design Thinking framework with coaching competencies can support systemic leadership team coaching as the foundational step in organisational leadership development.?

?If this article ignited your curiosity about how the Design Thinking process aligned with systemic team coaching can support leadership development, share it with your network! Subscribe to my 'Coaching the Spirit' newsletter for more cutting-edge content on technology, spirituality, and leadership in today's dynamic workplace. Together, let's shape the future of leadership in the AI VUCA era!

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