Mindset Shifts from Enterprise to Systemic

Welcome to Edition 2 of the Clandestine Commentary.

For regular readers of my posts, you may remember my recent post on coaching insights .?

I was on the other side of the zoom call this week when I had a massive lightbulb ?? moment of insight speaking with the exceptional Systemic Coach Karen Lord .? This insight has been multiple times compounded after my recent Systemic Team Coaching course with the AoEC.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve described myself as a very diverse actuary. When I started working in risk management over a decade ago, it struck me as as where I needed to be, and for me, Enterprise Risk Management WAS the completed puzzle that could look over the enter organizational enterprise for me to add value.? However, I couldn’t make the impact I wanted to.

What struck me during this enlightening conversation, literally to an emotional extent, was that ERM was only a piece of my puzzle, albeit a very large piece.

I’ve done some research this week, and I have two definitions to share

A concise of definition of Systemic Coaching, based on the work Karen has done is:

Systemic Coaching provides exploration and guidance that enables clients to navigate the complex dynamics of the whole ‘system’.

A commonly accepted definition of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is:

A holistic approach employed across the entire organization to identify, assess, and manage various risks that an organization may encounter in pursuit of its objectives.

If we break this down further Five components of Enterprise Risk Management can be described as:

A.?Company Culture, Governance, and Values.        

B. Strategic Planning, Objectives, and Goal Setting.        

C. Risk Management Cycle (COSO calls this “Performance”)        

D. Monitoring and Continuous Improvement (COSO calls this “Review & Revision”)        

E. Transparency, Communication, and Reporting.?        

Similarly, I would offer my view of Five components of Systemic Coaching

A.??? Company Culture, governance and purpose        

B.??? Strategic mindset, objectives and co-creation        

C.?? Systemic webbing to map system        

D.?? Change agency, Early Adoption, Growth optimization        

E.??? Transparency, communication, and alignment        

I see some very close correlations on how we think about Enterprise Risk Management and Systemic Coaching.? The most significant part for me having been a Risk Actuary practicing ERM is being part of the wider system, while being outside of the system as a Systemic Coach brings different benefits as an independent observer.? A further component that the coaching focus on is the human aspect. Often within ERM, maybe we don’t give as much focus to people as maybe we should?

My interest in having an Enterprise focus has grown over the past decade thinking about building teams, how to develop an effective and appropriate culture, through the management and oversight of the connections in a system.? I see a massive amount of value in being able to ‘unstick’ the system.

An ERM practitioner does not manage the risks, per se, but supports the business to manage the risks, and focuses on the process and the connections, as well as providing oversight.? As an internal ERM practitioner, I have not been able to co-create the change I’d like to see, but bringing my decade of ERM experience combined with Systemic Coach offers a massive opportunity.

How can Systemic Coaching Support Organisations?

I’m not sure about you but working in an organisation at times can be challenging.? I’ve seen the following in many different places:

·????? Siloed working

·????? Information flow

·????? Unrealistic task lists

·????? Different agendas and strategic objectives between teams and function.

This can be partially summarized as a misalignment within the system.? An organisation should be working to an overall purpose and vision to support clients and customers, and the challenges above prevent a ‘flow’ ideas.? This is a #mindset misalignment.

When we understand this misalignment, and see where this is happening within the system, we can start to align the different strategic mindsets necessary to work together (based on the work by Karen Lord).?? This very quickly dissolves siloed working, supports information flow, and aligns different agendas and strategic objectives.

This can happen through:

·????? Co-produce – working together to design a solution

·????? Co-creation – working together to create the solution

·????? Co-production – embedding a solution together

I have seen many examples of misalignment due to failure to follow these steps.? We cannot impose change on people, but if they co-create change, or co-create a culture, you achieve a very rapid buy in.

Further, by bringing in Systemic Team coaching to this, we can start to understand what help a team understand their purpose, and how they should support and serve different stakeholders, bringing a further alignment within the system. A lack of stakeholder communication often gets misunderstood, but again this is a misalignment.

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Changing Culture through Systemic Coaching

Companies have grown up and build a certain culture, which could be described as an organizational mindset which is heavily influenced by shared beliefs and actions of individuals and societal culture.?

There is a complex entanglement between mindset and prevailing culture, so changing culture is intrinsically linked to changing mindset, which is very much about where in the strategic mindset we are, alignment with the system. Understand this alignment, and effectively we can change a culture.

By looking at how different parts of the business connect, we can start to align the #strategicmindset of individuals, teams, functions, stakeholders, but only if we take time to identity that entry point and unpick what is going on.

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Systemic Coaching and Wellbeing

Understandably, organizations want high performance, which supports revenue and profits, and supports stakeholders.? There are two final misaligned considerations I’d like to touch on in this newsletter - Task Positive Network (TPN) compared to Default Mode Network (DMN).

A well-balanced DMN helps us plan activities, contemplate future activities that are based on past events, and remember important parts of your personal history.?? This is the wellbeing and balance side of the equation.

The TPN is active during ‘attention-demanding’ tasks and includes our conscious attention towards the external environment. This happens through our various senses, towards our internal condition, and to the intentional execution of physical and mental action.?

However, If we get stuck in TPN, which is often the experience in large high-performance organizations, we can experience burnout, and that impacts the ability to solve problems which will largely come from the DMN state.? More on this in a later newsletter, but please reach out for some collaboration here on the neuroscience!

Until the next time, thank you for reading!

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Richard Galbraith MSc FIA CERA ACC is a certified ICF Leadership Coach, with a focus on Systemic Coaching and Systemic Team Coaching.

You can work with Richard directly through Clandestine Coaching Limited, or via his associate partners Leading Figures or Coaching With Chemistry.

Richard is pleased to be able to offer Individual, Team and Systemic Coaching for organisations, teams and leaders.? Please contact me for a no-obligation discussion on how this can Support leaders in connecting dots that empower personal, team & business performance & growth.

For readers of the Clandestine Commentary Newsletter – I am offering a free, no obligation, 90-minute online coaching session, to the first 3 people who drop Richard a message on [email protected] or message on LinkedIn with ‘free clandestine coaching’.