Bristol City Council has been engaged in an ambitious management development programme ‘The Bristol Manager’ to deliver a step change in the performance of the organisation (which had faced several difficult reviews). A key component of this programme was the ‘Coaching for Performance’ elements, designed to improve performance management throughout the organisation through a more skilled use of coaching frameworks.

We ran several large events (for 80+ 2nd to 5th tier managers at a time) introducing them to our coaching models and providing opportunities for skills development and practice. However, we also knew that the implementation of coaching practice was likely to be patchy and sporadic without a framework for coaching supervision embedded in the organisation. So, fundamental to this ‘whole organisation’ initiative was the training, development and support of a cadre of in-house coach supervisors, who provide group coaching supervision, through a Practicum Group approach (a BCG method for structured small group work – referenced on our website), a resource when line managers encounter difficulty and a group from which organisational learning (through identifying recurring patterns or system blocks) can be harvested.

We facilitated the coach supervisors group, offering further opportunities for building high-level capacity and capability in the organisation.