Feature
RedThread Research recently published its list of HR mega-trends for 2024 and it's notable not only for the clarity of its conclusions but also for the prompts it provides so practitioners can get ahead of the curve.
If you're unaware of RedThread Research, I find their work to be insightful, relevant and practical. I’ve known the co-founders, Stacia Garr and Dani Johnson, for years — both fantastic researchers and great women.
I’d been pondering how to write more about group coaching, as it has so much potential for positive change and organizational impact. RedThread's analysis provided me with an ideal framing to connect group coaching to the state of unrest in which we find ourselves.
Below are the five mega-trends RedThread believes will impact the work of HR in 2024 (I’ll circle back to these shortly).
- Economic uncertainty.
- Political and social unrest.
- Technology advances.
- Power struggles.
- Generational shifts.
Why Group Coaching?
Group coaching is high-context and reflects the reality of daily work, fostering deeper connections through shared experiences.
When most people thinking about coaching, the first thing that comes to mind is a one-to-one relationship with a coach who provides individual coaching sessions focused on personal and professional goals. Regardless of how broadly this coaching approach is offered in an organization, progress is made one person at a time, focused on an individual's unique needs and in isolation from other colleagues.
Group coaching is emerging as a leading practice for developing talent in a more organic way than classic learning and development. It's not a replacement for training, but an alternative that fosters behavior change at scale. Group coaching leverages the best of both worlds — coaching and learning — to promote organizational change in a faster, more collaborative way.
Related Article: Employee Coaching Comes to the Masses
How Does Group Coaching Work?
A group coach works with a cohort of six to eight people to explore and develop targeted behaviors through practical, on-the-job applications. Skills like inclusive leadership, constructive feedback and influencing others can be defined, practiced and reinforced in the safety of a small team. Learning not only happens in the moment, but is reinforced through repetition and encouragement each time the cohort meets. Group coaching is more adaptive than traditional learning, as it is not constrained by the training materials themselves. The needs of the group drive the discussion, guided by an expert group coach.
Coaching can happen in-person or online, so the speed and cost of deployment is quite reasonable. Group coaching scales easily across functional, geographic and cultural boundaries, which deepens organizational networks and fosters greater career mobility. When facilitated by a skilled coach, the interactions build trust and psychological safety, which lead to more inclusive behaviors and a culture of belonging.
HR Mega-Trends Impact
Let’s review RedThread's five mega-trends and then connect the dots between each one and group coaching.
1. Economic Uncertainty
Recession or no recession, there’s clear downward pressure on operational expenses. Group coaching provides a strong bang for the buck when budgets are limited. It has the advantage of scale, speed and virtual delivery. There’s also a multiplier effect as group participants quickly develop skills that are directly related to work, so there’s very limited learning waste.
2. Geopolitical and Social Unrest
While related to economic impact, it’s also about the associated emotions including fear. Living with prolonged anticipation of disruption, turmoil, volatility and even hostility is simply not healthy. These conditions amplify our human need for greater connection, which is precisely what group coaching is intended to drive. Being heard, being seen and experiencing a sense of belonging are foundational to group coaching — above and beyond skill development.
3. Technology Advances
The impact of technological changes on people is quite predictable. Even positive change can be disruptive, requiring new skills and capabilities that keep pace with the new technologies. Classic change management guides us towards communications and sponsorship, and group coaching can rapidly prepare your people managers for how to lead their teams through significant change.
Related Article: Change Management When Employees Are Exhausted by Change
4. Power Struggles
Our emergence from the virtual world of the pandemic left us with the battle between workforce autonomy and organizational culture. While return to office compliance (and tracking) strategies have been prevalent, organizations cannot mandate a culture or a sense of belonging. That happens through shared experiences and common values systems. If attendance is your driver, group coaching would be a poor investment. However, if a vibrant, compelling culture is your desired state, group coaching might be part of the solution, as it focuses on a reward state, not a threat state.
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5. Generational Shifts
If I could change one thing about the generational workforce conversation, it would be to focus more on similarities, not differences. Organizations struggle with the talent gap that exists when experienced talent exits before an organization has the needed bench strength ready to carry the organization forward. Group coaching is a fantastic, organic way to accelerate closing that gap. It enables colleagues to learn from one another and build on each other’s strengths and experiences, including across generations. Group coaching can be designed to work across demographic differences and amplify the lived experiences of others in the cohort.
