This course has been endorsed by the Board of Executive and Professional Education, University of Cambridge.
Aims of the course:
This course has been designed to increase your knowledge and understanding of:
- A range of team models, theories and approaches and their applications within the workplace
- The supporting and resistant forces behind high team performance
- The impact of behaviours on team effectiveness
- Coaching approaches to enhance both team performance and the team culture
Learning outcomes:
As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to:
- Understand a range of team models and theories.
- Analyse the role and impact of individual behaviours in the team.
- Reflect upon the drivers and inhibitors of team performance and culture.
- Explore the role of coaching in the team context.
- Develop (coaching) skills to enhance team performance, in self and others.
- Reflect upon psychological approaches that help explain team behaviours
- Apply the learning back in the workplace/with their teams
Who can apply?
There are no entry requirements for this course and no prior coaching experience is necessary. We welcome applications from anyone with an interest in team coaching. The course is designed to be open access for an international audience and to be studied anytime, anywhere; there are no required specific lecture or seminar times pre-scheduled making study time at your leisure.
Course content overview:
Content for the Team coaching online course is expected to include the following:
- Teams: applying models and theories. What is a team? Team cycles and working groups.
- Teams and individuals. Team leaders and followers. Team roles. Contributions to the team. Why some teams deliver and others implode.
- Coaching the team - explore the potential role for coaching in the team to enhance team effectiveness.
- The psychology of teams - lessons from psychology. Group think; the conscious and the subconscious; family systems.
- Towards team excellence - raising performance and enhancing team culture. Developing a team coaching culture.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):
Orientation Week: 8-14 January 2024
Purpose/Learning outcomes: By studying this week the students should have:
- Become familiar with navigating around the VLE and from VLE to links and back
- Tested their ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sorted out any problems with the help of the eLearning Helpdesk
- Learnt how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
- Used forums to introduce themselves to other students
- Contributed to a discussion forum to introduce themselves to other students and discuss why they are interested in the course, what they hope to get out their studies and also to respond to News item sent out on behalf of tutor
Teaching Weeks: 15 January-18 February 2024
Week 1 Teams: applying models and theories
Purpose/Learning outcomes: To consider a range of models and teams that create insights into team performance and culture. By studying this week the students should have:
- Understood what constitutes a team and how it differs from a working group
- Explored different types of teams
- Reflected upon the stages of team development
- Considered the teams they belong to and reflected their experiences with the models and theories
Week 2 Teams: roles, performance and outcomes
Purpose/Learning outcomes: To understand the roles individuals play in the team and the impact this has. By studying this week students should have:
- Understood different team roles and types
- Understood the relation between individual and team performance
- Explored the concept of team performance – from world class performance to dysfunction
- Considered constructive and destructive team behaviours
Week 3 Coaching the team
Purpose/Learning outcomes: To understand the potential role for coaching in the team as an approach to enhance team effectiveness. By studying this week students should have:
- Understood basic coaching concepts
- Explored the role of coaching in the team
- Analysed the leader’s role as coach
- Experience coaching as coach and coachee
Week 4 The psychology of teams
Purpose/Learning outcomes: To introduce psychological concepts, models, and approaches that help explain team patterns. By studying this week the students should have:
- Understood basic psychological models for team coaching
- Explored basic group dynamics
- Reflected upon the potential value of coaching in teams
- Considered family systems and the influence these might have upon team roles
Week 5 Towards team excellence
Purpose/Learning outcomes: To explore coaching and other methodologies to raise performance and strengthen team culture, including a coaching culture. By studying this week the students should have:
- Understood the factors that support excellent team performance
- Reflected upon the impact of a positive team culture
- Explored the potential value of coaching-based relationships
- Considered how to take the learning back to the workplace
Feedback Week: 19-25 February 2024
Week 6 What next?
Purpose:
- Assessment of student learning
- Assessment of student satisfaction
- Encouragement of further study
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards, etc).
Certificate of Participation
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
What our students say
"The Tutor Keith is very very good and its obvious how much knowledge he brings to bear on the subject. Very professional and excellent delivery. The contact via the online forum is fine but the seminars are brilliant. And a way for people to organise the coaching practice could use more thought, about getting people to connect with each other and a way to set up a call via the ICE system might be best."
"Keith was absolutely a knowledgeable/ experienced/ calming presence in the seminars. gained a lot of insight and experience from him."
