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Introduction: creating a coaching culture I’ve been very privileged to have been on the Walton Centre board for over a decade and I’ve always believed in supporting both the Walton Centre as an organisation and our staff to be the best they can be. In the past, I thought as a leader, this meant coming up with my version of solutions to problems and challenges that we faced. I now appreciate through my own development as a coach and my increasing knowledge of what coaching can achieve, I can see that the best solutions often come from the individuals themselves and great coaching is to support, develop and inspire our staff to come up with their own way of making sure we and they are the best they can be. Chris Harrop, Chief Executive

The aim of this strategy is to support staff in the work they do, to help unlock their potential and maximise the overall performance of the organisation. We can achieve this by utilising a coaching style in the conversations we have with each other and in the way we work. Having been both coach and coachee, I have benefited from coaching in my working life and I am looking forward to working with our staff in developing and nurturing coaching skills and helping to embed coaching as part of our culture. Paula Furmedge, Deputy Director of Organisational Development

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Overview This strategy is a fundamental part of the OD Strategy, with the aim of supporting our staff in the work they do for us, help unlock their potential and maximise the overall performance of the organisation - “Coaching is not merely a technique to be wheeled out and rigidly applied in certain prescribed circumstances. It is a way of managing, a way of treating people, a way of thinking, a way of being.” (Whitmore, 2014) Ultimately the promotion, development and embedding of a coaching culture across our organisation is a tangible method of ensuring that the Walton Way values are translated into the day to day relationships between staff at all levels. This is not a prescriptive strategy rather it is intended that coaching techniques will become a valuable addition to the skill set of our staff to be deployed whenever it can be helpful or is appropriate.

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The Walton Centre Strategic Plan 2014-2019 The Walton Centre OD strategy supports all the themes of the Walton Centre Strategic Plan to some degree or other but is especially concerned with theme 5, “Recruiting, retaining and developing our workforce” with the following objectives: 

Embed a high performing culture that is based upon our Walton Way values and standards of behaviour

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Ensure that the Walton Centre is a great place to work, supported by first class human resources

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Recruit, retain and support an efficient, resilient and productive workforce delivering excellence in health care, education & training, and research

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Promote excellence in education and training to ensure we deliver the highest calibre of health care staff for future NHS patients

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Ensure that the Walton Centre can adapt and respond to changes across the health economy through innovation, flexible working and collective leadership

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Embedding equality and diversity The Trust is committed to creating an environment where all employees are equally valued and respected, with equal access to all employment opportunities. The Trust continues to recognise the role it plays in ensuring that health inequalities are identified and eliminated. Therefore equity and fairness must be a central value that is demonstrated throughout the organisation. The Trust has adopted the Equality Delivery System (EDS2) to support its work around equality; EDS2 provides a framework for continual review of the Trust’s equality performance and helps to identify future priorities and actions. EDS2 also helps to support the Trust in meeting the requirements of the Equality Act (2010) and the Public Sector Equality Duty, as well as meeting the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) 'Essential Standards of Quality and Safety' and supporting the NHS Outcomes Framework, the NHS Constitution. On an annual basis the Trust collates and analyses the equality profile of all staff employed by the Walton Centre, this includes analysis of recruitment and development opportunities to ensure fairness and equity across the Trust. As a values’ driven organisation, we will ensure that the equality and diversity agenda is integrated into the development of the organisation’s systems and processes. This is particularly important in any service transformation, role redesign or cost improvement activity. The Equality Act applies to 9 protected characteristics and the Trust will ensure that its approach to organisational development is sensitive to the needs of all of the characteristics, ensuring impact assessments are carried out as appropriate.

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What is coaching? Coaching is about facilitating the learning and development of others, enabling them to perform better by building on their current knowledge. The ethos of effective coaching is not to try to ‘teach’ a person but allow them to learn by helping them to unlock their potential and maximise performance. This is done via a conversation(s) between coach and coachee in a way that would benefit the coachee in relation to the learning, thinking and potential actions that would be unlikely if they had not had this “conversation”. A coach does not need to be an expert in the area the coachee wants to develop - their role is to enable the coachee to see opportunities to improve and identify practical ways forward themselves. People who are new to a role or task may find a more directive approach useful. Actual “coaching conversations” should use a variety of methods to achieve a positive outcome, including; listening, questioning, talking, observing and reflecting back to the coachee. A coach uses a blend of observation, talking, listening, questioning and reflecting back to the learner. There are a few key things that distinguish coaching: it tends to be non-directive, with the coach using questions and listening to understand and facilitate thinking of the coachee as part of a structured conversation, enabling them to find their own solutions and have responsibility for making them happen. However, when coaching is used to manage poor performance and/or behaviours - a more directive style may be required. This strategy will support the organisation to embed a coaching culture and includes a focus on coaching that will support varying objectives, including; business related topics, personal development topics to improve personal performance, supporting individuals to achieve improved business performance and operational effectiveness, career transition support and coaching conversations as part of appraisals, supervision and other processes to support increased performance.

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The business case for coaching Given the challenges of the modern NHS to deliver more healthcare’s, to a higher quality and with less resource the time for individuals to reflect becomes increasingly scarce. Many of the performance or behavioural issues that emerge at an individual, team or service level are directly related to the increasing complexity and pace of activity within the workplace. First and foremost, coaching can help by creating opportunities to reflect and think things through - "Getting out of the 'how' and more into the 'what' and the 'why' gives people the space to achieve great things." (Swart, 2010) As the organisation continues to develop and transform we need to support our staff to be the best they can be. We aim to utilise coaching to: 

Help staff to be more adaptable and responsive to change – coming up with their own solutions to challenges

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Reinforce the Walton Way value set to promote a positive working environment

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Enable the Walton Centre to directly address poor performance and individual behaviours

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Support increased personal resilience – offering support to staff via coaching conversations

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Become a part of our leaders/managers “toolkit” to effectively support a high performing organisation

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Have a positive impact on key workforce performance indicators

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Promote and ensure healthy working conditions – maintain IIP Gold status

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Attract and retain our talent

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The vision for coaching

BUILDING COACHING CAPACITY

COACHING CULTURE

CAREER TRANSITION SUPPORT

MANAGING PERFORMANCE

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Delivering the vision Year 1       

Develop Coaching Strategy for 2015-2018 Develop 3 year delivery plan and allocate appropriate budget to support implementation of the strategy Develop 2 internal Executive Coaches to lead, develop and quality assure the implementation of coaching across the Trust Train the 1st cohort of internal work based coaches (ILM qualified) across a representative group of staff groups/disciplines/grades Continue to support the development of “coaching conversation” skills as part of the Walton Way Establish a directory of approved external coaches Build career transition skills in relevant service areas, including HR

Year 2  Review Year 1 progress and areas for improvement  Develop a menu of CPD opportunities for internal coaching pool  Establish an internal support network for internal coaches  Train the 2nd and 3rd cohort of internal work based coaches to follow on from Year 1(ILM qualification)  Establish a directory of internal coaches  Continue to support development “coaching conversation” skills as part of the Walton Way

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Review progress to date of actions agreed for Year 1 and 2 Evaluate effectiveness of coaching in supporting performance management Seek to align appropriate internal processes with a coaching culture Agree further actions required to continue to embed a culture of coaching

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