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Effectively supporting teams in change

When constant change becomes part of everyday professional life, employees need orientation and a sense of trust and security in a good working environment. This presents managers and companies with the task of creating a reliable framework in the workplace for stable interpersonal relationships and effective teamwork. With the possibility of using individual and team coaching across the company, the onesome coaching app can make a valuable contribution to this.

An excerpt of our clientele
Photo of the onesome founder Swantje Benussi

Focus on the company as a whole system

The onesome founder Swantje Benussi looks back on decades of coaching experience and is convinced:
“To be ready for digital transformation, the modern working world needs innovative coaching solutions. Currently, many teams are involved in challenging change processes. This requires long-term change management with tailored employee development measures and sustained investment in a good working and corporate climate.
Digital coaching offers ideal support in such change processes. A company-wide coaching app can be used to coach not only individual employees: inside, but also entire teams and the company as a whole.”

Photo of the onesome founder Swantje Benussi

Current whitepaper: Coach the System

The digital transformation requires a fundamental reorientation of all employees in the company. In addition to new technical skills, flexibility, willingness to learn and social skills are required. In order to support their employees in this task in the best possible way, managers must create a trusting, motivating working environment. This requires measures that support both individual employees and the development of entire teams.
The whitepaper “Coach the System” describes the personal dimensions of transformation and shows how company-wide coaching can succeed.

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Content

The digital transformation is bringing rapid changes to the world of work. This requires a fundamental cultural change in the company – the key is strong teams.

Employees and teams must continuously develop new professional and interpersonal skills in order to cope with the increasingly complex day-to-day work.

Good teamwork requires empathy, networked thinking and action, and a strong sense of community. Leaders must model an open, honest communication culture and sustainable relationships.

Not all employees can be reached with classic one-on-one coaching. Digital coaching is infinitely scalable and enables coaching of the entire organization.

Using a fully digital coaching app is suitable for individuals and teams alike. Coaching apps can be introduced quickly and cost-effectively in the company.

onesome Whitepaper

Our understanding – our approach

Visualization of change in the team through onesome

1. Digital transformation increases the pressure on teams.

More and more established companies and startups are using technological progress to develop new business models and restructure their internal and external operations.
Independently acting teams play a key role in this transformation process. They are increasingly assuming responsibility for the entrepreneurial success of entire business units and are thus transforming themselves from a purely executive department to a largely autonomous profit center.
On the one hand, this means more freedom and self-determination, but on the other hand, it also puts increasing pressure on each individual and puts the cohesion of each team to the test.

2. New teams, new forms of collaboration.

Teams today face a host of new challenges. It is necessary to learn new professional and methodological skills, to find one’s way in new forms of cooperation and to withstand the pressure of frequent changes. In addition, new teams today are often put together at very short notice and have to perform at the highest level after only a short time.
For this to succeed, employees need more than just the right technical know-how and a high level of motivation. At least as important is the ability to approach other people openly and to be able to quickly build constructive and trusting relationships with new colleagues.
For many employees, this means a profound change in thinking and requires learning or additional social skills. This can only succeed if you have an empathetic manager at your side who credibly exemplifies the basic collegial attitude and ensures a reliable framework for the learning process and joint team development.

3. Coach the company as an overall social system.

Classic coaching methods, such as systemic coaching, usually work with individuals. As a rule, the concerns of teams are addressed only indirectly – the basic idea here is that the learning successes of a manager should radiate positively to the entire team via the manager’s changed leadership behavior and appropriate use of methods.
Completely digitalized coaching methods open up a completely new (alternatively: expand the) field of action for coaching in the company. By putting a large number of employees through a standardized coaching process at the same time as the manager, a shared understanding of interpersonal needs and skills for collaborative improvement of the work climate emerge.
If digital coaching is used throughout the company, a sustainable improvement in the corporate culture can be achieved across all divisions.

Photo of the three onesome founders Swantje Benussi, Anouk Harde and Nadine Priessnitz

1. Digital transformation, ever faster innovation cycles, new work – what does this mean for teamwork?

In the past, there were individual teams that were responsible for an area over a long period of time. Digitization is now eliminating outdated areas of responsibility, while at the same time creating many new tasks. Teams have to restructure themselves accordingly.
Another challenge is that too many individuals still keep their knowledge to themselves because they expect personal benefits from it. However, such “silo thinking” is highly problematic given the need to keep pace with innovation dynamics. Rather, it is important to openly share and bring together knowledge from different specialist areas within the team – according to the theme 1+1=3. To achieve this, open communication and networking among employees are more important than ever.

2. How do companies react to this, how do they shape this change?

To break through rigid procedures and enable flexible processes, many companies are introducing agile methods. For example, they use Scrum to achieve new results quickly, efficiently and in a solution-oriented manner. To this end, work environments are created that enable better communication and collaboration among all. For example, the company is experimenting with new spatial concepts that promote flexibility and exchange among employees.
Other important prerequisites for change are a suitable organizational structure and appropriate incentive systems. To this end, hierarchies are flattened, with the aim that individual employees take more responsibility for themselves. The leadership role thus takes on a completely new meaning.

3. What is important for this to work?

For collaboration to succeed in flexible processes, it is imperative to bring people together in the organization and invest in the quality of their relationships with each other. Employees must not only be seen as a “resource”. Rather, it is important to perceive and treat them holistically as human beings. This can only be achieved with sincere interest in each other and genuine empathy.
The contribution to a positive corporate culture should ideally also be anchored in the employee evaluation system. In addition to the contribution to business results, the evaluation should also include soft skills and behavior with regard to good cooperation.

4. What are the biggest challenges in enabling teams to change?

First and foremost, space must be created for this. Only when teams are not permanently under time pressure can they fully develop their creative potential, can team members really respond to each other and communicate properly. For managers, this means handing over responsibility and encouraging teams and individual employees to work independently.
In addition, a climate must be created in which not only individual fighters count for something, but in which it is rewarded when something is created together. Exchange formats in which interaction is specifically promoted help here.

5. How can managers and HR be supported in overcoming these challenges?

It is very important that the HR department or the manager have the appropriate decision-making powers. In order to achieve real change together with the teams, they must be able to act on their own responsibility.
In addition, many companies are cutting back on personnel and HR budgets. However, especially in times of crisis, it is important to invest precisely at this point and allocate HR sufficient budget. This is the only way that the necessary measures can be implemented there.
Managers must also be given the right tools to work with employees on critical issues. These can be, for example, training or coaching sessions in which important soft skills are further developed.

6. Coaching entire teams, how is that supposed to work?

Basically, one should follow the “train the trainer” principle, according to which a manager always acts like a coach and trains the employees. It is important to involve all employees – either by providing coaching to all individuals or, for example, through team workshops together with the manager.
For sustainable success, such formats should be continuously offered to all. A good way to do this is with a digital coaching app that is designed to provide ongoing support and thus bring about lasting change in the team.

Frequently asked questions

There are a number of indicators that allow indirect conclusions to be drawn about employee satisfaction, such as the fluctuation rate, absenteeism or sick leave. Ideally, the team should also conduct regular employee satisfaction surveys, for example using a standardized questionnaire. The important thing here is that the results are really taken seriously and used as guidance for possible organizational changes or concrete measures for employee development.

According to Tuckmann, new teams go through 5 development phases: They start at forming, i.e. the group meets, first connections are made, the participants orient themselves and look for their respective roles. This process is often accompanied by misunderstandings and “friction”. With the conflicts, the storming phase begins. During these discussions the common values (Norming) develop, the basis for the now following work phase (Performing). At the end of the project, the parting (adjourning) takes place.
Every team finding goes through these phases. Targeted team coaching taking this model into account can decisively support team finding. Managers can use the 5 development phases according to Tuckmann as a guide in order to set the optimal intervention at the right time.

In order to bring teams along in change processes, it is important to awaken and maintain the intrinsic motivation of team members. To do this, you have to know and correctly assess the values and needs of the employees in the team. Misjudgments on this important point can be avoided by asking team members directly about their values and needs in a specially defined setting.
Approaches to stimulating intrinsic motivation in the team can be, for example, conveying the joy of learning and personal development, or creating transparency about the meaning of change processes. The more closely the incentives are aligned with their personal expectations, the more likely employees are to accept the demands placed on them.
This requires good communication and “inspirational leadership” on the part of managers. In the face of ongoing transformation, the point of goal achievement is often difficult to articulate. This makes it all the more important to communicate the vision and the “why” of the changes and to clearly show employees what this means for them in concrete terms.

Basically, all coaching methods that promote soft skills such as empathy and communication skills also improve teamwork.
More important than the selection of individual coaching methods is that as many employees as possible participate in the coaching process. Completely digitized coaching solutions offer the decisive advantage of being able to be scaled quickly and easily, while maintaining a uniform methodological focus and quality.

Initial studies, such as those by Prof. Dr. Mathias Allemand of the University of Zurich, show that digital coaching is just as effective as personal coaching. This is consistent with the findings of a 2021 meta-study on the effectiveness of digital psychotherapy.
Digital employee coaching can also reach more people in the company than personal one-on-one coaching. This makes it possible to coach entire teams, and when a digital coaching app is used throughout the company, the corporate culture is positively influenced.

Coaching positively influences the mental and psychological health of the participating employees.
Whether classical or in digital form, coaching promotes the ability for self-reflection and self-direction and thus increases the resilience of each individual in the team. With improved self-awareness, the ability to manage oneself is also built up – resulting in a decrease in subjectively perceived stress.
Coaching helps employees to cope better with the demands placed on them and thus makes a valuable contribution to promoting health in the company. However, coaching can neither replace a specialist diagnosis nor psychotherapy.

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