Team Coaching Psychology: Toward an Integration of Constructivist Approaches

Abstract

The field of team coaching has been a prominent one in the discourse of business practice and organizational life. However, this expansion of a new genre of psychological practice has not been equally followed in the academic discourse of psychology. In this paper an integrative framework of constructivist team coaching psychology is offered. Three psychological perspectives – personal and relational constructivist, systemic, and solution-focused – are elaborated as a basis for an integrative approach to team coaching. In the first part of the paper, current conceptual understandings of team coaching are reviewed. In the second part of the paper, three psychological perspectives on team coaching are presented, including their principles, models and techniques. Finally, a platform for an integrative team coaching psychology is offered. The three approaches provide a comprehensive platform for understanding teams and facilitating change in teams. Personal and relational construct psychology brings its robust theory of change that translates very well into the project of changing teams. A systemic approach to team coaching provides a rich resource for conceptualizing possible content areas in working with teams, and stresses the importance of disrupting teams so they learn how to adapt to wider systemic changes. The solution-focused approach to team coaching brings its simple methodology of facilitating incremental changes in appreciative ways. The proposed integration contributes to the theoretical elaboration of constructivist approaches to team coaching, as well as to innovating the practice of team coaches who may find the constructivist integrative approach an inspiring resource for developing teams.