The team leader was the first female CIO in the hospital and also the first African-American CIO. The hospital saw the team leader as a rising star and wanted her to transition successfully into her new role. Failed leader transitions are a major risk in organizations yet this hospital system fortunately invested proactively to support success by securing an executive coach to work with the CIO and also a 6 Conditions team coach to coach the team. The team coach was signed for a 6 month cycle of coaching which was extended an additional 3 months for a total of nine months.
The leadership team consisted of the CIO and 6 additional leaders each leading their own team in turn. The team was still in the forming stage and was more of a group working in a siloed manner than as an interdependent enterprise-focused leadership team. The team met weekly and had a tight agenda with 5-7 minutes of updates from each team member. The team was generally supportive of the CIO, though she had been a peer and was younger than a number of the team’s members. The CIO’s “honeymoon” period was ending and she needed to quickly build trust with the team, respect for her authority and to align them to lead a transformation agenda in support of the organization’s growth trajectory.
The 6 Conditions team coach engaged the team over 9 months in a series of coaching sessions that varied from 1 hour to 3 hours roughly every 6 weeks. The team participated in a 1-day team formation and launch retreat at the beginning of the process. All sessions were in person for the first 6 months and then virtually following the onset of the pandemic. 1-to-1 coaching sessions were also provided throughout the process for the CIO. Following are before and after snapshots of the team’s progress over the course of the 9 months on the Team Diagnostic Survey:
Improvement was observed in almost all elements of the 6 Conditions model with performance improving by over 50%. Some highlights from the process were: