Team Coaching for an Uncertain and Evolving Future: A Human Approach to Transformation that Works

We’re living through a time when old maps no longer serve. Many leaders find themselves navigating shifting priorities, emergent tensions and increasing interdependence, without a reliable compass. Yet organisations are still trying to lead with outdated assumptions, about certainty, control and performance as the ultimate measure of success.

I believe we need a different approach. One that’s more human, more adaptive and more alive to the moment. One that recognises that change is not something to be ‘managed’, but something to be lived into, together. It calls for new ways of leading. Ones rooted in connection, learning and shared ownership. That’s where team coaching comes in. Team coaching isn’t a development trend. It’s a strategic necessity.

Beyond the performance trap

Much of what passes for team development is still anchored in the paradigm of performance: fix the dysfunction, align on goals, drive delivery. But in my experience, the teams that truly transform - the ones that grow, innovate and lead change - don’t do so by trying harder or pushing faster. They do so by expanding their collective capacity to think, feel and act together in the face of challenge and change.

This is the heart of what I call an emergent approach to team coaching. Rather than following a predefined process or imposing an external framework, the coach works with what is present. What’s alive in the moment, in the space between people. This takes skill, presence and courage. It also unlocks powerful insights that would otherwise stay hidden: undercurrents, tensions, limiting assumptions, and possibilities waiting to surface.

When we let go of the need to control the process, we create space for something new to emerge.

The future needs teams that can make sense of the world together

The real work of teams isn’t just about execution, it’s about making sense of complexity together. In a context of constant change, that means helping teams evolve not just what they do, but how they see, relate and make decisions.

This is where vertical development comes in. While traditional (horizontal) learning adds new tools and knowledge, vertical growth develops the capacity to hold multiple perspectives, sit with uncertainty and act from deeper awareness. In other words, to lead from a more mature place.

For teams, this means moving from compliance to collaboration, from politeness and surface-level discussion to more meaningful, generative dialogue, and from siloed thinking to shared sensemaking. It’s not always comfortable; but it is transformational.

Why it matters now

The case for this work isn’t just conceptual; it’s business-critical. Organisations that want to thrive in the future will need teams that are:

• resilient in the face of uncertainty

• agile in decision-making and direction-setting

• honest and courageous in addressing what’s really going on

• able to hold both performance and purpose

• capable of nurturing cultures where people belong, contribute and grow

And the research backs this up. Various studies show that less than 20% of teams operate at high effectiveness. That’s a lot of untapped potential—and a lot of opportunity for organisations willing to invest in deep, systemic development.

Team coaching as a strategic capability

This isn’t about soft skills. It’s about building the strategic capacity of the organisation through its teams. Not just by driving results, but by creating the conditions in which real collaboration and innovation can happen.

That’s why team coaching needs to move out of the margins and into the mainstream. It needs to be part of how we think about leadership, transformation and the future of work, especially in organisations that are serious about sustainability, inclusion and social impact.

Team coaching is not a panacea. It’s not quick or neat. But it is real. It meets people where they are, supports teams in navigating uncertainty from a place of honesty and shared purpose, and it helps organisations become more human in a world that desperately needs it.

A story of what’s possible

I was invited to work with the executive team of a large, newly formed organisation, created by merging several previously separate entities. On paper, the team looked strong, with ten highly capable leaders, each with deep functional expertise and impressive individual track records.

But in practice, the team was stuck. Meetings were civil but stiff. Conversations focused on reporting, not relating. Decisions were made outside the room. Nobody talked about what wasn’t working. They were, in effect, a group of individual contributors performing in parallel rather than a collective leadership team.

Through coaching, we slowed the pace and created space to surface what had been pushed aside: the discomfort of leading in unfamiliar territory, unspoken tensions, and uncertainty about shared direction. It wasn’t quick or comfortable, but over time, something began to shift.

Team members stopped hiding behind slides and started speaking from experience. They began to listen with curiosity rather than judgement. Conversations moved from polite updates to real dialogue. One person described it as “finally stepping out from behind the curtain.” The team began to make sense of their context together, not just reacting to pressure but thinking strategically and collectively.

Yes, performance improved. But more than that, the team rediscovered their sense of purpose, connection and agency. They started leading together.

Leading from here

The future of work calls for teams that can relate, reflect and respond together. So for those leading or sponsoring teams, some useful questions to consider might be:

How much space does your team have for reflection, not just reaction?

What might be going unspoken beneath the surface of your team’s conversations?

Are you relying on process and structure, or building the relational capacity to navigate the unknown together?

What could be possible if your team slowed down enough to listen, sense and learn?

Looking ahead

The teams that will lead us into the future won’t be the most controlled. They’ll be the most connected. They’ll be the ones who know how to listen deeply, make meaning together, and act with courage and care.

That’s the promise, and the practice, of emergent team coaching. Not to fix teams, but to help them become more fully themselves. To trust what’s trying to emerge. To lead not just with strategy, but with soul.

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Georgina Woudstra has been at the forefront of the Team Coaching movement since it emerged in the 2010s. As an executive coach in the early 1990s, she realised that teams, rather than individual leaders, are the key to creating lasting organisational change. Through her own reflective practice, she also concluded that classic team facilitation and workshops, whilst valuable in certain contexts, can’t deliver sustainable transformation. That only comes when coaches are ready and able to work ‘emergently’: tapping into the group’s potential in real-time, even as the heat rises. It was an approach that Georgina had been honing as an in-house team coach since 2012 and it led to the creation of her Team Coaching Studio in 2017. In 2022 she was one of the first coaches in the world to be awarded the ICF Advanced Certification in Team Coaching (ACTC). Georgina is also the best-selling author of Mastering the Art of Team Coaching (second edition), a comprehensive guide for any coach seeking a flexible, forward-thinking approach to facilitating long-term team development.