A two-way street: A new take on the relationship between culture and conversation

For a long time, since we started our mission to improve the quality of every conversation in schools through coaching practices, we have focused primarily on the conversation at the granular and individual levels. Every day in schools around the world, conversations are at the centre of education. Highly skilled, experienced, and trained professionals create safe and happy environments for learning and development for children and young people. However, this is often not reflected in the adults in the organisation. In fact, teaching and education is one of the most overworked, under-resourced and pressured industries to be in. This leaves educators feeling overwhelmed, stressed and stretched. The question is…Can you have a system where the core culture is one of support and development?

Is it possible to have: 

• Trust and accountability

• Progress and reflection

• Structure and flexibility

This got us thinking… should we be paying all of our attention at the individual level?

We now propose a reciprocal model of coaching in education, a model that is influenced by culture at the organisational level and conversation and individual level that work together in a dynamic loop. This bidirectional or reciprocal nature is common in systems thinking, an interactionist approach that is often used to conceptualise a school’s ecosystem (Meadows, 2008; Spivack, 2021). 

In a coaching context, if conversations are the foundation stone of not only coaching practices in education but education itself then equipping members of the school’s ecosystem with the ability to have high-quality conversations will in turn prioritise meaningful interactions. At a systems level, this puts connection at the beating heart of the school whereby meaningful interactions through high-quality conversations become the default setting. Now, the following is where the magic happens…

Conversation

Built on principles of coaching

Connection

Systems and processes that support and prioritise connection

Culture

Shift to high-performing, motivated and effective teams.

If the default setting for a school’s ecosystem is driven by meaningful interaction and connection through high-quality conversation this reinforces the beliefs of the individuals that connection and conversation matter. Moreover, that connection and conversation hold great potential and are a vehicle for positive change and action. On the premise that beliefs and culture are inextricably linked, this causes a cultural shift in the educational organisation. A culture built on connection through high-quality conversation, whereby every conversation is of high potential and is used to drive positive change. 

So, far so good and, as per our latest impact report, this bottom-up process of generating cultural change through individual conversations has been successful. However, this process is unidirectional…

So, what if it was the other way round (top-down) making this a two-way street or, in other terms, a bidirectional reciprocal model? We now propose a flipped model whereby culture comes first. In this top-down flow, instead of bottom-up as previously, we see a culture that prioritises connection and then reinforces the need for high-quality conversations after the fact. 

By viewing conversations and culture as having a bidirectional relationship with connect at the centre or as the mediating factor that facilitates the relationship, we expect to see a realisation of coaching potential used to create an educational ecosystem that prioritises the growth and development of its people with continuous reflection and progress that navigates both structures regarding efficient systems with flexibility and the ability to adapt. This creates a culture characterised as resilient, honest and accountable with the potential for positive change for all members of the organisation, in this case, both students and adults alike.

Put simply, embracing this reciprocal model of coaching with conversation, connection and culture as the focus of the model, the benefits are expected to include: 

• Continuous learning, adaptation and growth

• Empowerment of the individual 

• Reinforcement of shared beliefs 

• Innovation and creativity 

• Cultural resilience 

• Enhanced social learning 

• Distributed leadership and collaboration 

• Increased value of feedback and psychological safety 

This conceptualised model at current is purely theoretical, as a result of observation and experience of implementing coaching cultures into educational institutions globally. We believe this reciprocal approach to coaching culture will empower all individuals, from leadership to the students we nurture daily. This now needs testing, to be explored and integrated. This is an opportunity to realise the potential of your people and your school. Coaching has the power to change. Every conversation counts.

References: 

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.

Spivack, M. (2021). Applying systems thinking to education: The RISE systems framework. Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE). https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISERI_2021/028.