BAA Case Study

Coaching offers something to build on for BAA

BAA is one of the world's leading airport companies. Over a four-month period, Helen Dunlop, Organisational Design and Development Consultant at BAA and an i-coach masters graduate worked alongside a team of workers responsible for the build of Heathrow's Terminal 5 (T5) on a team coaching research programme. Read about the effects of team coaching on those involved.

Think of the construction industry and a picture of a strong man in a check-shirt and a hard hut clutching a mug of tea springs to mind. This is the day-to-day reality that people see. And whilst the check-shirts and hard hats may never disappear, the overall appearance of the construction industry is changing for the better as an increasing number of companies are seeing the benefits of investing in skills, innovation and training to deliver a better service to their clients.

One of the things about a construction project is that often the firms involved are coming together for the first time and increasingly, organisations are recognising the importance of creating good working relationships between the multiple suppliers they are working with to achieve the final and optimum result within time, budget, costs and to a high quality, regardless of the company hat worn.

BAA is one such organisation and over a four month period, Helen Dunlop, Organisational Design and Development Consultant at BAA and a masters graduate from i-coach academy, a world leader in the development of professional coaches, worked alongside a team of workers responsible for the build of Heathrow's Terminal 5 (T5) on a team coaching research programme.

Why Team Coaching?

Integrated teamwork forms part of T5's core business objectives and was considered so critical to the project that it has been incorporated into a contractual agreement with key suppliers.

It meant that T5 needed to explore a range of different options to develop and enhance integrated teamwork if they were to build an airport successfully. Team coaching was one option that T5 explored with 3 existing project teams over a 3-4 month timeframe. The following questions were posed in an effort to develop a comprehensive team strategy:

1. What perceived effects does team coaching have on the individual, the team and the organisation?

2. What happened in the team coaching sessions that contributed towards the effects reported?

The Impact

Effects reported by individuals and teams indicated that team coaching enhanced individual and team self-awareness. For individuals, they thought and did things differently, whilst for teams it enhanced inter and intra team working. The research was unable to determine the effects at an organisation level although two teams indicated that if the team benefits then the organisation must benefit too.

The Process and Effects

The team, the coach and the team coaching process were the three main factors that contributed towards the reported effects. For the team, by taking responsibility and accountability for their own actions, and for the coach, by enabling the team to develop their own solutions, adapting their style to meet the team's needs, challenging the team's thinking and focusing the team on their goals. The team coaching process allowed the teams to determine their own coaching objectives and reflect on their own insights and those of the coach's into their behaviour whilst working through the coaching model.

On average, only 40% of the team coaching objectives were achieved which does not appear commercially viable from an organisation's perspective. This is not surprising given that approximately 70% of the team coaching objectives are behavioural based and would probably take more than three 2 hour coaching sessions to successfully achieve. As one client indicated "we are never going to sort it in a forum like this as it's been an ongoing issue for at least 6 months on the project". This suggests that the teams may have used team coaching to help them figure out how best to address less tangible coaching objectives such as "build a stronger relationship with (our supplier)" and "build trust and openness within the immediate team" on which it is difficult to put a commercial value.

The Reality

For T5, as team coaching appears to have had a positive effect on integrated teamwork at the individual and team level. Helen Dunlop recommended that the organisation continues to use team coaching as an intervention.

Critical to the success of team coaching at T5 is the need to employ coaches with a similair philosophy and skills as those used by Dunlop and her co-coach. Furthermore, teams need to be willing to take responsibility for their own learning and actions and that they understand that the coach does not provide them with the answers to their issue, they do.

In order to get maximum value from team coaching it may be worthwhile for T5 to gain momentum across the project by coaching other teams so there is a critical mass. As one person said "it would have been helpful if you had worked with other sub project teams to reinforce teamwork for the good of the project, relationship and communication across the project". For the organisation this will be a difficult decision - to choose between delivering the project on time and the costs and resources involved to coach teams.

What is clear is that coaching can indeed be usefully applied in the team context and regardless of the definition, appears to have perceived benefits for both individuals and teams at T5 in that it enhances inter and intra teamwork and provokes changes in individuals thinking and behaviour. It could well be an emerging field in its own right and here to stay, bringing the construction industry well and truly into the 21st century.