158 50 TOPEXECUTIVECOACHES
organizations back from change is fear and threat. The organization must be
able to trust in the leadership and the coach before that fear and threat can
be transformed into enthusiasm and commitment.
Tr ust is the foundation of any successful coaching engagement. The qual-
ity and impact of what emerges is directly related to the quality of the rela-
tionship. In one-on-one coaching, trust is established through open and
honest communication. The organizational change coach is ultimately a fa-
cilitator of that trust on a larger scale. By acting as a roving go-between
with a clearly defined mission, the coach is constantly working to uncover
hopes and fears, to surface hidden dialogue, and to engage in critical con-
versations that lead to a shared agenda, deeper commitment, and greater
alignment. In a sense, the coach is trying to engage the organization in a sin-
gle powerful conversation that will produce a sense of click—the feeling
that everyone is onboard, that all obstacles have been acknowledged, and
that for ward momentum is unstoppable.
Tr ust also must be validated in the long run. The coach is also there to
make sure that the promises and commitments made around the change are
fulfilled. It’s all too easy for such lofty goals to be lost in the distance be-
tween vision and reality. But an organization will not sustain the impact of
change without making sure that those promises are met.
The Learning Agenda
The future of coaching for organizational change is linked to the new pres-
sures that organizations are experiencing. Five years ago, the emphasis was
on rapid growth, total quality, leadership development, and customer inti-
macy. In the last three years, organizations have dealt with a radical down-
sizing oftheir strategies and development plans, which, in some cases, came
at the expense of earlier initiatives. As we enter a new and hopefully smarter
period of growth, many leaders are concerned with developing the organiza-
tional discipline to convert ideas into action. They want to get better at gen-
erating innovation while increasing productivity. In other words, the goal is
to develop ideas that are sustainable, where the benefits can be reaped for
a long time.
Organizational change coaches are well suited to facilitate success in this
new direction. By definition, they work at providing long-term capabilities,
not quick fixes. Indeed, sustainability is a hallmark of their success. To
achieve that sustainability, the coach knows that it is not just the change that
is valuable, but the learning that occurs along the way. Every conversation
the coach has with the members of the leadership team and the passionate