With Georgina Woudstra and Allard de Jong
Episode 31 of the Teams Transformed Podcast
About Teams Transformed
Teams Transformed is the podcast for courageous coaches, curious leaders, and anyone passionate about unlocking the true power of teams. Hosted by TCS Founder and Senior Faculty Georgina Woudstra and Allard De Jong, listen to explore transformational insights on how to coach teams with presence, depth, and emergence, diving into not just the tools, but the art of team coaching itself.
About this episode
A brand-new series from Teams Transformed begins here! In this opening conversation, Georgina Woudstra and Allard de Jong invite listeners to explore one of the most important questions in team coaching: what is the difference between helping a team work better and actually transforming the way it leads?
In this first episode, Better Meetings, Same Team, Georgina and Allard explore why improving team effectiveness does not necessarily mean transforming a team. Organisations frequently invest in workshops, facilitation and team development activities to improve meetings, strengthen communication and establish shared ways of working. While these interventions can be valuable, Georgina and Allard question whether they create the deeper shifts needed for teams to operate differently.
This first episode sets the tone for the brand-new series: an invitation to look beyond surface-level improvements and explore what makes genuine transformation possible. It reminds us that the seeds of change are often found in the here and now, in the conversations, relationships and emerging dynamics that teams might otherwise overlook.
Key Themes Explored in this episode
Improvement Is Not the Same as Transformation
The hosts distinguish between helping teams become more effective at what they already do and fundamentally changing how they understand themselves, their purpose and their collective leadership. Better meetings can be valuable, but they do not automatically create a different team.
From Functional Leaders to Enterprise Leadership
Senior leadership teams often consist of highly successful individuals who continue to identify primarily with their functional responsibilities. Transformation requires them to move beyond their individual departments and begin thinking, deciding and acting as collective enterprise leaders.
Why Workshop Success Doesn't Always Last
Teams can experience meaningful connection and collaboration during retreats or facilitated sessions, only to return to familiar behaviours when they re-enter the everyday organisational environment. The hosts explore how different contexts can activate very different ways of working together.
The Wider Context Shapes Team Behaviour
The physical environment, organisational pressures, meeting structures and expectations all influence how teams interact. Transformational change requires teams to recognise these conditions and take responsibility for creating an environment that supports the work they need to do.
Mindset Shifts Go Beyond Behavioural Agreements
Creating team charters, establishing norms and agreeing on new behaviours can be useful starting points. However, lasting transformation requires deeper individual shifts in identity, mindset and the way leaders understand their contribution to the collective.
The Double Task: Content and Process
Georgina and Allard explore the importance of paying attention to both what a team is discussing and how it is having the conversation. While teams naturally focus on tasks, priorities and technical challenges, their underlying relational processes often hold the key to deeper development.
Developing Team Process Awareness
The hosts share an example of inviting a team to step back and observe its own conversations. This helped members recognise patterns of caution and avoidance, creating a new shared language around process awareness and opening the door to more meaningful development.
Awareness Creates the Possibility of Choice
Recognising established patterns is only the beginning. Once teams become aware of how they operate, they can begin making different choices about how they communicate, address difficult subjects and show up for one another.
Individual Transformation Enables Collective Transformation
The way individual leaders see themselves and their professional roles can either support or limit the team's development. Becoming a more effective collective requires individuals to examine their own patterns and grow into the kind of team members the organisation needs.
Transformation Begins in the Here and Now
The hosts emphasise that the seeds of deeper change are often found in what is happening in the present moment. Coaches and teams need to remain attentive to emerging dynamics rather than focusing exclusively on predetermined agendas or planned interventions.
Key Takeaways
🌱 Better meetings do not necessarily mean a better team. Improvement and transformation require different levels of development.
🏢 Senior leaders need to move beyond their functional identities and embrace their responsibility as enterprise-wide leaders.
🔄 Sustainable transformation must extend beyond workshops and become part of the everyday fabric of organisational life.
🧠 Changing mindsets and professional identities is often more important than simply agreeing on new behaviours.
👀 Teams need to pay attention not only to what they discuss but also to how they have their conversations.
💬 Developing process awareness helps teams recognise patterns, including avoidance, caution and unspoken dynamics.
✨ Awareness creates choice, and choice creates the possibility of genuine transformation.
🤝 Individual development is essential to building a stronger collective leadership identity.
⚖️ Coaches need to balance attention to the team's stated agenda with curiosity about what is emerging in the here and now.
🌿 The seeds of transformation are already present in the conversations and interactions taking place within the team.
Why listen?
This is the beginning of a brand-new series of conversations about what it really takes to transform teams. If you've ever wondered why teams can attend inspiring workshops, agree on new ways of working and still find themselves falling back into old patterns, this episode offers a valuable perspective.
About your hosts
Georgina Woudstra is the Founder and Senior Faculty of Team Coaching Studio, an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC) with over 20 years of experience. Georgina is recognised globally as one of the leading lights in team coaching and was among the first coaches to receive ICF's Advanced Certificate in Team Coaching.
Allard De Jong is a seasoned leadership development expert with two decades of experience solving organisational 'people problems' and accelerating leadership development. He brings a unique perspective on transformative inquiry and divergent thinking to team coaching practice.
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