Team Coaching

Is your team unsure of what’s needed to advance your mission-critical work? Team coaching can help your team navigate uncertainty, move toward your purpose, develop effective systems, and resolve conflicts.

When teams get mired in conflict or stuck spinning their wheels, it can make it hard for members to want to come back and stay in the work. 

Team coaching can help.

Effective teams are an essential component of liberatory change work. As Michael Strom says,

There’s no path to liberation that doesn’t go through teams. The power to reshape our world is something we have to build *together*.  

Unfortunately, most of us aren’t taught how to build effective teams.

Team coaching can help.

Team coaching can support teams to:

  • Get unstuck from disagreement

  • Increase team adaptability in fast-paced environments  

  • Navigate moments of change and transition 

  • Clarify team purpose, roles, and responsibilities 

  • Agree on communication norms and standards

  • Debrief complex, emotionally charged campaigns or projects

  • Repair ruptures in ways that leave the team stronger

  • Distribute leadership among all team members

I’d love to work with your team to support your overall work together. 

A typical contract includes three phases of work:

  • Orientation & Getting to Know Each Other

    Orientation includes an overview of what’s going on with the team and any contextual information for us to get started. Initial get-to-know-you sessions typically include a 1:1 with each member of the team to understand their perspective and introduce myself. Team convenings, retreats, and meetings may be involved.

    In this phase of the work, I am asking questions, listening, and learning. 

  • Verbal Recommendations & Action Planning

    I synthesize my learnings into verbal recommendations to share with you and the team. Recommendations may include my opinions paired with information and examples of what I observe or what I learned during orientation. We may begin verbal action planning by bringing the best of your team’s expertise together with my expertise as we chart a path forward.

    In this phase, I am sharing information, ideas, and resources. 

  • Implementation & Practice

    We create an implementation plan that brings together the best of our combined ideas and includes action items and practice opportunities.

    In this phase, I support the team and will continue to share recommendations, assessments, and action plans as needed until the end of our contract. 

  • “Mary Alice’s brilliance is the way she sets up team processes that people can grow into and learn. Team systems, process and a culture of doing work in teams is often an area that is overlooked.” 

    –Liz Pallatto, Training Director, Sierra Club

  • “Mary Alice has a knack for getting teams unstuck and on the same page.”

    –Jon Reed, Co-Founder diginomica

  • “Bridging the relational and meaningful, Mary Alice can bring generativity even to moments of stress. As a critical part of a team working to build a collaborative assessment at the Sierra Club during the heart of the covid pandemic, Mary Alice was able to bring a calm and empathetic air to calls, while moving the work forward. During stressful times, that’s exactly what so many people need. It’s a demeanor I witnessed in other spaces with her as well, and one I’d characterize as caring confidence. If you’re looking for someone to help move you and your teams towards where they need to go, I strongly recommend Mary Alice.”

    —George Chavez, former Sierra Club Senior People and Culture Analyst

Rates & Payments

I offer a sliding scale to make coaching more accessible. Folks who can pay more help make it possible for me to offer a range of price points. 

Sliding scale rates range from $10,000—$12,500 per team. A typical contract covers six months. 

 Final rates will be dependent on the agreed-upon role, scope, and resources of the contracting entity. Payment plans are available.

Team Coaching FAQ

  • Teams often ask their employer or fiscal sponsor for professional development funds to cover all or a portion of the coaching cost. Others pay out of pocket, from grant funds, or other sources. 

  • The ability to pay more may be indicated by comfortably paying your mortgage or rent, having access to inherited assets and/or wealth, an institution covering the cost of your coaching or holding privileged identities such as whiteness.

    If you are new to sliding scale rates or would like more guidance to consider your rate, the Green Bottle image and metaphor from Alexis J Cunningfolk may be a useful resource.

Connect with me

Let’s meet for a free one-hour discovery session.

  1. Use the link below to fill out an intake form to guide our conversation.

  2. Choose a time to talk.

On our call, we’ll explore your struggles.

Only one member of your team needs to submit an application and talk with me at this phase. Typically, this is a team leader. When we talk, I will listen to what’s going on with your team, and together, we will determine the best next moves, which may include an invitation to work with me.

I look forward to talking with you soon!