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The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of mindfulness in organizational development and provide a useful guide for practitioners in their work as managers, consultants and coaches.

The paper offers practical applications of mindfulness in organizations, specifically its use in leadership development, organizational wellbeing and coaching.

The paper notes a variety of ways in which mindfulness can be applied. While it recognizes that the research into the application of mindfulness at work is under developed, it suggests that through applied organizational research our understanding of its value to employees and organizations can be enhanced.

The paper provides insights drawn from practice that can be applied by HR practitioners or consultants addressing modern organizational challenges from workplace stress to developing leaders with greater situational awareness and empathy.

The paper is distinctive in providing a strong practitioners focus and from broadening the inquiry from the individual toward considering organizational benefits that may be obtained from workplace mindfulness programs.

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for knowledge synthesis, the production of written content and the delivery of coaching conversations.

The research employed the use of experts to evaluate the outputs from ChatGPT's AI tool in blind tests to review the accuracy and value of outcomes for written content and for coaching conversations.

The results from these tasks indicate that there is a significant gap between comparative search tools such as Google Scholar, specialist online discovery tools (EBSCO and PsycNet) and GPT-4's performance. GPT-4 lacks the accuracy and detail which can be found through other tools, although the material produced has strong face validity. It argues organisations, academic institutions and training providers should put in place policies regarding the use of such tools, and professional bodies should amend ethical codes of practice to reduce the risks of false claims being used in published work.

This is the first research paper to evaluate the current potential of generative AI tools for research, knowledge curation and coaching conversations.

Collaboration and psychological safety are key factors to effective teams. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) has emerged over the past decade as a development tool used in both educational and workplace settings for a range of purposes. In this study, the authors sought to investigate the impact of the experience of participating in a LSP away-day on the collaboration and psychological safety of the participants.

In this study the subjective experience of participants of LSP workshop awaydays using a coaching approach were examined through interpretative phenomenological analysis. Members of two teams were invited to participate in team awaydays and approximately six weeks later, they were invited to share their reflections on the experience and its impact on team relationships and team performance.

The interviews revealed that participants' felt experience of engaging with LSP was positive, created closer bonds within the team and a better understanding of each other and the challenges which the team were facing. Participants reported a tangible change in the way they are collaborating and engaging not only just with fellow participants but also with other colleagues.

The experience of the participants in this study supports the view that LSP can have a positive role to play in developing psychological safety and collaboration in organisational teams and that there was a lasting impact on group norms which was sustained after the event.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the growing science and application of mindfulness as an intervention within organizations.

This is the first in a pair of papers exploring the science and application of mindfulness in organizations. The first section of the paper provides a brief review of the research into mindfulness and its perceived benefits from a health perspective. In the second section, the author considers the neurobiological mechanisms behind mindfulness meditation, before finally considering the organizational research and the limitations of mindfulness at work research.

The paper notes that while there has been considerable research into health outcomes, organizational mindfulness research is still developing a comprehensive case for the wide-scale application of mindfulness.

The paper calls for greater research into organizational mindfulness interventions through collaborations between organizations and consultants.

The paper calls for organizations to adopt an evidence-led approach to using mindfulness and evaluate its impact on employees and organizational performance.

The paper provides a starting point for trainers and organizational development professionals to take stock and consider how mindfulness can be employed as a tool for the benefit of organizations.

The use of “homework”, activities outside of the classroom or session, is widely applied in a range of disciplines including teaching, therapy and training. The argument advanced by advocates is that it provides an opportunity to consolidate knowledge learnt in the classroom and develop mastery in an applied environment. However, the use of homework has not been widely discussed or researched within business coaching, which is a form of personal development. This exploratory study aims to examine whether homework, as a coaching intervention, may enhance the clients' learning experience.

Data were collected from eight early career coaches and eight coaching clients. Not all clients were related to the coaches. Each client had experienced a minimum of three coaching sessions. Interviews were recorded and analysed using thematic analysis. The study explored the use of (1) client-led, (2) coach-led and (3) collaboratively developed homework during the engagements.

The findings indicated that homework is widely used and was perceived to have mixed effects. The positioning of the homework by the coach, including the terminology used to describe the activity, and the type of work can affect the level of engagement and thus the perceived value generated.

This is the first study to explore the nature of “homework” in coaching. More work is needed to better inform the use of “homework” in coaching practice, including the type of work and how this is agreed with different types of clients, for example, should homework be coach, collaborative or client led?

To date, little research has been undertaken to test the effectiveness of team coaching, with past work focusing on models, frameworks and competencies. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of team coaching within real world organizational teams and its impact on individual perceptions of team cohesion and psychological safety.

A randomized control trial (RCT) using the comparable interventions: (1) team coaching (intervention) and (2) team facilitation (control) was employed with multiple teams and multiple facilitators, measuring the impact on team cohesion and psychological safety.

The data indicate participants engaging in the team coaching intervention made greater gains in terms of their individual perceptions of psychological safety and team cohesion than individuals who received the team facilitation intervention (T1–T2).

Facilitators should apply a team coaching approach when seeking to address issues of cohesion and psychological safety within workplace teams.

This study provides the first evidence, using an RCT method, of the effectiveness of team coaching as a workplace intervention for enhancing individual perceptions of psychological safety and team cohesion.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Dr Jonathan Passmore, one of the UK's leading coaches. He is a chartered occupational psychologist, an accredited AC coach, a coaching supervisor and fellow of the CIPD.

This briefing is prepared by an independent interviewer.

In this interview, Jonathan discusses the Association for Coaching's series of books on the topic of coaching, in particular, the most recent publication in the series: “Leadership Coaching”, which examines the models and techniques used to develop greater leadership in others through a coaching relationship.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

Before training as a psychologist, Jonathan worked in several senior management roles in the private, public and voluntary sector at board level. In this interview, he draws on his experiences both as an occupational psychologist and leadership coach, providing some interesting insights into the dilemmas and challenges which leader managers' face.

Executive coaching has become a popular leadership development tool over the past decade. To be effective, coaches need to reflect on the lessons from counselling research from the past four decades and on the emerging coaching research to develop coaching models that are evidenced based.

This paper reviews the growth in partnership working in public services and the associated demand for new forms of leadership in the public sector which respond to the different and more complex relationships within UK public services. These new demands require public sector managers to develop new skills for managing across organisational boundaries and in environments with multiple social goals and multiple stakeholders. The paper moves on to review the development of a new leadership questionnaire, which aims to help leaders reflect on their own leadership style and how they can strengthen their leadership within these emerging partnership settings.