As I write this article, we are only a few weeks out from the AGM on 7 September 2018, which signals the start of my year as President of ICF Australasia.
I figure there are two ways of looking at the next year, one, a year of never ending zoom meetings and an overflowing inbox or two, an exciting year of change for our organisation and professional coaching in Australia and New Zealand.
While the former is true, the latter is why I am involved.
By Dr Tony Draper MCC Change is the key message everywhere in today’s world, disruption the buzz word and it is no different in the coaching profession. To meet this challenge the International Coach federation (ICF) in Australia and New Zealand is embarking on exciting new initiatives in all three of its strategic platforms; Coaching Excellence, Member Engagement and External Stakeholder Engagement. On top of this we are going to be rolling out a new structure and way of operating that will better serve our members while driving efficiencies in our operation. The icing on this ambitious cake is we are also celebrating our 20th anniversary as a chartered chapter of the ICF. This is an important milestone as we are the second largest chapter globally and one of the oldest.
Operational Structure For years now ICF Australasia has been operating with a board and 10 branches with a couple committees and the odd project team when we have a conference or alike. It has worked at one level but also had its challenges. The challenge is that the chapter is spread across two large countries, 5 time zones and run by time-poor volunteers – well let’s face it, we were suffering from what many organisations face; poor communication lines, distrust and an “us and them” mentality. Jump in this year’s president, Melinda Horton, with a strong emphasis on building trust, collaboration, reducing duplication and things have started to turn around.
The key was the establishment of a project team to review the operational structure. This team has a come up with a new structure which is currently being shared with the board and branch leadership teams for comment and will be fine-tuned with an expected roll out over the next 12 months. The key features are the creation of a small statutory board (5 Members) which will focus on Finance and Governance and a new executive management team (EMT) made up of the statutory board and all the Branch Presidents. The EMT will be responsible to develop and implement strategy. We are also reshaping 3 director roles to align with our strategic pillars; Coaching Excellence, Member Engagement and External Stakeholder Engagement.
