In our coaching practice, when we, Executive Coaching Network, Inc. (EXCN), deliver Strategic Team Coaching® we typically coach an executive team to formulate Team Agreements, Guiding Principles, Codes of Team Conduct, Standards of Behavior, or some similar set of cultural values that will determine what is acceptable, encouraged, tolerated, or unacceptable within their group. In the example above, we have used our own company values to illustrate what may be Inside and Outside the Orbit™. Your team may have other standards Inside and Outside the Orbit.™
This concept gives a language, a vernacular, a shorthand to use when either complimenting or calling someone out—as in, “Thank you for staying Inside the Orbit in that difficult situation,” or as in, “What just happened was way Outside the Orbit.” The latter is easier, more polite, and more quickly understandable than saying, “You are a jerk,” or even, “Stop behaving that way.” The Orbit gives the team a way to remember and refer to their team agreements.
The Orbit can be used both as a concept and as a visual as seen above.
Does the team you work in have a set of behavioral norms? What does the team say to keep people accountable to them?
