In a world that feels increasingly different from even five years ago—marked by rapid technological change, global divisiveness, and what some call “global inflammation”—organizations are grappling with crises of operating, meaning, and in some cases, existence itself. Yet within this turbulence lies an opportunity to tap into humanity’s innate capacity to thrive in more profound and deliberate ways than ever before.
This was the foundation of a recent panel discussion exploring how coaching can transcend its traditional one-on-one model to become a catalyst for systemic organizational change. The conversation brought together four thought leaders—Renee Moorefield, Breeze Dong, Sandra Colhando, and Caitlin Guilfoyl—to examine what it means to democratize coaching and use it as a lever for cultural transformation.
Embracing a World in Flux
The panel began by acknowledging the rapidly shifting landscape organizations now face. As Renee Moorefield, Wisdom Works CEO framed it, “For many reasons—whether it’s the rise of AI, divisiveness around the world, or changes in the political environment—the world feels different now…to many people than it did ten years ago, five years ago, even yesterday.”
This sense of “global inflammation” has left many experiencing not just operational challenges but crises of meaning and existence. Yet, as Renee emphasized, “We have an innate capacity to thrive…these capacities are a foundation for our ability to transform.” This moment, then, is a call to tap into our collective resilience more deliberately than ever before.
The Ripple Effect of Transformation
Transformation begins with a single individual but extends far beyond personal growth to create waves of systemic change. Caitlin Guilfoyle, a Modern Work Leader and Leadership Coach, reflected on this phenomenon, asking, “When we know the power that coaching can have on individuals, how can we use it to meet the conditions in which we’re operating at a more transformational and wider level?” Her observation highlights how coaching’s impact naturally expands outward, influencing teams, organizations, and even entire communities. In a time of widespread disconnection, this broader application becomes particularly powerful in bridging gaps and fostering a sense of belonging and purpose.
Sandra Colhando, Co-Founder of TransforMe Learning, reinforced this understanding of transformation’s cascading nature. Recalling her early days in coaching and how the field has matured, she noted, “We begin with one person, but true transformation demands collective shift.” The real power emerges when coaching becomes embedded in leadership habits and organizational norms through practices like peer coaching and real-time feedback. “Imagine how it becomes a systemic level operating system, where decisions are made in the spirit of coaching,” Sandra said. The magic, she observed, happens when leaders hold space for growth together, creating an environment where individual transformation becomes the foundation for collective evolution.
This ripple effect demonstrates that sustainable change doesn’t occur in isolation but spreads through interconnected networks of relationships, ultimately reshaping entire organizational cultures and communities.
Coaching as a Cultural Lever
Coaching is increasingly becoming a foundational element in how organizations operate, moving beyond individual development to influence the collective culture. As Breeze Dong, Enterprise Coach at Roche, observed, “If we could embrace coaching at a larger scale, more systemically, the coaching method could already become a strategic lever in a transformation effort.” By weaving coaching practices into daily routines, organizations create an environment where growth and adaptability are shared values.
A promising development in this area is the rise of peer coaching models. Rather than reserving coaching for senior leaders, organizations are democratizing these tools, enabling everyone to both coach and be coached with the right support and training. Breeze shared a compelling example from 2022, when a large-scale peer coaching initiative reached hundreds of colleagues through a digital platform focused on clarity of purpose. The results were striking: participants reported feeling more grounded and able to thrive in uncertain environments. Breeze explained, “It’s not like one leader having a great idea—it’s really about what’s the inner wisdom from a system that we could bring…to many, many colleagues.”
Caitlin reinforced the broader impact of this approach, noting that when coaching is embedded throughout an organization, its benefits ripple outwards—shaping not just individual growth, but also the environment and even the wider community: “The changes individuals make through coaching can influence how they operate throughout their world.”
By making coaching a core part of organizational life, companies empower everyone to participate in transformation, turning coaching into a true lever for cultural change.
Creating the Right Conditions
For systemic coaching to succeed, organizations need cultures that embrace what one panelist called “productive messiness”—environments where experimentation is encouraged, failures become learning opportunities, and people feel safe to be vulnerable about their fears, hopes, and purposes. This requires moving beyond the transactional dimension of work to what happens “from the neck down”—the emotional intelligence, feelings, and deeper motivations that drive 80% of human behavior but rarely surface in organizational settings.
The panelists also agreed on the important of developing not just self-awareness, but system awareness—the ability to sense and respond to what’s happening within the broader environment. As Sandra asked: “What would happen if everyone paused, reflected, and asked powerful questions all the time, without an external agency doing that for them?” As organizations become more complex, the panelists agreed that leaders must cultivate this deeper sensitivity, using coaching to foster adaptability, empathy, and shared purpose.
However, significant barriers stand in the way of achieving systemic impact through coaching. The panel identified several challenges:
- Cultural resistance: Coaching is often still viewed as remedial rather than developmental, making it harder to position as a growth tool for thriving organizations.
- Leadership gaps: Many leaders lack firsthand experience with coaching’s transformative power, making them skeptical of investing in systemic approaches.
- Systemic immune response: Organizations naturally resist new approaches, especially those that are slow-paced and require sustained commitment before showing results.
- The complexity challenge: Leaders face an increasingly complex gap between their cognitive capacity and the systems they must navigate.
Paradoxically, this complexity challenge represents both a barrier and a compelling opportunity. Traditional coaching models may need to expand to include what Caitlin called, “complexity coaching”—helping leaders recognize when challenges are adaptive rather than technical and developing their capacity to work with ambiguity and uncertainty rather than trying to simplify it away.
The key to overcoming these barriers isn’t to fight resistance but to work through it—naming resistance early, understanding who benefits from current systems, and treating resistance as valuable data rather than failure. Organizations that successfully navigate these challenges create environments where coaching becomes embedded in how work gets done, where powerful questions become second nature, and where the capacity to work with complexity becomes a competitive advantage.
Starting Where You Are
While the vision of systemic coaching may seem daunting, the panelists emphasized that transformation often begins with a single person willing to be the architect of change. The question isn’t whether your organization is ready for a comprehensive coaching culture—it’s where you can start and what you can do from your current position.
This might mean going where the energy is rather than trying to mandate change from the top down. It could involve starting with emerging leaders who are hungry for development. Or it might begin with simply asking better questions: What does it mean for us to thrive? How might we support each other’s growth? Where do we see signs of the capacity we want to cultivate?
The Path Forward
The conversation revealed that we’re still in the early stages of understanding how to use coaching for systemic impact. There are no perfect blueprints to copy and paste from one organization to another. Each system is unique, requiring thoughtful design that considers its specific culture, challenges, and aspirations.
What’s becoming clear is that the future of coaching lies not in choosing between individual and systemic approaches, but in understanding how they complement and amplify each other. Individual coaching remains essential for deep personal transformation, while team and peer coaching create the conditions for collective shift.
As Renee Moorefield observes, “This time is calling us to tap into these capacities to thrive, in a much more profound and deliberate way than ever before.” The complexity and pace of change we face today demands that we move beyond traditional approaches and embrace the full spectrum of coaching possibilities.
The conversation continues, and perhaps that’s exactly as it should be. In a world of rapid change and increasing complexity, our approaches to development and transformation must remain dynamic, emerging, and responsive to what each system needs to truly thrive.
How will you answer this call? We invite you to join this evolving conversation about the future of coaching. Connect with us to share your experiences, challenges, and discoveries—or gather your colleagues to explore what it might mean for your organization to tap into these capacities in a more profound and deliberate way.
