A controlling and monitoring mechanism that has proven
sustainable in relational working alliances and now forms an
integral part of our toolkit is the model of ‚focus of
attention’ as adapted from the ‘seven-eyed process model of
supervision’ (Hawkins / Shohet, 2012: 85ff.) [7]. This
strategy is designed to run in seven modes and encompasses
the following relational elements:
1. The organization as a whole: focusing on what actually
happened in the OD process and what difference it
makes to the organizational structures, culture, seats of
power, etc.; learning to separate actual data from
preconceptions and interpretations
2. Coachee’s strategies, skills and actions: focusing on
what contributions the coachee made in the OD
endeavor; exploring other choices they might have made;
considering future situations and possible options and
their likely impact; experimenting in role play
3. The relationship between coachee and the organization:
focusing on the relationship the coachee and
organization are creating together in the transformed
organizational setting, seeing it afresh from a new angle;
considering how an outsider would experience the
relationship; what repeating patterns tend to occur in the
new organizational setting
4. The coachee: focusing on coachee as fractal of what is
happening in the organizational system; with a focus on
the OD endeavor exploring personal strengths and
resources / how the coachee’s own patterns may be
getting in the way; working through feelings that have
been stimulated and treating coachee’s feelings as data
that may help increase understanding of what is going on
in the OD endeavor