Team Ahoy! When Changes of Perspective Clarify the Course

Team Ahoy! When Changes of Perspective Clarify the Course

How a digital constellation with the "Team Ahoy" positioning card helped a project team realign...

Starting point: new leadership, new members, and many open questions

A project team from a mid-sized company approached a systemic coach to reflect on current tensions and uncertainties in the team. A new team lead had been appointed, and a new member had recently joined. The project kept running, but the collaboration stalled: unspoken role images, missing orientation and the impression of "not pulling in the same direction" hung in the air.

In four coaching units, the coach accompanied the team with the digital method positioning card "Team Ahoy" by coachingcard, run via coachingspace. The metaphor of the sailing ship served as a space for reflection, realignment and a shared vision.

Four steps to clarity: how the coaching unfolded

1. Analyzing the current situation: the team on the sea of the present

In the first session, all team members positioned themselves freely on the digital card: the ship, the ocean, the horizon.

• Timo, the new team member, placed his figure outside the ship. He saw the team but did not (yet) feel part of it.

• Andrea, an experienced employee, placed herself in the middle of the working area. She described "holding a lot together" but also wearing herself down between expectations.

• The team lead stood on the observation deck. She did not want to "stand in the way" but keep the overview.

This first constellation showed: the team was functional but not aligned. A shared understanding of roles, goals and belonging was missing.

2. Hypothesis-based intervention: making patterns visible

In the second session, the coach brought in systemic hypotheses, which were examined and deepened in the coaching process:

• Maybe an unspoken "inside-outside" logic exists in the team?

• Is leadership perhaps understood as "withdrawal" instead of orientation?

• Is performance tied too much to individual responsibility instead of shared goals?

Targeted systemic questions such as "What would have to happen for you to place your figure on the ship?" or "Who is at the helm right now, and is that intended?" sparked lively dialogues. The digital work with the figures helped make different realities visible, without talking directly about individuals.

3. A desirable future picture: from fog to clarity

In the third session, the team developed a shared vision: what should the collaboration ideally look like?

• Timo placed his figure on deck, right next to another team member, looking forward.

• The team lead now stood at the helm, wanting to give clearer direction.

• Andrea moved slightly to the side: not out of the center, but with room for others.

This new constellation felt coherent. The image emerged of a team picking up speed together: everyone with a clear role, with closeness, communication and eyes on the goal.

4. Deriving an action plan: putting concrete steps on the way

The new picture did not stay abstract. In the fourth session, concrete measures were agreed:

• Weekly short check-ins for role clarification

• A structured onboarding for new members

• Clarification of decision processes by the team lead

The team saved the final figure scene as a snapshot in coachingspace: a visual picture of the future that serves as an anchor for further steps.

Why coachingspace and "Team Ahoy" worked here

Working with the "Team Ahoy" positioning card via coachingspace enabled a change of perspective at eye level. No presentation, no PowerPoint, but an interactive room in which the team could see, move and experience itself. The digital format made different viewpoints possible: from the perspective of the new colleague. From the perspective of the team lead. From the middle of the team.

These changes of perspective opened a dialogue that did not start with a focus on problems, but with curiosity about each other's views. The vision was not prescribed but developed by the team itself, and that is what makes it effective.

Systemic coaching: hypotheses, questions and the space in between

Systemic coaching does not work with recipes but with hypotheses. It does not ask "What is wrong?" but "What is affecting whom, and how?".

The systemic hypotheses used here were provisional assumptions about interactions in the team. The questions served to test, differentiate or discard them. The team's autonomy always stays at the center: the coach creates a room in which reflection becomes possible, without dictating the direction.

Conclusion: a clear course instead of a stiff breeze

"Team Ahoy!" became the emblem of a team that wants to navigate together. The positioning card helped make the unspoken visible, and opened the room for real connection, responsibility and change.

✨ Curious?

If you work with teams in search of orientation, or if you are a coach looking for a tool that enables dialogue in a new way: coachingspace offers you the right room, digital, intuitive and systemically grounded.

👉 Learn more about the positioning cards method and discover further tools at coachingspace.net