Systemic Coaching for Executive Teams

A CFO and a CMO “just don’t get along.” Better conversations help for a week, then the same collision returns with the same heat — because it was never personal. It was structural.

~26 hours, self-paced 14 modules, 80 lessons Lifetime access
ICF CCE Pending 30.0 hours - 25 Core Competency + 5 Resource Development
Open early access - free.
Enroll while CCE accreditation is pending and the course is yours, free, for life.
Systemic Coaching for Executive Teams - Coaching the Collision

Coaching the people vs. coaching the system

The opening lesson. It’s the identity shift the rest of the course turns on.

Lesson 1.1.1 · Module 1: Coaching the Collision — the shift from coaching the people in the room to coaching the system in the room. Or browse the Tandem Coaching channel.

Read the system, don’t referee the personalities

The strong team-coaching models — ORSC/CRR, Hawkins/PERILL — are real and worth knowing. What this course adds is the one read they leave out: professional formation. Why finance and marketing collide is structural, and it’s coachable.

The default instinct

Coach the relationship. Smooth the friction.

  • Treats a collision as a communication or personality problem
  • Mediates a truce — and the same heat returns in weeks
  • Strong on system models, blind to why the friction recurs
  • Live-facilitation skills with no async way to build the read
Coaching the Collision

Read the system. Metabolize, don’t resolve.

  • Reads friction as two professional formations doing their jobs
  • Builds the team’s capacity to hold its tensions on purpose
  • Professional-formation literacy: the IMPRINT lens + trust currency
  • Inside ICF scope throughout — the system and its dynamics, never therapy

What changes in your team work after this course

Six practical shifts. Each is something you’ll do differently the next time you walk into a leadership-team session.

01

See the system, not the personalities

Read the team as a system that produces its own behavior — archetypes, the field, system and ghost roles — and tell whether you’re even looking at a real team.

02

Read the collision through formation

Use the professional-formation lens (the IMPRINT model) and trust currency to read why two executives collide — and recognize the recurring bilateral pairings at the top.

03

Map the team’s center of gravity

Name the dominant formation a team is built to hear, place each member with Kantor’s stances and domains, and see whose voice the system structurally suppresses.

04

Work the field — in ICF scope

Run constellations (Table Top, Magic Box, Solar System, Circle) and Deep Democracy / Perspectives to surface a suppressed voice without taking sides — all inside coaching scope.

05

Metabolize the collision, don’t resolve it

Plan and run an intervention that builds the team’s standing capacity to hold its tensions — and avoid the common failure: a sharp read betrayed by a fixing plan.

06

Walk away with The Executive-System Map

The capstone artifact: a reusable template you complete on a real, anonymized client system — roles, center of gravity, a named collision with each side’s trust currency, and a metabolize-not-resolve plan. The tool you reach for on a Monday.

Thirteen teaching modules, built on the four-move spine

See the System · Read the Collision · Work the Field · Metabolize, Don’t Resolve — worked in order, then together. Ending with The Executive-System Map, the signature artifact you complete on a real client system.

20h
ICF CCE pending
80
Video lessons
14
Modules
4
The move spine
~26 hours of video content; 30.0 instructional hours claimed for ICF CCE (25 Core Competency, 5 Resource Development). ICF approval pending.
00
Orientation & Coach Self-Diagnostic
The promise, the honest boundary, and the two-way door to ACTC
45 min · 3 lessons
What the course is and is not, the line between coaching the system and clinical work, and how this async course relates to live ACTC facilitation. A self-diagnostic surfaces how your own professional formation shapes who you hear in a room.
01
Coaching the Collision
The identity shift the rest of the course pivots on
2h · 6 lessons
The shift from coaching the people in the room to coaching the system in the room. The third entity, friction as the mechanism rather than the fault, and the four moves introduced as the spine of everything that follows.
  • The shift — people to system
  • The third entity: the relationship as a client in its own right
  • Personality conflict is a misdiagnosis
  • The four moves, introduced
02
See the System
The system produces its own behavior
2.25h · 7 lessons
Move 1 · See the System Read the team as a system that amplifies, suppresses, and repeats. Archetypes at the top, the field and who’s in it, system and ghost roles, the upper-echelons filter, and the first honest question: is this even a real team?
  • What the system produces that no individual chooses
  • System roles and ghost roles
  • The upper-echelons filter
  • Real team, or team in name only
03
Professional Formation: The Lens
What formation is, and the waterline that holds it
2.5h · 8 lessons
Move 2 · Read the Collision The professional-formation lens — the IMPRINT model — and the single most useful read in the course: trust currency. What each profession was trained to trust, and how that currency shows up at the table.
  • What professional formation is, and the waterline
  • The IMPRINT dimensions
  • Trust currency as the working read
  • Reading the currency by profession
04
The Bilateral Collisions
The structure under the recurring friction
2.5h · 8 lessons
The collisions that recur at the top — Finance × Marketing, Legal × Tech, HR × Finance, and the rest — read as structure rather than temperament. The full collision map, and how to read a live collision in real time.
  • The high-impact pairings at the top
  • The full collision map
  • Reading a live collision in the moment
05
Formation Center of Gravity
The dominant formation a team is built to hear
2h · 6 lessons
Every team has a center of gravity — a dominant formation it is structurally built to hear, and others it discounts. The seven profiles, Kantor’s stances, domains, and operating systems, and how to map the room.
  • The seven formation profiles
  • Kantor stances, domains, and operating systems
  • Mapping the room’s center of gravity
06
Constellations I: Foundations
Externalizing the system — on the ICF-safe line
2.5h · 7 lessons
Move 3 · Work the Field Externalizing the system so the team can see it — the coaching use of constellations, kept firmly inside ICF scope. The three organizing forces, representative perception, and the four methods.
  • The ICF-safe line for constellation work
  • The three organizing forces
  • Representative perception
  • The four methods: Table Top, Magic Box, Solar System, Circle
07
Constellations II: Working the Team
The live setup and the signature integration
2.25h · 7 lessons
Running the method live, and the signature integration of this course: laying a formation read onto the table. Worked cases, when not to constellate, and how to debrief.
  • The live setup
  • Integrating a formation read onto the constellation
  • When not to constellate
  • The debrief
08
Perspectives & Deep Democracy
Surface the suppressed voice without taking sides
2.75h · 8 lessons
The five steps of Deep Democracy, amplifying the voice the system suppresses, and the question that moves a stuck team: “what do you need to come along?” Reading resistance early, and turning a collision into a workable polarity.
  • The five steps
  • Amplifying the suppressed voice
  • Reading resistance early
  • Collision into workable polarity
09
The Collision Below the Top
The same dynamics, one level down
1h · 3 lessons
A deliberate teaser How formation crystallizes, the same collision dynamics one level below the executive team, and where this work goes next — the deeper, per-role formation work that lives beyond this course.
10
Multi-Party Agreements & the Stakeholder Web
Client vs. sponsor, and the confidentiality lattice
2h · 6 lessons
The executive stakeholder web, the difference between client and sponsor, the designed team alliance, and the confidentiality lattice in a system where everyone has power over everyone. Re-contracting when the system shifts under you.
  • The stakeholder web
  • The designed team alliance
  • The confidentiality lattice
  • Re-contracting mid-engagement
11
The Boundary & the Ethics of the Formation Read
The scope line, drawn precisely
2.25h · 7 lessons
This is coaching the system and its dynamics — never couples, marital, family, or individual-clinical work. Five litmus tests, the work-system-versus-family-of-origin distinction, when and how to refer, whether to share or withhold the read, ICF ethics, and the coach’s own supervision practice.
  • The five litmus tests
  • Work-system vs. family-of-origin
  • When and how to refer
  • Sharing or withholding the formation read
12
Capstone: Map a Real Executive System
The Executive-System Map — the signature artifact
1.25h · 4 lessons
Move 4 · Metabolize, Don’t Resolve Build The Executive-System Map on a real, anonymized client system: roles and ghost roles, the center of gravity, at least one formation collision with each side’s trust currency, and a metabolize-not-resolve intervention plan. The brief, the rubric, and the formation-collision reflection.
  • The capstone brief and rubric
  • Building the map
  • The intervention plan
  • The formation-collision reflection
13
Course Completion
Resources, feedback, and your certificate
Closing · 3 lessons
The resource index, a place to leave feedback, and the steps to earn your certificate of completion — which carries the ICF CCE-Approved Program badge once accreditation lands.

Which competencies this course goes deep on

Of the 20 instructional hours, 16 are mapped to ICF Core Competencies. Here’s how the eight competencies show up across the systemic work — the ones the course goes deep on, and the one it deliberately leaves to live facilitation.

Evokes Awareness
Deepened
Listens Actively
Deepened
Establishes & Maintains Agreements
Deepened
Cultivates Trust & Safety
Deepened
Maintains Presence
Deepened
Embodies a Coaching Mindset
Deepened
Ethical Practice
Deepened
Facilitates Client Growth
Touched

Deepened means at least one full lesson teaches the competency directly. Touched means it shows up in a scenario or example — here, facilitating the team’s live growth is the next door (ACTC and supervised practice), so this course builds the read-and-plan skill that precedes it. A detailed lesson-by-competency map is included in your learner workspace once you enroll.

Who this course is for, and who it isn't

Two quick lists so you can self-select before you enroll.

For you if
  • You coach (or want to coach) leadership and executive teams, not just individuals
  • You’re ACC, PCC, or MCC — or pre-credential building hours — and your one-to-one skills don’t fully transfer to the room
  • You’re heading toward ACTC and want the read-and-plan foundation before the live-facilitation work
  • You keep meeting the same “personality conflict” and suspect it isn’t personal
  • You want professional-formation literacy on top of the system models you already know
Not the right fit if
  • You haven’t done coach-specific training yet — start with our Coaching Foundations course first
  • You want a couples-, family-, or therapy-style intervention — this is coaching the system and its dynamics, never clinical work
  • You want a facilitator to run the constellation for you — this builds your own read-and-plan skill; live facilitation is the ACTC door
  • You only ever coach individuals and don’t work with teams
  • You’re looking for live cohort sessions — this one is fully self-paced

Authored end-to-end by an MCC who coaches these rooms.

Not “led by” — written, recorded, and reviewed by a Master Certified Coach who coaches leadership teams and brings the systemic and formation work into live executive rooms.

Cherie Silas, MCC
Cherie Silas, MCC
CEO & Managing Partner, Tandem Coaching
ICF MCC EMCC ESIA CEC CPCC

Cherie co-founded Tandem Coaching and coaches executives and leadership teams, bringing relationship-systems methods and the professional-formation read into the room. This course fuses her Level 2 / ACTC systemic work with the formation-collision diagnostic — and it’s exactly why she teaches the boundary as a discipline: she has held the line between coaching the system and clinical work for years.

More about Cherie

What you get when you enroll

Self-paced, on your schedule

80 short video lessons across 13 teaching modules. Watch on any device, in the order the four-move spine builds — or jump to the move you need before a session.

Lifetime access

No 30-day, 90-day, or one-year limit. Come back to a module before a real engagement — a new team, a live constellation, a multi-party re-contract.

Certificate of completion

Finish the verification checks and submit The Executive-System Map capstone. You’ll get a shareable certificate of completion suitable for LinkedIn and L&D reimbursement.

Working tools to keep

The Executive-System Map template, the collision map, the formation / trust-currency reference, the constellation setup guides, the multi-party agreement and confidentiality-lattice templates, and the boundary litmus tests. Yours for every real engagement.

ICF CCE accreditation - pending
The CCE application for this course is in active review with ICF. While we're waiting, the course is free and stays yours, free, for life. Once ICF approves, the page will show the accredited CCE hour count and CC/RD split, and your certificate will be reissued with the ICF CCE-Approved Program badge.

Enroll free, keep it for life

One short form, no credit card. Your account is set up immediately - you can be in the first lesson within 60 seconds.

Enroll now and the course is yours, free, for life - even after we turn pricing on for new learners.

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Before you enroll

Is this really free? What's the catch?

Really free, no catch. The course is at $0 while its ICF CCE accreditation is in review. Pricing turns on once accreditation lands - and if you enrolled before that, the course stays yours, free, for life.

No upsell, no mastermind tier, no high-pressure sales call.

Will the hours count toward my ACC, PCC, or MCC renewal?

Once ICF approves the CCE designation for this course, the 30.0 instructional hours - 25 Core Competency, 5 Resource Development - will count toward your renewal CCE requirement. Pre-approval, completion still earns you the certificate and the learning, but the hours aren't yet claimable as ICF CCE.

Module 11 covers ICF ethics and the scope boundary in depth, anchored in real executive-team cases.

What's the framework, in plain English?

Coaching the Collision. The identity shift from coaching the people in the room to coaching the system in the room, built on one load-bearing principle: metabolize the collision, don’t resolve it. Your job is to help the team hold its structural tensions on purpose, not to smooth them away or referee a winner.

Every skill hangs on four moves, worked in order then together: See the System · Read the Collision · Work the Field · Metabolize, Don’t Resolve. Running under all four is the coach’s own discipline: Mind Your Own Formation.

Is this team coaching or executive coaching?

Both - it’s about coaching leadership and executive teams as systems. Whether you call yourself a team coach or an executive coach who increasingly works with whole teams, this gives you a way to read and work the system in the room rather than the personalities in it.

The reading and planning are coaching skills you build solo. Facilitating a live constellation in an executive room is the next door - that’s ACTC and supervised practice, named here as information, not a sale.

I'm not credentialed yet. Can I take this?

You can enroll, but the course assumes you can coach. If you haven't trained in the ICF Core Competencies yet, start with our free Coaching Foundations module on the ACC certification page - that gives you the grounding this course builds on.

If you're pre-credential building hours and have coaching foundations from elsewhere, you'll be fine.

How long does it take?

About 26 hours of video across 13 teaching modules; 30.0 instructional hours are claimed for CCE. With the capstone - building The Executive-System Map on a real, anonymized client system - most coaches spend a little more than that end to end.

It’s fully self-paced. There’s no deadline, and your access doesn’t expire.

What do I actually walk away with?

The tools you build and keep using:

1. The Executive-System Map - the signature artifact and capstone: a reusable template naming roles and ghost roles, the center of gravity, at least one formation collision with each side’s trust currency, and a metabolize-not-resolve intervention.

2. The collision map and the formation / trust-currency reference - the read, on one page.

3. The constellation setup guides, the multi-party agreement and confidentiality-lattice templates, and the boundary litmus tests.

4. A certificate of completion - shareable on LinkedIn; suitable for L&D reimbursement; carries the ICF CCE-Approved Program badge once accreditation lands.

How is this different from ORSC, Hawkins, or other systemic team coaching?

Those are strong models and worth knowing - no strawman here. What this course adds is one precise read they leave out: professional formation. Why finance and marketing collide, why legal and tech talk past each other, is structural - two formations each doing what they were trained to do. Read the trust currency under the friction and the collision becomes coachable.

It fuses Cherie’s Level 2 / ACTC systemic methods - constellations, Deep Democracy, system roles - with the formation-collision diagnostic. The wedge is the formation literacy, not a claim that the incumbents are wrong.

Does this make me an ACTC, or let me run constellations live?

No - and we’re honest about that. This course builds the read-and-plan skill: see the system, read the collision, design an intervention. Facilitating a live constellation in a real executive room is the next door, and it needs ACTC and supervised practice.

Think of it as the two-way door: this is the deepening that prepares you for ACTC, and a deepening for coaches who already have it.

How is this different from Tandem's ACC, PCC, or ACTC programs?

Tandem’s ICF Level 1 (ACC), Level 2 (PCC), and ACTC are credential-earning programs - months long, instructor-led, with practice sessions and mentor coaching.

This course is a self-paced specialization for coaches who already have foundations. It complements credential training rather than replacing it, and it’s a natural on-ramp to and deepening of ACTC.