CTC CTC Organizational Culture & Systems Thinking 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In systems thinking, what does 'emergence' refer to in a team coaching context?
- Individual members becoming more confident over time
- New properties or behaviors that arise from team interactions that cannot be predicted from individual members alone (Correct answer)
- The emergence of a new team leader
- A crisis that forces the team to adapt quickly
Correct answer: New properties or behaviors that arise from team interactions that cannot be predicted from individual members alone
Emergence describes how team-level behaviors, culture, and outcomes arise from interactions between members in ways that transcend any individual contribution.
Question 2: Which of the following BEST describes a 'mental model' as used in organizational systems thinking for team coaching?
- A diagram of the organization's reporting structure
- Deeply held internal images, assumptions, and generalizations that influence how people see the world and act (Correct answer)
- A cognitive assessment tool used in hiring
- A visual map of team member strengths
Correct answer: Deeply held internal images, assumptions, and generalizations that influence how people see the world and act
Mental models are the often-unconscious assumptions and worldviews that shape how individuals and teams interpret situations and make decisions.
Question 3: A Certified Team Coach notices that a team consistently blames external factors for their failures. From a systems thinking perspective, this is best described as:
- Realistic assessment of environmental constraints
- A lack of systems awareness — the team is not seeing its own role within the larger system (Correct answer)
- Effective risk management
- A sign the team needs a new leader
Correct answer: A lack of systems awareness — the team is not seeing its own role within the larger system
Systems thinking teaches that teams are part of the systems they operate in and that blaming 'the environment' often masks a team's own contribution to outcomes.
Question 4: What is the role of a CTC when working with a team embedded in a dysfunctional organizational culture?
- Recreate the organizational culture to match the team's values
- Help the team develop awareness of how the organizational system shapes their behavior and identify what is within their sphere of influence (Correct answer)
- Advise senior leaders on how to restructure the organization
- Protect the team from all external cultural pressures
Correct answer: Help the team develop awareness of how the organizational system shapes their behavior and identify what is within their sphere of influence
A CTC helps teams understand the systemic forces acting on them and expand their capacity to act within — and potentially influence — the broader system.
Question 5: In Schein's model of organizational culture, which level is MOST difficult to access and change?
- Artifacts (visible structures and processes)
- Espoused values (stated strategies and goals)
- Basic underlying assumptions (unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs) (Correct answer)
- Organizational policies and procedures
Correct answer: Basic underlying assumptions (unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs)
Basic underlying assumptions are the deepest level of culture — unconscious, rarely questioned beliefs that drive behavior and are the hardest to surface and shift.
Question 6: Why is understanding 'feedback loops' important for a Certified Team Coach?
- To know how often to request client satisfaction surveys
- To recognize how team behaviors are reinforced or counteracted by the systems and responses around them (Correct answer)
- To create structured performance review cycles
- To determine the frequency of coaching sessions
Correct answer: To recognize how team behaviors are reinforced or counteracted by the systems and responses around them
Feedback loops in systems thinking show how outputs of a team or organization circle back to influence future inputs, either amplifying or stabilizing behaviors.
CTC CTC Organizational Culture & Systems Thinking 1
In systems thinking, what does 'emergence' refer to in a team coaching context?