Coaching and mentoring
I support individuals, teams and organisations to use creative and participatory methods to address complex issues with your colleagues, partners and community members.
Individual coaching and project mentoring are particularly effective ways to build capability and achieve positive results in co-design, strategic design, systems thinking and social innovation.
Co-design mentoring and coaching can help you to achieve:
excellent practice – build your ability, rigour and confidence to achieve effective, equitable outcomes.
ethical responsibility –reflect critically and gain clarity on how to care for everyone involved.
emotional endurance – moral support, guidance and validation, so you can navigate challenges and stay strong.
What it involves
The most important thing a coach or mentor does is listen deeply and ask good questions.
Not all co-design coaching and mentoring sessions look the same. Before we decide how to work together, we usually have a conversation to understand your needs, context, and the kind of support you’re seeking. Even within a session, I may check in about the role you want me to play in a particular instance.
Our sessions often involve a mix of:
Mentoring – sharing my experience and knowledge to provide inspiration, guidance or support. I may offer connections, strategies, tools and resources to support a particular project or activity.
Advising – making strategic, practical or technical suggestions. I can act as a sounding board, critical friend or thought partner. On request, I can review and respond to your work, e.g. by providing specific feedback on workshop design or invitations.
Coaching – facilitating a conversation where I listen attentively and ask questions that are designed to help you find the answers yourself.
Co-design coaching is NOT consulting (where I do the work for you), therapy (I’m not a qualified mental health practitioner), or career counselling (I’m happy to recommend other coaches if you’re interested in exploring a career change or advancement).
At the start of each session, I will ask what you want to focus on. Some people find it helpful to carve out a bit of space for reflection in advance of the session, in order to determine the focus that day and make the most of our time together.
Co-design coaching works best if you already have a foundational understanding and some experience in the field. If you’re new to design and innovation, you may benefit from beginning with training.
What to expect
If we work together in a coaching or mentoring partnership, you can expect:
I will ask you a lot of questions, both to ensure I understand how best to support you and to invite you to find the answers yourself.
I will keep our conversation confidential – unless there is something you ask me to share on your behalf.
You don’t need to keep our conversation confidential – unless I explicitly ask you not to share something.
I may take some notes and, where relevant, share these with you or follow up – but the responsibility for documenting sessions, taking action, and deciding what’s important lies with you.
You will get more out of the engagement if you reflect beforehand on the most important thing to bring to the session and what outcome you would like.
More details
After an initial scoping conversation, we can determine a mutually agreeable format, timing and frequency of sessions. These are usually held on Zoom, but could take place by phone or face-to-face in Melbourne.
Contact my team to explore options to meet your needs.
Wondering what my practice is? I’ve been trained and assessed in ICF-accredited coaching competencies. You can also read about my approach to co-design maturity, systemic design practice and ways of working. But don’t take my word for it…
Testimonials
How past clients have described working with me:
“Emma Blomkamp’s mentoring met me where I was at in my learning, and our gently curious conversations helped me stay aligned with the principles of co-design while encouraging me to experiment with new techniques. Emma’s conceptual clarity, practical knowledge, and broad networks have been a brilliant resource for my co-design practice ... and expanded my approach as a leader and facilitator. ”
— Zenaida Beatson, Director + Designer, For Purpose
“Emma began mentoring me in April 2022... With a background in consumer engagement more broadly, I was hoping to deepen my understanding of co-design, both in the public health sector and beyond, build my capability to lead large-scale co-design, and coach others to feel equipped to co-design themselves. Although this is a big ask of a mentor, Emma provided this and more in our sessions together.
Emma’s warm coaching style of mentorship, and willingness to share her vast co-design expertise, has really supported my development personally and professionally. I couldn’t recommend Emma’s mentorship sessions or courses more to those looking to develop their co-design practice.”
“What I got out of just the first session was enough value to justify the cost of the entire 5 sessions...
The longer term impact that coaching had on the quality of my work and my thought processes was unbelievable. I really don’t want to exaggerate it. I felt more confident communicating my work, more assured of myself in client meetings and vastly more efficient with my time without decreasing my effectiveness on projects.”