Danes and deep theory, videos and Foucault, and other things: reflections from the EMCC conference
What is the optimum size of a coaching cultured company? This was one of the questions that emerged for David Megginson, European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) ambassador and co-founder, at the EMCC´s annual conference last month.
He reflects on six themes from the conference: the learning philosophy of coaching scheme designs in organisations; transformational creation of coaching cultures; positive psychology; Danes and deep theory, videos and Foucault; the relationship between refreshment and goals, and “the quiet radical”, Nancy Kline. He shares his reflections below.
On the learning philosophy of coaching scheme designs
Professional services business PricewaterhouseCoopers ´(PwC) programme was brilliantly supported with a multiplicity of roles – just in the coaching component of the programme there were individual coaches, partner coaches, team coaches, peer coaches and project coaches.
German insurance company ERGO´s programme, by contrast, emphasised that less might be more: there was no chasing after competencies, the ownership of content and process was handed to participants, and an emphasis on feedback. The feedback was needed because senior executives were seen to operate, as it were, in a flotation chamber, where they received no external feedback – this leads to a tendency to hallucinate. Its learning philosophy was a radical approach to handing to participants the responsibility to make their own programme.
Mental health organisation Five Boroughs partnership NHS Trust´s CEO Simon Barker talked candidly about his journey from “tyrant to transformer”, and the part that coaching played in this journey. Tracy Hill, the trust´s HR director, showed how coach development and change in leader behaviour was seen to contribute to creating a coaching culture.
On transformational creation of coaching cultures
Although all three were contributing to developing coaching cultures, only the smallest of these organisations, Five Boroughs, was formally aspiring to create a coaching culture. This raises for me the question of what is the optimum size of a coaching cultured company. Chief executive and board support, breadth and depth of internal coach development, and integration with other initiatives came through in each of these accounts.
On relationship between refreshment and goal
Sam Chittenden’s session was about dwelling on possibility, exploring the use of poetry in coaching. Her gracious, coherent, illustrated session, created a balm of refreshment where ‘great writhing words as, uttering overmuch stood helplessly before the spirit at bay’. (e. e. cummins). Nancy Kline pointed to the place of silence in allowing magnificent thinking from the people we work with. By contrast, Mika de Waart sought to advocate both using goals and being refreshed: to me this proved a contradictory and implausible impossibility.
On positive psychology
Roberto Luma made a coherent account of positive psychology, as well as presenting data on the impact of talent management processes. A deep engagement with positive psychology came from a half-day workshop from Lucy Ryan before the start of the conference. She explored strengths, emotions and motivation using creative tools and alternative diagnostics. My grumpiness about positive psychology, fuelled by reading Ehrenreich (2009) and Burkeman (2012), evaporated in the face of Lucy’s persuasive clarity.
On Danes and deep theory, videos and Foucault
I went to two sessions presented by Danish researchers. Morten Bertelsen illustrated the videoed coaching sessions he had recorded (using two cameras), and had us analyse what we saw – the range of responses from the audience highlighted the ambiguity of experience. Niels-Henrick Sørensen presented his work-in-progress analysis of supporting transformation of young people’s experience of school by encouraging ownership of their experience. This was done through an ‘externalising conversation’ and other approaches based on the work of Michael White. He also explored how the contribution of Karl Weick (1995) could add to his analysis. This was a tough, deep session that was also engaging and energising – as was the contribution of Serbian Jelena Pavlovic, on constructionist coaching. Transcripts from one group coaching session illustrated how changing the stories participants tell or act out leads to the establishment of new selves. I was greatly heartened by the quality and engagement of these researchers, and also troubled by their illustration of the intuitiveness of much that we do in coaching and mentoring. In a sense, it seems that Foucault (1979) lives.
On the quiet radical
Whether we were familiar with her work or not, few could fail to be impressed with the clarity and touching candour of Nancy Kline´s presentation. For me, hearing her this time in the context of other sessions in this conference, I was struck by how radical her message is. So many people talking about coaching and mentoring emphasise the need for the coach to understand and empathise. Nancy is clear that what is important is not coach understanding, but coachee understanding. Or, as I heard Benjamin Zephania, the Caribbean performance poet, put it, ‘what I want is over-standing.’ Having heard Nancy’s session I wrote this haiku:
Frail strength, your small voice.
Resonates in head and heart.
Leaves fall in Basque dawn.
David Megginson is emeritus professor of HRD at Sheffield Business School.
References
Burkeman O. 2012 The antidote: Happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking. Cannongate, Edinburgh.
Ehrenreich B. 2009 Smile or die: How positive thinking fooled America and the world. Granta, London.
Foucault M. 1979 Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Vintage, New York.
Weick K.E. 1995 Sensemaking in organizations. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.