Coaching at Work annual conference: Languishing to Flourishing, online, 23 November, 2021
Alister Scott opened his session by stating the noble intention of his work – to make the world a kinder place by bringing compassion into organisations. He then invited participants to reflect on the provocative question in the title of his talk: “Do you really care?”
He illustrated the meaning behind this question through the medium of storytelling. A group of sports coaches at a school were asked to reflect on what their coaching was all about. What were the qualities they wanted to develop in the children? What experiences did they want to give them? The kicker came when they were asked this: what is the first question you ask each other after a match? The answer was: “Did you win?”
Talking from his own experience of working in organisations he said it’s the same in these contexts – ‘people first’ may be an espoused value but it’s not lived. What seems to really matter is how much the commodity of performance can be maximised. He spoke about his work with ‘compassion circles’ in the NHS and the importance of stopping and reflecting together in teams, particularly in these times. Modelled on the work of Nancy Kline, he outlined a series of carefully structured processes designed for the workplace that focus on disrupting conversational norms, supporting participants to co-create a psychologically safe compassionate climate for optimal thinking.
Workshop participants were invited to engage in one of the experiential practices, meeting in pairs in breakout rooms, taking turns to be a ‘thinker’ and a ‘listener’. The questions we reflected on were ‘how can I take more care of myself?’ and ‘what one thing will I do?”
We then offered each other words of appreciation that were “sincere, specific and succinct”. Afterwards I felt very connected to my partner, someone I’d known for only a few minutes.