What are we noticing in the broad coaching system? FCC members Carol Braddick, Ingrid Pope and Alexandru Popa-Antohi report on a recent FCC workshop
On 20 January, via an open space session in London, a group of about 20 people including organisational sponsors of coaching, coaches, members of coaching bodies, and coaching academics (with some wearing multiple hats) gathered to explore what we’re noticing in the coaching system at large.
The Future of Coaching Collaboration (FCC) event was hosted by FCC director Louise Buckle from KPMG and facilitated by Sara Hope of The Conversation Space.
We mapped out the overall coaching system, recognising that technology vendors and coaching brokers also play an important part in this system, even if they were unable to join. Using open space techniques, we looked at key messages, assumptions, and concerns from our different positions in the system. We also explored important questions such as:
- What are the main opportunities and threats for coaching and how we can respond as a system?
- What can the FCC do uniquely?
- How can we enable greater collaboration and alignment across the different places and people in the system?
- As coaching is ever more widely embraced, is it at risk of becoming meaningless? What are the different understandings of coaching and its purpose?
- Is technology an enabler or a threat?
As we set out the different groups of the system within the space in the room, we found an image of a motorway helpful to identify how they were all interconnected. Traffic flows between each part of the system, with some routes more heavily used than others. We also noticed that some changes were underway, like:
- A new tech lane that offers people who want to get somewhere new ways of getting ‘there’
- New types of vehicles in this lane that offer alternatives to human-to-human coaching as we know it now, or ride alongside our current way of driving
- System members that may have started out on the hard shoulders of the motorway now have a greater ‘share of voice’ in how the system develops (ie, the professional bodies and academics)
One point that remains the same in this system is its self-regulating nature, eg, codes of ethics from the professional bodies that influence how motorists drive and behave with one another.
Given that the traffic is building up in this new technology lane, a working group of the FCC has been mapping what kinds of ‘vehicles’ are active in this lane, as well as what new ‘traffic signs’ they might need to look out for and understand.
We will share both the market map as well as a green paper on ethics in tech soon. We would like everyone to contribute with their views so that we are able to get a fuller picture of this evolving system.
- Carol Braddick, Ingrid Pope and Alexandru Popa-Antohi are members of the FCC’s Disruptive Tech workstream, one of a number of workstreams.
GET INVOLVED
- We invite you to join the conversation: What do you think? What are you noticing from your end of the system?
- To learn more about the FCC, visit our website: http://bit.ly/2SVzXge
- and follow our FCC LinkedIn page: http://bit.ly/36jKOo8
- The FCC is an independent, not-for-profit group consisting of representatives from professional coaching bodies, academic institutions, workplace sponsors of coaching, Coaching at Work and other stakeholders in the coaching field.
- www.coaching-at-work.com/future-of-coaching/