Self-Observation - Building coachees' ability to become their own change

ICF monthly chapter meeting – Craig O’Flaherty

Date: Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Venue: Webster University, Bellevue, Geneva

Time: 19h00 – 21h00 (registration from 18h30)

Registration: on the ICF Switzerland website >>> click here to register

“Knowing others is wisdom.

Knowing the self is enlightenment”

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

What happens after coaching?

For all of us who have experienced coaching or being coached, we know that it can create a space where ideas, insight and inspiration can be generated by both parties, sometimes leading to significant shifts for the coachee and the relationship overall.

A key challenge in coaching is what happens when coach and coachee are not together. It’s a vital space, because this is where the real change needs to happen but where the coachee feels frustrated at the lack of instant access to the coach and the coach feels detached in their ability to create conditions in which ideas and insight get spawned.

What hampers change from happening?

Often, due to the world around them reverting to ‘normal’, coachees revert very quickly to the unconscious, habitual and mechanical state which caused the coaching opportunity in the first place. It’s a challenge we all face in our lives. Being on auto-pilot is a far easier place to be. We are creatures of habit and it causes us to lose the thread of who we are, where we are and how we are showing up. What we really need in coaching is the opportunity to build people’s capacity for conscious effort and intent. Knowing what triggers our habits and what gets us stuck here is a key outcome for any coaching process.

What is the origin of the concept of Self-Observation?

The concept of Self-Observation comes from many different origins. It’s a discipline that many other communities in society have recognized and used to support change. One European example is the work of the philosopher George Gurdjieff. During the 1940s and 50s followers of The Fourth Way – Building Self-Awareness, would stop regularly during their day when a bell would ring, and would reflect on what they were doing and how they were behaving and consider its value and impact. If necessary, they would then re-adjust their behaviour or actions to match their intended outcomes.

Using this to strengthen our coaching

We have found a powerful way to integrate this practice into coaching by skilling the coach to help the client understand barriers to their intended change. Coaches can then co-design self-observations with the client that they can weave into their days. Coachees are building a capacity to observe and self-regulate. This keeps the possibility of change front-of-mind and active, rather than being a missed commitment.

Keeping the Session relevant and practical

This session will focus on the following:

What is the background to self-observations?
How do they amplify change?
How would one design them?
What self-observations would help us in our own change journeys?
How could we take existing clients we are working with and design self-observations?

The session will be theory-light and practice-rich. It will leave delegates with some tangible ways that they might incorporate this into their coaching by applying the theory to existing clients.