IS: Coaching (and beyond)
Upcoming open events:
- Friday, Mar 8th: Open-to-all Office Hours
- Sunday, Mar 10th: Practice Series session #8 — Coaching
- Sunday, Mar 17th: Practice Series session #9 — Case Clinic
all start times 1pm Pacific Time (4pm Eastern) which means 9pm UTC moves to 8pm UTC on March 10th with Daylight Savings
The essence of coaching, and the meaning of so-called "pure" coaching, as I understand it, is: A coach trusts that the coachee already has in themself all the tools and potential capacity they need to figure out their right way forward. Thus, when we coach we don't need to solve their problem for them, or even give them advice! All we need to do is "hold space" (listen and reflect) non-judgmentally and ask questions that support the coachee's perspective-taking process.
This is not the same as a coach in sports, where they function as teacher, trainer, mentor, manager, planner, and decider for the sports team. A pure coach is not a consultant or mentor — though those can be valuable roles, in IS we aim for pure coaching as being most useful in-and-for someone's personal development. It's about seeing and taking bigger perspective — and to try to see for someone else just leaves their own sight muscles to atrophy.
We'll be training our coaching stance this Sunday, and using some clean language tools to support us as we become more comfortable as peer coaches and space-holders. This (in week #8) leads us directly to Case Clinic (in week #9) as the capstone of our Practice Series.
Continuing my bigger picture "and beyond" thread from last week, I'm going to practice declaring out loud (working in public) my current vision for the next three months. I reserve the right to modify these intentions, but consider this a test of the coherence and clarity of my intent as I can describe it today.
Intention 1: Becoming an organization
That doesn't mean "incorporate formally in Q2", but I intend to organize, to set up better stewardship of different parts of the IS universe through nascent Sociocratic circles. We've grown to almost-ready, almost-too-late w/r/t the founder-catalyst model: It's to entrust others with ownership, for the health of IS and so that I can continue leaning in as the pie grows.
Intention 2: Seasonal focus on membership
This season put most of the focus and prime-time minutes on the Practice Series. After that broadening-and-onboarding, the lifecycle turns naturally toward deepening-and-collaborating. I intend to shift prime-time focus to the membership of Intentional Society, and especially to strengthening the small-group crew experience this season.
Intention 3: Craft the call to intentional ventures
Engaging with the world is crucial, for humanity but also even for us as individuals. Prominent in that realm is "the money question" of aligned livelihood and material provision. This is a hot topic in the metamodern and liminal web scenes, and present ongoingly in our connections to Think Better/Collective Learning Network, Village Network Playground, The Present of Work, Vibe Cafe, Microsolidarity, and many individuals. To kindle that fire, I intend to call/co-create the seed here of something that can successfully bootstrap our capabilities into an economic engine that supports our collective in shaping a more intentional world!
Questions and ideas invited at tomorrow's Office Hours, by replying to this email, or by reaching out to book a time with me.
Cheers,
James