Speakers at this year’s conference include:
Linda Aspey
Time to Think: deep listening as an act of co-creation
In these challenging times with change, uncertainty, complexity and even danger all around us, and multiple sources of information and misinformation coming at pace and scale, how do we help those we work with to make sense of it all? What is the purpose of coaching now? For almost 40 years the Thinking Environment has invited us to question many of the assumptions we hold around coaching roles, theories and practices. And we have found that when the singular purpose of coaching is to help people to think for themselves – in or out of sessions – individually or in groups – that really changes how we show up as coaches. When we agree to only speak if invited, even when clients become quiet. When we get truly comfortable with not knowing where their thinking might go. When we let go of our need to coach and instead focus on creating the best possible environment for them to connect with all aspects of themselves, their inner and outer worlds, and the systems in which they are immersed and entangled. Then, a wellspring of creativity emerges, and magical things happen. And that starts with deep, generative listening.
Dr. Alexandra Barosa-Pereira and Dr. Stephen Burt
Experience matters for coaches, but not in the way you might think
An exploration of the research findings from a [three year] research project into coaches’ narratives of their own development. Coaches follow highly varied paths of development but many common elements emerge from their narratives. Some, such as supervision, are to be expected. Others, like, teaching coaching, perhaps less so. Dialogic activities are paramount and reflexive practice is the motor for development. This has profound implications for both coaches and coach educators. It seems that experience matters but not in the way you might think.
Dr Elizabeth Crosse and Dr Julia Carden
CPPD: Putting the Personal into our Professional Development
As coaches, if we are accredited by one of the larger professional coaching bodies (PCBs), we must provide evidence of CPD hours to maintain our credentials. The focus is on “professional”, with formal and informal activities that support and underpin professional development. Demonstrating CPD through skill-based webinars, courses, workshops, etc., accessed as core hours, is easy to evidence and meets re-accreditation requirements.
Based on our learning journeys and doctoral research, personal growth rather than professional development facilitates us to take our coaching to another level. The larger PCB focuses on competency-based development, with a lack of recognition of how work on “self”, which might include activities such as therapy, yoga, and spiritual practices, can enhance our being and deepen our practice. Our research highlighted that the route to deep client connection, which enables us to work at a level of insight and change, comes from the work on self and self-awareness.
In this session, we will build on our series of articles in Coaching at Work and present the case that current CPD requirements do not recognise the importance of ‘continuing personal’ development. Activities that centre on how we are being rather than what we are doing seem to hold less weight, even being categorised as “resource development” (ICF), even if these activities are acceptable as CPD. We invite you to consider that focusing on personal development is of equal, if not more, value than the traditional focus on knowledge and skills development.
Jenny Garrett OBE
Beware of a Single Story – Equality vs Equity in Coaching
In this interactive session we will explore:
• The importance of checking your bias as a coach
• the difference between equality and equity and what that means for you as a coach
• How to ‘name it’ with humility and intention
You will come away with ideas and actions on how to develop your skills to be a more inclusive coach.
Sam Isaacson
Is it too late to adopt AI in coaching?
The benefits and risks presented by AI have been well-documented. Dubious narratives have emerged, claiming its ability to replace human effort with low-cost alternatives, while simultaneously suggesting that its tendency to hallucinate should be considered an existential threat. The coaching profession is at a point now in which AI has been adopted by a large number of coaches in their practice, and AI-powered coaches are now active across a number of organisations. Join this session to:
• separate the truth from the marketing slogans and anxiety-induced fearmongering
• experience the reality of AI coaching live
• determine the best response coaches can make to differentiate themselves from hyper-efficient machines
Nicholas Janni
The nature of ‘Transformational Coaching’
In this session Nicholas will speak about:
• what do we mean by ’transformation’
• Breaking the dominance of thinking and psychologising
• The two pillars of Awakening and Healing
• Working at core energetic leaves with a client, and what that requires of coaches
Dr Josie McLean
Activating Purposes: matters of the heart
At a time when the future of humanity seems to hang in the balance, we need to re-examine our understanding of purpose. Our purposes emerge from our caring and our hearts – and that is the way to lead them too. We will delve into the numerous unconscious and unexamined assumptions we make about how the world operates and apply a systemic lens to activating people – to develop a movement and swirl of energy to make progress on what matters most now. Underpinned by her +20 years of activism and organisational practice in this sphere, Josie draws together an appreciation of distributed leadership in complex systems, organisational culture and self-leadership as we all bring what we care about to the fore, refine and activate our purposes.