Comments on: Coach, Coach Thyself

By: harold

harold — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:15:42 +0000

Thanks for the comments Luke and Julya! About writing a post about the McCarthy “Investigate” protocol – I’m thinking the 3 levels of listening from Co-Active coaching is a great resource. Another resource for listening I’ve encountered doesn’t even require dialog. Genchi Genbutsu comes out of Toyota and Lean Manufacturing. It means “go and see”, but in The Toyota Way, it describes how a leader at Toyota was known for practically going into a trance standing in the workplace. It seemed rather Zen. Perhaps when it comes to one-on-one communication, it might mean actually getting to their home, or being in their space. Kind of like a meditative mini-ethnography. Direct questioning is not the only way!

By: Julya

Julya — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:28:05 +0000

Doing good on blogging after all Harold

By: Luke Schubert

Luke Schubert — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:32:02 +0000

Good point – I’ve never been able to work out how to use Socratic questioning. Looking forward to that blog post on “Investigate”!

By: harold

harold — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:42:47 +0000

I’ve been told that Socratic questioning is a good idea if you are Socrates. If you’re more a normal human, good coaching questions are best delivered from curiosity rather than already knowing the answer. Good coaching really comes a lot from the place of Jim and Michele McCarthy’s “Investigate” protocol except that it includes a good dose of intuition. This sounds like material for another blog post as I can’t explain it all in here.

Thanks for bringing up what Jesus was trying to say. I didn’t want to turn the blog entry into a Bible lesson – but when I researched it I was fascinated by how the original quote was trying to convey a rather different message.

By: Luke Schubert

Luke Schubert — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:08:39 +0000

Cool. So does coaching include Socratic questioning?

Jesus used the saying slightly differently as I understand it – he was saying that others would be asking, “If you save others, why don’t you save yourself?” Not understanding that he wanted to sacrifice himself to save others …

By: harold

harold — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:31:53 +0000

Hi Lyssa, I’m so honored to hear your experience with the “naturally creative, resourceful and whole” belief system.

I saw it in action in the CTI trainings and was astounded at how well it worked. Given how much of a miracle each of us are that we’ve grown from a tiny cell and managed to walk, talk, and feed ourselves – there must be some truth to the statement. But often it’s so much easier to experience our own and others deficiencies.

Thanks so much for advancing the art of coaching, Lyssa, especially in the software world!

By: Lyssa Adkins

Lyssa Adkins — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:12:10 +0000

Way to go, Harold! I love this blog post. You know, what I learned about holding the thought that people are “naturally creative, resourceful and whole” is that just thinking that and acting as if it is true has made it true. Before holding that thought, I certainly did not believe that everyone was naturally creative, resourceful and whole. This is probably why I bossed people around as a project manager (for their own good, of course).

Now,as a coach, just holding that thought and treating people that way has shown me that people really are naturally creative, resourceful and whole. And, they always have been.

It’s a miracle!

Thanks for bringing this thought to clarity for me, Harold.

Lyssa