Second Australian EvidenceBased Coaching Conference 2005 Fostering Crossdisciplinary Dialogue

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Second Australian Evidence-Based Coaching
Conference 2005Fostering Cross-disciplinary
Dialogue

• Hosted by
• The Coaching Psychology Unit,
• School of Psychology, University of Sydney

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The role of expert knowledge in coaching

• Michael Cavanagh PhD
• Coaching Psychology Unit,
• School of Psychology,
• University of Sydney

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Background to the topic

• Ray Elliots paper on leadership coaching.
• SF coaching states that the solution is in the
  coachee
• the coach facilitates the coachee in discovering
  the answer.
• Leads to the Ask dont tell tension.

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A niggling question.

• What happens when the client simply does not have
  access to what they need to know, and no amount
  of questioning will change that?
• Solution
• There are some times when it is OK to tell
• Wheres Wally style of coaching.
• But, SF school of surgery?

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Some other niggling worries

• It can lead to endlessly reinventing the wheel by
  failing to build on what has gone before.
• Solution Past solutions for current problems
• Potentially invalidates the coaches experience
  training and knowledge.
• Solution Process experts guides on the side.

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Why the avoidance?

• One of the most popular coaching approaches.
• Client-centric
• Deeply respectful of the clients knowledge.
• Perhaps helps us manage our anxiety over
  responsibility?
• It also seems to work!

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The expert approach.

• Huge research base in every area of human
  endeavour that seems to work (at least
  sometimes).
• The Arnold Palmer factor
• The more I practiced, the luckier I got
• Expertise seems to breed success.

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The Expert Approach

• Fits easily with the evidence based approach.
• Fundamental assumption
• reality can be accessed via scientifically
  validated knowledge.
• but, the scientific method cannot validate
  knowledge.

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Rational Linear Approach

• Based on linear, cause and effect conception of
  the world.
• Predictable chains of cause and effect
• But the world is not linear.

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Problems with expert approach

• Expert-centric
• Authority, knowledge and expertise reside in the
  coach or in the client.
• Privileges rational knowledge over emotion.
• Reifies the world
• Objectifies knowledge and takes it out of its
  context.

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• Scientific evidence does not predict individual
  cases by definition!
• When we impose our answer it often does not work
• Tends to elicit resistance or passivity or
  dependence.

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More niggles

• Research shows
• Most theoretical approaches have about the same
  efficacy
• The helping relationship may be more important
  than the theoretical approach

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So, how should we work.

• Top down or bottom up?
• Either/or vs both/and

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But what if..

• .the opposite of either/or
• is not both/and?
• What is my experience.

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Time for some reality testing

• Experience supervising students and other coaches

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Problematic experience.

• Not actually what we do
• We select, interpret, adapt, reframe, and suggest
  based on our mental models.
• Case conceptualisation
• We use our expert knowledge all the time.
• So being solution focused is not really
  atheoretical
• it just does not articulate the theories in play.

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Client
1
3
Coach
The three reflective spaces
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The Three Reflective Spaces model
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The coaching space is created by both coach and
client.
All three reflective spaces are complex adaptive
systems.
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What is a complex adaptive system

• A group of elements that functions as a whole and
  maintains its existence through the
  interdependent and adaptive action of its parts.
  (OConnor and McDermott 1997)
• e.g. The human body.
• A community
• A family
• A coaching relationship?

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Characteristics of CAS

• Whole is greater than sum of parts
• Nested /embedded in other systems
• Permeable Boundaries
• Multiple goals
• Interdependence non linear feedback
• Sensitivity to initial conditions
• Emergence

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Emergence

• The spontaneous coming into existence of a
  property of a system through the interaction of
  the system parts.
• Eg. Water, ice, snow, and steam.
• It is radically unpredictable!

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What emerges.

• Behaviour
• Communication styles
• Roles
• Outcomes
• Energy levels

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Shaping emergence Attractors

• An attractor is a set of forces which shape
  system behaviour.
• It is 'space' or point to which a system
  behaviour is drawn.

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Human systems are not linear

• People adapt to circumstances in complex ways
• What happens emerges from the relationships in
  the system.
• Emergent behaviour cannot easily be predicted or
  controlled.

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The Client as a Complex Adaptive System.
Client
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The Coach as a Complex Adaptive System.
Coach
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Genetics and History

• Genetics
• Nature
• Raw potential
• Sets some limits (but often less than we think)
• History
• Nurture
• Experience through time learning machines
• Sets some limits (but often less than we think)

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Physiology

• People are embodied!
• What happens in our bodies affects us!
• Illness, injury, aging
• Emotions are embodied meaning

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Skills and abilities

• Cognitive skills IQ
• Emotional skills EQ
• Systems skills
• Process skills knowing how to do things
• Ability to learn.
• Related to experience and mental models

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Mental models and theories

• The way we make meaning of the events in the
  world.
• Both self-generated and learnt theories
• Domain specific knowledge
• Theres nothing so practical as a good theory

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Personality

• Pattern of relating to the world
• Temperament (genetic component)
• Baseline reactivity to the world
• Character (learnt component)
• Prosocial side

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Habits and defenses

• What we do automatically
• Patterns of reaction to events in the persons
  world.
• Habitual defence mechanisms
• Related to experience, mental models and
  personality

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Clients and coaches are part of wider systems
Systems are nested in other systems
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Communication is critical!

• Information from outside
• Outcomes
• PD
• Homework
• Appraisals
• 360o feedback etc

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• Information from outside
• Shadow coaching
• Assessments
• Interviews, etc
• Supervision
• PD

Open systems grow.
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Systems are conversations

• The quality of the conversation determines the
  quality of organisation.
• See Stacey, R.(2000) Strategic management and
  organisational dynamics (3rd ed). London Pearson

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Client 2
1
Wider Environment
Wider Environment
3 Coach
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Client
2
1
Wider Environment
Wider Environment
3
Coach
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Experts and Expertise

• Expert
• A person who has special skill or knowledge in
  some particular field specialist authority."
  (Websters Dictionary)
• Expertise
• Expertness skillfulness by virtue of possessing
  special knowledge (wordnet)

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The potential for expertise emerges from the
complex interaction of these factors within the
individual.
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The expression of expertise emerges from the
complex interaction between Coach and Client.
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Shared Mental Model
Expert coaching is about the development of a
shared mental model which enables effective
action
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So ..

• Understanding emerges within the Coach and
  Coachee in the context of the interaction.
• And .
• It becomes expertise (the skillful use of
  knowledge) as it emerges in the coaching space
  (and in the wider world. It is only potential
  until it is created in the conversation.

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Insight

• Insight is typically an Aha phenomenon, not a
  step-by-step assembly of parts of the solution.
• (Lewin and Regine, 2001)

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Implications for coaching

• The solution focused approach is like a story
  with every second word missing.
• Expert knowledge helps us co-create the story.
• Its not either/or and it is not both/and
• It is a complex interactive together

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Expertise in coaching is about developing fitness
for the conversations..
Coach
And the ongoing development of fitness to engage
in diverse of conversations
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Evidence Based Practice

• The best available knowledge
• integrated with expertise
• In the service of client and the context
• Dianne Stober

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Tensions remain

• We often can predict within limits
• Lots of evidence for the plausibility of
  complexity features
• Physics
• Biology
• Meteorology Etc
• But .
• This is only analogue evidence
• Research methodologies may need to be developed.

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A final thought

• We cannot make spontaneous coherence emerge
  according to our desire -
• but we can seed it and nourish it
• 
  Vladimir Dimitrov 2000