CLIENT
The client had a vision for what they wanted to achieve but also found it difficult to think about the next step. They understood a variety of elements with clarity and a series of opportunities, potential interventions, stakeholders and participants. They understood politics, policy, people and were able to talk with passion and pace about each element. The client explained: I would like to work out how to push forward the agenda and respond accordingly but can’t work out a route.
CONVERSATION
Whilst the client had an objective for the conversation (I would like to work out how to push forward the agenda) the conversation was quickly a stream of consciousness detailing the Aim and Scope of each element and Pros and Cons of different approaches and a impassioned call to arms for the Vision, Mission and Plans.
SESSION
The coach hesitated to offer a formal structure (eg 4 step plan) with preference to allowing the client to explore their own thoughts, ambitions, and observations. The technical nature of the clients outpouring confined the coach to asking simple questions which might help the client to identify a plan (eg Why is that important? What is the highest priority? What needs to happen first?)
The session which lasted 2 hours explored many elements in great detail, but did not conclude a plan. The coach instead counseled that perhaps having had 2 hours of exploration and explanation it might be best to draw the session to a conclusion and reflect rather than try and produce a plan now.
Unusually the coach, feeling that the session had been inconclusive, followed up with an email.
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Dear [Name]
You are such a broad thinker and there are so many components to [Topic Area]. As promised here is a "bullet summary" which hopefully is sufficient as a trigger to what was a very broad, complex, conversation about [Log List of Key Elements]
We talked about...[Summary List of Points with Key Words]
Your challenge was very broad, and the elements very diverse, but I hope it was a useful coaching conversation and that this helps.
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REFLECTIONS
The client valued the opportunity of a sounding-board and to explore their thoughts. They also valued challenges like Why is that important? What is the highest priority? What needs to happen first? since this provided them the opportunity to practice their arguments. It was however a long, complex and challenging conversation which appeared to continually expand rather than draw towards any conclusion, summary or plan. This, and the elapsed time, lead the coach to draw the session to a conclusion.
The coaches feeling is that it is important to let the client take the lead in topic, direction and outcome and whilst the coach is ostensibly responsible toward the session objective [a plan]. If this is not forthcoming within one session it would be wrong to cut-short the clients thinking in pursuit of an output which may be superficial at best if the client has not yet concluded their thinking.
Instead the coach offered a "Thinking Environment" [https://www.timetothink.com/thinking-environment/] and a subsequent email with the hope that these would help the client to come up with their own plan outside the coaching session or seek a future coaching session with the benefit of having now exhausted their exploratory thinking.
In retrospect some of the language in the email was value-laden and could have been better. For example "broad, complex, conversation" could have been better stated as "broad, interesting, conversation" with the word complex betraying the coaches difficulty in understanding.
IMPORTANT NOTES
The Coach engages in training and continuing education pursuing and/or maintaining ICF (International Coach Federation) credentials. All coaching conversations are confidential and the abbreviated case above has been amended so as to protect the anonymity for the client whilst providing evidence of coaching practice, reflection and learning, for the purposes of ICF education, supervision, or oversight.
All coaching engagements follow ICF Policies and Principles Resources, Terms and Conditions https://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com/coachingtoolkit/client.php
