Coaching: A Systemic Perspective
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Coaching: A Systemic Perspective
“As coaches, we are pattern recognition experts”.
Paul Mitchell, coach and founder of “The Human Enterprise”
Coaching: can be likened to a journey in search of patterns
Why do we say this?
Clients present with fuzzy problems / clear goals
Always with desire to understand experience
We as coaches: help client to discover, notice previously ignored patterns in the complex mix of experience, thoughts, actions, and reactions (thus, the clients story)
Complex systems theory: one set of lenses through which to view the coaching engagement
Features of complex adaptive systems:
Wide range of theoretical perspectives: cybernetics, family systems theory, complexity theory
Ludwig von Bertalanffy: General Systems Theory (GST)
GST premise: world is made up of interdependent and hierarchical systems that interact with their environments.
World could be usefully viewed as a series of systems within systems, which all display some common characteristics.
System: a group of interacting or interdependent elements that form a complex whole that unfolds over time.
Defining feature of true systems: form entities that are greater than the sum of their parts.
Hence, CAS: parts that make them up are whole systems in their own right.
These whole systems interact according to their own rules and goals, adapting to each other, this interaction that brings order of the larger system.
Example: Human body
Figure 1: Represents a simplified graphical representation of above mentioned in terms of the human person within the corporate environment.
Specific features of CAS:
1) Holism and Interdependence
We are more than the sum of our parts
To understand the system, should examine system in terms of what is created when the parts interact.
In terms of coaching: deals with system in all its complexity and tailoring ones coaching to address issues at every level of the system, including the personal.
Parts of system essentially interdependent