Exploring Coaching through Writing-as-Inquiry

1. ‘What’s not to like about coaching?’Exploring coaching through writing-as-inquiry Daniel Doherty and Ann Rippin University of Bristol 8th June 2007.

2. Adventures in Writing as Inquiry • This project originally grew from experiments with student creative writing, which we semi formalised with a group of interested volunteer students • Grew out of interest in life writing, writing as inquiry, autoethnography, in tradition of Richardson, Ellis and Bouchner • In part to develop the reflective practice element of their course work, after Schon. • Wished to develop ‘emic’ / ‘inside out ‘ look at a number of managerial themes, saw writing as a way of accessing deeper themes.

3. Writing as inquiry • ‘Writing as Inquiry is a form of research that uses writing both as a research tool or craft in its own right and/or as a method of re-presenting the words of participants’. (Speedy 2002) • ‘Qualitative writing may be seen as an active struggle for understanding and recognition of the lived meanings of the lifeworld, and this writing also possesses passive and receptive rhetoric dimensions. It requires that we be attentive to other voices, to subtle significations in the way that things and others speak to us. (Van Manen 2003)

4. Coaching originally chosen as vehicle for writing-as-inquiry • Why? Because we felt that people would have private feelings about it ..which was validated. • Coaching seemed classical managerial strategy, if used unthinkingly. • Organised series of writing workshops with volunteers with express intention of exploring coaching from point of lived experience; • Based on Weick’s – ‘how do I know what I think till I see what I say’ dictum. • Such was the response that coaching developed beyond being a vehicle for writing, to becoming an inquiry in itself.

5. This Coaching inquiry … • Occurred over three day long sessions, over a twelve month period • Group of 6-8, variable and rotating membership of volunteers. • Levels of disclosure have grown as the session have progressed • Facility in writing-as-inquiry has developed also, markedly. Transgressive information more easily accessed, more deeply expressive, more risks taken • The power of writing in a group has been acknowledged strongly, and of reading individual contributions • Doing it in front of the others has become easier. In fact it has become strongly valued.

6. Prompt Questions • For ‘free writing’, we used the prompt questions …. • ‘My earliest experiences of coaching were …’ • ‘What they don’t teach you at coaching school is ….’

7. The further we ventured into the process…. • The quality of the writing increased immeasurably • The degree to which our writers were prepared to challenge managerial orthodoxies through reflecting on experiences increased dramatically also • Writing provided the psychodynamic trapdoor between the conscious and subconscious .. Liminality.

8. Learnings about writing process • Getting started is tough. We needed prompts, and often a kick start. • The power of interruption; a great place to start a story, at a narrative breakdown. • Building a rich picture, naturally. • Weaving our worlds, the flow state. • Working through the impasse • Beginnings middles endings……

9. Discovering a fads and fashions meta-theme • This meta theme relates to managerial propensity towards fads and fashions, viewing Coaching as one of the latest of these. • Noticing how quickly managers / HR ask ‘how to’ rather than ‘why’? • Reflective writing activity provoked a critical questioning of the ‘why?’, and uncovered a shared disquiet regarding the unthinking rush towards the how.

10. Revealing of the ‘Inner Critic’. • The inner critic that sabotages our writing … Is strongly related to the inner critic that is skilfully or less than skilfully addressed in coaching practice • We were working a parallel process here • Close to the theme of pathological emphasis on impossible perfectionism.

11. Empirical findings …. • Uncovering of archaic feelings that are unhelpfully stirred by coaching, but rarely named • Explored the role of those feelings in creating ‘resistances’, often unconsciously • Examined the capacity of legitimised coaching to unleash the coach as bully, or as tyrant with whip. • Uncovered neglect of the contracting process ..including lack of contracting around ‘old stuff’, and ‘unfinished business’ attaching to coaching

12. Empirical findings … • Coaching is for losers • Coaching as remedial action • Coaching ‘out.’ • Coaching as disciplinary action • Explored how coaching grows to be viewed in the organisation culture .. As any of the above . and how difficult it is to change that, once the label is attached.

13. Empirical findings … • Coaching as ‘faking it’ … when all parties are jumping through the hoops • Box ticking, sleep walking, going through the motions • Coaching as ritual, new tradition • Coaching absorbed within dominant culture, made a part of a pathology • ‘there is a place for everyone, under the coaching tree’ ? Questioned this tenet.

14. Empirical findings … on the bright side. • Coaching for authenticity • Coaching as loving • Coaching as an inspirational process • Crossing the private / public threshold • Coaching as relationship, as growth in connection • Distinctions between formal and ‘natural’ coaching.

15. Themes to be explored further .. • Ethics of coaching • Centrality of contracting to whole piece • If coaching is ‘rite of passage’ , where does it fit, and how do we make that explicit? • Can partnership be imposed? • Coaching is implicitly a ‘one-up’ activity. • Sneak in managerialism .. Strong reaction against GROW and SMART.

16. Themes to explore further … • Honouring the individual • Observing confidentiality • Coaching as a substitute for basic learning • Skilling the coaches

17. Value of writing as inquiry to participants • Gurus would not have brought these insights to us. • Structured opportunity to reflect • For facilitators, co-creation of knowledge with learners in generative environment

18. Tentative conclusions • About coaching • Phenomenon sufficiently established for critique based on experiential learning to be developed • About method • Intrinsic value for participants, which is enduring through journals, further classes – but caution that they are a self-selecting group; • Appears more efficient than interviewing!