Understanding Systemic Coaching Approaches

© Rod Zook www.dcgp.co Understanding and Experiencing Systemic Coaching Approaches
• WHY ↩ • HOW ↩ • WHAT Moving from WHY to HOW to WHAT

© Rod Zook www.dcgp.co What about the constructivistic part? •
People happen within systems. Within systems we construct for ourselves or in systems that are constructed around us which we either willingly conform to / acquiesce to or resist.

DEFINING “SYSTEM” ...in “Systemic-Constructivistic” Coaching People (you) happen (develop) within
systems. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

DEFINING “SYSTEM” ...in “Systemic-Constructivistic” Coaching People (you) happen (develop) within
systems. Yes, "shifts" happen in systems as well. But you do to! © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

© Rod Zook www.dcgp.co Yes, "shifts" happen in systems as
well. But you do to! It’s not always what we want to have happen. Sometimes there are positives in a system and how it works. As often as not, however, it doesn’t work or something “shifts” and we find ourselves at a cross-roads. That’s a very brief outline of the “systemic” part of systemic-constructivitic coaching

MAKING SENSE OF BEHAVIOR Volition¹ / behavior2 make sense 1
“Volition” says you know WHY you do something. 2 Others may not understand it, but our behavior makes sense for us – especially if we take time to try to understand it. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

• Volition (the faculty or power of using one's will:
e.g. “Without conscious volition he backed into her office”. / without knowing why...) • “Volition” says you know WHY you do something. • Behavior makes sense – at least to the “perpetrator” – even though the behavior may seem “wrong-headed” to me. It makes sense for the “actor/actress” in some way. • Even though they may not be fully conscious of where it comes from • We are creatures who take action / initiative for some reason. • We exhibit various behaviors for some (innate) reason. • Others may not understand it, but for us it makes sense – especially if we take time to try to understand it. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

MAKING SENSE OF BEHAVIOR Volition / behavior make sense A
Systemic Coaching approach works with you so you can make sense of the behavior at the core of your being and the patterns you initiate / experience. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

• Respecting behavior and trying to understand it – is
what the systemic coach does – taking the pieces and overlaps and dots of a visible or invisible “Venn Diagram” and asking questions that seek to help the coachee make sense of the behavior at the core of their being / the behavior they initiate or experience. • To some extent that’s “all” good systemic coaches do. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

SEARCHING IN VAIN FOR OBJECTIVE REALITY AKA "DESPERATELY SEEKING OBJECTIVE
REALITY" My reality makes sense to me – and the actions / initiatives / behaviors that arise out of it (are comfortable, if not always “successful”). But don’t expect it to be objective. It’s much more like Alice in Wonderland! © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

• It helps if we accept that there is no
such thing as a truly objective reality • My reality makes sense to me – and the actions / initiatives / behaviors that arise out of it (are comfortable, if not always “successful”). • Sometimes we end up "desperately seeking objective reality" – and sometimes it’s a comedy (a farce); • All too often it’s a frantic search and stab at being objective / relevant / finding meaning (and that within a “system” we try to manipulate in some way) © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

FINDING WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR SEEK FIND You ﬁnd what
you look for Looking for problems – you ﬁnd them; Looking for solutions ... WYSIWYF (a systemic kind of WYSIWYG) © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

• You find what you look for – (down the
rabbit hole!) • Looking for problems – you find them; looking for solutions ... WYSIWYF © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

TELLING YOUR STORY SHAPES YOU • You experience: self-initiation self-configuration
self-determination AND... discover a lot about yourself © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

Autopoiesis leads to (=) self-inititation / self-configuration / self-determination –
leads to a pro-active approach Wikipediia: Autopoiesis: (from Greek αὐτo- (auto-), meaning "self", and ποίησις (poiesis), meaning "creation, production") literally means "self-creation" and expresses a fundamental dialectic among structure, mechanism and function. The term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. Autobiography (a kind of Autopoiesis) – you're the only one who can tell your story. Not that it will be objective, but it will be the best telling. • And you will discover a LOT about yourself in the (coaching) process. You put yourself in a position to re-direct the future as you tell yourself (and your coach) your story and act on it. • Change your behavior! Change your definition of yourself! • But you have to do it, not just think / talk about it. It needs to be put into words and then into action – a good coach will help you find your own tools to carry out the “shape” you wish / need. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes broadly illustrates this personal examination of the systems surrounding the protagonist. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

BEHAVING / ACTING DEFINES US …because we are defined by
our behavior, by the things we do or do not do. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

BEHAVING / ACTING DEFINES US © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

People ARE not, humans behave / act We are defined
by the actions we take and the behavior we exhibit. • What we or others say we are is not an accurate description of who we are. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

BEHAVING / ACTING DEFINES US © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

THINKING IN CIRCLES It’s not frantically running in circles. ©
Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

... but in a positive way – it’s not linear
– not a simple cause-effect / 1-to-1 ratio. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

THINKING IN CIRCLES It’s not running into dead ends. ©

THINKING IN CIRCLES Relaxed, non-frantic questions / assessment. • Not
just running faster and harder. • Not shaking the bars to get through. • Not continuing to “push a rope” But trying to find a way to move ahead by looking around and asking about impact and talking about finding concrete solutions. It’s a question of trying to find a way to move ahead by looking around and asking: • What is the impact of what I’m doing? • What could perhaps develop if I / we approach it in this way? © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

TALKING ABOUT PROBLEMS CREATES THEM Problems (on the other hand)
are constructions – their genesis (note that I didn’t say “genius”) is in talking about them (emphasizing them, defending the constructions we have built up around them, making excuses for them, etc). The real question is what you are constructing in the system(s) you’re in. How would behaving in a different way / with different expectations, change the construction of the “building” or “buildings” you’re putting up in and around yourself? © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

CHARTING A COURSE INSTEAD OF KEEPING A CHART ndlsn dkkis
whdjjs jjk jfn cm. hjdj skkamsinw üöek jul.y.a ieud jdiisk ieokd, q w sa sjjs jshks zwuhj, djksk: ssd Goal-oriented instead of cause-oriented approach A checklist …looks for problems and checks them off. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

© Rod Zook www.dcgp.co Someone with an eagle eye, who
has a different perspective, can guide you to see what you can’t see. And point you towards setting goals for yourself rather than keeping track of someone else’s progress or lack of it on a check list

LOOKING AT THE IMPACT • …of behavior – mine •
And that’s the hard part. We are usually quite adept at defending our behavior – remember behavior makes sense to us / the other person’s behavior makes sense to them. • The hard part is accurately assessing the impact of my own behavior! © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

SYSTEMIC COACHING IS NOT consulting a manager-type with all the
answers who tells you what you need to do and how. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

One of the contrasts between managers and systemic coaches is
that managers are paid to have answers or at least look at a situation and sound like they have answers. Then they try to manage their people and essentially end up primarily giving them answers – from a position of power at the head of the conference table. Or they refer them to books or resources that have the answers. Managers typically ask normal questions: • For example, "Will you meet the deadline?" (If not, "why not"). Systemic coaches don't, or at least shouldn’t, ask "why" Managers are not really interested in getting the employee's feedback or interpretation of what might happen if the deadline isn't reached and how answering (or not answering) that question can impact behavior? Having an external systemic coach ask what might happen and what the cause of it might be can be very helpful. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

SYST. COACHING IS ALSO NOT having an athletic coach with
all the “plays” for you to practice and master in order to suceed. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

• An athletic coach has all of the techniques and
the game plan coupled with the expectation that you will follow his/her instructions and execute their plan to the best of your ability. • They recruit / trade for you with that in mind – how well you will ﬁt into their philosophy. • They develop the plays and tell you how they want you to run them – you succeed when you (and your teammates) follow their plan. • But a systemic coach asks questions: appropriate, unusual questions. • Questions that come out of a real curiosity and wanting to understand what the situation is / what you and others in the given situation experience. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

• Asking a normal, expected question is like the stereotypical
pickup line in a bar: • "Haven't we met somewhere before?" • It's not really very creative and apparently it usually doesn't get the job done. © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action (TED Talks) To
quote Sinek: “Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren't. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit." That's a result. It's always a result. By “why" I mean: what's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? ...Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It's obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations,regardless of their size, regardless of their industry, all think, act and communicate from the inside out.” © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

That’s an important thinking process: what, how, why is the
normal questioning process. As a result we typically end up focussing on the periphery – the whats of our life and business. But it's not particularly innovative / doesn't really make waves as the TED Talk further illustrates (if you follow it in its entirety) and it often doesn’t leave us time to look at the whys. Coaching asks questions in the way Sinek unpacks it (backwards if you will). That's the unexpected and fruitful sequence. The key to systemic coaching is asking appropriate and unusual questions – thinking in a different direction, so to speak. From the “inside” out. Why ↩ How ↩ What. Do you unequivocally know WHY you do what you do? © Rod Zook www.dcgp.co

Understanding Systemic Coaching Approaches

Understanding Systemic Coaching Approaches

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