Effective coaching deepens awareness and learning, supports choice, and and is grounded in action. Sometimes our habitual ways of thinking get in the way of seeing options that might support more successful outcomes. As a coach I want tools and skills that help me reveal a system to itself, whether that system is an individual, a team or an organization. One such tool is Agile Coaching with Geography.
This session, designed for experienced coaches and facilitators, will introduce using “geography” and teach specific exercises that you can use in your coaching work with individuals and teams.
Humans are gifted with a variety of ways of learning and knowing. Our left brain thinking emphasizes rational and verbal knowing. Our right brains connect us with more sensory-based, intuitive and spatial knowing. Agile Coaching with Geography uses both to work at the intersection between our inner and outer landscapes.
Agile Coaching with Geography supports individuals and teams to more deeply access non-verbal and intuitive ways of knowing and perceiving aw well as helping to make these aspects of a system visible to the system itself.
Introduction to Geography & MetaSkills
— Introduction to working with Geography — i.e. Why is it called geography? And why do I care? In this context, “Geography” makes use of our basic human capability to orient in space as an opportunity to learn and explore what we think and feel as well as a means to reflect this information about the system to itself.
— Introduction to MetaSkills — A MetaSkill is the attitude, stance, or “come from” place that the coach stands in when coaching. (from CRR Global ORSC)
Working with Geography Exercises
We’ll explore a sequence of exercises that form an arc that supports incremental learning. We’ll work through as many exercises as we have time for. And to be clear, it is unlikely that we’ll complete all of the exercises in the 90 min available. My intention is to introduce the topic and give you a taste of a variety of different exercises so that you’ll be able to determine how and where you might use these techniques in your day-to-day coaching practices.
For each of the exercises we will:
— Describe the MetaSkills involved
— Define desired Learning Outcomes
— Describe the required Materials
— Setup the exercise
— Experience the exercise
— Conduct a debriefing for learning
Continuum Exercise - Explores self-organization and how individuals and teams make qualitative vs quantitative distinctions
Tribes Exercise - Explores the boundaries of belonging & not belonging and normalizes diversity
Center of Gravity Exercise (Informal Constellations) - Explores self-organization, normalizes diversity and reflects the system to itself
Coaching Wheels Exercise - A tool for individual and team learning and topic exploration
Living Systems Diagrams (Constellations Lite) - Models relationships in teams to support deeper communcation and understanding
Q & A
Materials & Hand-outs
- This fast-paced workshop will:
- — Introduce you to using geography in your coaching work
- — Give you a basic understanding of the range and depth of various geography exercises so that you can adapt them to suit your desired outcomes with your clients & teams
- — Teach you several specific geography-based exercises (how many will be based on available time)