This is a special issue for us—the Twentieth we have produced in our digital publication called The Future of Coaching. It all began with a meeting that both of us attended in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A dozen senior coaches met to discuss ways in which to more effectively steward the growing and changing human service field called Professional Coaching. By the end of this multi-day meeting, the two of us jointly decided to initiate a digital magazine, under the umbrella of the Library of Professional Coaching. This quarterly publication would explore the current and potential directions in which this field is now or could move in the near future. The subtitle of this digital magazine conveys something about the themes we hoped to address: “Status, Direction, Strategies and Tools.”
We think we have done a pretty good job of producing quarterly issues that hit on these four areas. We have addressed such status-based themes as the role to be played by certification and supervision in the field of professional coaching and the nature of evidence that exists regarding the effectiveness of coaching. Issues regarding the future direction of this field include those focused on both personal and organizational coaching, and three issues about the role of coaching in the health-professions. Coaching strategies have been addressed in issues ranging from confronting contradictions and vulnerability to working with clients in various age groups. Finally, we have provided specific tools in many of the issues we have published, as well as devoted several issues specifically to the presentation of helpful coaching tools.
We want to pause at this point after 19 issues. We are moving to 30,000 feet in our perspective on the field of professional coaching, having arrived at this point of relative “seniority” in the business of digital magazine production. Specifically, in this issue, we propose that this human service field is both a science and an art. Furthermore, with the global outreach of the coaching profession comes the need for diverse and creative coaching strategies. Perhaps, most importantly, effective coaching practices require that we become generalists as coaches and turn to many different disciplines when addressing the complex and often shifting concerns identified by our clients. Our field is becoming truly interdisciplinary in nature and scope.
An Interdisciplinary Perspective
One of the first public pronouncements regarding the interdisciplinarity of professional coaching was made by Linda Page (then President of the Adler Graduate School and the Adler Coaching Program in Toronto Canada). This pronouncement was made at a 2006 meeting convened by ICF that brought together thought leaders in the field from around the world. We suspect that Dr. Page’s pronouncement was particularly timely and well-received by other attendees at this meeting precisely because a diversity of perspectives was being offered about coaching by these international practitioners of professional coaching. By the middle of the first decade of the 21st Century, our field had been globalized and we needed to expand our own perspectives in response to this shifting status.
This 20th Anniversary issue is thus devoted to the first of our four pillars: status. We are examining the nature of both art and science in the field of professional coaching. We are looking at ways in which the interdisciplinary nature of coaching is recognized and incorporated in contemporary coaching practices. We also provide concepts and tools that enhance the interdisciplinarity of coaching. Given that this is a moment of celebration and reflection for the two of us, you will find several articles written by one or both of us in this issue. You will also find us incorporating essays that are relevant to the theme of this issue that have previously been published in the Library of Professional Coaching.
The Interdisciplinarity of Coaching
The first article is one the two of us wrote specifically for this issue. This was originally meant to be part of this introduction: however, it began to expand and become a separate essay, as we reflected on the art and science of coaching and saw the relevance of several new (and old) books and magazine articles written by astute observers and analysts of contemporary epistemological and societal factors.
The Interdisciplinarity of Professional Coaching
In our next two essays, we look to the sources of interdisciplinary perspectives among those engaged in the coaching enterprise. We turn first to a narrative offered by one of us [BC] who reflects on his own “liberal arts” education as a cadet at West Points (US Military Academy) and on how this influences his own current coaching practices.
West Point: Teaching Leadership Through Interdisciplinary Education
We offer a second narrative. This is provided by our friend and colleague, Agnes Mura, who is an eminent professional coach and co-author of several books with one of us [WB]. Agnes offers her own perspectives, embedded in her distinctive history, by means of an interview conducted by one of us [WB]. She complements this interview with a brief written narrative about her life (accompanied by some wonderful pictures).
The Art and Science of Coaching
With these two narratives in place, we turn to four essays that were previously published in the Library of Professional Coaching. All four of these essays convey something about the art and science of coaching. They each exemplify the need for an interdisciplinary perspective in confronting the challenge of coaching in the world of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity). This is a world that requires creative, thoughtful and ethical reasoning (the art and science of interdisciplinarity).
The first essay was written by one of us [WB]. It concerns the artful search for patterns and variations in the work we do as coaches with organizational leaders. Several different disciplines are engaged in this essay, including physics, mathematics, psychology – and even music.
The Art of Organizational Coaching: In Search of Patterns and Variations
The second article was written by John Bush (a coach, business owner and banker) who writes about the application of decision theory to the coaching enterprise. Several disciplines are brought in by Dr. Bush, including organizational psychology, economics, management, sociology, physics and system theory.
Decision Theory in Complex Systems
Our third essay was prepared recently by Alexandra Krubski (an educator and coach). She draws on concepts from psychology, philosophy, education, behavioral economics, evolutionary biology, neurobiology and psychotherapy to describe the revolution that has been taking place over the past half century in our understanding of how we think and reason – topics that are of critical importance in the practice of professional coaching.
Application of Cognitive Revolution Theories in Coaching PracticeThe fourth essay concerns ethics and was written by Patrick Williams, a quite prolific writer on coaching practices and a very successful personal coach and coach-trainer. Pat writes about five sources of ethical standards and ways to engage and integrate these standards.
Ethics in a Historical View and a Framework for Ethical Decision Making
We conclude this issue, as we often do, with the presentation of a useful coaching tool that is based in both the art and science of professional coaching. This tool is called “Levels of Inquiry” and it plays a central role in the interdisciplinary process called reflective coaching. Two authors featured previously in this issue—Agnes Mura and one of us [WB}—originally offered this tool in their coaching resource book called coachbook.
The Process of Reflective Coaching: Levels of Inquiry
We invite you to celebrate with us in this publication of our 20th issue. Our journal would not be of much value if no one chose to read it. So, we thank you for your patronage and hope you come to even more fully appreciate of and engage in the interdisciplinary and globalized art and science of professional coaching.
William Bergquist
Co-Editor
Bill Carrier
Co-Editor