The Library of Professional Coaching (LPC) was founded as a digital venue for the presentation of not only documents regarding the foundations of professional coaching (theory, fundamental concepts, history), but also as a venue for the presentation of strategies and tools that can make professional coaching practices more effective. Over the years, we have presented more than 50 documents that offer strategies and tools. The LPC toolbox is filled to the brim!
However, we have never devoted an entire issue of Curated to a specific coaching strategy or tool. At least not until now. It is in Curated 2023 that we have broken this tradition and offer a very powerful strategy and set of accompanying tools. Developed by John Krubski and Alexandra K. Camus, Thinking Whole provides professional coaches with a distinctive way in which to facilitate the reasoning and planning of their individual clients—or better yet client teams.
In building on the work of Daniel Kahneman (thinking slow and thinking fast), the Nobel-prize winning behavioral economist, Krubski and Camus introduce a procedure for identifying pertinent facts related to a specific issue, a set of propositions related to this issue, and the key operating principle underlying this issue. Known as 7-3-1, this set of steps offers a professional coach specific instructions for helping their client “think whole.”
I had the privilege of participating in an extended meeting where some of the last elements of Thinking Whole were being developed by Krubski and Camus. They did a brilliant job of bringing in work done by many “decisional scientists”—including Daniel Kahneman. These scientists provided the coaching practitioner with interesting and challenging theoretical models and findings from their own research on ways in which people make decisions, Krubski and Camus moved these models and findings forward by creating an applied decisional science that centers on the use of the Thinking Whole strategy and 7-3-1 tools.
Initial Presentations
We first offer two documents that were published in LPC several years ago. These documents represent an early conceptualization of Thinking Whole.
Thinking Whole: A Fast Track Tool
In this 2022 document, John Krubski provides an initial portray of Thinking Whole and the dynamics underlying 7-3-1. This essay offers an excellent introduction to the Thinking Whole strategy and tools that are published in the second session of this issue of Curated.
Application of Cognitive Revolution Theories in Coaching Practice
In this essay, a brief history of the cognitive revolution in the field of psychology is introduced by Alexandra Krubski (Camus) (yes, she is member of dynamic father/daughter duo). Krubski traces the emergence of behavioral economics and the decisional sciences back to the breaking of psychology away from a behavioral perspective on human activities. She explores the implications of this revolution for those engaged in professional coaching. This essay sets the stage for the use of Thinking Whole by coaches working with individual and team clients.
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