John Lazar: Right. It was in the name: ICCO, The International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations. It was really about what happens in organizational settings and the kinds of issues that are relevant there.
Bill Carrier: I’ll add here that being in a small group meant that I got to make some friendships and create relationships with people who do what I do, coaching in organizations, so we had this basis of understanding. I found it very intellectually stimulating. We were talking about things that mattered to our profession of executive coaching. I’d like to slip that question back to you and ask what you found to be the impact on individuals and the profession?
John Lazar: My sense is that there were a couple things: Because of the intimacy of the events we were facilitating; there was a building of relationships and bridges. I think you commented on that. You had relationships taken to a new level. Like what happens from the terms of new conversations, new possibilities opened.
I also think that by the explicit, provocative nature of these events and the kinds of conversations that we were having and facilitating, we pushed the envelope. We were pushing the envelope for people to stretch beyond their habitual ways of thinking about things, to think beyond their pat answers to a particular question or their pat responses to a particular way of framing and making sense of those questions.
There was something very Socratic in the ways that we were trying to engage people for the sake of their own learning and development and, therefore, what they would be able to bring back to their organizational settings. We got feedback periodically about how, out of the conversations that we had, a new perspective or a new distinction was gained. People did take that back and try something out that they wouldn’t have otherwise. The bow of the ship moves a little bit in a desired direction. Does that answer your question, Bill?
Bill Carrier: Very much so.
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Rey Carr
March 12, 2016 at 10:11 am
Finally, I understand what happened to that excellent journal, The International Journal of Coaching in Organizations. John is to be congratulated on establishing a publication that lifted coaching into both the world of empirical science and friendly dialogue. I’m grateful for your pioneering efforts.
Vicki Foley
February 7, 2017 at 7:57 pm
Bill and John, thank you for this interview. I enjoyed the historical perspective, a bit of reminiscing about IJCO and ICCO, and the suggestions of ways to associate within the profession. John, you are a revered master.