CONCLUSION
‘Maieutics’ refers to the science and art of midwifery, of attending to the process of giving birth. Psychological maieutics, then, is the science and art of facilitating the psyche’s transformation and the emergence of new psychological structures. -Jan 0. Stein & Murray Stein
As coaching continues to grow and evolve, it may be useful to think of ourselves as midwives for our future as professionals and as global citizens. Some of us will serve as coaches and as leaders in developing coaching as a profession. This path will be served by Page’s (2009) vision that coaching develop and identify a knowledge base that is sufficiently substantial, distinct and coherent to be considered its own discipline. Some of us will use coaching approaches as a set of philosophies and practices for improving the conversations that are near and dear to our work and their lives. This path will be served by Jackson and Cox’s (2009) vision to use the ideas, methods and concerns of philosophy to more fully understand and evolve our practices.
In any case, coaching now belongs to the collective and is beyond the reach of even the largest entities. To think only along proprietary lines at any level is neither sustainable nor useful if we are to move ahead in shaping and responding to the needs of our time, our selves and our clients. Each of us has a part to play in whatever tent(s) we choose to work. Whatever our choices, we would do well to develop a greater mastery of the four types of knowledge, better communities in which to engage in mutual learning and accountability, and a deeper courage and imagination from which to create the innovations we need as coaching moves into the future.
Along the way, we will need to give away much of what we hold so closely, much as the Open Source movement has reshaped the world of software. This would make sense for coaching as a truly postprofessional practice in that the knowledge we need to address the complex needs of human development, human relationships and human communities is really “in the web” – developed, sustained and accessed across multiple disciplines and players. Intellectual and commercial differentiation and sparring is part of the game, but in the end it will only serve coaching if the creative frictions that emerge yield progress for the whole. In this sense, coaching is a spiritual path, not a religion, a way of being and talking with people more than a codified testament. As such, the path ahead involves a transcendence of our individual egos for the sake of a greater calling. In doing so, coaching will move beyond its adolescent phase in order to mature in its ability to meet the challenges and fulfill the opportunities that are before us. As such, this issue of the journal is dedicated to all those who have made coaching possible, to all those who continue to do this work in the world, and to all those who will take it beyond its roots and into the future.
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