This is The Coaching Inn, a podcast from 3D Coaching. Hello, welcome to The Coaching Inn. This episode is our book club and I'm Claire Pedrick and I'm going to be talking about this week's chapter in our book club, is Simplifying Coaching, which I wrote and every week. We ask out on social media people to give insights and questions about a chapter of the book and then the following week we do a podcast where we share what we're learning and what others are saying and what people are asking.
So the first chapter of Simplifying Coaching is called It's a Journey and I'm just going to give you some headlines about some of the things that I know now that I didn't know when I finished writing the book. And then I'll be sharing some questions and insights from others. But first of all, I want to do a shout out. So every week we'll do a shout out. And this week it's to a delegate from a course in Russia who said this, when the coach keeps silence, the client turns into a thinker.
So they stop being a client and they become a thinker. What a deep insight. I love it when we learn from people. who are sharing with us on their learning journey. So there you are, there's one to ponder for the week. You'll remember that in the book, I talk about the idea that we're traveling on a journey as a coach with someone else in their thinking processes, and that sometimes we meet and sometimes they do good work on their own.
I also talked about the idea that transformation happens in a container. And two things that have come to me really since in the last few weeks actually. One is that people are really loving the idea of transformation happening in a container and the idea that you make a cake by seeing the ingredients transformed by the cake tin and the heat and that you can't unmake a cake. But somebody wisely observed the other day that actually too many ingredients don't make a great cake either.
And there's a real question, I think, when we're on a journey with somebody of thinking together about whose recipe is it. So you'd have laughed if you'd been in my conversation with somebody last week where I suddenly realised I hate dried fruit. So if you give me a cake with dried fruit in it, even if I like the look of the cake, I really am not going to like it because I have a lifetime aversion to dried fruit. But that's also true in terms of the conversations we have, isn't it?
Whose recipe is it that creates the conversation that we're about to have? Is it co-created in partnership on our journey together or is one of us giving the other the recipe? And there's a question that I'll pick up shortly from Richard. which gives a bit of insight into that. The other thing that I realised after listening to Ruth's podcast last week with Sarah Clark about coaching and education is that it's also useful to ask people what kind of coaching is going to serve them.
Because there are so many kinds of coaching, aren't there? There's kind of driving instructor coaching that's more like teaching. And then there's the transformational coaching, we're talking about in the book, which is about enabling people to have new insights into their own stuff that's going to move them forward. So that's a couple of my insights from the book since it was published. So we're going to hear some questions and observations from others now.
Let's start with Richard, who put on LinkedIn. He said this, in a way, I feel I have a foot in two different worlds. One being the technique driven, empower your client to glory world and the other more receptive, more responsive, more like water flowing, which feels like a loss of the support technique can give and a reluctance at the moment to trust the flow, which would mean letting go of being in control, even though I'm not anyway.
That's really honest Richard, thank you for saying that and I think that Sarah Clark's podcast interview about the fact that sometimes technique is useful might give you some food for thought as you kind of ponder what you've written there. But I think the real clue, the real key is to ask and to actually make sure that we're doing the thing that is most in service of the person that we're working with.
that we've both agreed that and if we're using technique that we're qualified and experienced to do it. And remember what I said in I think the last chapter of the book is the idea that we go to technique last and we absolutely trust that the person that we're working with is pretty much able to deal with their own stuff first. And that means you have to go in without plan B in your pocket. So here's another question.
This one came up at the somebody on the drinks at the coaching in who asked the question, to what extent is this simplification of coaching approach aligned or not with the ICF requirements? So for those of you who don't subscribe to a kind of coaching tribe, the ICF is the International Coach Federation. And actually the answer to this question is It's absolutely bang on the ICF requirements at MCC level, the master certified coach level, which is all about working in partnership.
It's all about the coach trusting the process more than they trust themselves. So if you use what you're learning in the book and absolutely practice to really dance in partnership with thinkers and to work simply, you'll fly through ACC and PCC and then there's more courage to develop as you move towards MCC but it's the same shape and what I notice is the thing that makes the biggest difference to the quality
of people's coaching is introducing the boundaries to the conversation so remember in chapter one we call that creating the coaching container and there's that lovely Chinese proverb the banks of the Yangtze River Give it depth, drive and direction. Now, some other questions came up in week one's questions, which I'll be picking up when we get to those chapters. So next week, we're looking at chapter two. Chapter two is about simple listening.
So do share your insights and questions on social media or commenting on our Podbean or Apple iTunes. podcasts and we'll pick up with those questions and insights next week. If you've enjoyed what you've heard today please share the podcast with a friend who might also be interested and if you'd like to become one of our regulars at The Coaching Inn you can subscribe at Podbean or on iTunes. We look forward to meeting you on the next podcast. You've been listening to The Coaching Inn.
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