NEW SCHEDULE AND FORMAT

Just when you thought it was safe to come out and say, “Oh yes, I know the Meta-Coaching System!” the whole system has undergone a kaizen-refining and has emerged stronger and more profound than ever! While it is the same system of 7-models, we have now taken it to a whole new level integrating feedback from many people in many countries. In this and the next Meta Reflections I’ll answer the question, “What’s new in Meta-Coaching in 2009?”

• So, what is new?

• How has the system itself evolved and been refined?

• And why? Why these changes?

• And, what does it mean for previous Meta-Coaches?

The most radical change to the Meta-Coach Training System is the shift to making the Science and Art of Facilitation the unifying theme throughout the days. And along with this change we have established a daily theme of facilitating for each day.

Day 1: Facilitating Relationship: Creating the coaching relationship through the core skills of Supporting and Listening and Receiving Feedback. Introduction to the Facilitation Model and how to use it to create your coaching space for the conversation like none-other.

Day 2: Facilitating Exploration: Developing expertise in questioning and meta- questioning and giving feedback. Introduction to the invisible structures of meta-states, meta-programs, and cognitive styles and how to explore them through meta-questions as well as how to coach to meta-programs and meta-levels.

Day 3: Facilitating Performance: Coaching for experience, execution, and implementation via State Induction, coaching emotions, and accessing one’s personal powers. Coaching clarity and precision via a Matrix KPI that synthesizes meaning and performance.

Day 4: Facilitating Systems: Coaching to the Matrix of any and every client’s meaning frames, develop the skill of “following the energy through the system,” and learn how to conversationally co-create an experiential matrix with a client.

Day 5: Facilitating Change: Coaching to the Axes of Change model and developing skills as a Change Agent handling the levels and dimensions of change. Developing change skills as you learn the eight-coaching change roles for performance, developmental, and transformational change.

Day 6: Facilitating Self-Actualization: Coaching self-actualization in people and companies by coaching to the Self-Actualization Quadrants that enables the unleashing of potentials in individuals and organizations. Facilitate the unleashing processes that synergize meaningful performances.

Day 7: Facilitating Your Coaching Business: Identifying your niche as a professional coach, your kind of coaching, and begin to develop the business skills so that you can work on your business as well as in it as you create a commercially viable coaching business. Create a Matrix Business Plan so you can bring out your best as an entrepreneur.

Day 8: Facilitating Your Certification: Step up to the worldwide community of Meta-Coaches as you meet the rigorous certification requirements, and are then licensed as a Certified Meta-Coach.

To the nine Leadership Team of Meta-Coach Trainers, I wrote the following to two weeks ago as part of the re-design of the Meta-Coach Training System. This articulates why we are doing this and why this is important:

1) To create a new and thorough focus on the Facilitation Model as the heart of Meta-Coaching.

Each day there is the facilitating of one or more of the processes or facets of coaching. This puts the emphasis on a coach as a facilitator, and a special kind of facilitator— a coach facilitating a content-free conversation—a facilitator of the client’s expertise over his or her goals and life vision.

2) To more thoroughly develop a consistent theme for each day.

Each day has a theme and focus. So if a Meta-Coach wants to re-visit a particular theme or focus, he or she can return for that particular day; and can do so year after year. Also it will enable the participants to work on that theme indepth in a thorough way for an entire day. This will also save us the repetition of coming back to the theme.

3) To cumulatively build up the Meta-Coach processes.

The skills of the coach-in-training build each day becoming richer and more complex until it reaches the Certification day.

In 2007 I identified 10 of the meta-processes that a Meta-Coach would facilitate. That was the first generation of a Facilitation Model. Yet I knew that was just the beginning of truly modeling the science and art of facilitation. And now I have it. “Will you share it here?” No, not yet. First, I’ll use 2009 as the year to share it in the actual Meta-Coach training, in Module III Coaching Mastery and I will do so in Stockholm, Sweden (Sept.), Auckland, New Zealand

(Oct.), Pretoria South Africa (Oct.), and Sydney Australia (Nov.). And I think I can promise that you will be as delighted as you will be surprised.

And there is more to this new schedule. Previously, we were only able to schedule 12 full coaching sessions throughout the eight days. That meant minimally each participant would coach and be benchmarked on 4 full sessions, experience the client role 4 times, and watch the process and give feedback 4 times as the meta-person. With the new schedule we have pushed this to 18 full coaching sessions so that after day 1, every participant will coach a full session 6 days in a row, be client 6 times and step into the meta-role 6 times. This will provide a lot more experience, practice, and feedback from the benchmarking.