THE TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF META-COACHING

Wow! The Meta-Coaching System is now ten years old. Next then you’ll know, she’ll be in her teenage years! But maybe trainings age like the age of dogs or cats? Maybe a training-year is like 3 human years. Anyway, time has really flown by so quickly from that day in early November 2002 when Meta-Coaching was given birth in Sydney. It only seems like a few months ago.

Now at the birth of Meta-Coaching, I called together three expert coaches to help me deliver it— three expert coaches who fully participated in the experience inasmuch as they were there for the training from beginning to end. In addition, each of them took turns co-training with me. In the preparation period leading up to Meta-Coaching I had interviewed three wonderful people that I had meet in Sydney— each of them with a different focus and niche in Coaching: Graham Richardson focused on Executive Coaching and working with executive teams having been a senior manager and a CEO himself before he stepped up to an even higher position of Executive Coach. Michelle Duval focused on Personal Coaching and had created a company that specialized in many aspects of personal coaching: personal development, health, wealth, relationships, kids and teens, spirituality, etc. Cheryl Gilroy focused on Group and Team Coaching and worked mostly with the Government of Australia and make her real niche working in the area of conflict resolutions and “angry” groups.

From these three original expert coaches, along with some others that I had interviewed and modeled like Dan Bagley in Florida, came a great deal of the content of Meta-Coaching. And to this day, the training manual for Coaching Mastery still has several pages from these coaches (and others) about these different areas of Coaching.

Why? First and foremost because I wanted the program to reflect not only the theoretical aspects of NLP and Neuro-Semantics, I wanted it to be transferrable to those entering the field and learning to be professional coaches. I wanted it to be practical, pragmatic, and actionable. Therefore I sought out living examples of people using NLP and Neuro-Semantics and creating a viable coaching practice from it.

Part of the why also is because that’s what we do in NLP and Neuro-Semantics— we model experts, we model best practices, we find people demonstrating excellence and via the tools and models that we have, we identify the internal structure that explains how they do what they do. And by finding the structure, we can then replicate that excellence. And in a word— that is what Meta-Coaching is. And it is also what Meta-Coaching is becoming year after year.

How is that? What do I mean by that? I mean that the modeling has not ended. Since the beginning, I am always seeking out other expert coaches —I obviously prefer to get other people using the NLP methodology, but I often get expert coaches from many other disciplines— Ontological Coaching, Results Coaching, ICF coaches from different schools, Integral Coaching, and so on. If someone is getting results with people, enabling people to discover their gifts and potentials, empowering them to take ownership of those talents, and releasing people for a fuller life— then I’m interested. I’m very interested! And if they are able to also do the business part, create a viable commercial business so that they build a reputation, and are known for getting results, then I’m interested in that also.

I also want to know what they do, how they think about what they are doing, and then see them actually do it. Typically, what they think they are doing and what they are actually doing are two different things. Their beliefs, philosophy, concept, metaphors, etc. about what they are doing does not fully or actually describe what they are doing. Of course, this is typical of experts—they are great at doing it, they are not so great at explaining what they are doing or at transferring that expertise. That’s where a modeler comes in. And that’s where the genius of NLP and Neuro-Semantics comes in.

NLP offers numerous modeling tools— the Meta-Model for being able to “see” into the invisible structure of language and what the linguistics of the expert is doing. The Strategy Model gives us a tool for following the flow of their thinking–feeling–choosing–responding etc. so we can capture the essence of the structure of the subjective experience. The Representation and Sub-Modality models give many layers of explicit detail to the strategy as does the Meta-Programs’ set of distinctions.

Neuro-Semantics enriches all of that with the Meta-States Model for tracking the recursiveness of the person’s self-reflexive consciousness and all of the loops the person goes through in thinking–emoting– responding. The Matrix Model adds a fuller systemic approach distinguishing the creating processes at work and the developmental stages achieved. The Self-Actualization Quadrants built from the Meaning/Performance axes highlights the integration and synergy or the lack of it. So with these foundational tools, the modeling of coaching expertise and excellence continues to this day. Having now interviewed over 30 experts in the field of Coaching since 2001, the evolution of the Meta-Coaching system continues and will continue.

An example of that occurred in 2009 when I completely redesigned the presentation of Coaching Mastery, (Module III). When I began Meta-Coaching, we had 3 models: the NLP Communication model, Meta- States Model, and the Matrix Model. Within a year we had the Axes of Change Model, then the Benchmarking Model, and by 2005 I had come up with the Self-Actualization Model, and finally in 2007 the Facilitation Model. With each new development, new patterns and processes arose and so we would put that piece into the program. So by 2008 many of us had the feeling that the Coaching Boot Camp program of Coaching Mastery was too disjointed and disorganized and needed a structural make-over.

In 2008, with input from Omar Salom, a Meta-Coach Trainer in Mexico, we re-examined all of pieces that had come together to make up that competency based training and from that rigorous re-examination, I redesigned everything based on the Facilitation Model— so today the program is thematic: Facilitating relationship (Day 1), facilitating exploration (Day 2), facilitating performance (3), systemic thinking (4), change and transformation (5), self-actualization (6), business acumen (7), and professionalism of the field

(8). In 2009 also I began mapping out the unique competencies with the benchmarks for the level after ACMC, the PCMC (Professional Certified Meta-Coach) credentials and that led to the first PCMC assessments in January of 2010. In 2011 I began mapping out the MCMC level with Graham Richardson and we now have competencies and benchmarks for the Master Certified Meta-Coach.

So in this month of Novemeber 2012 on the tenth anniversary of the Meta-Coaching System, Meta- Coaching continues as Cheryl Lucas and Carey Jooste are delivering the 48 th presentation of Coaching Mastery in South Africa and I’m in China with Mandy Chai delivering the 49 th presentation. Today we have 5 Meta-Coach Trainers (including Omar Salom and David Murphy) and 7 or so other trainers in the process of becoming Meta-Coach Trainers. We have well over 1,500 Meta-Coaches in 41 countries and some 50-plus MCF Chapters being conducted all over the world. A lot of growth since 2002.

What will be the next evolutionary changes in the Meta-Coaching system? I don’t know. But whatever it will be, it will be taking Meta-Coaching to yet another level of excellence.

For more about Meta-Coaching: www.meta-coaching.org Download the 16-page color Brochure. Also, www.metacoachfoundation.org