« Return to blog main page
Co-active Coaches as Facilitators of Emergence
An invitation to visioning about the Co-active Summit from CTI faculty member Clive Prout:
When I was first invited to contribute to this blog, I saw an opportunity to share my enthusiasm for the Pathways I want to offer at the Summit (#11 – Integral Spiral Dynamics and #13 – Leadership Consciousness – Overcoming Immunity to Change) and encourage you to vote for them. Then I read the blog postings already here. I saw that both Doug Silsbee and Steve Mitten had both already highlighted both these Pathways. What more can I add to what they say?
Where I am really drawn is to build on the title of Karen’s last blog entry – “Homeostasis and Emergence”.
As a Co-active Coach, the interplay between the forces of Homeostasis and Emergence is the essential dynamic that I work with every day. Homeostasis is the force for stability, for maintaining the status quo, for sticking with what works. Emergence is the impulse to grow, to learn, to change – the force for creation, and also for destruction (for something new to come into being, something else has to die).
As I work with clients, I might call the forces of Homeostasis “The Saboteur”, or “Immunity to Change”. I can name the impulse to Emerge “The client’s Future Self” or the “Big A Agenda”. Still, behind these names, the forces are the same.
I try not to make the status quo “wrong”. But, at the end of the day, I see my role as a Co-active Coach as an agent of change, a facilitator of emergence. And as such, the forces of Homeostasis are the forces to be overcome, even if they aren’t “wrong” in any real sense. I see myself as a hired help, a mercenary on the side of Emergence. My clients pay me to tip the balance of power towards Emergence, so that the transformation that is trying to emerge – like a butterfly from a chrysalis, can do so more easefully.
So, dear reader, to relate all this to the upcoming Summit, I‘d like you to answer these questions:
“What do you want to see Emerge from this Summit?”
“What are the forces of Homeostasis (The Immunity to Change) which must be overcome for this to happen?”
“What will it require of us (the CTI community) to overcome our collective Homeostasis and let this Emerge?”
Please post your answers in the comments section. And then, go vote for the Pathways, which will most contribute to the Emergence that you long for.
With love,
Clive
Subscription Options:
