Dear Co-Active Coaches,

It may still officially be winter, but spring-like growth is already happening here at CTI! We will begin offering courses in Boston later this year—our first new North American course location in several years. Plus, CTI has expanded its management team. CTI co-founder Karen Kimsey-House has taken on a new and expanded role as has long-time course leader Lori Shook. Read more about these exciting changes in CTI News.

In the Community section this month, we continue our introductions of CTI staff with a profile of Certification Specialist Barb Ainslie. If you’ve called about the Certification Program in the past few months, you’ve probably spoken with Barb. Before taking on her

current role, Barb was our receptionist, so if you called about anything, you probably spoke with Barb. Warm, irreverent, incredibly efficient and full of smiles, Barb is a joy to have in the office.

Our topic for articles this month is Coaching Relationships: What types of relationships do you coach? What have the challenges been for you in doing relationship coaching? What have you learned—about yourself, about coaching relationships? Once again, our community has shared an abundance of great articles from a variety of perspectives. Whether your interest is in coaching teams, couples, families or a client’s relationship with him/herself, there’s an article—or more—for you here. Sit back and enjoy the writings of CPCCs Diane Boivie, Susan Howson, Alfred DePew, Kathy Loh, Susan Moreschi and Vivienne Simon, as well as coach Denzil Meyers.

As always, we love hearing the voices of our community and invite you to read the topics for upcoming issues of The Inquiry and think about sharing your insights by writing an article. And join us in celebrating our newest CPCCs!

Enjoy!

CTI News

CTI Expands Management Team—Letter from the CEO

I am delighted to make two major announcements regarding the expansion of our management team.

As CTI’s business has grown in complexity and size, I have become increasingly aware that it is no longer possible for one person to adequately play both the President and CEO roles. I have asked Karen Kimsey-House, CTI’s co-founder, to step into the role of CTI president, focused on the internal and day-to-day functioning of the company. This frees me up to focus more on the external challenges of the company, especially in the areas of high-level strategy, messaging, communication and key client relations. Karen has stepped into the president’s role as of the beginning of the year and has already made a big difference. I have worked with Karen in various functions and capacities for close to four years and have learned more about leadership from her than any other person or institution in my past. Our partnership is strong, very complementary and, of course, Co-Active. It bodes well for the future of our great company and our impact in the world.

In an increasing commitment to support the spread of Co-Activity globally, I am also excited to announce that we have hired a new Director of CTI's International Business, Lori Shook. Lori will have a wide range of responsibilities, from managing and supporting relationships with CTI’s international partners to creating strategy for further international expansion, including diversifying and expanding the language capability of our leader body. Lori is not new to this path; for the past two years, she has been tirelessly spearheading our international expansion, along with her indefatigable comrade Jim Patterson. Jim and Lori have moved mountains in the past two years, and Jim will continue to support Lori in this important work. Lori is an MCC and has been an active CTI leader and coach for more than seven years. Lori travels extensively to lead courses and meet with business partners. She lives in France.

Please join me in welcoming Karen and Lori into their expanded roles at CTI. We are off to a great start in 2006 to build increased organizational capacity to fulfill our great promise in the world.

With respect and gratitude,
Shirzad Chamine, CEO

CTI in Boston

CTI is definitely on the move this year! We are proud to announce that we have added a new East Coast location. Beginning in July, we will be offering courses in the Boston metro area. If you’d like further information about dates and times of the course series, go to our website at www.thecoaches.com and click on “Programs” at the top of the homepage. If you know anyone on the East Coast who would benefit from this information, please feel free to pass it along! We’re growing fast!

Community

Introducing CTI Staff Member Barb Ainslie
Barb Ainslie, our “Certification Maven” here at CTI, was born in Seattle, WA, though she spent most of her time growing up in Grand Rapids, MI. She only recently made her way out to California and has now landed at The Coaches Training Institute. We’re glad she did. This office just would not be the same without Barb’s unique blend of irreverence, wit, and her unique ability to “call it like it is” and get away with it. (This is probably due to her genuinely warm eyes and whole-hearted smile.) Read more about Barb’s sparkling personality by clicking here.

Co-Active Network
The Co-Active Network has grown by 200 members in the past month, topping off at 6,200 members in the main community! There are more than 40 niche and geographic communities, too. The conversations continue to be vibrant, alive and informative. Come join the fun!

The purpose of the network is to support every member in achieving his/her greatest vision for Co-Active coaching and leadership in the world. Each community has resources, discussions and community events. Check the full calendar on the Co-Active Network. There is an amazing array of exciting events.

We’re thrilled this month to have presenters Henry Kimsey-House, CPCC, MCC, co-founder of CTI and co-creator of The Artful Play of Coaching course, along with Gwen Gordon, MA, who teaches play at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and Holy Names University. Together, they’ll explore how to unleash the pure joy, creativity and spontaneous brilliance of unbridled free play in your coaching. Developing mastery has never been this much fun! At this writing, the call is full, but it is always good to check back and see if there have been any openings. Click here to register.

Event Title: The Artful Play of Coaching
Date: Feb 21, 2006
Start Time: 10 a.m. Pacific
End Time: 11 a.m. Pacific

Many of the events held on the main community have been recorded on audio podium. The list of recorded sessions is available under the “Resources” section of the main community. Look for the topic “Audio Podiums from Network Main Event Sessions” for a full list.

Would you like to share your insight with fellow coaches?
We love to learn from our community, and sharing your thoughts with your fellow coaches is a great way to let us know what’s happening in your world. The Inquiry focuses on a specific topic each month. Topics for the next few months are:

March—Passive Income for Coaches: How have you created passive income streams? What worked; what didn’t? What suggestions do you have for coaches who want to develop passive income.

April—Visioning: What impact has visioning had with your clients/yourself? What visioning tools do you use? What structures do you use to keep the vision alive?

May—Somatic Coaching: How do you define Somatic Coaching? What are the characteristics that differentiate it from other types of coaching? How do you combine somatic practices with coaching?

We invite you to submit articles and share your insight in The Inquiry. It is a fantastic way to increase your visibility in the coaching profession. Please send articles to newsletter@thecoaches.com. Read the detailed submission guidelines.

Articles

Magic From the Mess: Discovering the Power of Roles in Teams
We’ve all been there—on teams, committees or groups that just aren’t getting along. Whether on a functional team within in a corporation or on a committee in a volunteer organization, we know how painful and messy it can get sometimes. It doesn’t have to be that way. Relationship systems coaching can be a powerful means to help teams make magic from their messes and transform the way they work together. Diane Boivie, CPCC, ACC, of Radiant Life Coaching, shows us just one way to take a step back and look at what’s really going on—from the perspective of roles within the system. Read the article.

Start Designing Alliances Now
Denzil J. Meyers is founder of widgetwonder, a consulting service that provides relationship systems coaching, corporate storytelling and co-creativity workshops for teams at work and play. Denzil is also a founding board member of Applied Improvisation Network, a business community exploring performance-based human development and innovation. In this article, he focuses on designing the partnership alliance with teams through the lens of Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching material and his own work with improvisation. Check it out!

It’s a Family Affair!
“As a relationship coach, I love helping people choose who they want to “be” within the family context and how they want to impact it as a result. Whether the coaching is with one member of the family or everyone, the effect is powerful. Families get excited and nervous about being able to design their relationship with other family members.” Susan T. Howson, MA, CPCC, CHBC, is a family and relationship systems coach, human development expert, university professor, author, keynote speaker and humanitarian-award winner. Here she writes about using the constellation work learned in the Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching courses to coach the family as a system.

Coaching Couples on Money and        
Love, Valor and Compassion: Coaching Gay Couples
Alfred DePew, MA, CPCC, PCC, coaches individuals, couples and organizations that are up to big, rascally things in the world. He is the author of Wild & Woolly: A Journal Keeper’s Handbook. He has written two articles for The Inquiry this month on the topic of the relationship between two people. The first explores how our perspectives on money can influence our romantic relationships click here, and the second click here, is about coaching gay couples and how these relationships may have different concerns than heterosexual relationships. Join Alfred for some entertaining and insightful reading!

Conflict, Emotional Hijacking & Healing in Couples Work
“In my work with couples, I find that one of the central places that people repeatedly get stuck in their dance together usually has at least one—if not both—partners, caught in the grip of an emotional hijacking,” writes Vivienne Simon, JD, CPCC, and relationship coach. “Emotional hijacking, also described as ‘being triggered,’ describes a distressing experience in which an internal switch flips and, in an instant, a person is no longer in control of his/her emotional response to the other person. In this state, authentic communication is no longer possible.” She loves helping motivated, growth-oriented couples find peace in themselves and joy in their relationships. To read more about this issue that comes up in nearly all relationships work, click here.

Letting Go is Not Failure
“Letting go is not failing. Failing to let go can be deadly. Whether it is with relationships, dreams, old identities or old ways of being and doing things—these will need to be released so that new ones have room to flourish. Our own personal dreams may need to be morphed in order for the relationship dream to have room to grow. We might assume we need to let go of each other, when it may be that we need to let go of some aspect of ourselves: our personal and inflexible agendas. How willing are we to be changed by our relationships?” Kathy Loh, MA, CPCC, is a graduate of the ORSC training, a certified print coach and a member of the Antares leadership tribe with whom she will attend R5 this spring. She co-leads the Creative Artists niche on the CTI Co-Active Network and is a musician and writer. Join Kathy by clicking here to read about coaching the relationship, no matter where it is going.

Coaching the Primary Relationship: The One with Yourself
And to end on a positive note, Susan Moreschi, CPCC, PCC, writes about a great experience one of her clients had in manifesting the love of her life through working first on the relationship with herself. Susan is a spiritual life coach and a workshop leader and coach with Lucid Living. In this article, we can see how helping clients focus on their relationship to themselves can help make their heart’s desires come true.

Celebration

Please join the CTI team in congratulating all of the Certified Professional Co-Active Coaches who have finished the rigorous certification program and passed their exams!

CPCCs through January 15
Connie Armbrust, Robin Broadnax, Tom Corr, Tiffany Gaskell,  Karen Grove, Sharon Hall, Lynn Hull, Gene Kendall, Jr., Karen Knight,  Pavla Kruzela, Lynne Michelson, Melissa O’Mara, Louise Pinard, Kiya Sakaris, Beth Shapiro, Sharon Snow, Tom Stein, Janne Ringoen and Amanda Wright.

Here are some other graduates from November that we apologize for missing:

Paul Byrne, Paal Leveraas, Carol Nosches and Asa Ronngard