In Episode 24 of the Catalyst Coach Certification Programme, Coach Sanjiv Bhatia tutored us on Creativity in Coaching. ICF defines coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership." ICF clearly identifies creativity as a tool to break unhealthy patterns - Coaches guide their clients to "embrace and envision a desired future state in which they've let go of their unwanted patterns." as well as "a tool to identify alternative strategies for existing problems."
A Desired Future State
Drawing from John Maxwell's book 'Put Your Dreams to the Test: 10 Questions to See It and Seize It, Coach Sanjiv likened the Coachee's desired future state to a dream and shared the 10 questions that would help bring clarity for the coachee.
The Ownership Question: Is this dream really my dream?
The Clarity Question: Do I clearly see my dream?
The Reality Question: Am I depending on factors within my control to achieve my dream?
The Passion Question: Does my dream compel me to follow it?
The Pathway Question: Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?
The People Question: Have I included the right people I need to realize my dream.
The Cost Question: Am I willing to pay the price for my dream?
The Tenacity Question: Am I moving closer to my dream?
The Fulfillment Question: Does working towards my dream bring satisfaction?
The Significance Question: Does my dream benefit others?
Coach Sanjiv asked the question "What would happen once you achieve your dream?". He inferred that it might be possible that it is a goal but not a dream as a dream or vision had an element of being larger than life
When You Wish Upon a Star
Coach Sanjiv went on to discuss Disney's Creative Strategy. Based on observations of the work of Walt Disney, a pioneering American animator, film producer, voice actor and entrepreneur, Walt Disney's strategy was highlighted and modelled in 1994 by NLP expert Robert Dilts as a technique for turning a dream into reality. In this method, the group of people use a specific thinking flow which builds parallel thinking that can be used to generate, evaluate, critique ideas and solve problems.
Disney Creative Strategy (Cont'd) - There are 3 key roles/ personalities as Dilts saw them
Dreamer - Usually creative ideas are strangled at birth because reality bites very quickly and creativity is stifled when one does not have a flow of ideas. Dreamers ask
What do we want?
What's the solution?
How do we imagine the solution?
What are the benefits of applying this solution?
Realist - Assumes that the dream is possible and plans logically to turn the imagined idea into a reality. Realists ask
How can we apply the idea in reality?
What is the action plan?
What is the timeline to apply the idea?
How do we evaluate the idea?
Critic - The critic serves to discover the barriers of applying the idea and finds ways to overcome. Critique is always constructive in order to identify the weak point and solve it in the final solution.
What could be wrong with the idea?
What is missing?
Why can't we apply it?
What are the weakness? How can they be overcomes?
Reflections
While Maxwell's Ten Questions were insightful and thought provoking, some measure of care might need to be extended to ensure that we continue to sound encouraging a Coachee and not shoot every question at one go. We must honor their efforts to break with what they know to create someting new for themselves.
I rather like Disney's Creative Strategy especially for its power to come up with original ideas which are honoured and yet tested for viability. Applied to personal coaching, the coach serves to be both the Realist and the Critic, occasionally dreaming with the Coachee. I found this set of questions in Visual Paradigm Online fairly useful for questions I might be asking as a Coach to first support the dream and play the role of Realist and Critic.
Questions to ask Dreamers
Give yourself 15 minutes to freely describe your dream time.
If everything is possible, without any restrictions, without any pressure, how do you describe your vision, your career, your business, your life, your next step?
What will give you passion and what will make you feel happy?
If your dreams come true, what will you see and what will you gain? Try to imagine in your mind how your dreams come true.
Questions for Realists
How do “20 minutes to make a plan” come true? When and where? Who is responsible for implementation?
How will you take action? How to make a plan and what are the relevant steps to success?
What needs to be done today, tomorrow, next week, and next month?
What resources do you have? How to make good use of these resources?
With whom? Where can you get assistance?
How to get more resources and a wider platform?
Questions for Critics
Five minutes of time to improve the program,”
How do you really feel about it? Is this the best you can do?
What can make it better? Does this make sense?
How does it look to a customer? A client? An expert? A user?
Is it worth to work on this idea? Can I improve it?
Final Takeaway
In the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2023, it was noted that Creative Thinking would rise to be the Top of the 10 Most Important skills in the future. Creativity will be the new currency of the future as businesses seek to present unique options to solve problems of the world, Interestingly the Report stops at 2027 - the unpredictability of the economic climate means the jobs of the future are only being created now and some yet to be created. In order to help our Coachees envision and dream for their future, we must understand Creativity is not a once off process to determine a fixed goal but a muscle we develop to help ourselves navigate uncertainty. It is an imperative to develop Creativity and to do this well, we need to establish psychological safety for them to explore all possibilities, to guide them between setting compelling visions but not as Gen Zs say "delulu" and finally build our own creativity muscles to co-create the future with our Coachees.
Speaking of Jobs, I do love what Steve Jobs says about Creativity.
Only connect.
Coach Maire, peace out!
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