To disrupt or not? What are the stories we tell ourselves?

Posted 30 October 2019 in Coach development

Coming back from an enriching ICF conference in Prague, I was reflecting on my takeaways. There were many; not only from the sessions but from the conversations along the way too. Hoping these reflections trigger something for you – a thought to explore or a person’s work you’d like to find out more about.

The themes that I observed throughout were - disruption and stories.

Disruption doesn’t mean confrontation rather, as Luvvie Ajayi covered, are you being nice or being truthful? Contrary to common belief, we can challenge AND be kind and thoughtful at the same time. I observe it is easier to be nice but doing so doesn’t alter anything. Perhaps we are being nice to be liked? Keep harmony? Maybe we can be kind, thoughtful and challenging?

Jennifer Garvey Berger questioned us about the stories we tell ourselves and how it’s easier to agree with others’ stories too. We get trapped by those stories – but if we can challenge (or disrupt) them then we extend possibilities. What happens if we change the story we tell ourselves about someone e.g. for someone we may not get along with; how is that person a hero? Build a new habit of switching the story and we allow much more.

In his keynote, Frans Johansson spoke of rethinking expertise and experience to unleash the power of innovation. I loved his example of the Ice Hotel in Sweden which highlighted –one small executable step and being open to change direction, rather than complete focus on the long-term goal. Be open to altering your goal as well as trying out many other options.

Other highlights;

Brighton West Video – fabulous presentation with clear tips for making short videos with your phone & actually getting to make one too! All in an hour. Check out my first ever informal video on LinkedIn.

Verity Symtox – mental health and coaching. What do we as coaches need to be aware of? What else is needed to raise awareness? For reference check out the ICF white paper and their one pager. Further work in the UK to be done.

Jan Markel – 30 mins slot on being yourself as the best marketing strategy (which I totally believe). Done brilliantly and clearly. I have been a coach for almost 20 years, yet I learnt and gained a different perspective. Linking to Frans’s point above on experience and expertise – expanding can give a different perspective. From a ‘warm, light yet grounded personal explorer/coach’!

(Frans Johansson speaking)

The other session that spoke to me was Zoran Todorovic’s session on Coaching Collective Connective Intelligence. I last saw Zoran speak maybe 10 years ago. It was a delight to see how his work has evolved. What is your unfulfilled contribution to the world? What level of potential are you working at as a coach?

Then Simon Blackhill on Spiritual Intelligence spoke to my heart plus prompted me to reflect on the stories we tell, our perspective, and to buy Cindy Wigglesworth’s book ‘Spiritual Intelligence’.

So I am off to disrupt myself & my clients with kindness and thoughtfulness, question even more the stories we all tell ourselves.

Thank you ICF and Prague.