Exploring an extended role for coaching – through the eyes of an action researcher

This is an account written by a coach, action researcher, organisational development and inquiry practitioner whose main aim is to share an exploration of the power implicit in combining and integrating these four lenses into an extended form of coaching - one that might help catalyse new forms of organisation and leadership.

In my original thesis (Scholes-Rhodes, 2002) I presented my newly formed practice as: “...a practice that encompasses both its own assumptions about the nature of knowledge and about the appropriate methodology for obtaining ‘correct’ understanding” (p.268)  “... a living form of inquiry... an original contribution to an appreciation of inquiry as a creative art” (p.315).

I would like to draw on this emergent understanding to put forward the principles of my coaching practice, initially formulated as the standards of judgement to support my claim to the development of a unique form of first-person inquiry and now fully incorporated into my coaching practice as the fundamental principles upon which my work is built. I would like to take the time to explore where their impact might be both substantial and limited. I would also like to take the time to explore to what extent these same principles can provide the framework for my collective work – an emerging practice, and one in which I aspire to have greater impact.

I am also curious about this notion of exquisite connectivity that was so fundamental to my own transformation (Scholes-Rhodes, 2002). I want to explore how I might be embodying it in my coaching work, and probably more significantly would like to track the evidence of its positive impact for my clients.  I’d also like to explore how I’m beginning to embody it in my collective work, if indeed I do, and to begin to formulate some thoughts about how I might embed it further. 

And finally, I want to identify the question that will generate the next phase of my inquiry.