welcome / integral coaching / agile coaching
Dear Reader,
In this lifetime, I feel that I have lived many lives. With a world continuing to unfold in its complexity, there have been many surprise turns, false starts, beautiful moments, and painful transitions. Some years ago, this is how I came to find an affinity to the phoenix; the mythical bird which at the end of one life bursts into flames and is reborn from its ashes. This defines many of the seekers I have met. We have trials, we have glorious moments, and we have spans in which some part of us must be let go of in order to transcend into what will be.
I believe that many individuals and the collectives in which they operate have become awake to this need for change, a need that starts with the question "what have we become?"; then drives past it, into a future of possibility. The recognition for leadership in generating and enacting these possibilities has begun to reach a critical mass of emergence, as we become truly interested in answering the followup of "what could we become?"
In travelling my own cycles of development, my own Phoenix Loop, I have come to find confidence in my own unique experiences. These experiences have led me to a deep calling to work with dynamic others to find clarity and action in their own unfolding complexity. To unearth and build previously unknown capabilities which allow them to unleash their truest gifts on the world, and in turn, to become their own wildest possibility.
Thank you for being here, sharing in this moment.
Warmly,
Andrew Leonard
Founder & Principal
“Every human is more than just themselves; they also represent the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.”
The Integral Coaching® Method: A framework for practical and lasting change.
“We each have a unique way of perceiving ourselves, others, the world. It is like a pair of glasses that we put on each day as we awaken and don’t even know that we are wearing them.”
our familiar edges
In our daily lives, we move in ways that become familiar to us. We have our likes and dislikes, our routines and approaches, the groups that we’re a part of and others that we’re not, and a general scheme of where we fit. Moving in this way, we generate experiences which reinforce our view of the world and, by extension, our place in it.
In doing so, we run into parts of ourselves that seem… less than effective. There are edges within our beings and behaviors that can cause everything from malaise to suffering, disappointment to anger, frustration to hopelessness. The touch of our edges which need development can be light and subtle, or right in our face screaming for action. Regardless of the result or depth of feeling these edges create, it is through focused and practiced development that we work with them, pushing them further to discover new ground to stand upon.
For those of us who want to see change in these edges, to work with them constructively, doing nothing is not an option. We must move towards understanding and action. Understanding of self and the world, and action to embody a new way of moving forward.
The modality of Coaching
There are many options for growth and change out there. Self-help resources line the shelves of bookstores, new age gurus have cropped up everywhere promising all manner of transcendent transformation. The offices of counsellors and therapists are busy, and within them a multitude of techniques are being used.
The question is, then, why coaching?
As a modality, coaching fills a space that I feel is under-served. While many of us run up against our edges on a daily basis, a lot of us simply aren’t quite a fit for counselling or haven’t found traction with it. The answers we find in books become intellectual entertainment as we struggle to implement them in daily life. Travelling to a far off land to live the life of an enlightened ascetic can take time and resources that pull us away from the real and present demands of life.
The reality is that many who seek change are already great, and want to get better. Others are looking to find a new edge and work it. More still see a gap between where they are and where they could be, having a deep desire to close it. No matter what the reasons, the focus in coaching is one of healthy development instead of getting fixed. We aren’t working with illness, we’re working with you as a worthy and beautiful human who wants your best self to emerge.
The integral advantage
I came to Integral Coaching® for very specific reasons. With a background in psychology and neuroscience, I was looking for a modality which was built on a bedrock of rich, robust, and validated developmental theory. I wanted a method that had clear and demonstrable applications, a rigor of success that was flexible enough to meet anyone no matter where they might be. With these criteria, I came to find Integral Coaching®.
Integral Coaching® was created by Joanne Hunt and Laura Divine. The core framework behind Integral Coaching® is that of Integral Theory, as developed by Ken Wilber and his contemporaries. Wilber’s Integral Theory is one of expansive inclusiveness. Using it, the threads and insights from spheres as diverse as neuroscience, consciousness studies, spirituality, and systems theory all find a home. They are all seen as true but partial. Only in holding these simultaneous partial truths together can we move towards a wider, integral view of self, others, and world.
The Practice of Integral Coaching®
Using the integral map as an assessment tool allows the Integral Coach™ to find practiced and intuitive insight into the needs of the client. It fully allows for one’s unique expression of individual experience. When applied to coaching, the programs I develop are completely tailored, customized, and pinpointed to your specific topic and objectives.
By moving through a program with an Integral Coach™, you practice at change. You work with those familiar ways of yours, watching them grow and shift through practice. What once seemed static and fundamental becomes dynamic and malleable. And, in the end, you find change as you embody a new way.
Very cool, no?
“Over the past 10 years ICC has emerged as one of the premier schools in the world for professional coaching. They have a rigorous methodology that combines embodied perspective taking, presence, and powerful conceptual distinctions. ICC has a strong reputation for demanding a great deal from their coaches-in-training…They are the only coaching school I am aware of that incorporates developmental psychology as the spine of their methodology. This alone gives ICC a tremendous advantage over other schools because their approach is built on extensive psychological research about how and why humans transform and integrate new capacities.”
“The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.”
agile project management: skills to lead from an emerging future
“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.”
the problem
In recent years, the world in which our organizations operate has changed radically. This fact cannot be argued and cannot be reversed. Technological development is moving at a lightning clip, the traditional boundaries of the workspace are becoming ever more porous and re-defined. Large organizations are finding their traditional methodologies unwieldy and slow-to-respond to markets which sometimes seem to have their rules rewritten every fiscal cycle, or more disruptive, every quarter. Leaders are realizing that what "we've always done" just isn't working anymore, no matter how those traditional practices are configured.
The outcomes of less-than-stellar adaption to change are everywhere. Bewildered management that find the concrete deployment of products or services elusive. Employees show up to work complacent or frustrated at an organization that just can't seem to get it together. The growing irrelevance of long-standing institutions as they become gridlocked and hamstrung by their own design. Entreprenuers struggling to implement their uncertain what's-next. These phenomenon are felt deeply by anyone who has uttered: there must be a better way.
There is. It's Agile.
The Advent of Agile
After the turn of the millennium, the technology and manufacturing sectors found themselves faced with these issues. Billions of dollars was being wasted on projects which were late, ill defined, or irrelevant by the time they were delivered to market. Productivity was stifled from departments and stakeholders which weren't communicating, and who only felt ownership over their specific work packages instead of the endeavor as a whole.
Project management until this point was highly structured. Plans, charts, endless pages of requirements documentation were being generated in an effort to command and control the necessary effort. The thinking went that if everything could be planned, estimated, scheduled, and budgeted for up front, the result would be complete efficiency and total security. Everyone and everything would have their place, and the only necessity was to work to the plan. Yet, as anyone who has tried to exercise this control in either their personal or professional lives knows, these types of plans often unravel in short order.
“Everyone has a plan. Until they get punched in the face.”
With billions in time and resources being lost, organizations sent in millions more in research to track the source of the failure. Those that have remained successful embraced the adage: change or die. In this call to action, next generation business processes were found -- the invention of Agile and Lean methodologies.
what is agile?
Agile methodologies represent a complete shift in traditional project management philosophy. While plans are seen as important, responsiveness to change is valued more. While systems and processes contribute to success, individuals and interactions are more dynamic levers. While delivering to planned specification is a goal, stakeholder collaboration is a loftier purpose.
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. ”
Present day agile implementations are being found everywhere. Organizations are structuring according to small, cross-functional teams that are easily achieving 400% increases over their traditional productivity. Employees have reported more engagement and satisfaction with their work, stakeholders have found their input more valuable and timely. Entrepreneurs and small business have found confidence leading by their front foot instead of hesitancy from the rear. Continuous improvement becomes a fundamental tenet as the question baked in is: how can we get faster? How can we get better?
These implementations have been achieved in different ways. A re-thinking of the traditional organizational chart has been necessary for some. A better connection to strategy and stakeholders has been necessary for others. New and proven ways of approaching daily work have been fundamental for nearly all.
Leading from the Emerging Future
“We live in a time of massive institutional failure, one that requires a new consciousness and a new collective leadership capacity.”
A comprehensive view of project management and agile implementations is not just one of tools, processes, and systems of working. It includes a deep focus on individual experience within the collective to generate actions which truly serve the end goals of that collective. Without discerning right action as an organization, efforts become diffuse as the knife edge of strategy becomes less sharp.
In placing this value simultaneously on the experience of the individual and the goals of the collective, we avoid what Otto Scharmer describes as showing up to work and "collectively enacting results that nobody wants" -- a symptom of organizations locked in their traditional ways of going.
Instead, by being completely present to change and the opportunities for continuous improvement that it can bring to individuals and the collectives that they serve, we become more nimble. We become more responsive. We become more Agile.
Our offerings >>