Coaching Researchers Join the Drive to Collaborate

2010: Coaching’s Year of Collaboration?

In February, we told you about the cooperation taking root between coaching’s dominant associations, with the ICF, IAC, WABC and EMCC all putting cooperation and collaboration among their top priorities in the new year.

Now, add coaching researchers to that list.

“We’ve just begun the journey,” said Kerryn Griffiths, who’s representing the IAC in a unique partnership among coaching associations—to collaborate on coaching research.

The effort, which brings together the International Association of Coaching (IAC), International Coach Federation (ICF), Global Coaching Community (GCC) and The Institute of Coaching (IoC), aims to do two things: to inform coaches about the wide range of coaching research being done around the world, and to ensure that by sharing notes and staying in close contact—not isolation—researchers won’t cover the same ground.

“Why re-create the wheel and spend the time doing what someone else has already done, or what they are in the process of doing? If we know what each other is doing, we can tap into each other’s resources to cover all bases,” said Griffiths. “I guess it’s about making best use of the (wo)manpower and financial resources we have to move forward as fast as possible.”

“The idea is to open some dialogue between and among our organizations about our research interests and perhaps come to some shared direction for such collaboration,” said coach Francine Campone, who was part of the phone call that led to the evolving collaborative effort. “I had the sense we were all interested in exploring the question of how we might we use our limited resources for the benefit of our members, our respective organizations and the coaching field.”

Irene Stein initiated the call that got the research collaboration idea rolling—all part of Stein’s role as volunteer host of the ongoing ICF Coaching Research SIG. Stein’s also on the editoral board of the journal Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, where much coaching research is published—including Dr. Stein’s own work last fall, as we reported here.

Stein says the idea is to explore what different groups are doing to promote coaching research and to build what she calls a “coaching studies” knowledge base—a vision Stein and the other coaches are committed to pushing forward.

For Griffiths, the next steps are simple. “It’s mostly about opening up the lines of communication, so we know what’s available where, and what’s still needed to complete the coaching research picture (not that it will ever be complete).”

Beyond sharing insights into the work that’s being done, collaborating may mean something even bigger—at least in Campone’s vision: creating “a coaching research paradigm which honors and supports diverse forms for research, ranging from practitioner action research to theory-building and model-building scholarship,” said Campone. “In my view, coaching is experiencing a scholar-practitioner divide. Each group is in a bit of a silo of its own with divergent views on the value of coaching research.”

Collaborating not just to avoid duplication, but to advance the mission of coaching research—raising awareness of the work being done and how it’s grounded in the day-to-day work of coaches worldwide—that represents what Campone calls her “big audacious dream.”

“I’d hope that a collaboration would result in projects which bridge scholarship and practice. This might include:

• Strategies for encouraging more practitioners to read and use research by making scholarly research accessible, with an emphasis on (but not limited to) the application of findings for practitioners.
• Strategies for encouraging researcher-practitioner partnerships to generate more field-based research (both qualitative and quantitative).
• Strategies for encouraging practitioners to take a scholar-practitioner approach to their own work. For example, I’d love to see more coach training include an introduction to basic action research principles and practices and more opportunities for coaching practitioners to hone real-world research skills.”

“I think what we’re interested in doing is making sure all research bases are covered,” said Griffiths. “Because if we can be aware of what everyone else is doing, then we can focus our attention and energy on providing the world what is still necessary.”

NOTE: Kerryn Griffiths coordinates the ReciproCoach program which partners with the Coaching Commons to offer coaching coins at no cost to Coaching Commons writers and commenters.

Francine Campone and Irene Stein worked in the founding stages of The Foundation of Coaching, which led the field in generating and funding coaching research.