ICF Creates a Starring Role for Its Most Experienced Coaches

The ICF has a message to its most experienced coaches: MCCs, we need you.

“They’re not really being utilized,” said Lynn Meinke, chair of the 2010 ICF conference steering committee, referring to a concern among MCCs that turned up in surveys following previous ICF conferences. “So we said, what’s one way that we can promote the MCCs, so people can get to know who they are, and their expertise can be used at the same time.”

Organizers planning the 15th Anniversary ICF Conference planned for October in Fort Worth, Texas, came up with a bold idea: a series of “Global Conversations,” with MCCs front and center.

“We brainstormed and came up with the idea of looking at what are some of the major global trends that are going on in the world,” said Lori-Anne Demers, an MCC and a member of ICF’s conference education steering committee.

Demers said the ICF identified fifty trends, and ultimately selected five—chosen specifically for their impact on the world of coaching. “We thought (the trends) were relevant both to us as coaches, but also to our clients and how we can support our clients.”

For each trend, the room of 200 or more people will be divided into round tables of ten. A content expert will lead a short discussion, then tables will each take on the topic guided by an MCC serving as a conversation leader.

The concept was designed specifically to serve two very different groups—new coaches, who had asked for opportunities to take part in conversations, not just conference presentations—and MCCs, some of whom had expressed a desire to have a more significant role in the annual conference.

The Global Conversations, then, will become a tool to engage the new, and put MCCs on center stage, taking an “integral” role.

Among the five trends to be discussed in Texas are:

1. Internationalism Becomes the Norm
2. Transforming the Fragmented Community
3. Embracing Complexity and New Roots to Change
4. Aging: Increased Lifespan and How Long We Will Work
5. Listening Organizations: What Is a Chief Listening Officer?

Is it a bold idea? “Absolutely,” said Demers. “It’s the fifteen year anniversary, so we wanted to do something very different.”

“With this (Global Conversation format), we are assured of a sense of belonging, the sense of we belong to this community of coaches,” said Laura Fierro Evans, a member of ICF’s conference education committee, who says ICF conference attendees had expressed concerns about feeling isolated and fragmented. “We don’t feel like being in a community many times, since it’s such a large group at the conference.”

The new conversations format takes a huge group and breaks it into table-sized communities of ten, with an MCC facilitator at each table. “Think about the networking that can happen right there (at the table), as well as the conversation,” said ICF’s Lynn Meinke.

“It gives (MCCs) a leading role,” said Laura Fierro Evans. “All kinds of coaches can learn from them.”

The “engaged dialogue” format may strike some as similar to another conference, the invitation-only Conversation Among Masters (CAM).

“What CAM seeks to do is to have a provocative ‘conversation starter,’ put forth a brain dump, and then provide the CAM members with the freedom to talk with them and each other,” said Bobette Reeder, an MCC who co-founded CAM.

Reeder says she received “many forwarded copies” of an ICF email to MCCs announcing its “Global Conversations” concept, many of them suggesting the ICF was lifting CAM’s format. Reeder, whose 2011 event is expected to sell out and go to a waiting list—eleven months in advance—said nobody’s stepped on her toes.

“Although what the ICF is offering/requesting in their letter to MCCs smacks of CAM vernacular, it is wildly different in its style, scope and understanding of the Master-Level Coach (in our humble opinion),” said Reeder. “In actuality, the ICF is asking the MCCs to host table topics for discussion, and to share their experience and wisdom with other attendees. This will be a positive and meaningful learning experience for all concerned, I’m sure.”

And the ICF conference planners agree. “It’s a fully different format,” said Meinke. “It’s a larger thing, and it’s run differently.”

The big question for the ICF, planners concede, may be this: will enough MCCs decide to take that “leading role?”

“We need a lot of MCCs,” said Demers. To make the format work, about 150 MCCs will need to sign up as table captains—with about ten percent already committed. “The invitation went out and within a day we had fifteen people already. So we were very excited about that.” ICF will offer training sessions for the MCCs, and promote their leadership roles in conference materials.

Will you attend the ICF conference and take part in the “Global Conversations?” And do you think the new format will appeal to the most experienced coaches in the way that CAM has?