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Got toys?
If you don’t, there are all kinds of businesses online and elsewhere eager to sell you products designed to enhance creativity, and to help coaching clients discover things they might otherwise have missed.
At least, that’s the idea. Do they work?
In this video, CoachReporter Mark Joyella talks to Marcy Nelson-Garrison, a Minneapolis-based certified co-active coach and creator of Coaching Toys, Inc., which has an online store called simply, www.coachingtoys.com. What will you find for sale there?
Decks of cards, board games, and other toys and gizmos that Nelson-Garrison believes can help a coach reach a great coaching moment for a client, by creatively helping them “go deeper.”
Watch the video, then share your thoughts on using toys in coaching: does it help? Any toys you’d recommend? Any toys you’d warn others away from?
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There are 4 Responses so far...
I love toys and I think anything that brings creativity, joy and fun into coaching is a fine thing. Marcy’s on to something with her comment that we can bring anything to coaching to help this creativity emerge – a beach ball, a hat or, my favourite, the coloured pens and big sheets of paper. I tend to make my own resources (eg values cards) but it’s great to see the breadth of toys available.
I love the Shift cards you featured but I think the breathminder is a bit of a dud. ie I find a polished pebble carried in your pocket is just as effective – everytime you find it, you remember to stop, or breathe, or whatever you want to bring to awareness. And it’s beautiful.
I’m also aware that not everyone is into toys. I recall an article on business coaches a few years back that derisively spoke of a coach who used Lego people (to tap into his client’s relationships). I thought it was a very clever approach – but obviously not for everyone.
Thanks Mark and Marcy for bringing the joy of toys to coaching!
I had the pleasure of meeting Marcy last year at a conference. I was able to see a number of the products offered at http://www.coachingtoys.com first hand. They are high quality products and talk about fun! I loved them all! Way to go Marcy!
Hey Mark, what a fun quirky video. Thanks! I enjoyed our conversation and loved the nuggets you pulled from it. I have to admit I did cringe a bit at the sound of breaking glass over my deck of Q? Basics, Open-ended Questions for Coaching Mastery – that is an exceptional tool and has always been the best seller in the store.
My comments about open-ended questions were in reference to new product inventors – open-ended questions is a typical starting place. I want to encourage coaches who want to create products to let their creativity take them to some new territory or find really really novel ways to use questions. Other than that – great interview!
I have often used impromptu objects to help clients reach clarity and create strategies. I trained in Creativity and Humour techniques and took this successfully into coaching a director for stress, managed in an appropriate and successful way. “What is the lightbulb strategy?” “If this pen was a magic wand, what would you conjure up?” etc.
Some coaches use Angel Cards; I have even coached a top HR executive using a handful of crystals (rather out of both our comfort zones, as I am not a New Ager!); it was highly surprising and effective.
I have often thought that having a bag of coaching toys would be wonderful, bringing Lightness, Exploration, Creativity, Humour to the session.
The link between creativity, coaching and self-expression/self-awareness needs exploring, I believe.