Unpacking FLOW5 C.O.A.C.H.

I felt I was participating in a Zen-like meditation session where the focus was on ‘flow’ and the imagery constructed to facilitate this inner focus was of a flowing peaceful stream in contrast to the fast flowing rapids the stream flows into. No stranger to streams and rivers (I live in the land of rivers) this image and the associated lessons were rather easily comprehended. What lost me was how ‘flow’ and ‘stream’ was connected to coaching and then to the C.O.A.C.H Process. So here’s what I did formulate in my mind to make sense of the surreal tutorial.

The lesson I think I was to catch is that the coaching I offer is akin to a slow flowing peaceful stream, a place and time for my client to come aside to relax and contemplate, to be silent and hear her voice within as she steers intentionally into my quiet stream from the fast flowing rapids she battles in her journey up the river of life, working hard not to drown and yearning for a pit stop. The coaching I offer seems remarkably identical to the ‘quiet streams’ King David says his Lord leads him to in the famous Psalms 24 description of God as a good shepherd (thanks Coach Sanjiv for the thought).

This picture brings back memories of younger days when I use to go up the mighty Rajang River to the last human outpost, Belaga that required us to pass through the infamous Pelagus Rapids, famous for its treacherous path and annual death toll from capsized longboats. So maybe the life experience of my client is akin to someone shooting the Pelagus Rapids to reach Belaga. It makes sense and there’s so much similarity with life’s challenges and consequences to unpack from this. But we will not go there. Suffice to say our client is shooting the rapids and needs to time out.

And that’s where the stream comes in. Isn’t it strange and amazing that streams are connected to rapids and all you need to do is get out of the mainstream and swing into one of these many side streams for a break? The pebble carpeted banks and the soothing slow moving, crystal clear water invites rest and calm, long talks and deep meditation. So much like a coaching session where the clients gets to shut the door and shut out the noise and demands of life for a moment. A moment to breathe in, calm down, reflect, refocus and rediscover what is needed.

After business is done in Belaga, a picnic at one of the nearby streams is usually arranged. A time to rest and frolic in the water, to eat native food and wild boar barbequed between river rocks laid out to contain the burning driftwood. A lot of heart-to-heart discussions takes place here as well as quiet reflections on what had just transpired in town. So yes, I see how a coaching session can be likened to a stopover at a quiet stream before heading out into the rapids again.

With all that said and done, I think there was a shift in the use of this metaphor when the question “How do you flow?” was thrown in at the beginning and brought up occasionally. Here I felt the whole intention was to enable us to associate times when we are in a ‘state of flow’ to what we are to perceive and expect of ourselves as coaches when conducting a coaching session.

Other than what a river or stream does, the word ‘flow’ when used in work related situations always draws my mind to the Theory of Flow popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who introduced this theory in the 1970s based on research examining people who did activities for pleasure, even when they were not rewarded with money or fame. He was surprised to discover that enjoyment did not result from relaxing or living without stress, but that during these activities their attention was fully absorbed. He called this state flow, because during his research, people illustrated their intense experiences using the metaphor of being carried by a current like a river flows.

With this in mind, I wonder if another takeaway from the tutorial is that my coaching sessions should ‘flow’ for me – I find pleasure in what I am doing and my attention is fully absorbed in my client, creating an intense pleasurable experience albeit being carried in a river flow. Participants in Csikszentmihalyi experiments were motivated by the quality of the experience they had while they were engaged in the activity. The flow experience came when the activity was difficult and involved risk. It usually stretched the person's capacity and provided a challenge to his/her skills. If so, then aiming to have ‘flow’ in a coaching session is indeed a beneficial aspiration, something to look forward to as it would enable me (and my client) have quality experiences while stretching my capacity as a coach. Wow, what a ‘flow’!

And that’s my two-cents on flow.

The second part of the tutorial was the introduction to a five stage coaching process model cleverly termed C.O.A.C.H (still trying to see how flow is related to this model other than that the five stages flows from one to another and it’s a slow process, very much the speed a quiet stream flows; no rushed job here). I personally am happy to have a model as a guide, something to help me know where I am in the coaching session and what most probably would be next. It also could be used as a checklist, both before and after a session, to help me prepare and process what took place.

As this is just the introduction of the five stages, we did not go deep into each nor do I have much to comment about it other than to say I look forward how each stage is unpacked and how the many ideas, theories and pointers attached to each segment of C.O.A.C.H. will be introduced and explained in detail. Let the lessons begin.