We’ve assembled a wonderful celebration of change! The Table of Contents are below and you can download the whole 250-page book for free using the red download button at the bottom of the page! Enjoy!

Introducing Curated 2019: The Seasons of Change . . .

Welcome to the fifth edition of Curated. It is being published at the starting of a new decade. Each of the first four editions featured one of the four seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer. We are now ready to bring together all four seasons and have captured this image of all four seasons on the cover of this edition of Curated—in the name of: The Seasons of Change. With this turn to a new decade and with our cycling through four seasons, we thought it appropriate in this edition for us to focus on the theme: The Role of Professional Coaching in the Engagement of Change.

It is not hard to justify attending to roles that can be played by professional coaching in the engagement of change processes, for major changes in our personal and collective lives are frequently warranted. There is a term widely used in the literature that captures something of the breadth and depth of change now required in our world—this term is VUCA (which is an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). Originally a military term, VUCA once described fraught, chaotic conditions in which businesses and leaders would increasingly find themselves, and there was much discussion regarding how to navigate VUCA environments. Now, however, we as individuals as well as the communities and organizations we live and work within, are harnessing an intentional disruption for the sake of innovation and growth; essentially we now cause and leverage VUCA to stimulate change. This marks a shift from victims of circumstance to personal agency; from being at the effect of VUCA to affecting change through disruption. We no longer simply react to, survive, and navigate VUCA environments, we generate them on purpose.

VUCA Conditions

We begin this edition of Curated with a review of VUCA conditions (and even introduce an essay that adds to VUCA the fourth and fifth challenges of turbulence and contradiction). Essays in this first section of Curated 2019 explore VUCA-related challenges from a variety of perspectives. It ends with a provocative challenge offered by Rey Carr who has proposed that professional coaching might not be up to the challenge of VUCA and the press for change.

Coaching Strategies for VUCA

The second section of Curated 2019 concerns coaching strategies that can be engaged to make professional coaching effective during these challenging VUCA times. These essays include reviews of the widely used GROW model, as well as the engagement of appreciative perspectives and application of findings from the Cognitive Revolution and Behavioral Economics in our coaching practices.

Coaching Tools for VUCA

Our third section includes essays from the Library of Professional Coaching that provide tools to bring about change. Some of these tools build on the appreciative perspective offered in Section Two, while others build on the wisdom of Master coaches such as Marcia Reynolds and Agnes Mura. We conclude this 2019 edition of Curated with a powerful tool called Polarity Management as presented by Margaret Cary (a noted physician and executive coach). While Cary is addressing her essay primarily to members of the health care community, all professional coaches who are addressing the challenges of a VUCA environment will find this tool to be of great value.

So, welcome to the seasons of change as we prepare for the challenging world of a new decade.

Table of Contents 

Section One: The Conditions for Contemporary Coaching for Change

Coaching in VUCA Times

Agnes Mura

Staying Alive in Complex Challenges of Leadership And Organisations: A Territory Map For Leaders And Their Coaches

Dost Can Deniz, MBA, MCC

Leadership and Anxiety in a VUCA-Plus Environment

William Bergquist, Ph.D.

It Is Time to Reinvent the Organization As places for People to Express Passion and Purpose

Peter Roche

Looking to the Future: Are Your Feet on the Ground or in the Clouds?

Mark McKergow

Future-Present Singularity

Dr. Marc Cooper and Charles E. Smith, Ph.D.

To Flicker or Swing: The Fire and Pendulum Of Leadership

William Bergquist and Agnes Mura

Decision Theory in Complex Systems

John Bush

The Art of Organizational Coaching: In Search of Patterns and Variations

William Bergquist, Ph.D.

Achieving Escape Velocity

Jim Goldstein, Ph.D.

The Future of Coaching: Trends that Illustrate the End is Near

Rey Carr

Section Two: Coaching Strategies for Addressing the Challenges

Your Ultimate Coaching Tool: The GROW Model Explained and Why it Always Works!       Emma-Louse Elsey

The Ten Commandments for Gamechangers

Dr. Thomas D. Zweifel

Positivity (Happiness) in the Workplace and Organizational Change

Kevin Weitz

Application of Cognitive Revolution Theories in Coaching Practice   Alexandra Krubski

You Have to Go Slow to Go Fast

Paulette Rao MCC BCC

Leadership Development Goals

Maynard Brusman

Promoting Change in Your Coaching Practice

Joel DiGirolamo and Thomas Tkach

Life as Lottery: Coaching About Regret

William Bergquist, Ph.D.

Coaching to Shift Corporate Consciousness

Janet Sernack

Finding Sanctuary in a World of Complexity, Unpredictability and Turbulence

William Bergquist, Ph.D.

Divergent Collaboration℠

Bart Barthelemy and Candace Dalmagne

The Ultimate Power Couple: Professional Coaches and Change Management Professionals

Jenna Filipkowski, Ph.D., ACC

Section Three: Tools for Change

Three Tips for Developing Presence in a Hyperactive World

Susan Sadler

The Application of Appreciative Perspectives

To the Coaching Enterprise

William Bergquist, Ph.D.

Eight Ways to Deepen Appreciation through Coach-Based Consulting Questions

William Bergquist, Ph.D. and Agnes Mura

Coaching is about More than Asking Questions

Marcia Reynolds, Psy.D., MCC

The Process of Reflective Coaching: Levels of Inquiry

William Bergquist, Ph.D.

Talking Polarities: From Just Either/Or to Supplementing Either/Or w/Both/And Margaret Cary, MD MBA MPH PCC and Cliff Kayser, MSOD, MSHR, PCC