Appealing to a Higher-Level Goal

One can also re-conceptualize a coaching issue by appealing to a higher-level goal. This can move an individual or organization from a first order to second order conceptualization of a coaching issue—in particular a problem or dilemma. A coach might ask:

• You have identified X as a goal, while Ralph has identified Y. In what ways are these goals compatible? Is there an overarching goal about which you can both agree?
• What goal(s) can all members of your executive team agree on?

A masterful professional coach can often assist her client by focusing on meta-level outcomes, so that the client can negotiate differences with other members of her organization at a point of common agreement and need. (Bandler and Grinder, 1979, pp. 160-162)  Two production teams, for instance, might disagree about quality control. A coach can help one or both leaders of these teams reframe their argument by first seeing if they can agree on a definition of quality standards. Then, given that definition, they can design a series of pilot tests to assess the effectiveness of each quality control procedure.

Managers may also experience internal conflict regarding priorities. Perhaps part of Ralph’s problem concerns the number and diversity of goals that have been assigned to his department. He is confronted with what we described earlier as a rugged landscape. There are many peaks rather than there being one dominant peak. At another level, we might wonder if part of the problem resides not in the landscape but rather in Ralph’s predisposition to dreaming. Is Ralph a bit of a dreamer because he is trying to escape from a set of conflicting priorities? Are his dreams nothing more than a mirror of the disparate or mis-aligned goals that have been placed on his department by other dreamers in his organization? He might become more effective as a manager if he is given a clearer and more strategically congruous set of goals. At the very least, Ralph and the people who report to him will become more fully accountable for accomplishing departmental goals if these goals are thoughtful and explicitly aligned with one another.

The Reframing of Contexts

As in the case of goal reframing, there are several ways in which a masterful coach can help her client reframe the context within which he is operating. First, the professional coach can encourage her client to re-interpret the so-called facts associated with the context in a different way. Second, she can encourage her client to shift his attention from one aspect of the context to another. Third, a masterful coach can help her client re-punctuate the events that occur in a particular context, so that the cause and effects associated with each of these events are redefined. We will briefly describe each of these approaches.