1. Good Coaching Requires Practical Wisdom (phronesis)
Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy
Dag Ola Lien1, Kåre Inge Skarsvåg1
¹Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy, Norway. Department of Leadership & International Cooperation
Introduction
The purpose of the study is to contribute to the further development of good guidance practices, and hopefully contribute to a greater understanding that coaches should not only use a technical-rational teaching method, but be aware of all the technical-rational, theoretical and abstract aspects of coaching and apply these with practical wisdom. The study shows that good coaching requires more than theoretical knowledge and technical rationality. Inspired by Aristotle we claim that good coaching requires Phronesis (practical wisdom).
Common Language Tool:
The second finding was that the military coaches develop their common language tool. The coaches articulate their experience and feelings in the coaching situation and describe their embodied realizations. The development of this tool happens in a Socratic dialogue style where the dialogue becomes a mediating tool. In which meaning making takes place in meetings between the coaches and the participants. The key to the development of coaches and participants are giving them a kind of awareness of what is happening to them emotionally in situations they dread or have not mastered. The understanding of this “emotionality and corporeality may serve as a primary source of knowledge and skills in organizations” (Styhre, 2003, p. 99).
Supported by Blackler (1995) we find that the embodied knowledge is a type of knowledge that is embodied in the actions and abilities of these coaches. It is something they can do, but cannot explain. Our findings also imply that the language that the military coaches use and the participants adopt, helps to create meaning from and in the individual participant. Hence, Herbert Mead supports this with his claim that “.... there neither can be nor could have been any mind or thought without language” (Mead, 1967, p. 192).
Discussion
It is important to build trust among the coaches through mutual reflection and an development of a common language. Developing your relational mindfulness and constantly focusing on the ability to stand in “the unknown in the known” is also a prerequisite for the development of the coaches phronesis. It is by developing the ability to apply their phronesis, its ability to remain in the unknown and surrender to reality, as Heidegger describes it, we can get closer to the experience - practice - in a new way.
Conclusion
The coaches' capacity and willingness to both develop and use their ability to be fully present in the Art of the Moment and utilize a common language in dialogue with each other in an Aristotelian community of praxis contribute greatly to their development of practical wisdom (phronesis) and therefore to good coaching.
It is through the formation and application of practical wisdom that we can approach good coaching or to use Aristotle's concept; “the ultimate goal". Wisdom is the summary of what the professional coach can and have acquired, used with prudence in a new and unexpected situation. This practical wisdom (Phronesis) makes good theory to into practical action (Brunstad, 2009).
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Method
The abductive approach (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 1994) was the methodological strategy we have used in the thesis. The abductive approach emphasizes theory development as an iterative
process of matching theory with empirical data (reality) and vice versa. We have moved between empirical data and findings and theory framework in an hermeneutical spiral.
This empirical study is based on the analysis of qualitative interviews of all coaches at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy’s leadership development programme called Base Camp.
Procedure. We used a phenomenological approach where we asked questions in order to find out how to develop the Coaching Team in Base Camp. Nine semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted face-to-face.
Data collection and analyses. Each interview were recorded and
transcribed and lasted around one hour. Transcriptions of the interviews were analyzed systematically by thematic analysis and comprises close to 100 pages.
The Art of the Moment :
It is when the participants together with their coaches are in the present - in the golden moments – that the boundaries between intuition, improvisation, reflection and embodied knowledge erased or challenged. There are in these Golden Moments that most of the good learning is achieved. In order to be able to stay there, the coaches trained and honed their skills in what we called Relational Mindfulness.
The coaches train their ability to remain in the moment and their ability to translate this vigor into action is important to conduct good coaching. To do this it is important to focus on your ability to handle the "unknown in the known" and have a preparedness for the Art of the Moment. It is through such an approach the coaches have showed a willingness to develop their phronesis and get one step closer to practical wisdom.
Results
The interviews of the leadership coaches show three main findings; the importance of mutual reflection in an Aristotelian community of praxis, the establishment of a common language tool and the development of the coaches’ ability to perform the Art of the Moment.
The coaches' capacity and willingness to both develop and use their ability to be fully present in the Art of the Moment and utilize a common language in dialogue with each other in an Aristotelian community of praxis contribute greatly to their development of practical wisdom (phronesis) and therefore to good coaching.
Mutual Reflection in an Aristotelian Community of Praxis:
The first finding is the importance of mutual reflection in an Aristotelian community of praxis. This Praxis has something in common with Communities of Practice as described by Lave & Wenger (1991). The purpose of Communities of Practice is to create, expand, and exchange knowledge, and to develop individual capabilities (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). However, our findings impliy that the military coaches have a different practice, one in which being in the community itself is significant for them, and can thus be seen as an Aristotelian Praxis.