ONTOLOGICAL COACHING
Ontological Coaching is an extraordinarily powerful methodology for effecting change for individuals, teams, and organisations. It is highly effective because it is based on a new deeply grounded and practical understanding of language, moods, emotions, relationships, presence and conversations to support personal, behavioural and cultural transformation.
It deals with the multi-dimensional nature of humans as biological, linguistic, emotional, somatic, cultural and historical beings. Ontology is the systemic study of being. Ontological Coaching focuses on a Way of Being as the path to deep and lasting behaviour change. This is because our Way of Being is the driver of our behaviour and communication. It’s where our perceptions and attitudes come from. It can limit us because it’s hidden in who we have become – out of our conscious awareness. Ontological Coaching rests on a strong scientific and philosophical base. It combines the biology of cognition, philosophy of language, epistemology, phenomenology, the neurology of emotions and science of brain and body processes. Each of these disciplines combined to generate breakthrough thinking in the last part of the 20th century. Flowing from this work is new practical understanding of how humans function, learn and change that is helping leaders and coaches prepare for a VUCA World.
The approach comes from the research of biologist Humberto Maturana, applied by Fernando Flores and systematized by Rafael Echeverria. It also incorporates elements of psychology, philosophy, linguistics and modern management. It focuses on transformational learning through questioning, self-observation, reflection and action to achieve extraordinary results with effectiveness and commitment. It is fundamentally cautious, respectful and not aggressive. It achieves excellent results, both in business and personal transformation.
Human Ontology focuses on people’s mindsets or worldview and how this produces the reality they live from. It then encourages reflective inquiry and self-observation to see ourselves as others experience us. The focus is on questioning to challenge assumptions so that self-talk can provide new realisations from which to discover what is blocking our potential.
It’s not about critiquing, advising or directing people. By pointing to what others can observe in your Way of Being that provides a “mirror” for us to become more aware of what is happening which causes us to pause and think about the language we use, the moods we adopt, the emotions we display and the body postures w adopt that shapes our choices, actions and emotions.
