Are The Coaching Maps a quantitative tool, like all the other tools for developing self-awareness?
The Coaching Maps were created as a qualitative tool. It is based on qualitative research methodology and has no connection with tests, categorized personality questionnaires or quantitative data presentation. As a qualitative tool, it was based on interpretation and explanation of rich material collected during deep work with individual people and groups.
What is the difference between qualitative methodology and its analysis and quantitative approach?
When human science was created, it followed the pattern of XIX-century natural science approach to researches. Mathematics, physics or chemistry were taken as a role model of how to draw patterns of scientific conclusions and how to display quantitative results. After many years it was realized that social phenomena cannot be calculated or put on scale like the weight and volume of liquids or solid materials but, on the other hand, they can be understood (to a certain degree) and interpreted. And that is what methodology of qualitative research and analysis deals with. In practice, quantitative researches can be applied in tests or personality questionnaires. In such cases the results fit a model that was pre-planned and designed by a researcher. Qualitative methodology application, on the other hand, is based on observation and its tools are not based on any pre-planned models. They are open and give space for interpretation for any person, following an assumption that every human is a separate, unique entity.
What theories The Coaching Maps are based on??
The creators of The Coaching Maps followed assumptions of poststructuralism, hermeneutics and etymology. From poststructuralism there was taken its approach to language. It says that language plays a superior role in defining man’s identity and his complexity. It is by the language and through the language that the man can express himself. Language is signs and symbols. The whole world is a collection of signs and symbols assigned by people and cultures.
Hermeneutics is about an art of interpretation. To interpret a text means to explain its meaning, which is given by a single man or people living in a specific culture.
Ethnomethodology implies subjective perception of the world. Every person lives in his/her own subjective world, applying own meanings and naming things, and notices what happens around his/her undertaken actions. To be able to function with other people, first of all, such a person needs to understand himself, take an insight into own mind, heart and feelings. Only then he will be able to continue his process of social life with other people.
Are The Coaching Maps a psychological tool?
The Coaching Maps are one of few tools that has its roots in sociology and social (cultural) anthropology. Nevertheless, it is worth to mention that our present, complicated reality, in order to be understood, needs to base on the knowledge from other branches of sciences. That is why an interdisciplinary approach became not only a challenge but also a must. The Coaching Maps connect the interdisciplinary knowledge, cross the borders of well-established XIX-century social and humanistic studies and try to use explanations and interpretations from different areas of knowledge.
What inspired The Coaching Maps creation?
On inspiration for creating “The Coaching Maps” were prehistoric cave paintings that present the history of human beings, our development and setting directions for other cultures. Since the beginnings of human existence, drawing was one of the first activities and a proof for having an ability of symbolic thinking. Caves as places of cult and rituals, filled with paintings, were extremely important places, which allowed for passing key contents of life. A characteristic thing for these paintings was the usage of charcoal or manganese to draw black lines of silhouettes, filled with color pigment. For that reason The Coaching Maps are black-and-white sketches, sort of outlines to be filled in. The cave paintings, in most cases, presented animals and scenes of hunting, indicating what was the most important content of life: food and how to get it. In the modern world of consumption a desired value is a skill of survival connected with ongoing development and adaptation to changeable life conditions. That is why The Coaching Maps take a symbolic approach to this phenomenon.
What is a connection between The Coaching Maps and other self-development tools?
Each newborn self-development tool is a continuation and extension of already existing solutions, becoming therefore their expansion, an alternative or a contrary idea. Another words, we can always look for pioneers, precursors and originators of new products or services. Reaching for experiences of other inventors and, at the same time, taking into consideration already existing ideas and checking their effectiveness, is a key value in the process of creating new solutions.
Why is it a coaching tool?
A coaching tool is connected with the coaching philosophy which underlines that a man, as an actor or a subject, is not only an exceptional personality but also can understand himself and interpret his own life, aims and desires. Therefore, working with symbol and picture, is able to rich his inner depth, look at it closely and from a distance, and draw conclusions for the future. Coaching resembles a well-prepared interview, an ethnographic interview – methodologically speaking, where the outcome is always of subjective nature.
Why is subjective approach important?
Each of us is a researcher who explores the world and people in a more or less conscious way. Every day people make conclusions, analyze details and generalize results of their own actions. They take these outcomes and relate them to accepted authorities, ideologies, believes, and connect them with their own subjective logic with a cause and effect relationship. Such actions are not free from subjectivism, what means that human nature makes subjective judgements and assigns meanings. In this context, The Coaching Maps give a person an inner permission for self-assessment.
Are the symbols in Metaphor Cards universal?
The symbols in Metaphor Cards are the result of researches that the authors undertook, studying various tales, legends and Greek and Roman mythology. No doubt, many cultures have similar symbolic system, like the meaning of the Sun, for example. However, the authors belong to the European culture and that implies European way of thinking. Therefore, one cannot take the symbols used and apply them to a system of global universality.
Demands
Any work with another person is simple or easy. It demands patience, openness, respect and humbleness. When working with The Coaching Maps a similar approach is necessary. Therefore, qualities like subtleness and delicacy in expressing words and any symbols will not hurt anybody when supported by an attitude of respect to human uniqueness and diverse values.
Origins of 36 competences organized into topics.
The choice of competences for The Coaching Maps is a result of a long lasting study process, which aimed at analyzing the following research modules: blogosphere of trainers and coaches, action research in the field of economy – carried out by the authors, researches on different European companies, on people in a labor market, and analysis of already accomplished researches on companies and people in organizations, published in books and articles on management, sociology of organizations and sociology of economy.
In the result of the whole research process we gained knowledge about requirements of human behavior in the modern world (in organizations, groups and social relations). This knowledge allowed us for selecting and creating a catalogue of skills being desired, necessary and expected by nowadays organizations. The whole research process gave the authors their original concept of competences. However, while systematizing and categorizing the competences, they noticed that many of them simply overlap each other or are a continuation of the already existing ones. As a result of subsequent work stages, based on constant process of determining and defining, there were selected 40 competences, then 35, and next – 37. For this reason, the authors decided for an innovative solution – to group the competences into topic areas. Competences are a closed concept, there are many ‘norms’ and ‘dominant’ competence models showing at the same time that the phenomenon is a very dynamic reality. Topic areas are more open because they include similar competences.
In result, the authors decided on 36 topics. Arranging competences into topic areas, that means into broader issues, allows to use them more flexibly. Number 36 is, by no doubts, an ‘esthetic’ and ‘practical’ digit as it can be divided by different numbers: 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12. It enables introducing varied options for any group work.
