Coaching in Three Dimensions: Meeting the Challenges of a Complex World (Essential Coaching Skills and Knowledge)

I have long argued that coaching, having ridden the wave of great success in the last 35 years, needs a radical revolution to be successful in the next 35 years. Paul Lawrence and Allen Moore have provided us with a great book that very clearly lays out the contours of the necessary revolution needed to take coaching forward into the world of hyper-change, complexity and disruption. Coaches who want to be part of the new wave need to read this book. --Professor Peter Hawkins, Author of `Leadership Team Coaching', `Creating a Coaching Culture', and many other coaching and supervision books.

This is the type of book that is currently hard to come by, but that is much needed in the coaching field. It is about practice, written by and for coaching practitioners, and it is clear, well-structured and rich in detail. What excites me is that this book takes understanding of professional experience to a higher level. It dares to conceptualize coaching with an appreciation of complexity and lucid thinking, providing a coherent theoretical proposition built on new ideas and a meaningful synthesis of what the best of this field can currently offer. This book is great for both an intelligent novice and an advanced practitioner. I enjoyed reading it and cannot recommend it strongly enough. --Tatiana Bachkirova, Professor of Coaching Psychology and Director of the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies, Oxford Brookes University, UK

From the first few pages of this book, the authors capture the essence of the next evolutionary wave of coaching in organizations. It sparked my thinking immediately. Our clients, in their own words, are asking us as coaches and coaching practice leaders, to be more systemic in our approach. They want us to engage them and the complexity of the environment in which they lead. Coaching in Three Dimensions provided a comprehensive, yet elegant and straight forward, model as to how we can include the voice of clients, coaches and key organizational stakeholders. The model helped me reframe the strategic narrative for coaching in our organisation, in a way that has created clarity, shared meaning and accelerated decision making. --Karen R. Mathre, Coaching Center of Excellence Leader, Medtronic

The shift from linear to systemic thinking is fundamental to coach maturity - here is a book that lifts the lid on this complex but essential transition. --David Clutterbuck, Practice Leader, David Clutterbuck Partnership

This book is both refreshing and timely. Refreshing because it straightforwardly acknowledges the messiness of the coaching engagement, without offering simple solutions. Rather it honours the reader's intelligence by challenging us to think carefully and deeply about what we are doing, offering the promise of a richer, more enduring perspective. It's timely because this book is needed. Whilst everyone likes to talk about `VUCA', few have been able to offer a coherent articulation of how coaches might within this complexity and chaos. This book offers precisely that. --Dr. Gordon Spence, Program Director, Master of Business Coaching, Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong, Australia

As developmental needs in organizations have grown ever more complex, there is a need for coaches and coaching itself to evolve so they can rise to the occasion. The authors have laid out a clear path for doing so, particularly with their focus on systemic frames and the maturation of coaches. I highly recommend this book for raising the bar and casting light on the path ahead. --Dr. David Drake, Founder and CEO, Moment Institute, USA

Many books about coaching only look at coaching as a tool but fail to take the world around us seriously into account. The authors start by recognizing the rapid changes taking place in the world and organizational life. Their inclusive and in-depth understanding of coaching, and developmental dialogue, will help the reader apply this work in service of renewing collaboration, organizational change and leadership. --Reinhard Stelter, Professor of Coaching Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Paul and Allen present a thoughtful and grounded treatment of coaching in `real' organisations where quite often things don't make a lot of sense. They don't fall into the trap of debunking traditional approaches. Instead, they provide a model and weave a narrative that encourages multiple approaches. The underlying assumption is that complexity-of-context requires that coaches carry a complexity-of-mind. The writers draw on research, theory and experience to encourage coaches to embrace the systemic and messy nature of organisational life. There is an elegance in their approach that might well provide an attractor for coaches to step from the comfort of the familiar to the discomfort of the unknown - and enjoy the ride. --Geoff Abbott, Director Executive and Organisational Coaching, Graduate School of Business, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

The right coaching can offer profound value for individuals and organisations. A coaching culture is a real differentiator for companies and a must for the complexities we all need to face now and in the future of work. The tools and approaches in this book provide Human Resource professionals and OD practitioners with the toolkit to work effectively with executives, individuals and teams. --Raechel Gavin, Group Executive People & Culture, Quantium

In Coaching in Three Dimensions, the authors take readers into coaching conversations, places we rarely have the opportunity to venture. The book challenges coaches to take their conversations to a deeper level, to truly understand the client's interests, beliefs and assumptions. Most helpful is the exploration of leaders in today's corporations, managing multiple systems and realities, their teams, and complex, matrixed organizations. The coach should consider all of these, not only the client as individual. This book should help even the most experienced coach co-create with clients more successfully. You won't want to put this book down! --Alison Arkin, Global Manager of Learning and Development, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

Although coaching receives plaudits across the board in talent development, it is plagued with unevenness in its delivery. Part of the problem is that many coaching approaches are prescriptive, and in their specificity they end up only adding to the overall confusion. Here, however, is a book in which the authors offer perspective rather than prescription. See how they merge approaches from the traditional, to the dialogic, to the systemic, and how they encourage coaches to work beyond the level of the individual. This is a contemporary book for coaches in the future organization - which has already arrived. --Joe Raelin, Knowles Chair, Northeastern University, Boston, USA

This book is fantastic and can give you a new perspective on coaching. The authors look in depth at various approaches to coaching, including the increasingly popular but widely misunderstood `leader as a coach'. Numerous real-life examples help even experienced coaches reflect on their own coaching style, and adjust for optimum outcomes. A gold mine not only for coaching practitioners, but any professional who wants to deepen their understanding of how coaching works. --Dr. Gerrit Pelzer, Leadership Advisor & Executive Coach, Bangkok, Thailand

If you read one book on coaching this year, let it be this book! Despite coaching's promise, traditional approaches too often fail to have the transformational impact clients and organizations crave. We need new thinking on how coaches can help clients keep pace with the demands a VUCA world places upon them. This book provides a breakthrough in thinking and will change how you think about your practice and the impact you can have with your clients and the world. --Laura Heaton, Vice President Talent Development, Penske Truck Leasing

The job of an organization is to bring multitudes of humans together, provide a shared purpose, and create something that is of value to customers. No easy task, humans are complicated. Our executives must learn, adjust and innovate to be successful. This book shows us that as coaches we are in the same boat. Knowing what's true today may not be true in a year. The authors challenge coaches to understand the system, and to work in much the same way as their clients, discovering and adapting to maximize results. --Rebecca Hemmer, Director of Leadership Development, Edward Jones

Many of us would love to be a fly on the wall and observe other people coaching. While that is rarely possible, Coaching in 3D offers a great alternative, with each chapter enriched with examples of coaching situations and dialogues. Drawing on a rich theoretical basis as well as extensive experience of coaching practice, the authors offer a highly readable text that invites the reader to reflect on their coaching practice and how they can develop their effectiveness as coaches in a highly complex, ambiguous and rapidly changing world. Well worth a read! --Associate Professor Grace McCarthy, Dean, Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong, Australia

Drawing on their considerable depth of experience, the authors reveal some astute insights and home truths of the coaching industry and the realities of coaching executives in a range of complex environments. The reader is provided a short-cut into the real world of organisational coaching; its positive impact and potential short-comings. Always insightful, sometimes irreverent to traditionalists, Coaching in 3D offers credible suggestions as to how coaches and coaching will need to adapt to the quickening and changing organisational landscape. --Tony Mathers, Chief Executive, Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership, Australia

Paul Lawrence and Allen Moore have produced a thoughtful book on coaching methods that draws together many strands of thought, research and practice across the coaching industry over the past 20 years. Their capacity to illustrate a range of approaches to coaching ensures that this book is an informative and interesting read that will speak to experienced coaches and managers. Well done Paul and Allen. --Michael Cavanagh, Deputy Director, Coaching Psychology Unit, University of Sydney, Australia