CHAPTER I
1.1 Origins
In recent years, the contribution of new scientific approaches such as quantum physics, knowledge biology, systemic thinking, certain philosophical currents, linguistics (from Austin), certain psychological currents (constructivism, logotherapy, gestalt), management Modern (Peter Senge, Stephen Covey) have contributed to the emergence of a new interpretation of the Human Being: Ontological Coaching.
The word "Coaching" means "Training", and it comes from the field of sports, where the coach is the technical director who tells the players how to achieve a better performance. "Ontology" is a part of philosophy that is defined as the science of being. In other words, ontological coaching literally means training in the being.
The interest and enthusiasm for taking coaching to the personal, professional and business level is something recent. There is, however, a lot of confusion about what ontological coaching really is and what its differences are from traditional coaching. For example, it is common to hear people talk about coaching as a word that describes friendly management, supervising, intervening psychologically, advising, being an expert in a certain field, and so on. Ontological coaching is nothing like that.
Ontological coaching is a different paradigm, a different context for the objectives to be achieved, personally or in team work. The ontological coach does not tell people what to do, does not press, nor advises, nor recommends, but rather explores, asks questions, offers generative interpretations, respectfully challenges their mental models to develop a new perspective that allows the discovery of new actions and possibilities; and it accompanies in the design of actions that facilitate access to the desired results.
1.2 Current Schools
Today, major organizations and leading educational institutions recognize the important contributions of Coaching to leadership development worldwide. Currently several coaching lines or families coexist that walk parallel within their own development. This does not mean that they are totally independent theories, in fact, we believe that they feed each other and that they are developing a new profession that, by leaps and bounds, takes shape, prominence and consistency. These different theories do not differ so much in practice and in results as in the explanation and theorizing of their own foundations. Currently there are in Spain, and in the rest of the world, three great schools that we identify by their geographical origin, although all three have experienced a great expansion throughout the rest of the world:the North American School (Annex 1 and 2), whose founder is Thomas Leonard; the European School (Annex 3 and 4), from Timothy Gallwey and John Whitmore; and the Chilean School (Annex 5 and 6) or Ontological, by Fernando Flores, Rafael Echeverría and Julio Olalla.
CHAPTER II
2.1 Definitions
2.1.1 According to Miriam Ortiz de Zárate, psychologist and executive coach at the Autonomous University of Madrid:
Ontological coaching is a learning process where the person learns to observe and act differently. In this process, the person has the opportunity to learn to learn, if she wishes, what type of observer she is, the type of conversations she is having and the way in which this impacts her life. Language is taken into account since it allows us to create realities, our identity and the world in which we live, language being not only a way of describing reality but also allowing us to transform it. Likewise, our actions allow us to transform ourselves, they can make us different and it opens a path to learning since through our actions we can come to modify our identity and way of seeing things,The relationship between our environment is worked so that the individual can live better by reinforcing their performance and quality of life through the accompaniment and guidance of the person to be able to release their maximum potential.
Not only does it seek to teach the most appropriate form of conflict resolution or the search for specific objectives, but it seeks to develop human potential by providing various types of tools, teaching that you can be a different observer, that you can more effectively face the situations that they occur day by day in their environment. Likewise, it takes into account the interpretation we take from our point of view perceived through our senses, which cannot give power and open doors and others that take away power and close doors and possibilities in life, for this reason. Knowledge reveals what is observed as someone who observes it from the point of view of its effectiveness or the power they have. Each of us observe reality differently. Tell me what you observe and I will tell you who you are.
2.1.2 According to Juan Pablo Gonnet, Researcher, Center for Research on Society and Culture and National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, Córdoba, Argentina:
Ontological coaching today has become a novel strategy in business management, because it focuses on improving the positive side of the person in the company, which is to establish yourself as a meditation for the other to discover for yourself the answers to their personal and professional problems, which will help to have better communication between all workers and thus see a better work environment. Besides, it extends not only in the administrative environment, but it is also postgraduate, congresses, consulting. Ontological Coaching is a dynamic of transformation through which people and organizations review, develop and optimize their ways of being in the world. It is presented as a conversation that creates a new culture and not as a technique within the underlying culture.In an Ontological Coaching process, growth occurs in the domain of being, through transformational learning that respectfully questions traditional ways of perceiving and interpreting, where people and teams interrupt their habitual behavior and behavior patterns, to begin to operate with greater creativity, prominence and proactivity; generating emotional, doing, thinking and communication skills.of doing, thinking and communication.of doing, thinking and communication.
2.1.3 According to Remberto Ortega Guizado, Industrial Engineer at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana del Ecuador, who works as a consultant and auditor in the fields of Comprehensive Quality Management and Improvement of Corporate Processes:
Educational models, for a long time and at different levels, led men and women to assume a passive position. So much so that learning to make decisions was not part of the programs, but most of us were mere recipients that we received from a teacher or a book with certain information that we then had to repeat.
In real life, in which most of us participate, each one lives in constant change; some involuntary changes and others that go through our decision. In these last changes, the possibility of carrying out transformational learning comes into play by reviewing our beliefs and capacities. But many people around the world declare that their big problem is that they cannot identify what their main problems are in the face of the amount of stimuli they receive at each moment and that they need to respond to. This is where a coaching process that minimizes the risk that we fall short along the way, that we do not waste the opportunity to transform ourselves or that we lose ourselves among so many possibilities makes sense;because from coaching we bet on the transformative learning modality that directly promotes a global experience where the human being learns in an integral way and not only from dimensions (cognitive, corporal and emotional).
Learning is an action aimed at increasing our capacity for action. Who has learned to learn can learn many other things. Therefore, if any competence is important, it is precisely the competence of learning. Just as Socrates, with his maieutics, conceived himself as a midwife who aimed at the unraveling of being, following the path proposed by Parmenides; the ontological coach, on the contrary, walking along the path suggested by Heraclitus, is a midwife of the future. Therefore it follows that when proposing a holistic educational model, the interrelationship of the human dimensions: cognitive, bodily, emotional, psychological, spiritual, must be discarded to make way for a comprehensive and existential understanding and formation of men and women.It is from this total approach of the human person where the teaching-learning relationship is completely generated, where the learner is allowed the new possibility of being the owner of their learning process, of truly integrating it into their being and of changing their interpretations of himself and his reality.
CHAPTER III
3.1 How does Ontological Coaching work?
The coach's job consists of detecting the obstacles or limits of the person or team of people that causes problems, shows us the relationship between the actions and the results they perform. Likewise, there are 3 types of coherence of being: Body, emotions and language, which are worked through exercises or dynamics in order to achieve the desired results more easily. In addition, we work in two areas, the observer and the system, which is the understanding of the environment for the identification of actions which can lead us to change reality, this through the ontology of language and assertive communication, first worrying about the development of the being and the creation of doing to achieve the desired objectives The coach,He will work with the person to get to know them and so that they know themselves, finding out what their weaknesses are which are preventing them from reaching the objectives that have been set. From that moment on, the person will seek to find other interpretations on their own, so that they can find new possibilities in which they can act to achieve the desired results. Each situation in our lives gives us the opportunity to respond, choose how to respond and the way in which we respond will determine how we feel, what kind of life we are building and what are our chances of achieving what we want. Therefore, ontological coaching gives us a vision of the possibilities that we could not see before and that we can begin to act differently,since man is the result of the actions he performs in his day to day. Being fundamentally consents since it allows us to be what we want through actions and if we want to be something else we must change our actions first, for which we must have a change in the view we have of the world and of this way we can work obtaining different results according to what we are looking for
As a coach we must ask ourselves the following questions:
- How to make a team learn? How to generate collective innovation in a company? How to contribute so that a community is transformed?
It is sought that the person can grow, for this reason the training process must be very rigorous and permanent where the main part has to do with what is taught, so the person who wants to help another must have the ability to change in order to contribute to the change of another person.
It seeks to generate identity, where a person uses his way of thinking both personally and privately as well as other people listen to him and assume his words and this will determine the concept that others have about that person. It also emphasizes the relationship we have with our environment, letting us know that this relationship is based on what we say, on how we communicate. We must add an emotional space in which there is mutual trust, protection and respect. In addition, he mentions that there is no need to create dependency between the individual and the coach,where the coach must provide the value to the individual so that he can leave with energy and autonomy so that the session carried out provides the expected results with the commitment of the individual to carry out in the best way their actions in order to be part of a family, institution or a company.
Ontological coaching is closely related to the phenomenon of life, it convinces us that we can change the world and that, if we have the conviction to do so, we can contribute to the change of history.
3.2 What techniques does the Ontological Coach use?
3.2.1 Learn to Learn
Currently the world is going through many changes which prevents us from remaining static, which is why we need new personal and organizational ways to face them. Then we can see that a fundamental part to achieve such a purpose is knowing how to learn, knowing the way in which each person or group of them learns. We must take into account factors and trends that hinder learning and what facilitates them. Ontological coaching tells us about the term learning to learn which means, obtaining, adapting and using procedures and techniques that people and organizations can use to achieve learning. However, this implies a positive and humble attitude in order to absorb the knowledge and experiences that other people can transmit to us.
Learning to learn also means that we must have the attitude to unlearn, this means that we must let go of our mental models used through the years to make use of other models in our day to day.
3.2.2 Facilitate learning
In ontological coaching, learning and creativity are the most important tools, it allows us to learn to do something later. We must be creative to fulfill one of the most important tasks which is to design our own life. We have the possibility of creating our own destiny so that later on we do not blame third parties for what we did wrong or for what we stopped doing, we are in charge of carrying it out. To achieve a desired result, people must behave effectively in such a way that they can achieve a desired result. The person by concentrating on the being, becomes much more flexible and this allows her to more easily modify her doing and this will mean that obtaining the desired result is not so complicated.These types of people are the ones that organizations need, those that have the capacity to think for themselves and make decisions about what is needed or desired, this is currently a fundamental competence, which is why organizations that apply Ontological coaching seeks to develop skills such as ways of relating, creativity, learning, leadership, communications, integration and teamwork.integration and teamwork.integration and teamwork.
The same is the case with organizations, when they focus on their core values the organization becomes much more flexible to medicate its strategy and therefore its desired results. Organizations cannot survive without being flexible. For this reason, successful organizations are those that respond quickly to changes in markets, technologies, social trends and government policies. This flexibility is essential today as we are in a world of constant change for the survival of people and organizations.
3.2.3 Active and Reflective Listening
Openness to the other and, in this sense, one of the essential skills is learning and listening. Openness and active listening are requirements without which practicing coaching is practically impossible. Some techniques that are mainly used are the following:
Well, it is recommended to be in a face to face position, gaze to gaze, attentive to the other, and it is recommended not to be looking at the window, the floor, the wall, because it makes us think that we are distracted and we do not pay attention to it. Regarding the posture, it is recommended not to cross your arms, since it shows a very rigid and challenging posture, also to have a face of interest.
Active listening implies a clear intention to understand the coherence structure of the coach. A frequent tendency when interacting with others is to interrupt to make our opinions known defensively sometimes - for not tolerating the silences that occur in the face of the other's reflective attitude, while mentally ordering their ideas - we anticipate trying to complete what she has begun to. By operating in this way, we often misinterpret or interrupt the spontaneous flow of the interlocutor, who may interpret it as impatience, or feel disrespected. One way to accompany listening is with bodily gestures of assent (shake your head) or through expressions that denote that we accompany your presentation (aha, I understand).If the coach has any reflection or question that he is afraid to forget, it is better to write it down and then include it or apologize for the interruption and request permission to inquire (excuse me, can I ask you a question now?).
The coach summarizes in his own words what he has heard and understood. It is useful to show the interlocutor that we have been attentive to what he has said and to verify or rectify the understanding of his perspective. What is said is not always what is heard. It is worth noting that it is not recommended to do it with each intervention of the coach because this would cause enormous wear, de-heating, discomfort and, in addition, would prolong each session until fed up. We suggest using this resource for those circumstances or statements that we consider relevant.
Practicing active listening also implies recognizing that our left column is also active. Among the many thoughts that appear, reflections will arise such as: what am I not understanding? How to respond to the concern of this moment? What did I say or do that motivated that response? The coach is a person who has placed her trust in the coach and she must constantly evaluate and reflect on her practice. It is also possible for the coach to redesign actions, which is why this reflection becomes relevant during coaching, as well as between one and the other.
3.2.4 Respect
We are how we act and we act as we are. In that sense we also listen to how we are and speak from the being that we are. It is important to have clarity in this aspect from the listening and the being of the coach, to respect the other in her legitimacy of being an other than us; He is a different observer with different life, biological, psychological, cultural experiences, etc. Not understanding it like this would imply turning respect into contempt. The coach does not know better than the other that suits him; that would be disqualifying him and not helping him take responsibility. Coaching practice is not about telling the other what to do, much less how it should be or act. It is not about giving advice or giving explanations about things that the coachman does not understand.
In our daily actions, there is a frequent tendency to have answers to resolve the life of the other; we have the advice for the other, when in the same circumstances we do not know what to do with our own life. I like Echeverría's phrase: “You don't coach from perfection; Coaching is done from our wounds. It is because we are profoundly imperfect that we can understand and work with imperfection. Our wounds are one of our most precious assets when it comes to coaching. ” Only from there can the coach share her own life experiences.
3.2.5 Empathy Technique
Empathize key competence for the role of ontological coaching. We commonly express it by saying "put yourself in the other's shoes." To empathize with the other is to be able to put yourself in your place of observer to have a better understanding of your experience and your points of view. It is common the wrong temptation "I would have done in your place…". In reality, I e (from your mental model, from the observer that you e did the same thing. It would be more appropriate to say: "I (from my models)…". To reach an understanding does not mean to
3.2.6 Intuition, beyond our conscious perception
Freud spoke of floating attention, referring to the analyst's particular way of listening, as well as transference and countertransference, in relation to thoughts and feelings in the therapist-analyst bond. Our life experience leaves traces of knowledge; Just because you are not fully aware does not mean they do not exist. It is something like a reservoir of experiences where we store memory and knowledge. In the course of interaction these traces appear, making it possible if we know how to take advantage of them- perceptions. What we often do not know how to explain is what we commonly define as intuitive knowledge. This occurs when we think we know something without fitting because we know it or where that knowledge comes from. A first consideration to keep in mind,which is also related to the procedure of reflection in action, is to discriminate if that perception has nothing more to do with the coach than with the coach. In other words, if the resonances of what we hear will not be more related to your own concerns than to those of the coach. The second and no less important consideration is to check or corroborate our intuitive knowledge. Narcistically, we could be flattered by the comment of our fascinated coach by saying: how did you know? How did you find out? Are you a witch ?, but we also run the enormous risk of making mistakes, generating distrust and defensive behaviors in our interlocutor, deriving the process towards lateral courses that take us away from the focus in question, wasting time, etc. However,The most significant thing is that operating by abusing intuition and not corroborating the hypothesis would undermine coaching, transforming it into a kind of magic or riddle, lacking foundation.
CHAPTER IV
4.1 Ontological Coaching in Organizations
4.1.1 Why is it important to introduce it into an Organization?
Ontological coaching seeks to cover the deficiencies or deficiencies in the education received, making use of techniques and tools that seek to improve the person's effectiveness and well-being, thus improving the quality of life of people and contributing to the achievement of positive results.
In the sports and artistic fields it is very important to train, because this allows us to obtain better results when presenting than without having trained. In organizations it is similar, we leave the labor market with a deficient education and without previous training and a lack of training in important topics such as:
- We know how to read, speak and write, but we do not know how to communicate properly. We have good logical intelligence, but we have poor emotional intelligence. We have great development in our individual capacity, but we do not know how to work as a team. We have not developed our creativity, power of action, or proactivity. We do not know how to take care of our relationships.
For these reasons, ontological coaching is an alternative that will allow us to work and gradually overcome these problems and obtain the results we want in what we do in our lives, it only takes a lot of commitment from the person and the desire to learn.
4.1.2 What benefits does it originate in an Organization?
In the companies where ontological coaching has been used, the following benefits have been verified:
- Improvement of performance and productivity: Coaching seeks that the people and teams of them give their best in the tasks they carry out in their day to day, something that ordinary training generally does not achieve. Development of people: Coaching seeks to develop and retain human talent, which is why techniques are used to effectively facilitate the day-to-day work and growth of people. Improved learning: Coaching allows learning without leaving work, habitual tasks and without wasting time. Improving relationships: Seeks to help others grow and improve by transmitting a message of good intentions and importance for the well-being and development of the person.Improving the quality of life at work: Much depends on the manager, their attitudes and the way in which they respond to the circumstances that arise in the workplace. A positive attitude on the part of the manager produces a very good change in the well-being of people, who begin to truly pursue the objectives of their work More creativity: Coaching generates learning which makes people look for new possibilities to achieve their goals, for which they use creativity. This attitude allows dialogue and good relationships between people, leaving the fear of ridicule generating motivation to be creative. Better use of skills and resources:According to the principles of coaching, the behavior of people who seek to achieve their goals is valued and promoted using all the resources available to them for such a task, making use of all their skills and values for said task. Faster and more effective responses to emergency situations: In an organization where the capabilities of people are valued, this person takes the initiative in an unforeseen event, acting and even taking risks before their bosses. On the other hand, in other organizations there is a fear of being punished for mistakes for which people do not act without the approval of their boss. Greater flexibility and adaptability to change: When faced with a constantly changing world, it can be concluded that applying the same strategy is not always the best thing to improve, so flexibility and resilience are fundamental factors for the survival of organizations.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, ontological coaching is used when a person or group of people is faced with a problem, either in the workplace or in a personal environment that does not know how to solve it. In this situation, the coach intervenes, which will help through the knowledge, experiences and techniques that he has to observe what is happening, what is the obstacle that prevents him from wanting to reach a certain objective. Once the obstacle has been identified, a way will be found to eliminate it and find ways to find ways to get where you want.
