Notes on Coaching: What I’ve Learned in Practice
Coaching is often framed as questions versus answers, but in practice it is a mix of both. In this Studio essay, I share field notes on coaching as a discipline for helping people improve outcomes in work and organisations.
Notes on Coaching: What I’ve Learned in Practice
Coaching means different things to different people.
The industry is full of models, certifications, and branded techniques. Some are useful. Many are performative. Over time, I’ve come to prefer simplicity — because complexity often overwhelms the people coaching is meant to help.
These are some field notes from practice.
Editor's note — where this sits
The flywheelA Cultivated Studio field note — working observations from coaching practice, in the Flywheel layer of the Idea to Value system. Not a framework. A practitioner's notebook.
Coaching and Consulting Are Not Opposites
In theory, coaching is about questions and discovery.
Consulting is about answers and direction.
In practice, the distinction is artificial.
Sometimes people need to be guided toward insight.
Sometimes they need to be told what is likely to work.
Good coaches move between both modes without ideology.
Cultivated Studio
The rest of this note is for Studio members.
What follows are more observations on this topic — the kind of things that take years to learn. Studio is where this kind of working note lives, alongside extended frameworks, field essays, and over four hours of Idea to Value video.
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