Coaching in the BANI World

Has coaching come of age in 2023?? In a certain sense, I believe it has.??

Coaching as a profession and industry was going through its own trajectory. And then in 2020, the pandemic came & disrupted it all. This event brought changes in the way coaching was conducted.?

One of the biggest, most tangible changes was the ability to conduct one’s practice virtually. From needing to physically travel to another destination (within the city or outside) and see my clients face-to-face as a mandate, I was able to conduct my practice without moving an inch from my desk with individuals and groups across the world! It was a huge accomplishment that has now become the new normal.?

And this effect has not been one-sided. People and clients across the world have slowly started becoming a lot more comfortable with such an arrangement as a regular way of life. They are getting increasingly more comfortable opening up to professionals on the other side of the screen, whom they may have never met in their lives before. This would have been an inconceivable arrangement a few years ago, particularly when it came to practice-based professions such as coaching and counselling.?

The world as we have known is clearly shifting. And it’s time we shift with it.?

?Exit VUCA, enter BANI?

The VUCA world is not an unknown phenomenon: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. This is where the world at large believes we are at currently.?

But the world has moved away from VUCA and towards a new reality – the BANI world. ?

BANI: Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, and Incomprehensible.??

How so??

Well, the VUCA came into existence in the military in the late 1980s, in the post-Cold War era and got adopted by the business world in the 2000s.??

BANI is a term coined by Jamais Cascio that took shape in 2020, because of climate and global systemic change.??

BANI, Stephan Grabmeir believes, is a more relevant lens to look through in the world we currently live in; the VUCA model is outdated and no longer applies to the current state of our world and the times to come.?

BANI takes into account the chaotic nature of the current state of our world, which thus helps us respond to it more effectively. You can read more about it in detail here.?

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Living in a BANI world means that we have newer unknowns, which calls for an update in the way we deal with circumstances as well. Stephan Grabmeir demonstrates this excellently in this infographic below.?

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?Coaching in a BANI world?

In the BANI world, I believe training, mental health, coaching, mentoring, and advising needs have escalated and intensified to a greater degree.??

Take coaching as an example. Before the pandemic, the questions from clients were generally more incremental in nature. Most of them saw their lives & careers as natural progressions with a sense of certainty. The same clients are now increasingly asking more fundamental, existential questions...especially after the complexities, adversities and pains brought on by the pandemic.??

Add to that job losses, changing work cultures, mental health issues, war and recessionary fears... your client is going through a whole lot in their lives & it is all rather fragmented.?

It is now more important than ever for coaches to assume that their clients probably need more than just coaching. And to also ask the pertinent question: can coaching help bring it all together and help the client integrate all the moving pieces and make better sense of this world??

It is time for the role of the coach to evolve to play a central role in helping bring together the various moving parts of the client’s life.??

Dr. Srikumar Rao, puts it beautifully when he says:?

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“I do not coach leaders, I become their friend,?

philosopher, and guide”?

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He goes on to expand on this as follows:?

“I would like to make a case for a different type of coaching – one where the coach does not even talk about what the client would like to accomplish or what is holding him back.?

In fact, I do not even use the term ‘coaching’.?

I prefer being a ‘friend, philosopher and guide’ (FPG). The function of an FPG is to engage with the client in a series of deep conversations on abstruse topics like the meaning of life and what it takes to be happy and where did we come from and where are we going.??

The FPG does not prescribe a worldview but he – or she – enables a client to refine his sense of self and become anchored in it.??

And, as he gains clarity, he goes on to do great things. Things he would not even have conceived of but for the vistas opened up to him by the FPG.”?

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Dismantle the model?

It may do us good to move away from the typical models of coaching that start with a discovery session, a fixed session every couple of weeks or months, employing standard assessment tools etc... these may not be enough if the current reality of clients and leaders is to be taken into account.?

If the client is undertaking several different interventions, then the coach might be the person who can help bring it all together by simply asking “what do you need to unlock?”. i.e. Coaching can essentially help tie the pieces together in a neat little bow and propel the client towards bigger change that is also sustainable.?

Perhaps we need to move away from conducting sessions once in a month or two weeks to being more on-demand.?

All of this has implications on the way Coaching is structured, priced and sold; pretty huge implications.?

The bigger picture?

Making structural changes in coaching models and hoping for that to be enough might be a bit too wishful. Surely, it lays the groundwork for coaching in changed and challenging times. But you will need to go few steps further and beyond to really make an impact.?

The client is living in a different reality and dealing with challenges that they have perhaps never faced before. And so, your coaching will need to be at least in sync with it, if not two steps ahead.??

So, how are you as a coach going to prepare for it??

Are you ready for it???

How are you going cope in a BANI world to support your clients??

What would you need to learn and do to equip yourself??

And the ultimate question being: are you willing to take on this new role, considering that the path is going to be non-linear and unpredictable in nature??

Or are you going to risk it all to find comfort in the known??