Navigating Change: The Role of Sense-Making and Meaning-Making in Coaching
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Navigating Change: The Role of Sense-Making and Meaning-Making in Coaching

As a coach, one of your primary responsibilities is to guide your clients toward achieving their goals. However, in today's rapidly changing world, disruptions are inevitable. The BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible) nature of our environment can often hinder progress and decision-making. This is where sense-making and meaning-making becomes crucial. By helping clients navigate through ambiguity and interpret their experiences, coaches can empower individuals to make informed choices and maintain progress towards their goals.

  • Setting Goals and Establishing Direction: At the beginning of the coaching journey, you work closely with your client to identify their goals and define a clear direction. These goals provide a sense of purpose and serve as a compass for decision-making. Together, you create a roadmap outlining the steps needed to achieve those objectives.
  • Embracing Disruptions in a BANI World: Despite careful planning, disruptions can occur. Sudden changes, conflicting perspectives, and information overload can derail progress and challenge decision-making. It could even be a small change in your client's reporting structure or a change in role.
  • Sense-Making: Understanding Ambiguity - Creating situational awareness and understanding in complex or uncertain situations. It involves making sense of ambiguous information and recognizing connections between various elements. As a Coach, you support your clients in this process by helping them analyze the situation, gather relevant information, and explore different perspectives.
  • Meaning-Making: Connecting Inner and Outer Worlds - While sense-making focuses on understanding the external world, meaning-making bridges the gap between external experiences and internal interpretation. It is a process of interpreting situations or events based on personal knowledge and experiences. Encourage your clients to reflect on what the situation means to them, how it aligns with their values and beliefs, and how it impacts their identity.
  • Overcoming Challenges and Decision-Making: In a disruptive environment, incomplete sense-making can hinder effective decision-making. Conflicting viewpoints and overwhelming information can create confusion. As a Coach, you play a vital role in supporting your clients through these challenges. You provide a safe space for them to express their concerns, ask questions, and explore alternative perspectives. By engaging in open dialogue, your clients gain clarity and confidence to make informed decisions despite the ambiguity.
  • Extending Meaning-Making in Time and Scope: Meaning-making is not limited to the present moment. It extends beyond immediate circumstances to consider the short-term, medium-term, and long-term implications. As a coach, you help your clients explore the consequences of their decisions and actions over time. Furthermore, meaning-making can also involve considering the impact on others, such as their family or colleagues, broadening the scope of their understanding.

As practicing coaches, you have the opportunity to make a profound impact on your client's lives by helping them navigate the challenges of a BANI world.

  1. Embrace the power of sense-making and meaning-making as essential tools in your daily work.
  2. Encourage your clients to explore the depths of ambiguity, question assumptions, and gather diverse perspectives.
  3. Facilitate the process of meaning-making by guiding clients to reflect on their values, beliefs, and the long-term implications of their decisions.

By creating a safe and supportive space, you empower your clients to find clarity amidst uncertainty and to make decisions aligned with their authentic selves.

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