Is it time to start coaching in the metaverse?

How I first started exploring with VR

In the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns I was deep in the weeds of writing How to Thrive as a Coach in a Digital World. In my original plan I'd intended on including a section within one chapter on using virtual reality (VR) in coaching sessions. I'd used VR in different contexts and thought it would be helpful, so I'd been including the topic in the various interviews I was conducting for it.

Every person I asked said they'd not used it, and all of my research into people who had talked about it in other contexts led me to the same conclusion: It sounds great in theory, but in practice nobody's even tried this.

I was at the point of removing the section altogether when I had a conversation with Dr. Stella Kanatouri . When I didn't ask her about VR she asked what I was going to write about that, and when I said I was thinking of ignoring it she was pretty clear in saying the potential was so great that I ought to have another look.

I did as I was told, and because I couldn't find anyone who had done it themselves took it upon myself to find some willing volunteers; I wrote about my experiences in this article. TL;DR version: I decided it was a good idea.

What's happened since

The world of VR in recent years has been a tricky one to draw clear boundaries around. Where VR is the idea of blocking out the real world in order to access a virtual location, augmented reality (AR) in some cases leans on the same sorts of technologies. The same is true of extended reality (XR), which can sometimes feel indistinguishable from AR from a user perspective.

Collectively, these are known as immersive technologies, the metaverse, if you're in Meta's ecosystem, or spatial computing, if you're privileged enough to be in Apple's ecosystem.

Since my first experiences in VR the technology has dramatically improved. The quality of the most recent Meta Quest headset is extraordinary. The realism in some avatars is in many ways indistinguishable from reality. The user experience of Apple's Vision Pro has generated an explosion of innovation across other providers.

There are also now several "halfway houses" that begin to emulate the metaverse experience without there being any true VR/AR/XR in the process. A cursory glance at the results when searching for smart glasses online will bring up any number of affordable Bluetooth-enabled sunglasses with earphones or micro speakers built in, as well as cameras and touch-sensitivity.

Without even needing a new gadget, it's possible, convenient and pleasant to meet via a laptop using avatars, which I now do regularly.

When's the right time to dive in?

The world has not adopted metaverse technologies en masse yet. But a time is coming, perhaps within the next twelve months, where a high-profile enough product will attract attention that leads to people further along the diffusion of innovation curve to pick one up.

This provides us with an opportunity.

One feature of the shift to remote working was that those who were already using video conferencing found that coaching activity expanded; the growth of the digital coaching providers in 2020-2021 isn't a coincidence!

None of us can predict the future, but we can work to prepare ourselves for it. That helps in three critical ways:

1. When that first client asks if we can meet as avatars we're not learning how to do it on the fly.
2. We can identify opportunities where using VR might enhance the coaching experience.
3. We can contribute in an important and meaningful way to the wider dialogue about coaching modes.

Some suggested next steps

With this in mind, allow me to suggest three resources I've been involved in developing that I expect will be helpful in various ways:

• This episode of The Future of Coaching podcast with Nina Salomons ?? IMMERSIVE TECH WEEK , Lee Lam , Clive Maxheath, PCC and Erik Hoppenbrouwer discusses our experiences of using a range of VR technologies in coaching
• This brand new book, The Digital and AI Coaches' Handbook, co-edited with Jonathan Passmore , Assist.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Julia Diller and Maximilian Brantl , gathers some of the leading thinkers from around the world on a variety of subjects, including the use of immersive technologies
• This exciting programme on Coaching in the Metaverse I'm delivering with CLUTTERBUCK COACHING AND MENTORING INTERNATIONAL LTD - in this we'll be spending extended periods meeting together as avatars to discover for ourselves what the experience is like, reflect on how we might use it in our practice and build up the muscle memory that proves to be so important when interacting with any sort of technology