Literature      04.12.2021

What is coaching? Who is a coach and what is the meaning of this profession? Coaching in psychology

Coaching is one of the many new words that burst into our lives and became familiar before people fully comprehended them. Coaching – what is it?

This is not training, although they have a lot in common, not the direction of psychotherapy, not counseling. Coaching is done by the most different people, who proudly call themselves coaches, but often have difficulty explaining the principle of their activities.

And the literal translation of the word “coach” is even more confusing, because this concept is translated from English as “coach”, “cart”.

If you don’t see a goal in life, or it seems difficult to achieve, if you are tired of running in circles after a ghostly “carrot,” then you need a “carriage.” She will comfortably take you to the pinnacle of success along the shortest path. This is coaching.

Coaching: general characteristics

Coaching is a personality-oriented activity that provides conditions for a person’s self-realization and accompanies him on the path to success.

The specialist who provides this support and creates the conditions is called a coach.

Why is coaching needed?

This is a relatively young phenomenon in the social life of society, which became famous in the late 1990s in the UK and the USA. But today, according to statistics on the WPA website - “Academy of Coaching Excellence”, in the United States about 50 thousand people consider themselves to be a “coach” profession.

And their number is constantly increasing. There are still significantly fewer coaches in Russia. According to the online magazine “Company Secrets”, there are only 3 thousand of them, but, according to forecasts, over the next 5 years this figure should increase 15 times.

Coaching is necessary in a difficult situation when a person himself cannot find a way out of it. And often he doesn’t even realize the problem, but simply feels dissatisfaction with life and a desire to change everything, but he doesn’t know what or how to change.

The work does not bring satisfaction, there are no prospects for growth, and the individual does not see himself in any other type of activity. A favorite activity that a person is willing to do 24 hours a day does not generate income. And I would like to turn it from a hobby into a business.

Life has faded and lost its colors, goals that one would like to strive for have disappeared from it.

The woman realizes with alarm that her existence has turned into a dull run in a circle: “home-work-home.” But life passes, and fear arises because of its meaninglessness.

Repeated attempts to organize your own business have ended in failure, and a person gives up and has a feeling of his own helplessness and mediocrity.

These are all real and familiar situations to us. Finding a way out of them on your own is very difficult, and often impossible, since a person sees his problems from the inside, and not in relation to the world around him, and is focused on his experiences, and not on prospects.

You can turn to friends for help, but they have enough problems of their own, and few people want to look like a loser in front of their friends.

It is in such situations that a coach is required - an inspiration, a professional in revealing a person’s potential, which he sometimes does not even suspect.

A coach has a set of techniques and techniques that allow you to understand your abilities, see real prospects for your activities and ways to achieve success.

Coaching as a type of activity

There are several areas of socio-psychological support for people who want to solve their problems or engage in self-development. They have a solid history, authority and proven methods.

First of all, these include various areas of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, trainings personal growth, consulting and mentoring (mentoring).

Coaching was born at the intersection of these types of activities, but has significant differences that allow it to be competitive in the market for such services.

Coaching and training

The work of coaches is especially often compared with training, and sometimes they are equated. Both of these directions are forms of influencing a person and controlling his behavior. And their goal is positive changes in the life of the individual.

Coaching can be called the closest relative of training, since it was born in a sports environment, and “coach” in the slang of English students means “personal trainer” or “tutor” who literally “drags” the student to success.

But still, two serious differences do not allow us to identify coaching with psychological training.

Trainings in the form in which they are common today are in a group form, and this is considered the most effective. And coaching involves an individual approach to each client and individual lessons.

Although there is “team” coaching, it is less common, and even within it, the coach works with team members individually.

Training is the formation of certain skills - behavioral, emotional, communication, etc. Its goal is human development. And how and where an individual will apply the acquired skills and whether he will do it at all is beyond the interests of the coach.

The main task of coaching is not personal development, but defining goals and creating conditions for achieving them. A coach does not teach, does not form, does not develop, he directs a person’s thinking so that he himself finds answers to his questions and solutions to problems.

Coaching and psychology

A coach works with a person individually, which is impossible without a good knowledge of psychology, because a person must see his own prospects and capabilities.

Unlocking the internal potential of an individual involves solving a whole complex psychological problems and removing internal barriers. However, coaching cannot be classified as a purely psychological technique.

Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis solve problems of correcting mental state and are aimed at changing a person’s subjective feelings, his attitude towards reality and himself.

The main task of psychoanalysis is “opening boils”, identifying past problems.

Coaching does not deal with the past, it is focused on the future. He does not look for answers to the question “why?”, but encourages the person to find the answer to the question “how?”.

How to make life better? How to find your place in the world? How to solve the problem?

Coaching and Consulting

Wikipedia defines coaching as a consulting activity, but the similarities between them are only superficial. A coaching session is truly similar to counseling and is a confidential conversation between the coach and the client.

However, the consultant's goal is to provide the client with a package of advice that will help him understand the problem. How a person will use them is no longer the consultant’s concern.

Unlike a consultant, a coach:

  • does not give advice;
  • does not offer ready-made solutions;
  • interested in revealing the inner resources of a person who must see his own path;
  • accompanies a person throughout this entire journey, stimulating him to overcome emerging obstacles and internal barriers.

True, in practice, most coaches cannot resist giving advice, although professionals consider this inappropriate. Because the most effective way to solve the problem will be the one that the client himself has found, and does not perceive it as imposed from the outside.

Coaching practice

The main goal of coaching is to awaken the creator in a person, the creator of his own life, and he is capable of more than he thinks. Coaching techniques are aimed at achieving this goal.

Question method

The main coaching technique is the following: using the right questions, provoke the client’s mental activity. Finding answers to the questions proposed by the coach allows you to solve several problems:

  • specify the client’s main problem;
  • help him realize the primary task;
  • find out what prevents its solution;
  • unlock the client’s internal potential;
  • encourage him to find an independent solution.

The questioning method is not new. It was used by the ancient philosopher Socrates, who believed that correctly asked questions will help find a solution to even a very confusing problem.

This method includes the coaching technique – GROW, developed by the founder of business coaching, Sir John Whitman. It includes four groups of questions.

  1. G oal (goal) – what goal the client wants to achieve.
  2. R eality (reality) - what happens in reality.
  3. O ptions (options) – possibilities or options for getting out of a situation.
  4. W ill (intentions) – what needs to be done first.

Based on the method of questions, communication between coach and client is built, which is called a coaching session.

Organizing a coaching session

The session takes place in the form of a dialogue and lasts from 30 minutes to 1 hour. By asking the client questions, the coach not only clarifies his situation and problems for himself, but stimulates the person to find his own solution.

A coaching session can be conducted not only in person, but also via Skype or telephone.

In total there are usually at least 5 sessions, and often more (up to 15), and each meeting of the client with the coach should have a specific result, in the form of solving an intermediate problem, drawing up an action plan or readiness to change something in life.

In addition to dialogue questions, a coaching session may include “homework” - actions planned during the conversation that the client must complete by the time of the next meeting with the coach.

As a result of a series of coaching sessions, a person receives not only a solution to the problem and real positive changes in life, but also acquires skills to discover his own capabilities, which he can then use independently.

Types of coaching

Given the rapid spread of this type of service, it is difficult to identify a generally accepted classification. There are many types of coaching, and even more areas in which coaches work. But most often there are two large types.

1. Business coaching, focused on working with business representatives and resolving issues of its organization, promotion, efficiency, financial incentives, finding a niche, etc.

2. Life coaching, aimed at improving the quality and meaning of life, solving personal problems, overcoming conflicts in relationships, developing life strategies, etc.

Both of these types are equally popular, however, women for whom their personal life is usually a priority are more interested in life coaching.

There are also individual and team types of coaching. But their difference is not in the format of the sessions - in a team session, meetings between the coach and group members also take place individually.

The difference is in the goal. Team is aimed at solving problems of a group nature, for example, increasing the effectiveness of teamwork.

There are also other types, for example, Ericksonian coaching, named after the American psychotherapist M. Erickson. Methodological basis This type of coaching is developed by specialists from the International Erikson University. And in Life coaching in Lately The metaphorical direction is gaining popularity.

As in any other young and dynamically developing activity, processes of transformation and innovation are in full swing in coaching, strategies are developed, new directions arise and quickly disappear. Coaching is still far from developing traditions and generally accepted criteria and principles.

Who can be a coach

This is a rather pressing question, since the coaching profession is just gaining popularity in our country, and there are many who want to try their hand at it. The answer is simple: anyone who has the ability to do so can be a coach.

Is education necessary? Yes, education is needed in any field, but getting a coaching profession is not so easy. For example, an international certificate can be obtained by completing training under the ICF - International Coach Federation program, as well as at the Global Coaching University or at International Academy coaching.

There are also a lot of courses and individual advanced coaches that offer expensive but quick training. But its quality is questionable.

In mastering the coaching profession, what is more important is not the certificate, but personal qualities and abilities, which not everyone has. In addition to general knowledge in the field of psychology, sociology and management, a person must have the following qualities:

  • openness and communication skills;
  • patience and kindness;
  • high level of empathy;
  • attentiveness and ability to feel the interlocutor;
  • flexibility and high speed of thinking;
  • creativity;
  • readiness for self-development and mastery of new techniques, techniques, etc.

Only by possessing these qualities can a person lead his client to success, even if he himself is not very versed in the client’s professional activities.

Do you need to be the most successful person? Ideally, yes. But everyone's definition of success is different. The main thing is to be able to inspire people, to ignite them with the desire to move forward.

And more and more people understand the importance of the work of a coach who is not only able to objectively and impartially assess the situation, but also awaken the desire and strength to move forward.

And what’s important is to do it yourself, so you don’t feel like a helpless loser who can only obey someone else’s instructions.

Many people have heard this today English word“coach”, but not many people fully understand what he does and how he can help. Some people confuse him with a psychologist, others with a coach. But this is not true.

So who is he, you will find out from the article. Let's consider the topic of coaching for businessmen. Why is it worth working with such a specialist? And what qualities should he have to work successfully?

Coaching what is it

This is an interaction aimed at achieving a specific goal.


The word itself means “cart” or “carriage”. Those. something that helps you get from point A to point B.

And for the first time they started calling tutors that way because they helped students achieve better results.

This word was picked up, and it became very popular not only in the West, but also in Russia. Coaches help people around the world achieve their goals.

The specificity of their work is that they do not do all the work for you. And they don’t even tell you what to do to get results. They ask leading questions so that the person himself understands the solutions. This is what makes their work so effective.

The process looks like this - at the first session you decide on a goal and a plan for achieving it, then you call each other after a certain period of time to check the result and make adjustments.

What is the effectiveness of such work?

Often the person himself cannot make a big breakthrough because he is inside the situation and does not see options for getting out of it. For this, we need an outside specialist who has an objective view of the task. It may lead to a solution that you never imagined. This means that the coaching is successful.


Let's look at the advantages of working with such a specialist:

  1. Responsibility. Since you paid the money, you will try to recoup it. Therefore, you will be highly motivated for the result.
  2. Since you will have to report, you will strive to do everything that is written in the plan. Here, making excuses to yourself will not help. There is virtually no procrastination.
  3. A specialist can help remove negative attitudes that prevent you from achieving your goal. You may not be aware of them, but from the outside you can see them.
  4. Will guide and help draw up an action plan to achieve the best results in the shortest possible time.

Areas of application

Coaching came from management, but now its methods can be applied to any area of ​​life. Therefore, it is divided into 2 main areas of application: business coaching and life coaching.

As the name suggests, business coaching is an option for businessmen, companies or their employees. The second is related to other areas of life, for example: self-improvement, personal effectiveness, etc.

Let's take a closer look at what business coaching is. It is very popular among businessmen, as it helps increase their profits and easily pays for itself.


Its goals are:

  • formation step by step plan actions;
  • restructuring of thinking to achieve the required results;
  • increasing efficiency and motivation;
  • creating a new business;
  • progress and transformation of existing business.

How is coaching different from training or psychoanalysis?

Many people confuse coaching, mentoring, training and working with a psychologist. Therefore, let's take a closer look at what coaching is and how it differs from others?

A psychologist works with the past and deals with what was done. Helps you live through the experience and draw conclusions. However, psychotherapy can last a lifetime. Coaching usually takes from one to several months.

Trainings usually involve groups of people who are given advice on how and what needs to be done to achieve results.

There are individual trainings, but they also prescribe an action plan from the outside. And the coach helps you create this plan with the help of guiding questions. Those. You create your own success program, so it is much more effective.


A mentor is a coach who has himself achieved great success in the subject he teaches. He takes a person “by the hand” and leads him until the goal is achieved. He asks about the results and asks leading questions, i.e. controls and helps.

Is the coach obligated to have the same result?

Those. if you strive for a million, should he have his own million? In fact, this is desirable, but not required. Those. he may be a great coach, but a terrible businessman.

Let's look at sports, for example. Are all team coaches great athletes? No. In order to take the team to the top, they need completely different skills - tactics and strategy, and not the ability to be the best on the field.

Therefore, the well-known phrase may be applicable here: “He who does not know how, teaches.” But this is not at all necessary. It also happens that a specialist himself has achieved great heights and now you want to do the same. Therefore, it can lead you to your goal.

Who can become a coach

Although a coach is not a psychologist, he needs knowledge of psychology. In order to see a person and skillfully convey all your thoughts to him. In addition, it is necessary to study to become such a specialist. And often this training takes more than one month.


In addition, a person must have the following qualities:

  • high level of empathy;
  • communication skills;
  • openness;
  • flexibility of mind;
  • high speed of thinking;
  • creativity;
  • willingness to grow and develop further.

The article gave the answer: “coaching what is it in simple words.” Now you fully understand what it is and how it differs from other specialists who lead to success. We hope you have seen all the benefits and decided to get coaching to achieve your goals.

We wish you success! Best regards, Sell Skill team.

To achieve success in any field you need unlocking your own potential and the ability to manage these opportunities.

Proper distribution of resources is simply called coaching. What does it mean?

The essence of the concept

What is this in psychology?

With the advent of the concept of “coaching” in modern life, new era in the field of self-development.

Today, a lot of people call themselves coaches, but few can explain the essence of their work. In reality, everything is not so complicated.

IN literal translation the word "coach" means "cart". Such an ordinary designation of the concept came from English slang.

Exactly "stagecoaches" English students called the people who prepared students for classes. Today this term has transformed into the word “tutor”, and the concept of “coach” has acquired a deeper meaning.

Coaching is an activity aimed at facilitating learning. In simple words, this is the science of how to effectively learn, develop, and achieve what you want.

The coaching process itself takes place in the form systematic trainings, where students develop their skills, understand their goals, and develop a step-by-step plan to achieve them.

The person conducting this seminar is coach- does not plan activities instead of the student. It only provides tools, knowledge and motivation.

Purpose of coaching- to achieve the manifestation of a person’s internal potential to such an extent that to achieve the goal he will not need external motivation.

Who is a coach?

What is the meaning of this word?

As the old saying goes, the hungry should be given a fishing rod, not a fish.

This is how a coach presents to students only information, which they in turn apply depending on the goal.

The consultant does not offer ready-made keys to success. It helps to find suitable methods for each person. Gradually the client comes to understand one's own potential and is looking for its use.

Answering your internal questions, the client chooses the area, in which he will apply the discovered potential. This can be both professional activity and personal relationships.

The consultant is not a manager in literally words. In everyday life, the teacher offers the student own knowledge base, experience and skills in order to instill certain skills in the ward.

A coach, on the contrary, does not impose his own path, but leads to the development of an individual who can solve his problems independently.

The difference between a coach and a trainer is method of psychological influence. For example, a trainer teaches how to work with accounting, but a coach only awakens the desire to learn something new, be it accounting or another science.

Despite the clearly defined scope of influence, a competent coach helps unlock potential and stimulates clients to develop.

Since coaching is not regulated at an academic level, it is difficult to monitor the quality of the services offered. Only a person with certain skills can be called a quality coach.

What are the responsibilities of a coach?:

  1. Stimulating the client's activities by motivating him.
  2. Trust in the client, the ability to see him as a responsible character.
  3. Finding the essence of the goals that the student strives for.
  4. Assisting the client in finding the most profitable growth strategy.

There is an official organization that has taken on the responsibility of training professional coaches. Throughout its history, ICF has trained more than 24,000 qualified teachers.

The International Federation of Coaching trains specialists for fifty countries around the world and is the largest system in this direction.

History of origin

The basis of coaching is the so-called “internal struggle”. The founder of this concept is Timothy Gallwey. In his book “The Inner Game of Tennis,” Gallwey suggests that a person has a hidden enemy within himself.

The enemy in his own head hinders the development of personality, creating artificial obstacles on the path to success.

The book, published in 1974, created a real sensation.

Gallwey created a whole system to help eliminate that same internal rival.

Mitigating obstacles created by oneself, but not intentionally, a person takes the path of development.

Later, the concept of internal play was picked up by John Whitmore. In 1992, he transformed Gallwey's game by comparing it to the process of achieving business success.

The founder of the first coaching system is considered to be Thomas J. Leonard, who registered the University of Coaches, as well as the International Federation for the Training of Specialists.

Areas of application

Since there are many areas for using coaching, the procedure itself is divided into several types.

Individual work

In this case, training occurs without the intervention of outsiders. Learner and coach work one on one. In this case, special attention is paid to the surrounding environment. Not only other people are not included in the process, but also sounds, smells and other factors that distract attention.

Thanks to the close interaction between coach and client, individual work is suitable to improve business in any field.

Personal classes are conducted with the goal of building a business, building personal relationships, and stimulating creative activity.

Coaching can be presented both in the form of a one-time meeting, and in the form of a series of sets.

Depending on the depth of the goal, the consultant meets with the student several times.

To solve a simple issue, it may take only one hour of work. To form a certain model of behavior, the coach conducts up to 8 seminars.

When working systematically, coaching is carried out twice a week. Often the number of sessions does not exceed 10, but it happens that global goals require longer analysis.

A type of individual training is called “coactive” coaching. In this case, the work is not based on finding a goal, but on the formation of a trusting relationship between the client and the coach.

In such a close alliance, the questions come not from the student, but from the coach. And the answers to them, on the contrary, are given by the client himself.

The effectiveness of the method is due to "revolution" of the classical search for truth. As a rule, the seeker asks questions and expects answers from some mentor.

Group classes

When a group of people merged common goal , it makes sense to conduct collective coaching.

In this case, the consultant works with several clients simultaneously.

Group work used in a variety of fields.

A team can be a work team of one company, a sports team, or even a family. The only condition is a joint project, which the whole group is working on.

Number of participants in such a coach unlimited. There can be either two people or dozens involved.

Organizational view

This type of coaching is used when a team that has leader. In this case, work is carried out both with the commander and with subordinates.

Each link receives its own tasks. The mini-goals for each participant are also different, which as a result lead to joint success.

In organizational coaching, special attention is paid to the manager, because the effectiveness of the enterprise largely depends on the competent work of the first person.

Job classification

Each area of ​​life is unique, so the work of a coach in different areas is radically different.

Classification depending on the area of ​​application:


Coaching is used not only in the business environment and personal relationships.

Parental coaching is becoming increasingly popular - the work of a parent and a child as one team, designed to reveal the child’s potential, talents and motivate him to win.

Interaction techniques

There are several effective tools used in coaching. Each of them is presented in the form of techniques, gradually applied in systematic training.

Interrogative technique

The basic and mandatory technique of interaction is asking questions, answering which, the student receives the keys to achieving goals.

Types of questions:

  1. Closed. This question can be answered in monosyllables. "How old are you?" - “25”. "Do you like your job?" - "Yes".
  2. Open. The client must answer this question in detail. “Tell me about your childhood,” “Describe your boss.”
  3. Clarifying. Aimed at clarifying the situation. The coach asks the question “As I understand, you...?”
  4. Alternative. The questioner offers several possible answers, among which the client chooses the appropriate one. The technique is sometimes called "Chinese menu".

Application of the scale

The technique with which positive changes are recorded in the client's condition. At the beginning of the meeting, the coach asks you to rate your existing skills on a 10-point scale. After the training, they note how many “points” the listener’s position has shifted.

For example, a client is looking for motivation. At the beginning of the work, he was asked the question “How do you assess your current motivation?” Student ticks five boxes on the scale. The coach may also ask what the desired motivation is after the upcoming lesson.

After the lesson, the client is again asked to note his position, looking back at the skills he has learned. The result will indicate whether the trainee is able to begin achieving the goal now or whether he will need a number of more sessions.

Other techniques

There are many techniques used in coaching. Depending on the client’s goal, the coach selects the most appropriate techniques.

Examples of effective techniques:


Nuances of innovation

No matter how many advantages the innovation called “coaching” has, there are also some disadvantages to this training method.

Cons of coaching:

  • The need to overcome human habitual resistance to innovations and innovative methods.
  • The success of the project is directly dependent on the competence of the coach. There are very few qualified specialists on the domestic market.
  • The client’s inability to concentrate on long-term projects and frequent activities. The desire to get “everything at once.”

Coching is a new word in the field. The technique allows you to achieve goals in any area, be it a professional idea or a desire to do it right.

What is coaching? Find out about it in the video:

What is coaching? This cooperation, helping a person clearly define his goals and objectives and achieve results in professional and personal life. This art, promoting human development. This creating an environment, facilitating movement towards cherished goals.

Word " coaching"derived from English" coach" - to mentor, train, inspire, since the roots of coaching lie in the field of sports and are based on the methodology of positive, cognitive and organizational psychology.

How to consciously manage your life, realize your potential, how to find inner balance, live and act effectively - this is where coaching is applicable.

Coaching is a system in which you can move from the problem zone to the effective solution zone, a system that allows you to feel new approaches and possibilities.

The coach does not give advice or teach. He asks you questions that lead to a deeper understanding of the situation, problem and solution. To effectively relax and engage both hemispheres, techniques are used NLP And yoga. Breathing and meditative techniques of yoga can achieve amazing results.

By answering questions from a coach, a person can discover his hidden capabilities and find completely unexpected solutions, go beyond his patterns and stereotypes that hold him back. A coach challenges a person.

Each person has all the necessary resources and abilities, and a coach helps a person realize their potential. Clarify your intentions, develop an action plan to achieve your goals. The basis of the method Timothy Gallwey, the founder of coaching, is the idea that a person is not an empty vessel that needs to be filled, but is more like an acorn that already contains everything that is needed to become a mighty oak. To do this, it needs to be fed and illuminated. The ability to grow is already inherent in a person. " The opponent inside our own head is more difficult than the opponent in the real game"- writes Gallwey in his book" Indoor tennis game"Timothy developed an effective method of teaching tennis, which he then transferred to the business sphere.

A person’s potential has no limits and a coach helps to unlock this potential. A person knows about himself and his difficulties much better than any consultant and can help himself in the best and most effective way. A coach only helps a person to activate his capabilities and abilities and develop awareness.

Openness is an important condition for effective coaching.

The difference between coaching and coaching, mentoring, counseling and psychoanalysis is that it is a direct impact with an immediate improvement in efficiency and results! Coaching works with the present and is aimed at building the future!

Coaching opens a wide range of possibilities to a person and focuses attention on where a person is at the moment and what he is willing to do to get to where he wants to be.

In the coaching process, it is possible to realize which resources are limitations, and which limitations can also be a resource. Having freed himself from internal contradictions and gained integrity, a person more consciously moves towards his intended goal and opens up new opportunities.

Coaching is an opportunity" know yourself", grow as a person, act more effectively and at the same time enjoy the process.

Throughout history, man has sought those who would help him in his growth, evolution and changes: shamans, elders, teachers, spiritual leaders, experts, consultants, therapists and mentors. Over the past twenty years, professional coaches have entered this powerful and complex field of supporting human growth.

This article is about the essence of coaching, about the integral AQAL model used in coaching methodology, as well as about the Enneagram - a modern personality typology used in coaching.

Coaching concept

Coaching (eng. coaching - training, training) is a method of consulting and training, differs from classical training and classical counseling in that the coach does not give advice and strict recommendations, but looks for solutions together with the client. Coaching differs from psychological counseling in the focus of motivation. So, if psychological counseling and psychotherapy are aimed at getting rid of a symptom, working with a coach involves achieving a certain goal, new positively formulated results in life and work.

There are many definitions of coaching:

Coaching is self-realization training in the form of conversation(s). Where the trainer (coach) is responsible for the course of the session (conversation), and the client (player) is responsible for its content.

Coaching is the art of creating, through conversation and behavior, an environment that facilitates a person's movement toward desired goals in a satisfying way.

Coaching is the process of the coach creating conditions for the comprehensive development of the client’s personality.

Coaching is the art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another person. (Myles Downey, Effective Coaching)

Coaching is an ongoing relationship that helps people achieve exceptional results in their life, career, business or community service. Through coaching, clients expand their knowledge, improve their effectiveness and improve the quality of their lives.

Coaching is a system for realizing the joint social, personal and creative potential of participants in the development process in order to obtain the most effective result possible.

There are four basic stages of coaching: setting a goal, testing reality, building paths to achieve and, in fact, achieving (it is also called the will stage).

The difference between coaching and all types of consulting is the focus on realizing the client’s own potential.

Coaching, although it has absorbed the best achievements from such seemingly different areas as sports instruction, mentoring, training and practical psychology, has developed into a holistic and fundamentally new approach. Coaching has its own methods of work, its own technologies, which are generally recognized as highly effective for solving most problems, except for emergency situations, when directive methods are more effective. Since coaching always takes into account the personal characteristics of clients and is more result-oriented, it gradually leads to more high levels efficiency than classical training or a course of study. Coaching simultaneously uses the client's existing abilities and skills (and contributes to their improvement), and encourages the acquisition of new ones. Therefore, the effectiveness of coaching increases the more the client engages in his development.

Individual coaching is useful for a person who strives to achieve great success in business, in his career, in his family or in his individual development, but who is faced with problems that he cannot cope with alone.

Coaching in psychology. Coaching is a new direction of psychological counseling that uses modern psychotechnologies aimed at effectively achieving goals. Although in reality coaching is more than consulting.

A coach does not teach his client what to do. He creates the conditions for the student to understand what he needs to do, to determine the ways in which he can achieve what he wants, to choose the most appropriate method of action, and to outline the main stages of achieving his goal.

Coaching involves teaching the client to achieve goals in optimal ways in the shortest possible time. Coaches help their clients learn to achieve better results with minimal effort. Coaching is based on the psychology of optimism and success. That is why this type of consulting is actively developing.

Coaching is based on the idea that a person is not an empty vessel that needs to be filled, but is more like an acorn that contains all the potential to become a mighty oak tree. It takes nourishment, encouragement, light to achieve this, but the ability to grow is already built into us.

Coaching creates a vibrant atmosphere of co-creation: on the part of the coach, this is primarily following the interests of the client and guiding “magic questions”; on the part of the client, this is the courage to explore one’s choices, creative search and decision-making aimed at achieving what is desired, and finding joy in success. and achievements, turning on internal “drive”.

The evolution of coaching. Initially, in England, “coaches” were drivers of high-speed two-wheeled carriages who were engaged in ultra-fast delivery of goods. Later, this term passed into other spheres of life; in England, tutors and mentors began to be called “coaches”. Probably, the use of the words “coach”, “coach”, “coaching” in this meaning implied an allegorical connection between tutoring and managing a multi-seat crew. Both the coachman and the tutor must ensure that multiple tasks are completed simultaneously in order to "get" the crew/students to their destination. Further, the use of the term “coach” spread to the world of sports - by the 80s, American college sports teams, in addition to managers, had “coaches” - trainers. It is from the world of sports that the term “coaching” in its modern meaning originates.

In the early 1970s, Harvard University educational theorist and tennis expert Timothy Gallwey wrote a series of books called The Inner Game. In his books, he outlined a new coaching methodology - the coaching methodology. Gallwey started from the premise that the opponent who exists in the mind of the tennis player is much more terrible and stronger than the real opponent who is on the other side of the net. He pointed out the fact that in coaching, instead of the directive leadership method, it is much more effective to use the coaching method, which will help the player get rid of the internal enemy and overcome internal obstacles. Gallway discovered that when an athlete manages to overcome internal obstacles, his body automatically adapts to perform as efficiently as possible and achieve the best results.

Gallway found that coaching was most effective when the coach did not understand the coachee's sport, such as when a ski instructor was coaching a golfer—in which situation the coach was forced to allow the athlete to find his own solutions and answers.

Thus, Gallway defined the essence of coaching, which is to unlock a person's potential and thereby increase the effectiveness of his activities. Coaching does not teach, but helps to learn.

This concept was quickly adopted by the business world, where coaching is used to improve performance, develop knowledge and personal responsibility. Then coaching spread to other areas of life.

Until the early 80s of the last century, in most cases the term “coach” was understood as a trainer in sports, especially in athletic sports. From the early 1980s, coaching began to occupy a broader field and began to relate to the field of human development as a whole, mainly within the framework of organizational consulting. Various companies have been actively looking for ways to increase productivity. The world was changing rapidly, and along with these changes arose the need not only to respond to environmental challenges, but also to develop. Leaders had to improve their skills to delegate, manage people and processes, and set the right priorities, while balancing the demands of new technologies, globalization, and working with employees from different cultures and countries. Career coaching emerged as a development method that helped people effectively cope with increasingly complex needs and provided a reliable and proven method of supporting executives. Coaching subsequently grew into a new profession outside the sports field. During these years, putting a business card on a business card stating that the owner was a “professional” coach or an “executive coach” became commonplace, and people offered their services to coach executives and managers in all sincerity. Despite this rise in popularity of the profession, formal coaching training programs were in their infancy, and little was known about them even by the professionals for whom such programs were intended.

In the early 1990s, formal coaching education courses evolved into professional certification programs. And over the past 15 years, the field of professional coaching has continued to expand rapidly. It now includes coaching services, coaching training and coach accreditation. These days, coaching services are available in just about every area you can imagine: life coaching, career coaching, behavioral coaching, parent coaching, executive coaching, relationship coaching, team relationship coaching, to name just a few. Despite the fact that the areas and models of training in coaching are constantly expanding, the essence of its competencies and the essence of training programs remain virtually unchanged. It is about supporting change and development in a person's life. However, different schools and coaching approaches differ in their views on the necessary requirements for change on which they base their work. Let's look at these differences.

The difference between coaching and other types of assistance. How is coaching different from counseling, therapy, sports training, or communicating with your best friend? After all, a coach is not the only specialist who offers help to a client in difficult situations. life situation, and it is important to distinguish him from all other professionals in this field. Many life coaching professionals explain their work using the analogy of choosing and buying a bicycle.

Consultant will discuss with you what is stopping you from going out and buying a bike. He will analyze all the “blocks” you have and ask what you are afraid of. He will discuss with you all the nuances of the purchase: who the manufacturer is, what model, what color. After your consultation, you will feel able to go out and buy a bike with confidence and without any help.

Counselors help people overcome life's challenges and often specialize in a specific area or problem, such as bereavement counselors, interpersonal relationship counselors, infertility counselors, post-traumatic stress counselors, and so on.

Psychotherapist, will probably also discuss with you the “blocks” you have regarding buying a bicycle, but will go further, asking how this particular problem affects your life as a whole. The difficulties of buying a bike will be a catalyst for exploring many of your other problems and a broader analysis of your life in general. Therapy helps clients confront and cope with their past so they can live more successfully in the future. The coach, on the contrary, does not look for the prerequisites for the current situation; he considers only the results. He will not ask: “Why are you behaving this way?”, rather, it will be the question “What would it take for you to start behaving differently?” The coach is interested in the present - habits, attitudes and behavior that the client can correct if he wants, and the future - new skills and attitudes necessary to achieve the goals that the client himself has determined for himself. During classes, a qualified coach can draw attention to the fact that the client needs psychological help. In this case, the coach may advise him to stop working within the framework of coaching for a while and seek help from a psychotherapist to solve a specific problem “from the past.”

Expert consultant will study everything available types bikes and will tell you the results comparative analysis. He can advise which model is best for you and even instruct you on how to drive it. He is usually an expert in a certain area of ​​business or knowledge, in fact, that is why he is consulted. A coach may not have specialized knowledge (although many do), but he is an expert in coaching as a helping technique. Both the consultant and the coach share information and knowledge with the client, but the coach encourages the client to change and personal growth.

Supervisor will tell you about his experiences with cycling, the problems he had and how he overcame them. He will give advice on how best to repair a hole in the tire and how to drive in very heavy traffic. He can introduce you to some experienced cyclists and recommend a good repair shop. The emphasis here is on teaching what the supervisor knows. The main thing in coaching is to identify what the client himself knows.

Parent he will choose and buy you a bike. He may insist that you install stabilizers first, and will only allow you to remove them when he thinks you can drive safely without them. It will support the seat while you learn to ride and remove the support arm when you are not looking. He will decide where and when you can ride and can punish you if you don't follow the rules. The parent inspires the child, demonstrates unconditional love and support, and feels responsible, at least in part, for the end result. The coach may demand more and treat the client as an adult.

Friend may be delighted with your plans to take up cycling. He will go to the store with you and will show interest until he gets bored. He will admire your purchase and offer to come and join you when you get ready for your first walk. And he might even be there to help you up when you fall. But it's quite possible that after five minutes of you desperately trying not to fall off your bike, he will notice that riding a bike is not such a good thing and will begin to convince you to leave the bike and go to the cinema instead.

Friends are vital, but they are not professional coaches and it is difficult for them to be completely objective. When you are successful, not all of your friends will sincerely admire your achievements and this is what makes them different from your coach. Some of them may be interested in you remaining as you are and feel threatened by all the changes that happen to you. Especially if these changes directly affect them. A competitive spirit can make them jealous or feel abandoned. Instead, what a coach cares about is that you succeed and ensure that you thrive. And he doesn't have to be your friend at all. He should expect and demand much more from you than your friend will ever allow himself.

Coach will listen to everything you have to say about your desire to take up cycling. He will ask questions to understand exactly what kind of riding you want to do and whether you know what model of bike you prefer. He may ask you to gather information about bikes and bike shops and ask you to name a specific day when you will buy a bike. He will help you climb on it, and will run alongside you while you study. And also check from time to time whether it really gives you pleasure. Together you will discuss what cycling gives you and whether you want to become a professional cyclist or just a hobbyist. Or you might choose to forget about it altogether because once you tried it, you realized it wasn't as fun as you thought. Whatever you decide, a coach will listen, clarify and support you.

Types of coaching. The areas of application include career coaching, business coaching, personal effectiveness coaching, life coaching, and sex coaching. Career coaching has recently been called career counseling, which includes an assessment professional opportunities, competency assessment, career planning consulting, choosing a development path, support in job search, etc., related issues.

Business coaching is aimed at organizing the search for the most effective ways to achieve the company's goals. At the same time, work is carried out with individual company managers and teams of employees.

Life coaching consists of individual work with a person, which is focused on improving his life in all areas (health, self-esteem, relationships).

Depending on the coaching participants, individual coaching and corporate (group) coaching are distinguished. The format includes full-time (personal coaching, photo coaching) and correspondence (Internet coaching, telephone coaching) types of coaching. It is important to understand that the above areas of coaching are inextricably linked and organically fit into the client training system.

Sex coaching, as a direction of life coaching, is a related area of ​​coaching and sexology, aimed at solving the problems of sexology using coaching methods. The founders of the direction are Dr. Patti Britton and Robert Dunlap, who are co-founders of the University of California Sex Coaching. The University of California Sex Coaching is affiliated with the World Association of Sex Coaches WASC. WASC provides international certification of specialists through the University of California Sex Coaching.

Recently, a trend has emerged in which, with the growing demand for coaching in general, the demand for “specialized” coaching in narrow areas also increases. The most popular types and subtypes of coaching are the following.
Personal effectiveness coaching (Life Coaching)

  • Motivational coaching
  • Goals/Results Coaching
  • Time Management Coaching
  • Financial/money coaching
  • Career Coaching
  • Coaching for Intensive Personal Change
  • graduate students (Postgraduate Studies Coaching)
  • Coaching for emotional and spiritual development (EQ and SQ Coaching)
  • Relationship coaching
  • Family-systemic coaching

Corporate coaching

  • Executive Coaching
  • Organizational Development Coaching (OD Coaching)
  • in Management (Coaching Management)
  • Leadership Coaching
  • Team Coaching
  • HR Coaching

Business coaching

  • New business coaching
  • Coaching on budget and planning
  • Coaching in Marketing
  • Network development coaching

In addition, there are external and internal coaching.

Most often, organizations invite an outside coach to work with their staff. This is the so-called external coaching of personnel. It is carried out in the form of regular meetings between the coach and clients.

In the West, internal coaching of personnel is actively used. It represents a specific management style - a specially organized process of communication between a manager and his subordinates. Employee management is structured in such a way that they act virtually independently, while remaining under the supervision of a coach manager. Such coaching is included in everyday business communication between managers and subordinates: consulting during meetings, negotiations, current control for employees to perform their duties, etc.

In the West in recent years, Internet coaching has become increasingly popular: the work of a mentor with a client via e-mail or via teleconferencing. This significantly reduces the cost of coaching services and makes it possible for a wide range of people to use them.

So, coaching is:

A precisely targeted method of personality development. There is only you and the coach. During classes, the client receives the full, undivided attention of the coach.

Supportive peer relationships. The basis for coaching is a relationship of equality. The coach does not talk down to the client and does not impose his opinion. He is an expert in his field. The client is an expert in relation to himself and his life. Coaching only works if this relationship is understood correctly from the outset and maintained throughout.

Responsibility Relationships. Equality implies sharing of responsibilities. A coach's primary responsibility is to bring out the best in a client. The client's primary responsibility is to take responsibility for his own life and carry out whatever he agrees on with the coach. The client is responsible for their results.

Ways to create change, internal and external. The impetus for inviting a coach is the need for change. They do not have to be external, they can be changes in attitude, way of thinking or attitudes. The area of ​​change that coaching stimulates is the whole of life. Nothing is "outside" unless the client decides otherwise. Even then, the coach may warn the client that creating barriers around certain topics will not be helpful and they will not be successful in stimulating the necessary changes.

Coaches do not claim to be mental health specialists. They deal not with problems, but with challenges, choices and opportunities. The basis of coaching is the client’s goals, his own – and not the coach’s – strategies and decisions.

Coach works:

  • with healthy people who do not suffer from severe mental illness;
  • with people interested in further personal and professional development;
  • with people who want to improve the quality of their life, strive for professional and creative self-realization;
  • with people creating their future in accordance with their intentions and values.

The main task of coaching is not to teach something, but to stimulate self-learning, so that in the process of activity a person can find and obtain the necessary knowledge himself. The essence of this approach lies in revealing the dormant inner potential and bringing into action the motivation system of each individual person.

In each meeting, the client chooses the purpose of the conversation while the coach listens and provides input in the form of observations and questions. This interaction clarifies the situation and motivates the client to action. Coaching speeds up a client's progress towards their goal by helping them focus on the desired outcome and opening up a wider range of alternatives. In coaching, the focus is on the client's present situation and what actions he is willing to take to achieve the desired state of affairs.

The coaching profession can be called “motivating”. “Bringing out the best in a person or a team” are the words that most accurately define coaching.

Coaching is based on respect for the client's personal and professional experience, and the belief that each client is a creative, versatile and holistic person. Based on this, the responsibilities of the coach include:

  • Discover, clarify and adhere to the goals that the client wants to achieve.
  • Encourage client's independent discovery.
  • Identify client-developed solutions and strategies.
  • Maintain accountability and responsibility for the client.

Since the mid-70s, the American researcher of human potential in various cultures and historical periods, Ken Wilber, began to create an approach that would allow us to consider and see the entire integrity of multiple aspects of reality found in all situations and events, in their interconnection. In the mid-80s, this method of studying reality was called the integral approach.

The whole essence of the integral approach is reflected in the integral model or AQAL map, which is an abbreviation of the phrase “all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types” - “all sectors, all levels, all lines, all states, all types” "

As you will see, all of these elements are here, right now, available to your own awareness. These 5 elements are not just theoretical concepts: they are aspects of your own experience, the contours of your own consciousness, which you can easily test for yourself as we continue this discussion.

Let's start with states of consciousness, which relate to subjective realities.

Every person is familiar with the basic states of consciousness - such as waking, dreaming and deep sleep. Right now you are in a waking state of consciousness (or, if you are tired, in a half-asleep state of consciousness). There are very different states of consciousness, including meditative states (induced by yoga, contemplation, meditation, etc.), altered states (for example, induced by psychoactive drugs) and various peak experiences, many of which can be caused by intense experiences such as making love, walking in nature or listening to beautiful music.

The great spiritual wisdom traditions (such as Christian mysticism, Vedanta Hinduism, Vajrayana Buddhism and Jewish Kabbalah) claim that the 3 natural states of consciousness - waking, dreaming and deep formless sleep - actually reveal to us the treasures of spiritual wisdom and spiritual awakening if we understand how to use them correctly. In a certain sense, which we will explore as we proceed, the three great natural states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep contain within themselves the entire spectrum of spiritual enlightenment.

But on a more simple and mundane level, everyone has experienced different kinds of states of consciousness, and these states often give both you and others deep motivation, meaning and motivation. In any given situation, states of consciousness may not be a very significant factor, or they may be a decisive factor, but no integral approach can allow them to be ignored.

Here's an interesting thing about states of consciousness: they come and go. Even deep peak experiences or altered states, no matter how deep they are, will come to you for a short time, stay for a while, and then disappear. No matter how deep their potential is, they are all temporary.

While states of consciousness are temporary, stages of consciousness permanent. The stages are real milestones of growth and development. Once you reach a stage, it becomes a sustainable acquisition. For example, once a child progresses through the linguistic stages of development, he or she gains constant access to language. Language is not something that is present one minute and disappears the next. The same thing happens with other types of development. When you steadily reach a stage of growth and development, you have access to the qualities of that stage—such as greater consciousness, more embracing love, higher ethical urges, greater intelligence and awareness—virtually at any time you desire. Incoming states have become permanent features.

How many stages of development are there? Well, don't forget that with any map, the way you divide and represent the actual territory is somewhat arbitrary. For example, how many degrees are there between the freezing point and the boiling point of water? If you are using a Celsius scale or "map", then there are 100 degrees between them. However, if you use the Fahrenheit scale, water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212, so there are 180 degrees in between. Which option is correct? Both. It all depends on how you want to divide this pie.

The same is true for stages. There are many different ways to divide and fragment development—therefore, there are many different stage concepts. All of them can be useful. The chakra system, for example, provides 7 main stages or levels of consciousness. Jean Gebser, the famous anthropologist, speaks of 5 stages: archaic, magical, mythical, rational and integral. Some Western psychological models have 8, 12 or more levels of development. Which of all this is right? Everything, and the choice depends only on what you want to follow in the process of growth and development.

"Stages of development" are also called "levels of development", and the idea is that each stage represents a level of organization or level of complexity. For example, in the sequence from atoms to molecules to cells to organisms, each of these evolutionary stages has an increasing level of complexity. The word "level" does not have a rigid or exclusive meaning, but merely indicates that with each level come significant emergent qualities that arise in a discrete or quantum manner, and these levels of development are important aspects of many natural phenomena.

In the integral model, we typically work with 8-10 stages or levels of consciousness development. After many years of practical work, we found that dividing into more stages was too cumbersome, and into fewer stages too vague. One of the stage concepts that we often use is Spiral Dynamics Integral, founded by Don Beck based on the research of Clare Graves. We also look at the stages of self development first discovered by Jane Loevinger and Susann Cook-Greuter, and the orders of consciousness explored by Robert Kegan. But there are many other useful stage concepts available to the integral approach, and you can adopt any of them if they are more appropriate for your purposes.

To demonstrate what is involved in the idea of ​​levels or stages, we can use a very simple model that has only 3 levels. If we consider, for example, moral development, we will find that at birth the baby has not yet been socialized with respect to cultural, ethical and conventional norms - this is called the pre-conventional stage. It is also called the egocentric stage because the infant's awareness is largely self-absorbed. But as Small child learns the norms and rules of his culture, he develops to the conventional stage of moral development. This stage is also called ethnocentric, since the child is centered on a certain group, tribe, clan or nation, thereby, as a rule, excluding those who do not belong to his group from the circle of his care. However, at the next main stage moral development- post-conventional stage - the identity of the individual expands again, this time to include in the circle of his concerns and interests all people, regardless of race, color, sex or condition, and that is why this stage is also called worldcentric.

Thus, moral development tends to move from “me” (egocentrism) to “us” (ethnocentrism) and then to “all of us” (worldcentrism), which is an excellent example of the gradual unfolding of consciousness.

These 3 stages can be depicted in another way - in the form of body, mind and spirit. All of these words have many other valid meanings, but when we specifically refer to the stages, they mean the following:

Stage 1, in which my gross physical reality dominates, is the “bodily” stage (using the word “body” in its usual sense of gross body). Since you are identified only with the individual bodily organism and its survival instincts, this stage is also the stage of “me”.

Stage 2 is the "mental" stage in which your identity extends beyond the isolated gross body and expands into relationships with many others, based, for example, on your shared values, mutual interests, shared ideals, or shared dreams. Because I can use my mind to take on the role of others—to put on their hat and experience what it is like to be them—my identity expands from “me” to “us” (moving from egocentrism to ethnocentrism).

With Stage 3, my identity expands again, this time from identification with “us” to identification with “all of us” (moving from ethnocentrism to worldcentrism). Here I begin to realize that in addition to the wonderful diversity of people and cultures, there are also commonalities and shared commonalities among them. The discovery of the commonwealth of all people appears to be a shift from ethnocentrism to worldcentrism and is "spiritual" in the sense of things shared among all sentient beings.

This is one way of looking at the unfolding from body to mind to spirit, where these are seen as stages, waves or levels of unfolding care and consciousness moving from egocentrism and ethnocentrism to worldcentrism.

Development lines. Have you ever noticed how unevenly all of us are developed? Someone is highly developed in, say, an area logical thinking, but is poorly developed in the sphere of emotional sensations. Some people have high cognitive development (they are very smart) but poor moral development (they are rude and angry). Some excel in emotional intelligence but are unable to put two and two together.

Howard Gardner greatly made this idea famous by introducing the concept of multiple intelligences. Humans have a range of intelligences, such as cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, musical intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, etc. Most people do well in one or two abilities but poorly in others. This is not necessarily (or even typically) a bad thing: part of integral wisdom is to find where a person excels and thereby where he can best offer the world his most valuable gifts.

But it does mean that we need to be aware of both our strengths (or the abilities that make us shine) and our weak sides(something in which we are poorly developed or even pathological). And this leads us to the next of the 5 important elements - our many abilities, or lines of development. So far we have only touched on states and stages, so what are lines or multiple abilities?

The various multiple abilities include: cognitive, interpersonal, moral, emotional and aesthetic. Why do we also call them development lines? Because these abilities demonstrate growth and development. They unfold in progressive stages. What do these progressive stages represent? The stages we just described.

In other words, any one of a variety of abilities develops - or can develop - through 3 main stages (or through any stages of any of the existing models of development, be it 3-stage, 5-stage, 7-stage or including more stages; do not forget, this is similar to the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales). You can, for example, develop cognitively into Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3.

The same goes for other abilities. Emotional development to Stage 1 means that I have developed the capacity for “me”-centered emotions—especially the emotions and drives of hunger, survival, and self-defense. As you continue your emotional development from stage 1 to stage 2 - or from the egocentric stage to the ethnocentric stage - you expand from "me" to "us" and begin to develop emotional commitments and attachments to loved ones, members of your family, close friends and perhaps , to your entire tribe or nation. If you grow into Stage 3 emotions, you develop a greater capacity for caring and compassion that transcends your tribe or your nation and attempts to include all people, or even all sentient beings, in the embrace of world-centric caring and compassion.

And remember that since these are developmental stages, you are acquiring them on an ongoing basis. Before this happens, any of these abilities will be just transitory states: you will engage in few of them (if any) for a limited time - deep peak experiences of expansion of knowing and being, wonderful "eureka!" – experiences, deeply altered, sneaking glances at one’s highest potential. However, with practice, you will develop these states into stages, or permanent characteristics of your own territory.

Types. The next component is simple: each of the previous components has a masculine and feminine type. This implies two main ideas: the first has to do with the idea of ​​the types themselves, the second has to do with masculinity and femininity as one of the examples of these types.

Types simply refer to things that can be present in virtually any stage or state. An example of a common typology is the Myers-Briggs typology (the Myers-Briggs questionnaire was developed by Katherine Cook Briggs together with her daughter Isabella Briggs Myers based on C. G. Jung’s concept of psychological types) (the main types in which are: feeling, thinking, sensory and intuitive). You can be any of these types at literally every stage of development. "Horizontal typologies" of this kind can be very useful, especially if they are combined with levels, lines and states. To show what typologies include, we can use the example of “masculinity” and “femininity.”

Carol Gilligan, in her incredibly influential book In a Different Voice, pointed out that both men and women typically develop through 3 or 4 major levels, or stages, of moral development. Gilligan, citing a significant amount of research data, noted that these 3 or 4 moral stages can be called pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional and integrated. These stages are actually quite similar to the 3 simple stages of development we use, this time as applied to moral intelligence.

Gilligan found that Stage 1 represents a morality that is all about “me” (hence this pre-conventional stage or level is also called egocentric). Stage 2 moral development is focused on “us” in such a way that my identity has expanded beyond just me to include other people in my group (which is why this conventional stage is often called ethnocentric, traditionalist, or conformist). Beginning with stage 3 of moral development, my identity expands again, this time from “us” to “all of us,” or all people (or even all conscious beings)—and therefore this stage is often called worldcentric. I now have care and compassion not only for myself (egocentrism) and not only for my family, tribe or nation (ethnocentrism), but for all humanity, for all men and women everywhere, regardless of race, color, gender or states (worldcentrism). And if I develop even further, to Stage 4 of moral development, which Gilligan calls integrated, then...

Well, before we look at the important conclusion of Gilligan's work, let's first note her main contribution. Gilligan absolutely agreed that women, like men, develop through 3 or 4 main hierarchical stages of development. She herself correctly calls these stages hierarchical, since each stage has a higher capacity for care and compassion. However, she argues that women progress through these stages using a different type of logic—they develop “in a different voice.”

Masculine logic, or the masculine voice, tends to be based on notions of autonomy, justice, and rights, while feminine logic, or the masculine voice, tends to be based on notions of relationship, caring, and responsibility. Men tend to be active, women tend to be social. Men follow rules, women follow connections. Men look, women touch. Men are prone to individualism, women - to relationships. One of Gilligan's favorite jokes: a little boy and a girl are playing together, the boy says, “Let's play pirates!” The girl replies: “Let’s play as if we live next door.” Boy: “No, I want to play pirates!” - “Okay, you play the pirate who lives next door.”

Boys don't like girls to be around when they are playing games like football, because between the two voices there are serious clashes, often quite funny. Several boys are playing football: a child receives a second yellow card and is sent off the field, and so he begins to cry. The other boys remain indifferent until the child stops crying: after all, a rule is a rule, and the rule is: two yellow cards and you leave the field. Gilligan points out that if there is a girl near the field at that moment, she, as a rule, will begin to say: “Oh, come on guys, give him another chance!” The girl sees the boy crying and wants to help him, wants to treat him, wants to heal him. This, however, drives the boys crazy, because they participate in the game as an initiation into the world of rules and male logic. According to Gilligan, boys will thus sacrifice feelings in order to save the rules, while girls will sacrifice rules in order to save feelings.

A different voice. Both girls and boys will develop through 3 or 4 stages of moral development (from egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric to integrated), but they will do so in a different voice, using a different logic. Gilligan specifically calls these hierarchical stages in women the self-love (which is egocentric), caring (which is ethnocentric), universal caring (which is worldcentric), and the integrated stage. Again, why is this a hierarchy? Because each stage is a higher capacity for caring and compassion. (Not all hierarchy is bad, and this good example why.)

So, integrated stage or stage 4 – what is it? In the fourth and highest stage of moral development that we know, the masculine and feminine voices in each of us tend, according to Gilligan, to become integrated. This does not mean that a person at this stage loses the distinction between masculinity and femininity and therefore becomes, as it were, a soft, androgynous and asexual being. In fact, the masculine and feminine dimensions can be further enhanced. But what this really means is that a person becomes more familiar with both the masculine and feminine aspects of himself, even if he usually acts predominately from one or the other.

And how does this all fit together?

An integral model would simply be a “jumble” of components if it did not suggest how they all relate. How do they all fit together? It's one thing to simply lay all the elements of our cross-cultural survey on the table and say, “They're all equally important!” – and it’s completely different to see the patterns that actually connect these elements. The discovery of deep connecting patterns is the main achievement of the integral approach.

All 5 components of the integral model are aspects available to your awareness right now - this is true for the sectors as well.

Have you ever noticed that the world's major languages ​​contain what are called first, second and third person pronouns? First person means "the person who is now speaking" and includes pronouns such as I, me, my (singular) and we, us, our (plural). Second person means “the person currently being addressed,” which includes pronouns such as you (you) and yours (yours). Third person means "the person or thing in question" - as in he, his, she, hers, they, theirs and it.

Thus, if I am talking to you about my new car, “I” is the first person, “you” is the second person, and the new car (or “she”) is the third person. So, if you and I are having a conversation and communicating, we will indicate this using, for example, the word “we”, as in the phrase: “We understand each other.” “We” is technically a first person plural, but if you and I are communicating, then your second person and my first person are part of this extraordinary “we.” Thus, the second person is sometimes designated as “you/we”, or “you/we”, or sometimes simply “we”.

So, by doing this we can simplify the first, second and third person into “I”, “we” and “it”.

Sounds trivial, doesn't it? Perhaps even boring? Well, then let's approach the question differently. Instead of saying “we”, “it” and “I”, what if we say Good, True and Beautiful?

And what if we said that the Good, the Truth and the Beautiful are the dimensions of your own being at each and every level of growth and development? And that through integral transformative practice you can discover deeper and deeper dimensions of your own Goodness, your own Truth, your own Beauty?

And it actually sounds more interesting! Good, True and Beautiful are simply variations of the first, second and third person pronouns found in all major languages ​​of the world, and they can be found in all major languages ​​because Truth, Good and Beautiful are, in fact, very real dimensions of reality, to to which the language has adapted. Third person (or "it") refers to the objective truth that science studies. Second person (or “you/we”) refers to Kindness, or how we—that you and I—treat each other, and whether we do so in a polite, sincere, and respectful way. In other words, these are the foundations of morality. And the first person refers to “I” and selfhood and self-expression, art and aesthetics, and beauty, which is in the eyes (or “I”) of the beholder.

So the “I”, “we” and “it” dimensions of experience actually relate to: art, morality and science. Or self, culture and nature. Or the Beautiful, the Good and the True.

And the idea is that every event in this manifest world has all three of these dimensions. You can view any event from the perspective of "I" (or how I personally perceive and experience the event), from the perspective of "we" (or how not only I but others perceive the event), and from the perspective the “it” view (or the objective facts of a given event).

So, an integrally informed path will thereby take into account all these dimensions, thus arriving at a more inclusive and effective approach - in relation to both "I", "we", and "it" - or self, culture and nature.

If you leave behind science, or art, or morality, something will always be missing, something will always not work. Self, culture and nature are either liberated together or never liberated. So fundamental are these dimensions of "I", "we" and "it" that we call them the four quadrants and base an integral conceptual framework on them. (We get the "four" sectors by dividing "it" into singular– “it” – and plural- "They")

The following is a drawing - a schematic representation of the four sectors. It depicts “I” (internal aspects of the individual), “it” (external aspects of the individual), “we” (internal aspects of the collective), and “they” (external aspects of the collective). In other words, the four quadrants - which are the four fundamental perspectives on any event (or the four basic points of view on anything) - turn out to be quite simple to understand: they are the inner and outer sides of the individual and the collective.


Sectors in relation to people

For example, in the upper left sector (the inner side of the individual) you encounter your immediate thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc. (all described in first person terms). However, if you look at your individual existence from the outside perspective, not from the perspective of subjective awareness but of objective science, you will find neurotransmitters, the limbic system, the neocortex, complex molecular structures, cells, organ systems, DNA, etc. – all of them are described by objective terminology (“it” and “they”). The upper right quadrant is therefore what any event looks like when viewed from the outside. This is especially true of his physical behavior, material components, matter and energy, and his concrete body - all of which are aspects that can be viewed to a certain extent in an objective, third-personal or "it" way.

This is what you or your body looks like when viewed from the outside, from the position of “it”-objectivity, consisting of matter, energy and objects; whereas from the inside you find not neurotransmitters but feelings, not limbic systems but strong desires, not the neocortex, but the inner vision, not matter-energy, but consciousness - all of them are described in terms of primal immediacy. Which of these points of view is correct? According to the integral approach, both. These are two different points of view on the same event, namely you. The problem begins when you try to reject or deny any of these perspectives. All four sectors must be included in any integral worldview.

Let's continue with our connections. Note that every “I” is in relationship with other “I”s, which means that every “I” is contained in the set of “we”. These “we” represent not just individual, but group (or collective) consciousness, not just subjective, but intersubjective consciousness - or culture in the broadest sense of the word. This fact is noted in the lower left sector. Likewise, each "we" has an outside, or what it looks like when viewed from the outside, and this would be the lower right quadrant. The lower left quadrant is often called the cultural dimension (or the inner consciousness of the group - its worldview, shared values, feelings, etc.), while the lower right quadrant is the social dimension (or the outer forms and behavioral acts of the group, which are studied by such third-personal sciences as as systems theory).

Again, the quadrants are simply the inner and outer of the individual and the collective, and the idea is that everything needs to be included in the four quadrants if we are to be as integral as possible.

Now we've come to the point where we can start putting all the components together. The main components we have previously studied are states, levels, lines and types. Let's start with the levels, or stages.

All four sectors show growth, development and evolution. In other words, they all show some stages, or levels, of development - not like rigid steps in a ladder, but like rolling and flowing waves of development. This happens everywhere in the natural world, just as an oak tree develops from an acorn through a series of stages of growth and development, or as a Ussuri tiger grows from a fertilized egg to become an adult organism through a sequence of well-defined stages of growth and development. The same thing happens in a very definite, important way with people. We have already seen how some of these stages apply to humans. In the upper left quadrant, or “I,” for example, the self unfolds from body to mind to spirit. In the upper right sector, bodily energy expands phenomenologically from gross to subtle and then to causal. In the lower left quadrant, "we" expands from egocentrism to ethnocentrism and then to worldcentrism. This expansion of group consciousness allows social systems - in the lower right quadrant - to expand from simple groups to more complex systems such as nations and eventually even global systems. These three stages in each sector are presented in the figure.

Let's move from levels to lines. There are development lines in all four quadrants, but since we are concentrating on personal development here, we can look at how some of these lines manifest themselves in the upper left quadrant. As we have seen, there are more than a dozen different multiple faculties, or lines of development. Some of the most important lines:

  • cognitive line (or awareness of what is)
  • moral line (awareness of what should be)
  • emotional or affective line (spectrum of emotions)
  • interpersonal line (how I relate to others socially)
  • line of needs (such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs)
  • line of self-identification (“I” identity) (or “who am I?”, such as Levinger’s stage of ego development)
  • aesthetic line (or line of self-expression, beauty, art and felt meanings)
  • psychosexual line, which in its broadest meaning means the entire spectrum of Eros (from gross to subtle and further to causal)
  • spiritual line (in which "spirit" is considered not simply as the Foundation and not simply as the highest stage of development, but as a separate unfolding line)
  • value line (or what a person considers most important - a line explored in the work of Clare Graves and popularized by Spiral Dynamics)

All these lines of development may pass through major stages or levels. All of them can be included in a psychogram. If we use stage or level concepts like those of Robert Keegan, Jane Levinger, Clare Graves, then we get 5, 8 or even more levels of development, based on which we can trace the natural unfolding of lines or streams of development. Again, it’s not a matter of which one is true or false, it’s a matter of how much “detail” or “complexity” you need to more adequately understand a particular situation.

As noted, all sectors have development lines, and we simply focused on the development lines in the upper left sector. In the upper right sector, when it comes to people, one of the most important lines is the bodily material-energy line, which, as we have already seen, extends from gross energy to subtle energy to causal energy. As a developmental sequence, it describes the permanent acquisition of the ability to consciously control these energetic components of your own being (otherwise they appear only as states). The upper right sector also describes all external behavior, all actions and movements of my objective body (gross, subtle or causal).

In the lower left quadrant, cultural development as such often unfolds in waves, moving from what the innovative genius of Jean Gebser called archaic, magical, mythical, mental, integral and higher stages. In the lower right quadrant, systems theory studies collective social systems undergoing a process of development (and for humans, for example, this includes a sequence of stages from foraging to agrarian to industrial to information systems).

In the figure "Sectors in relation to people" we have simplified this to the "group, national, global" stages, but the general idea is simply an observation about the unfolding of levels of greater social complexity that are integrated into wider systems. For this simple overview, again, what is important is not so much the details as the overall scope of the nature of unfolding in all four quadrants, which can include the expanding realms of consciousness, care, culture and nature. In short, “I”, “we” and “it” are capable of evolving. And the self, and culture, and nature - they are all capable of developing and evolving.

Now we can quickly finish with the remaining components. States occur in all sectors (from weather states to states of consciousness). We focused on states of consciousness in the upper left quadrant (waking, dreaming, deep sleep) and energy states in the upper right quadrant (gross, subtle, causal). Of course, if any of them become permanent acquisitions, they will become stages, not states.

In addition, there are types in all sectors, but we have focused on masculine and feminine types as they appear in individuals. The principle of masculinity is more identified with activity, and the principle of femininity is more identified with community, but the idea is that every person has both of these components. And finally, as we have seen, there are pathological types of masculinity and femininity at all available stages - there is a sick boy, a sick girl at all levels.

Does it seem very difficult? In a sense, this is true. But in another sense, the extraordinary complexity of people and their relationship with the universe can be extraordinarily simplified if we take into account all the basic points of the quadrants (the observation that every event can be viewed from the point of view of “I”, “we” or “it”), developmental lines (or multiple intelligences), all of which unfold through levels of development (from body to mind to spirit), as well as states and types at each of these levels.

This integral model – “all sectors, all levels, all lines, all states, all types” – is the simplest model that can cope with all the truly essential components of reality. Sometimes we simply shorten this to "all quadrants, all levels" - or AQAL - where the quadrants, for example, are self, culture and nature, and the levels are body, mind and spirit, so we say that the integral approach includes involves cultivating the body, mind and spirit in oneself, culture and nature. The simplest version of this is shown in the previous illustration, and if you have a basic understanding of this illustration, then the rest is quite simple.

So, the integral map consists of 4 sectors, each of which describes its own aspect of reality accessible to humans. The four quadrants describe the internal and external aspects of the individual and the collective.

The upper left sector (the “I” sector) considers the individual internal – that which cannot be understood without talking to the person – his thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc.

The lower left sector (the “We” sector) considers the collective internal or cultural dimension - group, collective consciousness or culture in the broadest sense of the word, everything that concerns relationships between people and that can only be explored through communication with representatives of the culture being studied.

The subject of attention of the upper right sector (sector “It” or “It”) is the individual external - what can be said about a person with the help of external study from an objective, scientific point of view - the structure of his body, the processes that go on inside the body, external manifestations of behavior, etc.

The lower right sector (the “They” or “These” sector) is dedicated to the collective external - social dimension external forms and behavioral acts of groups, which are studied by various third-person sciences, such as systems theory.

One possible definition is that an organization is a structured system consisting of groups of individuals working together to achieve agreed upon goals. That is, we can say that an organization is a multi-level reality, and only those who see this reality in its entirety can manage it effectively. Learning to manage it means mastering the art, the art of seeing the whole picture where others see scattered parts, and managing it as a living and whole organism.

Looking at any organization using the AQAL model allows you to see 4 external and 4 internal sectors. It's like seeing an organization from the inside and outside at the same time.

All 4 external sectors describe the company and its employees.

The upper left sector in the organization describes the personality of the company’s key employees who influence its entire life - these could be commercial and financial directors, deputy general directors, etc.

This sector explores them:

  • personal goals
  • mentality: a system of attitudes, beliefs, values, principles and ideals
  • experience
  • skills
  • level of motivation and what motivates them
  • level of awareness regarding goals, knowledge, skills and experience

The lower left quadrant describes what can be broadly termed “culture” within the company:

  • a common worldview inherent in all employees of the company (a system of ideas and beliefs about themselves, people and the world)
  • general meanings, that is, the answer to the question - why are we gathered here, besides making money
  • legends and stories that are common within the company
  • the nature of interaction within each other and with the outside world
  • shadow leaders
  • general level culture
  • national and cultural characteristics

The upper right sector in an organization describes a whole range of phenomena that can be designated by the term “behavior”:

  • competencies
  • sustainable behavior patterns
  • energy level
  • performance
  • appearance
  • education

The lower right quadrant in an organization covers what characterizes it as a system:

  • formulated goals of the organization and its plans, strategies, etc.
  • organizational structure (control systems and hierarchy of power)
  • business processes
  • technologies
  • infrastructure
  • assets
  • products

But there is a person in the organization who is the central element in its structure - this is its leader. The main thing about it is that it has a decisive influence on all levels of the organization’s existence. It can be called completely differently: from the president of the company to the director, its essence remains the same - the scale of influence. If he doesn’t exist, there won’t be any company.

In the upper left sector it will be: the leader’s personal goals and his leadership style.

The bottom right quadrant, which is dedicated to “culture,” will look at information about: what roles he plays inside and outside the organization; what relationships and how the manager builds outside the organization.

In the upper right, which describes “behavior,” in addition to what has already been listed, the following will be considered: the state of his personal health and the presence of personal space.

In the lower left, which describes the various systems and what creates them, in the application to the head of the company, it is described what other systems he, as a certain unit, is part of, and what he has on the material plane:

  • personal assets
  • other business
  • house, etc.
  • clan, party,
  • public organizations and other communities.

The result of this approach is a very accurate map of the organization and the factors that influence its existence. And as you know, the more accurate the map, the more accurately you can plot a course through the territory.

Considering all the sectors and the information available within them, you can see how everything is interconnected and influences each other.

Corporate culture is embodied in the organizational structure, which in turn influences the behavior of employees in the company, but it all starts with the goals of the leader, each level of whose existence will influence all levels within the company.

And whatever question the manager faces now - to preserve the company or develop it - it all starts with him. And if he wants any of his undertakings to be successfully implemented, he needs to start working with himself, with developing in himself what is necessary for his company now. And then look at what needs to be done in each sector for the company’s goal to be achieved.

For the map to work and help you see the company and the personality of the manager from new angles, you need to ask two simple questions. And the first one is when does the company begin its existence?

The company begins to exist at the moment when its future leader utters the words “I want to organize my own business.” From now on, all the moves he makes will have a decisive impact on the company - from the employees he will hire to the office in which this company will operate.

And now the second question: how does a leader influence the company? From classical theory management, we know that he has a whole set of management tools in his hands. However, the very personality of the leader and his characteristics are most often overlooked. This is very similar to the situation with classical and quantum physics: as soon as the observer begins to be taken into account in the process of research and experiments, the picture of reality and the laws operating in it changes.

This influence can be traced using Ken Wilber's Integral Model (AQAL for short). In effect, this means tracing influence from 4 perspectives.

The first is the internal content of the leader’s personality: his goals and meanings for the sake of which he achieves them; life experience and principles that from within influence the vision of the future, where he wants to come; in general, his life outlook, etc. That is, everything that is impossible to know and understand without talking to him.

The second perspective is the behavioral perspective: in what specific steps and actions does he translate his vision and goals. Everything that can be described from the outside, from a third person’s point of view.

The third perspective is the perspective of the relationships he builds both on and off the job. If there are relationships, then there are roles that he plays in relation to his subordinates and colleagues, close friends and relatives. And relationships are based on certain rules, norms, and values ​​that make it possible to feel a certain unity and integrity. This is a corporate culture perspective.

The last, fourth, perspective is a view from the point of view of the system of which it is a part and the system-forming elements. In the company, this will be his position and described functional responsibilities, as well as the company’s goals and strategies, business processes and organizational structure, etc.

And all this is interconnected, certain goals lead to certain behavior and manifestations, which can only exist within a certain system. This system can be a company or a group, a community within which communications are carried out on the basis of certain rules, norms, and values.

For example, a manager’s main goal is to create a creative product in the market segment in which they operate. The main value is the creative process and the principle that there will be money - the main thing is that you are busy doing what you love. In practice, this led to the creation of high-tech production and the formation of a culture of professionals at the enterprise. But, on the other hand, the company does not have a clearly structured sales system; orders are found and brought only by the manager himself through a large network of his own individual contacts.

At the same time, the manager is clearly aware that if the sales system is not built now, production will disappear. This is where his personal attitudes regarding money come to the fore. This attitude says: money can only be spent on creating something new and interesting. And since this is valuable for the manager, he will always find money for this. That is, the company always has money for development and maintaining the required level of wages, but the company does not make a profit. And for the situation to change, you need to start changing your attitude towards money, working with which, in turn, will in one way or another lead to the need to get out of the usual model of understanding yourself and the world.

Thus, the circle closes, passing the entire model from personal goals through the organization to the personal attitudes of the leader and to the need for internal work on oneself.

How the leader formulated, or even better to say, what the goal really is for him, what meanings he put into the words that describe the goal, this is what will guide him and the company. And this meaning will influence everything - from the structure of the company to the personal qualities of the employees that the manager will hire for his company.

One of the managers, when creating a company, understood the goal as creating an organization that is the best in its industry. And the criterion for achieving this goal for him will be positive customer reviews and popularity among them. The rest remains outside the scope of the strategy. At the level of behavior, this manifested itself in the fact that the company still does not have a normal business plan, and customer reviews are simply enthusiastic - they are satisfied with the way they are served by this company, the quality of the product, and the level of service. But there are no numbers. And a very good specialist in his field was invited to the position of key manager, who is known among clients and knows how to work with them, but he has a pronounced orientation towards the process, but not towards the result.

Therefore, in order for a successful company to be created, the manager needs to see and understand how and what the content of his inner world finds its embodiment in his organization.

The same principles of the relationship between the various sectors of the integral map, which determine the degree of influence of the leader’s personality on the organization, continue to operate within the organization itself.

There is a very old and well-known expression that the king is played by his retinue. One is impossible without the other and one is connected to the other. Likewise, in a company, a manager without a team of top managers is just a person who has a number of very valuable ideas and wants to implement them, but alone does not have the opportunity to do this. In a way, each member of the top management team is a kind of continuation of the personal qualities of the leader, this will be especially evident at the level of company management and management decision-making.

In order to understand and see this, knowledge of management schemes and models is not enough; this requires a broader view of the reality in which the company is managed. One possible approach is to use an integral model. Briefly, its meaning is that any organization can be viewed from four perspectives or levels - the individual level, the behavioral level, the cultural level and the system level.

The personality level is the internal content of the employee’s personality: the goals and meanings for which he achieves them; life experience and principles; in general, his life outlook, etc. This is all something that is impossible to know and understand without talking to him.

The second level is the perspective of behavior, that is, what specific steps and actions their life and professional experience is embodied in. Everything that can be described from the outside. This is the view of a third person, an outside observer.

The third level is the perspective of the relationships that a person builds both at work and outside of it. If there are relationships, then there are roles that he plays in relation to his subordinates and colleagues, close friends and relatives. And relationships are based on certain rules, norms, and values ​​that make it possible to feel a certain unity and integrity. This is a corporate culture perspective.

The last, fourth, level is a view from the point of view of the system of which it is a part and system-forming elements. In the company, this will be his position and described functional responsibilities, as well as the company’s goals and strategies, business processes and organizational structure, etc.

This scheme does not mean that the system prevails over the individual or culture, it only suggests following the general logic of the systems approach that all parts of the system are interconnected, and preference cannot be given to any one. Because this leads to the loss of a holistic view of reality.

A striking illustration of the fact that it is impossible to separate the holistic reality when considering it is the example of the intertwining of management style and corporate culture in state-owned companies that are becoming private property. As soon as this happens, they immediately reveal a lack of proactive culture due to the rigid centralization of power. In reality, this manifests itself as follows.

At one of the organizational development sessions, a team of top managers (these are directors of regions and individual divisions within regions) formulated ideas on what needs to be done to solve specific problems in the personnel area. The list consisted of three categories - the directors themselves, personnel department employees and top managers of the management company. Most of the ideas were formulated for managers of the management company - 15; for themselves, the top team formulated only 5 specific actions. At the same time, the formulation was accompanied by statements that, first of all, it is necessary to indicate the path of change, and only after that they will do everything on the ground.

The proposal of one of the participants to discuss the need to change attitudes towards local staff in order to solve problems did not meet with support and was ignored by other directors. In fact, it was about appealing to the principles and norms of the company’s corporate culture. And this despite the fact that one of the stated ideas proposed for the managers of the management company at this session was that they should change their attitude towards the directors of regions and divisions.

The principle that exists at the cultural level leads to the formation of a certain management culture - the technology for solving problems must come from above, and if it does not, then I will wait until it comes.

If you take a step to the side, you can see that the organizational structure of state-owned companies requires a certain corporate culture within it. It, in turn, influences and shapes a certain way of thinking and behavior among its employees, from managers to ordinary employees. In this case, an impact on one of the elements will entail either a change or resistance in the entire system.

The main factor when discussing the degree of influence on the processes in the company is the mentality of key employees, as well as their roles that they may unknowingly play within the company, supporting the culture, the vector of which is set by the company owner or CEO. If a company is at the “family” stage in its development, then with a 99% probability the general director will be perceived as a father, and all subordinates will be children for him. And he will lead them as he would his own children.

Example. Medical company selling luxury dental equipment. Employees among themselves call the general director of the company, who is also the owner of the company, “dad.” At the same time, those who use this expression do not understand that it somehow includes certain patterns of behavior in them. For example, the financial director plays the role of “mother” in relation to the employees of the commercial department, using for this all his unrealized potential in life. Each department is a family in miniature, the management of which is built based on what patterns of behavior each department head has in his own family.

The company has clearly defined areas of responsibility for each employee, but since in the family of the manager all decisions are made by him, and he always has the last word, then in departments many decisions are made only in agreement with the head of the commercial department or the financial director.

This is an example of how everything is interconnected - culture, structure and personality in a company.

And if the retinue makes the king, then if the king wants to continue to shine in his environment, he must change himself and change his retinue. This can be both internal and external changes in the retinue, up to the recruitment of new employees for key positions.

During discussions of Ken Wilber's integral concept, there is occasional confusion about what the sectors of the so-called four-quadrant model (AQAL) are. In this short article, I tried to present a description of the model itself and the history of its origin, based on quotes from the works of Ken Wilber.

IN " Brief history everything" (1996) Wilber describes how he came up with the idea for AQAL. He says that various theorists, including ecophilosophers who have a negative attitude towards hierarchies, offer their own hierarchical schemes of different areas of reality. Wilber notes that hierarchical diagrams describe not only the structure of the world, but also development processes and purely logical connections. Despite the significant differences between these spheres of existence (spatial, temporal, logical), Wilber calls all these hierarchies holarchies, using a term borrowed from A. Koestler. “In other words, whether we understand it or not, most of the proposed maps of the world are in fact holarchies for the simple reason that this concept cannot be avoided (because it is impossible to escape the concept of a holon; (a holon is something that is at the same time a whole in itself). yourself, and part of something else)).” Some of Wilber's critics point out that the processes individual development, ontogenesis, are not very successfully described by a holarchic structure that uses the principle of nesting levels. Rather, in the process of development we have a change of stages, which is easy to understand if we imagine, for example, the development of an oak tree from an acorn.

Based on the books he read, Wilber compiled lists of these “world maps” and tried to systematize them. He originally had the idea that all these hierarchy maps represented different versions of a single holarchy. But then he decides to unite them into 4 groups. “And the more I looked at these holarchies, the more I realized that there are, in fact, 4 completely different types holarchies, 4 completely different sequences of holons.” According to Wilber, these 4 types of holarchies describe 4 different types of territories. These 4 types of territories and the corresponding 4 types of holarchies form the 4 sectors of the four-sector AQAL model.

Ken Wilber devotes a significant amount of attention to criticism. But how significant are these criticisms? In one of the conversations recorded for the Integral Spiritual Center, Ken addresses one such criticism, that the "all-sector, all-level" integral approach (AQAL) is a belief system that has its origins in Ken's own long-term Buddhist practice.

This criticism is based on the postmodern concept that statements can never be taken into account separately from their context. The context for the AQAL model's assertion, according to these critiques, is inevitably that Ken is a long-term Western practitioner of Buddhism. The all-quadrant component, for example, is similar to the three jewels of Buddhism (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) - and therefore derived from them - and the states (gross/subtle/causal) are a direct inheritance of the states that Buddhist practice has classified for thousands of years.

Ken recognizes the value of the ideas raised in this argument, but he believes that the argument does not hold water for a number of reasons. The first of these concerns the methodology by which the AQAL theory, for that matter, was formulated. For more than three decades, Ken says, he has painstakingly sought out the deep structures underlying the surface properties of manifestation. Instead of trying to combine, for example, Buddhism and Christianity (not to mention science and religion), he tried to observe as much of the manifesting world as possible, and then answer the question: what would the Cosmos be like to ensure the emergence of all these forms of manifestation? His goal, although ambitious, was fundamentally to decompile the Cosmos.

In the case of this example, there is no doubt that the four sectors resemble the three jewels of Buddhism. However, four sectors appear along the entire perimeter of the Cosmos: for example, in the form of the Big Three (Truth/Beautiful/Good); pronouns “I”, “we”, “it”; holy Christian trinity, etc. Ken's contention is that the deep structure underlying these surface properties or manifestations does represent the inner and outer of the individual and the collective. Likewise, the states of consciousness experienced in the practice of Buddhism share significant similarities (or deep structure) with those experienced in other traditions (as pointed out more than a century ago by William James and Evelyn Underhill). Despite the variety of ways in which they are phenomenologically experienced, their outward manifestations appear to be virtually identical.

On the general issue of responding to criticism, Ken points out that good criticism is an essential element in that his thought has gone through five main stages. This kind of criticism - and the attempt to adapt it into subsequent models - was precisely the driving force through which his thought progressed over three decades. Ken even jokes that he will steal the truth from anyone! As he puts it, he is attached to the truth - and not to what he writes about the truth. While he can't necessarily respond to his critics in real time, substantive criticism is usually dealt with normally, and Ken will give credit to the author of such criticism (if any) in his next book.

AQAL, says Ken, is explicitly a map. Some critics take it for the territory itself and then criticize it as a belief system - an obvious mistake. Some critics have disputed the card itself, although it is difficult to find anything in the world of manifestation that is not included in this card. Ultimately, manifestation occurs, and the AQAL model - with its five irreducible elements - is probably one of the most convenient ways to view it.