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Greetings!
In the last month, we've heard a lot about how facilitation skills serve those working as coaches and project managers... and their clients. We've have had fruitful contact with several professional bodies - some representing coaches and one representing project managers. We've also been talking to some of our members who work as coaches and project managers - watch this space for forthcoming articles.
Our Affiliate Members now receive discounts on digital and magazine subscriptions to Coaching At Work - see below for details.
This is a short newsletter as we head off for our holidays, although there will always be someone in the office ready to answer your call or email. Our next newsletter will be in September.
Enjoy the summer!
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1. "Everything I didn't learn on my MBA"
Leadership and learning have always been strong themes for facilitators. (Participants on our longer Certificate and Diploma courses have wryly subtitled them " everything I didn't learn on my MBA" )
An address entitled ' Leadership and Ego States - Prodigy or Pathology' written by Dr David Best for the World Conference of TA back in 2008 makes for compelling reading. He questions what healthy leadership looks like, carefully developing ideas from his experience at the heart of global business. He includes Gestalt/TA influenced vignettes analysing three particular leader situations "The Toddler in the Toyshop", "The Bully in the Playground" and "The Sage".
In David's depiction, adult-functioning is under-represented in the educational and organisational environments of of our leaders. It seems that educational establishments providing MBAs are coming to the same conclusions. 
In an article in the FT last week ( Not all MBA Students Can Be Leaders), Judith B ouvard, the Dean and Director of Grenoble Graduate School of Business says, "Business schools need to change their teaching and their message to reflect the present landscape of global business needs... Yes, business needs leaders, but business also needs team players and managers with strong personal skills and sound technical knowledge, and that goes beyond the traditional business disciplines found on MBA programmes. Many MBA students are still being taught rather than learning... We need to develop co-operative and collegial skills in our MBA participants and bring out the best in each to suit their capabilities, their preferred role and moreover the role they are most comfortable with."
Another FT article earlier this year ( Personal Development: Know Thyself), says "Schools increasingly agree that trends in today's business world mean that personal development, whether psychoanalysis or mentoring is a vital part of the programme." The article goes on to list MBA programme providers which offer personal development opportunities as a key part of the curriculum, and relates this to the corporate trend of offering softer benefits during times of recession.
We fully support a responsible approach to personal development, where this is a long-term commitment to growth, supported and sustained by the establishments in which we live and learn.
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2. Coaching At Work
We are very pleased to announce that all new and existing Affiliate Members will receive a significant discount on the cost of digital and print versions of Coaching At Work. Click here to see details of the Benefits of Affiliate Membership.
Coaching At Work is the key publication for those working as coaching and is supported by the CIPD as well as the main coaching and mentoring professional bodies - Association for Coaching, Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Coaching Division, British Psychological Society's Special Group in Coaching Psychology, European Mentoring and Coaching Council, International Coach Federation and the International Society for Coaching Psychology.
An article prepared by us on the synergy between Group Facilitation and Coaching is currently undergoing editorial review and we hope to be able to send you a link soon.
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3. Group Dynamics
Our current Foundations group have completed the second module (Group Dynamics) of the Foundations in Facilitation Skills and are now preparing for Accreditation in September.
The course has been held in the Mansion House Building at Wokefield Park near Reading.
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