Playing and Coaching a Winning Game
Last week I was fortunately able to dial in for a teleconference hosted by Coachville President, Dave Buck, about playing and coaching a “winnable game”, as part of a Power of Winning series.
I say “fortunately”, because up till then I had been frankly a bit underwhelmed by the Power of Winning concept, or rather by the rhetoric of Coachville’s promotion of the concept.
With the benefit of hindsight, I believe my lack of positive response was more to do with my prejudices about coaching than with any inherent deficiency in the concept and structure of the program. A bit of unreconstructed 70s hippydom effect?
Well, to be honest, I suspect my ideas of coaching had drifted somewhat into the “Woo Woo” view of coaching, as expressed on the Coachville explanation of its Coach-Two-Win program:
No more Woo Woo
If you have heard about life coaching before it may have struck you as a bit soft or woo woo. I can understand that because, well, it WAS!
Not that I’m completely clear about what Dave Buck and Coachville are offering as an alternative to what is being portrayed as a (discredited or less relevant) “feely touchy” type of coaching. I’m still trying to figure out the practical articulation of “Coach-Two-Win”, “Power of Winning” and “Playing a Winnable Game”, although as I say the teleconference helped.
For anyone who was not on the call, there are clues in Coachville’s information on the web about the “Coach-Two-Win” program.
Coach-Two-Win, it is argued (and, by extension or association, the Power of Winning approach), is quite different, a methodical and rigorous approach to coaching, firmly grounded in the real world.
The key principles of the program are:
- Any endeavor in life can be designed as a winnable game worth playing
- The purpose of coaching is to guide an individual or team to play a game better and win on their own terms
- Masterful coaching is only possible when the coach knows the game that the player is playing.
There are nine steps in the program:
- Define a winnable game with purpose (this is the big picture)
- Design the next game with activities and scorecard (typical time frame a week or two)
- Play the game with your heart and soul (and play to win!)
- Manage the game for results
- Evaluate progress and make adjustments
- Personalized teaching the skills of the game
- Craft a winning game plan / strategy
- Expand inner awareness
- Design winning environments for sustainable results
Crucially, it is all about life and business as a game to be played, not about struggle.
It’s not about “win at all costs”.
As to next steps, what my notes from the teleconference last week tell me is:
- the new program commences Sept 24
- there will be weekly teleconference sessions
- there will be teams
- this first round of the program will be run by Dave Buck
- there will be an assistant coach (or assistant coaches)
- there will be projects, requiring a commitment of 2-3 hours a week
- cost before Sept 7 or 8 is an extended early bird $495, after that $595
- details being provided now are for US Fall program
- it is expected there will be a (northern hemisphere) Spring program in 2008
- in 2008 there will be a licensing package for those who want to deliver the program themselves, costing $1,295
- to be licensed, a coach will need to participate in a four and a half day retreat at a site to be determined (in the USA)
- it is expected that there will be, later, a corporate program.
After being on the call with Dave Buck last week and listening to what is being offered, I believe the program is potentially very exciting and in terms of the dollar commitment an amazing bargain (and I wish they had their affiliate program up and running!).
I’m keen enough to sign up myself but my travel commitments (China October, USA November) preclude, practically speaking, my participating in the first round of this program. I’m hoping I can line up for the northern Spring round, next year.
But right now I’m feeling a bit frustrated that I can’t find just where on the Coachville website someone can sign up for this program. I’ll be emailing Coachville as soon as I’ve posted this and will add in here the details of any response I receive.
In the meantime, it’s worth listening to Dave Buck and others in a lively conversation on the Power of Winning audio on the Coachville site.
Des Walsh
Business coach and digital entrepreneur. With coach training from Coachville.com and its Graduate School of Coaching, and a founding member of the International Association of Coaching, Des has been coaching business owners and entrepreneurs for the past 20 years. Over the same period he has also been actively engaged in promoting the business opportunities of the digital economy. He is a certified Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) coach, and a certified specialist in social media strategy and affiliate marketing.
