Coaching with Humour / Provocative Coaching

This was the basis of an article written by Marcella Bremer who attended one of my programmes.

Do you know how to make things better by making them worse? It is analogous to the way to make a donkey move forward is to pull his tail. The approach of “Provocative Coaching” was developed by Frank Farrelly when he realized that friends often uplift and nudge you - while coaches, therapists and consultants seem to take a solemn, serious approach to
issues or problems - but they’re not necessarily effective in helping people (and organisations) solve them.

Farrelly recognized that laughter and humor are key ingredients in the success stories of many leaders, parents and partners. His work taught many in the helping professions to identify the right time to switch style and to work in a way that appears to fly in the face of everything they have learned.

“Coaching with humor is all about bringing change in thinking, perspective and state by stimulating the person to react and defend what is positive about their position rather than focusing on what is negative. The aim is to provoke a healing, resourceful response.”

I experience how I’ve become accustomed to my own ways of working with people: taking things seriously, making sure to create enough safety for them to speak up, taking care not
to hurt them - nudging them towards insights and new behaviors... I hear the same from others - while we practice provocative coaching, we experience our own assumptions, prejudice and reserve at going beyond what is “normal”. “You can’t laugh with your client, can you?!” Well, you can - if you do it with love, skill, good timing and the purpose to help them see their issue more clearly.

This is an ideal follow on from my Coaching Programme though it can be attended independently. Even though Frank died some years ago my learning about this amazing gift of Coaching this way just grows and grows. So even if you have joined me before on one of these programmes - join again!! I have moved on and so will you ...

Contact me if you want to know more on [email protected]