Many things we do in life are transparent to us and we take action without thinking about it. For example, our attention is on the contents of a letter we’re typing, not on the act of typing on the keyboard itself. We think about other things on the drive back home, not on the mechanics of driving.
Here’s a great way to understand whether or not a breakdown has occurred: If you hear yourself suddenly say “oh shit,” rest assured that in almost every case, a breakdown is present! Not all breakdowns begin with such a salute, but many do.
Breaks in transparency (breakdowns or breaks for short) occur when an Assessment is made that what’s happening doesn’t match with what is expected (i.e, it changes the normal course of events). For example, when typing isn’t working, it is something you become aware of as it could affect your ability to submit a proposal in time, and you think about how to fix it.
Breakdowns are neither good nor bad, just the break in the flow of things. It is how we observe and navigate them that determines what is possible. Ontological coaching is about navigating breakdowns. The break in transparency is a moment of choice, to consciously choose how to proceed towards the desired result.
- The universe doesn’t have breakdowns, people do. Different observers have different breakdowns. A huge breakdown by one person may pass unnoticed by another due to each having different distinctions.
- Breakdowns just are - they are not good or bad.
- They are assessed as positive if they provide more possibilities for action (e.g, a promotion) or negative if it closes possibilities (e.g, loss of a job).
- Some life events are breaks that live in our communities and cultures and we don’t have to declare them (e.g death, divorce). We experience them in the way defined by the culture. Not all cultures define these events as breaks, or give them the same positive or negative value.
- Breakdowns may happen to us in the form of external events beyond our control, or we can declare breakdowns into being.
- When we say something is very difficult or terrible, we are saying that given the observer we are, the situation is difficult to handle or terrible to accept. Every declaration of a break in transparency observes the observer we are.
- We can declare the status quo to be a breakdown. In organizations, this depends on the type of breakdown and our authority. We can declare any aspect of our personal lives a breakdown, which is often the first step for change or learning. Without declaring desatisfaction with the current state of events, there is no chance of initiating a process of growth and development.
- Declaring a breakdown sets a new context for action.
- Breakdowns are inevitable, the point is not to avoid them. it is to gain competency and ability to deal effectively with the breakdowns which occur, as well as to gain practice in declaring breakdowns proactively as a way of moving ourselves toward the results we say we want.
Breakdowns And Coaching
Coaching occurs only when there is a breakdown that the coachee declares. In ontological coaching, the breakdown is always in the observer, not the thing. E.g, the breakdown is not “boss is a jerk”, its how the coachee / observer is looking at the situation.
The coach offers a conversation that allows the coachee to enlarge the observer that they are to take responsibility for the break they have declared. This is done by creating a context in which it becomes possible for the coachee to declare a breakdown. Some examples are contexts of lightness or intimacy. At all times the coachee should feel he/she is in a relationship of trust and respect with the coach.
- The amount of discomfort caused by the break in transparency declared by the coachee correlates with the strength the coachee has to start the transformation process.
- The nature of the break reveals the limits of the kind of observer the coachee is and what prevents them from taking action about the break.
- Understanding the cultural context and discourses of the coachee provides the context to listen for the breakdown, and assess its importance.
Mastery In Living
Our ability to deal with breaks is the mastery of living.
- Competency is the ability to work in transparency for a scope of action.
- On the other hand, mastery is the ability to deal with recurrent breaks in the same scope of action.