Review

EASC Conference held on 14 and 15 September in Eichstätt

According to the feedback given by the about 150 international participants as well as the voices of the partners, this year’s EASC Conference was a resounding success. The Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt provided a good location for the encounters, dialogues and high-level input, the cooperation with the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and the Cardinal Wyszyński University of Warsaw facilitated particularly proficient keynote speeches, a wide range of professional expertise was presented in 14 workshops and poster sessions and the many discussions brought new ideas regarding cooperation of science and practice in supervision and coaching.

The congress was also covered by the media: you can find the article published (in German) in the newspaper “Donaukurier” at the following link from our Facebook page.

The discussion on the meaning of VUCA for supervision and coaching was very multifaceted:

In his analysis from the perspective of organisational sociology, Prof. Stefan Kühl questioned the singular character of VUCA and elaborated on recurring waves of dismantling and development of hierarchies and bureaucracy in organisations. The cultures of democratic societies and owner-managed companies are difficult to reconcile.

Dr. Christoph Schmidt-Lellek explained life coaching as a relevant support to resilience and self-steering against the background of VUCA with its increasing burdens and decrease in certainty and meaning provided by organisations.

Prof. Carsten Schermuly presented research and meta-analyses on impacts and side-effects, focussing on the impacts on coachees as well as coaches. The amount of available research is still small and obtaining funds is difficult (the lack of an unambiguous definition of the term of “coaching” alone is an obstacle to applications for third-party funds).

On the basis of the growing need to be flexible and agile and other characteristics of VUCA, Prof. Eric Lippmann described the requirements for coaching and supervision in organisations. Using the Gestalt model of the five pillars, he showed the influence of VUCA on the identity of the individual and the paradoxical situation of the necessity to adapt while also making one’s mark.

The workshops, yet again, offered extremely interesting insights into the practical work and the reflections of colleagues. As always, the time for exchange in the plenary sessions and during the breaks was too short and many would have welcomed longer dialogues.

And also this time, the encounters among members and participants were the real treasure of the conference: it was a great pleasure to meet colleagues again and also to meet many new colleagues. “Let’s please do this more often”, “Can we have more of this, please” were the comments that were most frequently heard during the feedback round at the end.

Result

The continued excellent cooperation with the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and the new cooperation with the Cardinal Wyszyński University of Warsaw are an important outcome of the conference. In November, Susanne Rieger and Volker Tepp will attend a congress in Warsaw and explore further possibilities to work together. We would be very glad to see EASC represented in Poland.

Another sustainable outcome is the edition of a compendium on VUCA, coaching and supervision, which will contain some scientific articles and experience reports from practice.

We thank all organisers, supporters and the many assistants who made this conference possible!

Institutes’ Meeting of September 2018 held in Eichstätt

Daniel Frei writes us:

Also this year, the heads of Institutes convened for their annual meeting on the occasion of the EASC Conference.

One of the topics they discussed was Europe as a shared identity. This inspiring discussion on identity clearly showed that we want to make joint appearances in public as Institutes, too; which gave rise to ideas such as a shared training course in coaching distributed among different institutes in Europe. Some concrete suggestions were discussed in this context and a small working group will elaborate them further.

Among others, the wish to show ourselves together in public more often – also as Institutes – led to the creation of a Facebook page and an Instagram profile for EASC already during the conference, which has been used quite actively since. We look forward to your “like”. (Links: see above)

In addition, some smaller adaptations regarding the rating scales etc. shall make the examination procedures even clearer.

A track group will develop a proposal regarding minimum training contents for all professions during the next few months. We will give you more information on this in due course.

Master Coach

Volker Tepp writes us:

A meeting of some EASC Trainers will take place on 19 November in Berlin.

Although the EASC Manual has contained a description of the formal framework conditions for the qualification to become a Master Coach for several years, an exchange on the contents of the further training is still missing. Five Trainers will have an exchange on their experience and curricula in November, in order to draft a framework for the contents of the Master Coach training. This work is meant to serve as a basis for the elaboration of a proposal that can then be used by other EASC Institutes for their own Master Coach training courses.

Workshops for graduates of the BCCM degree programme of Euro-FH

Volker Tepp writes us:

For the second time in 2018, a special workshop on mentoring supervision was held in September, specifically designed for graduates of the course of study “BCCM” of the University of Applied Sciences EURO-FH. “BCCM” stands for Business Coaching and Change Management and is an MA course.

8 participants attended the two-day workshop in Berlin, witnessing 15 units of mentoring supervision. Graduates of EURO-FH who have attended this workshop have the possibility to obtain the certificate “Coach EASC”.

Another workshop took place on 12 and 13 October in Hamburg, with 12 participants.

More workshops are planned for 2019.

We, EASC, are glad about the cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences EURO-FH and about the fact that it gives the well-qualified graduates the possibility to become members of EASC.