ABSTRACT
No matter where one lands in the debate over whether coaching is a profession or not, there is an active market in which buyers (individuals and organizations) contract with coaches (internal and external) for coaching sessions. This market became exponentially active circa 2000 in a confluence of high take up and the familiar gripe “anyone can call themselves a coach”. The market is at another growth point with an influx of technologies that both complement and displace the involvement of the human coach.
To cover emerging technologies is to time travel - to look back to explain what has led to today’s market (even though today’s market will be history by the time of publication) and to look forward to different scenarios of how today’s market may evolve. This chapter starts with the lead up to today’s market by covering the intersections of changes in buyers’ needs from coaching and drivers of activity from technology providers. At these intersections, there is a messy set of terms used interchangeably to refer to different types of coaching and technology experiences. To declutter this group, the chapter outlines the range of ways technology shows up in coaching. Whatever the term for the technology, there are many options for a new non-human “other” working alongside the client-coach alliance.
The chapter explores these new interactions, raising questions about how our responses to different types of digital helpers influence their design, adoption and potential efficacy. In recognition of our shared stake in these developments, the chapter also makes the case for partnerships among organizations that sponsor coaching, human coaches and providers of tech-enabled coaching on pilots of new tools. In advocating these partnerships, the chapter eschews a frame of “either/or” (either human or digital). Instead, the chapter encourages readers to explore hybrid approaches that support clients on the challenges they face as technology continues to shape their work, workplaces and work relationships.
