ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the framework to understand what makes interactions between people useful or less useful. The three main categories of transactions are complementary, crossed and ulterior. The chapter discusses the implications of using this understanding to create a clear contract with various stakeholders in a multiparty coaching contract. Berne described the series of interactions between people as transactions. He deliberately chose the term ‘transaction’, rather than interaction, as he believed that in a series of transactions, one person invests something of themselves in the communication and expects something in exchange. Transactions form the bridge between the inside reality of a person and the outside world of connection and relationship.
