ICW 2019 - "take aways"

Miroslav Czadek
1 hour ago
10 min read

As part of my ICF membership, I took advantage of the opportunity to be an active participant in the annual event called International Coaching Week (ICW). I summarized my observations - what this event enriched me with and what it took from me - in the following text.

What is ICW?

International Coaching Week is a week focused on promoting professional coaching. The aim of this week is to introduce professional coaching to the general public and show what a significant shift it can bring into the life of each of us. Every year it is announced by the International Coaching Federation (ICF); in the Czech Republic it is organized by ICF Czech Republic.

In the Czech Republic, ICW 2019 took place in the week from May 13 to May 19, 2019.

During this week, professional coaches from all over the world offer their activities without claiming any fee, promote the philosophy and benefits of coaching according to ICF standards, and familiarize the public with the differences between professional coaching and what is often presented as coaching.

Throughout this week, everyone has the opportunity to experience the effect of coaching firsthand. Members of the public interested in this experience can choose one of the events in our calendar. Public benefit organizations, companies, and other institutions from across the Czech Republic have the opportunity to organize a sample coaching event for their clients or employees on their premises.

What I chose

I decided to:

actively participate in the preparatory team within ICF,
be an active coach for some clients.

In order not to be in a conflict of interest (this is probably hard for someone to understand, but I wanted to keep distance), I did not personally coach the ICW event partners whom I managed to approach, but instead offered them to other coaches.

The outline plan of the ICW event is as follows:

Facts and figures that are not visible:

As a co-organizer of ICW2019, I secured 3 partners:

EPAM Systems: 1×4, 1 WS
CMZRB: 2×4, 1 WS
Itelligence: 1×4, 1 WS

With the partners, it was possible to engage 4 coaches, 3 (WS) workshops on coaching were delivered, and more than 15 participants were introduced to coaching during sessions in the coaching zones..

In total, I invested 106 hours of my life in the ICW 2019 activity. Note: I do not take into account the costs of lost opportunity (the time when, instead of being with a paying customer, I was with a client… pro bono).

What did it bring me, what did I discover?

1. In the ICW coordination team, I got to know new female and male colleagues with whom I worked closely. I saw how they work, how they create, how they contribute, how they communicate, and how they interact with the team. At the beginning of the meetings, we used the free version of Zoom, which forced us to end the meetings after about 40 minutes; subsequently, after an urgency request to the community committee, we obtained the full version without limitations. We left politics at the door, and the coordination meetings had drive and momentum. For our work, we used Facebook tools, Zoom, and KanbanFlow. To a large extent, we managed to get closer to agile team management, but as elsewhere, even here we did not convince some people to fully use agile approaches. Personally, it was instructive and inspiring for me.

2. The support of the ICW members’ group was interesting both in terms of content and communication. The communication was instructive in several areas. We used the support of video conferences and webinars, Facebook. Personally, I am not a fan of Facebook, but we did not find anything better. The response of the group members was very positive, and I believe that in the future this is the way to increase member engagement in general.

3. When approaching partners, I found out several things:

a. Large consulting companies are interested in a similar ICW activity; however, it is necessary to involve them as early as possible. Two/three months before the event is too little; they already have their activities planned.

b. For some potential partners it was more of a commercial matter. Interestingly, they wanted to be partners only if they were given a coach of their own choosing, which was against the spirit of this event.

c. Many companies that I contacted and that publicly present themselves as progressive, supportive, etc., did not respond, or retreated into their shell. In most cases I contacted representatives of HR or education. Do you want to cooperate with a company, or work for a company, where a manager is not willing to respond to a serious offer? I certainly do not; personally, I cleaned up my contact list …

d. I found that many coaches had connections to the companies I contacted (verified via LinkedIn), but they did not help in any way with the ICW organization; they were not interested.

e. When approaching partners, I improved the way of contacting them (CRM, tracking the status of responses to inquiries). To improve the commercial aspects, I used coaching from colleagues (coaching and triads from the Erickson training were put to use). I also prepared contact templates according to partner type and tried to automate whatever was possible.

f. For the first time, I experienced a service provider disconnecting the website (ICW2019) due to malware infection, including email mailboxes. The disconnection took place at a time when I was communicating with a partner about possible cooperation. I do not know whether this complicated acquiring the partner.

4. When looking for coaches for partners or for active involvement in ICW:

a. I would expect that if a real partner already exists, finding coaches and connecting them would be a simple matter. A big mistake. Sometimes it even looked comical, and people applied who had nothing to do with ICF at all.

b. Finding a coach who has ICF certification and is an ICF member is becoming a hard nut to crack. There are many coaches who play a kind of game: I am certified, but I am not an ICF member… and if possible, I would like to (ab)use the opportunities of ICF like those others who pay the membership (which is currently 245+70 USD). What is strange about that? When you are certified according to ICF, you commit to adhering to ethical standards, don’t you? And in my opinion, such behavior is not very ethical. The very fact that participation in this event was allowed twice in a row without ICF membership brings confusion and ambiguity among members, and above all, for those who pay the membership, it is demotivating. I hope something will be done about this next time.

c. What surprised me probably the most was that some coaches literally cheat. They state on their websites (whether web, LinkedIn, or Facebook) either certification or membership or both, and yet they knowingly lie. They do not exist in the ICF database; it can be easily verified. And if you are asking whether such people tried to join ICW… yes, I noticed that as well.

5. Webinars, Competition, Workshop / Seminar, Coaching

a. When preparing the webinar, I used my own ZOOM license. To make the webinar interactive, we used the option of polls and questions in the chat, which we responded to. I found out that the poll did not work correctly every time. In the last webinar, I did not even see how the participants voted. If I had not given co-host rights, I would have thought that nobody voted. Lesson learned: It is necessary to always verify well in advance that everything is set up in ZOOM as it should be and to fix problems as needed. I found out that poll questions belong only to a given webinar (even if they are copies).

b. The competition to support ICW was prepared and presented on social networks and the website. Interestingly, even though page traffic was visible, no one participated in the competition to win the prizes. So far, it is not clear to me where the mistake happened and what should be done differently. It remains a mystery.

c. The preparation of the workshop for the client was demanding in the sense that we decided to give the client a real experience rather than a formal presentation about what coaching is. From our point of view, the workshop was excellent and fulfilled its purpose. After a discussion with the client, we found out that the partner was surprised and that some people did not feel comfortable because they were not in their comfort zone. Yes, that is what coaching is about—to experience a situation and learn from it so that I can apply it in life. I must say that I learned a lesson; next time I will prepare and communicate such an event better, even if it will not involve my partner.

d. Coaching – although we had clients reserved, it happened that either they did not show up, or someone from the general public arrived at the last moment. It was also amusing that some coaches from other schools came to be coached in order to find out how they should do it and what they should focus on. So we need to do something about the organization and the identification of clients. It is really sad when coaches invest their time, preparation, do something pro bono to show what they can do, and the client does not arrive. I have the feeling that some people think that what costs nothing is worth nothing. In this we must improve next time; I myself have experienced this situation and I do not intend to repeat it often.

e. Visit to a lecture by my colleague. An excellent topic, a very high-quality presenter; one could even say that the venue was ideal. A university where future teachers are being educated. It is sad that the interest from students was so low.

6. Feedback / Questionnaires

a. Electronic feedback worked very effectively and I would say without problems. If a few individuals appeared who did not know how to fill in the questionnaire, they were given a link to the website or the procedure was explained.

b. Within the feedback, we monitored both the coached individuals and the partners. The method was similar.

What would I do differently and change, and what would I keep?

What I would do differently next time:

a. I would clarify the ICW date in advance / ideally, I would recommend that by the end of one ICW year, the date for the next year is already known. This date can be anchored with partners much more easily.

b. I would start preparing the event much earlier than February, primarily for the purpose of securing major partners.

c. Within the assignment of coaches for ICW, I would make adjustments to the workflow:

i. Part of the coach assignment would include the following information (confirmation of ICF membership – validity until when, and certification level – validity until when).

ii. I would add as mandatory information why I want to participate in the event and how I am looking forward to it). The stated information is part of marketing, so that marketing can start as early as possible.

d. If I stayed on the FB platform, then I recommend creating a group only for coaches who are on the ICW website for the given year. No exceptions. Only these coaches should be served. The confusion about who belongs there and why, and then removing them from the group, is not pleasant for me.

e. I would start looking for partnerships already in the autumn so that a budget and a plan can be created with partners.

f. The communication plan should be essential, with visible feedback. At times it looked like two worlds: the plan and the reality were completely different.

g. Everyone should use only Kanbanflow, or another system, so that no ambiguities arise.

h. At the beginning of forming the coordination group, I recommend organizing joint training or a workshop for the group members. My advantage was that I already knew most of the people, but for new people it was labor-intensive. Therefore, the kick-off should be face to face. A webinar for the ICW project, where information is handed over, the team is trained, and roles are divided, seems to me slower for getting started. It is also possible to do it virtually, but it is more complicated.

i. I would address the website somehow. Disconnecting the website and email due to viruses is a rarity that I have never experienced.

j. I would prepare, as part of a package for all coaches, also a standard ICW presentation that they should use for workshops, etc. I had the feeling that some coaches are afraid of such a seminar because it is labor-intensive to prepare and arrange, etc.

k. The ICW organizational team should have and use only an ICF email (externally, toward the outside world as the organizer). In the case that someone is simultaneously a coach/organizer – at the level of the organization and the coach, it should be via personal contact.

l. I would invest in advertising on social media. Facebook/LinkedIn limit the dissemination of information across the network; a small fee shortly before the event would probably increase and make the attendance more visible.

m. I would make maximum use of the information from the feedback. The feedback provided valuable information (for many coaches it was a disappointment that they were seeing feedback for the first time). Unfortunately, working with this information did not appear in the final report, in any potential marketing, etc. Hopefully it will be useful next time, and hopefully extracting insights will become a new capability of the ICW team; otherwise, there is no point in collecting feedback at all.

What I would do the same and would not change:

a. The division of roles in the team is OK

b. Weekly calls are ideal

c. I would keep using Zoom

d. If Facebook remains the platform, then I would be more structured. After some time, one gets lost in it

Personal findings?

I found that I am able to work in a diverse environment. I verified that I can contact new potential partners across sectors (and that I cannot expect someone to help me with that). It is possible to apply agile principles non-violently to a team that has not been touched by agility.
I was easily carried away by the energy of a certain kind of benevolence and was surprised to find my rational thinking disappearing around the corner. I learned one thing: let us not confuse altruism with stupidity - yes, some perceived it that way, both on the partners’ side and on the side of fellow coaches, fortunately not those with whom I was in close contact.
Some colleagues pleasantly surprised me and, through what they can do, enriched my life, and I am grateful for that. On the other hand, some disappointed me and also frightened me - non-/certified coaches, non-/members of the ICF, that is beyond the line for me, etc. Fortunately, it is only a small fraction.