Coaching Conversations Using Socratic Method

Coaching conversations using socratic method
Socratic questioning, a cornerstone of CBT, is as equally useful in coaching to raise awareness, promote
reflection and improve problem-solving thinking. Padesky’s (Socratic questioning: Changing minds or guiding
discovery? 1993) bifurcation of Socratic questioning, changing minds versus guiding discovery, is commented
upon. The characteristics of good Socratic questions are enumerated, the pitfalls of experienced coaches’ over-
reliance on intuition to guide their questioning is discussed and how continuing deliberate practice through, for
example, providing the logical basis for sequencing questions can correct this ‘intuition bias’. Socratic
questioning is demonstrated in a number of coach–coachee dialogues with accompanying commentary. Finally,
it is emphasized that asking good Socratic questions is indispensable to the practice of effective coaching.
Socratic questioning (or Socratic maieutics) was named after Socrates, who is thought to have lived c. 470
BCE–c. 399 BCE. Socrates utilized an educational method that focused on discovering answers by asking
questions from his students. According to Plato, Socrates believed that "the disciplined practice of thoughtful
questioning enables the scholar/student to examine ideas and be able to determine the validity of those ideas".
Plato, a student of Socrates, described this rigorous method of teaching to explain that the teacher assumes an
ignorant mindset in order to compel the student to assume the highest level of knowledge. Thus, a student has
the ability to acknowledge contradictions, recreate inaccurate or unfinished ideas and critically determine
necessary thought. Socratic questioning is a form of disciplined questioning that can be used to
pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: to explore complex ideas, to get to
the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish
what we know from what we do not know, to follow out logical consequences of thought or to control
discussions. Socratic questioning is based on the foundation that thinking has structured logic, and allows
underlying thoughts to be questioned. The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is
that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, deep and usually focuses on fundamental concepts,
principles, theories, issues or problems.
Socratic Coaching is used either as an independent approach or in the form of partial interventions in the context
of established coaching techniques. It complements the more psychologically-shaped techniques and adds a
practical-philosophical foundation to them. This kind of coaching and consulting is being established primarily
in ‘learning’ organisations and enterprises to develop long term and long-running orientation of action. Socratic
Coaching can connect to modern management and organisation strategies in which management and leadership
or empowerment (fixing long-term aims, motivating performance, forming values, promoting responsibility) act
in combination. The result is the capacity to act flexibly, reliably and far-sightedly in the modern market of
constant change. The trend is a leadership that acts with the daily challenges from a principle-orientated basis.
Fundamental to Socratic Coaching is the willingness of the coaching partners (the coach and the coachee) to
bring in resources to reflect their basic practical assumptions and attitudes. The space of the dialogue can,
literally, correct and strengthen the basic orientation of our actions. The classical origin of the essential elements
of coaching is located in Greek antiquity, primarily in the dialogue practice of Socrates in the Athens of 5th
century BC. In Socratic dialogue the basic idea of Coaching – as supporting and co-reflecting with a protagonist
involved in a concrete issue – was founded. From all we know about Socrates (primarily from the writings of
Plato and Xenophon) he achieved his effect neither as an ‘adviser’ nor as a ‘therapist’ (healing spiritual
illnesses). He came out firmly against his adviser colleagues – the Sophists – who claimed to be able to equip
their clients with technical knowledge for the attainment of any aim they chose. He dissociated himself
from them by his restraint in relying on (fake) knowledge. A characteristic of the Socratic dialogue is the
demand for and acceptance of self-responsibility on the part of the dialogue partners. The Socratic dialogue
expects self-determined persons with a basic readiness for change – not unlike coaching. If this is not the case,
the Socratic dialogue, which increases the capacity of the dialogue partners to develop rational beliefs, will be
ineffectual. Sometimes people engaged in dialogue with Socrates because they wanted to be clear about their
motives and reasons. In Plato’s dialogue ‘Laches’ the two fathers Lysimachos and Melesias turn to Socrates for
advice on how to educate their sons. And it is not the army commanders Nikias and Laches that can convince
them, although they are regarded as experts in the teaching of courage. Socrates proves to be the true expert, not
because he knows more, but because he can lead the soul to practical cognition.9 His specific art is the form of
dialectical dialogue (dialegesthai).
The Old and the New Socratic
The application of this art described in the Platonic dialogues stands for what we refer to here as the ‘Old
Socratic’. Socrates practised his art in the Agora, the market of Athens, where economic and political life took
place. There he interrupted people, either ordinary citizens or respected statesmen and traders, to examine the
reasons why they pursued their aims. On the one hand it was easy to speak with Socrates because he spoke
Coaching conversations using socratic method
intelligibly and clearly. He didn’t give any long talks. On the other hand, it was exhausting because his form of
dialectical dialogue used demanding argumentation patterns. As a rule, Socrates proceeded according to the
‘elenctic hypothesis’ method (checking for contradictions). He proved to be a master of questioning. He didn’t
ask his interlocutors to explain their techniques for attaining their aims: How do you proceed to reach this or
that? Socrates asked for the general convictions, the ‘hypotheses’, which stood behind the concrete decisions
and aims and which they considered as the base for their future life and behaviour: ‘What does your art consist
of?, What are your criteria in considering an aim as good?, Which values determine your life?’ and so on.
After his dialogue partners had articulated their convictions, he compared them with their other basic
convictions. If there was harmony between the disclosed convictions and between the consequences, which
most likely would happen, they were proven to be fit. They then could be regarded as a safe base for acting for
the time being. In the case of a contradiction it was necessary to further explore the convictions.10 The
characteristic confusion that was caused by Socrates’ art of refutation
References
Ennis, Robert (2011). Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking, 3rd Edition.
https://scinapse.io/papers/2005068702
Jacques Brunschwig, Geoffrey Ernest Richard Lloyd (eds), A Guide to Greek Thought: Major Figures and
Trends, Harvard University Press, 2003, p. 233.
"Socrates Biography". The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
"What is Socratic Questioning". Starting Point - Teaching Entry Level Geoscience. Carleton College.
Retrieved March 31, 2018.

Coaching Conversations Using Socratic Method

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Coaching Conversations Using Socratic Method

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Coaching Conversations Using Socratic Method

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Coaching conversations using socratic method

The Old and the New Socratic

Trends, Harvard University Press, 2003, p. 233.

"Socrates Biography". The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved March 31, 2018.

You might also like