COACHING PSYCHOLOGY INTEREST GROUP

CPIG 2020 and beyond

CPIG in 2020 – looking to the future

More than twenty years on, Coaching Psychology is well established as a discipline and continues to focus on the facilitation of the theoretical, applied and professional development of Coaching Psychology and its application across a wide sphere of human endeavour.

The impact of Coaching Psychology is now evident across an array of industries and endeavours; from its traditional application in the area of leadership development and work, in the corporate, private and public sectors, to its growing utilization in promoting positive change in mental and physical health and wellness, to significantly influencing performance enhancement in sport and the arts, or individual development.

Coaching Psychology has evolved and has been embraced by psychologist and coaches with expertise from diverse backgrounds.

Coaching Psychology can be understood as the systematic application of behavioural science to the enhancement of life experiences, work performance, the wellbeing and potential of individuals, groups, and organisations.

CPIG is very aware of the rapidly changing environment we all live in and seeks to influence the disruption, uncertainty and ambiguity experienced by individuals, communities and organizations constructively and ethically. Coaching Psychology has been at the forefront of exploring many of the issues we currently faced, such as working remotely, working in non co located teams and embracing technology. See the item below outlining CPIG’s contribution to the QUT/CPIG Conference Nov 2019.

  2018-2019

In 2018 CPIG noted that as Coaching was now well established, there were more Congresses, Conferences, Webinars, Blogs etc, providing quality PD and resources .

Following a meeting with the Executive Director of the Graduate School of Business, at a Leadership Coaching Conference at Harvard, CPIG and QUT saw an opportunity to collaborate on a very unique event. A Congress that would bring together, psychologists, coaches, academics, business leaders and purchasers of coaching, was subsequently planned.

APS/CPIG’s contribution focused on the Future of Work, and how emerging challenges might be addressed by coaching psychologists and what professional development will be essential for coaching psychologists. We explored the following three themes.

A key theme in deciphering the future of work, is the talent – technology relationship.

How are the roles of technology and talent optimized; how do leaders make decision about what technology they invest in and train employees to utilize, where will data be stored and optimised, and who do leaders recruit, what skills should they prioritize, what is the balance been full time employees and the gig economy.

A second theme is that of employee wellbeing; what is the impact when soft skills are prioritized above hard skills, when employee roles are replaced by automation and algorithms, when ‘expert project teams’ are often not even co-located but work globally, ,where availability is expected and privacy is not.

A third theme highlighted in the McKinsey Global Institute’s report, May 2017, is the rise of digitally enabled independent work.  While some individuals supplement their employment with independent work, others are forced to work independently, and some third world populations and exponentially liberated by this option.  MGI, note that

“Independent work overall, is growing rapidly, driven by the scale, efficiency, and ease of use for workers and customers that these platforms enable.”

The highlights from the QUT/APS CPIG Leadership Conference

Recognition that the complexity and speed of disruption, are producing challenges and opportunities in the future of work, needing both rigorous investigation in parallel with experiential learning. Psychologists will need to build expertise based on both research and their ‘interactional relationships’ (Collins and Evans) immersed in the organizations and with the professions and clients, they seek to support.

The APS CPIG sessions reminded participants that all descriptors of work are rapidly shifting.

What workers are and will be doing, is being re-defined by AI, the gig economy, and digital technology.

Where and When people work is less constrained, with workers functioning in non-co-located global teams, or from their homes or remotely.

How, on the move as part of an expert team of individuals with complimentary skill sets, moving from project to project across an organisation/s.

Why we work is also under inspection – considering our current level of consumerism v’s ethical questions around sustainability.

Coaching psychologists themselves, need to consider their knowledge and their skills, in contributing to this new environment.  Professional development is essential; with a need to be more entrepreneurial, to utilize technology more efficiently to engage with clients, to consider the scalability of their work and increase their accessibility globally. 

We seek to support members with:-

• High quality PD opportunities, promoting evidence based ideas and information from thought leaders in Coaching Psychology
• Collaboration with organizations that support excellence in Coaching Psychology research.
• Recommendations of journals and resources that are based on Psychological theory and knowledge.
•        To collaborate with organizations offering high quality training and conferences
• Links to innovative and thought provoking resources, to promote discussion  amongst CPIG members online
• Opportunities to actively participate in CPIG through national and state committee membership, webinars, f2f events and Linkedin.

The Vision and Mission

Over time , the APS, Coaching Psychology Interest Group’s (CPIG) National committees have evolved to conceptualise the groups strategic vision as the promotion of “Excellence in Coaching”, and our mission to explore and expand the ‘contribution of Psychology ‘, to best practice coaching within all areas of coaching.