Third-generation coaching: Theory, research and practice

Third-generation coaching describes a developmental step that goes beyond earlier forms of coaching. Coaching needs to be developed further because of rapid changes and growing complexity within all areas of society and its organizations. Although coaching practices are often a mixture of approaches, methods and techniques, third-generation coaching marks a major shift in the relationship between the dialogical partners based on moments of symmetry with a strong focus on shared meaning-making and collaborative value reflections.
Originally, the coach worked as a facilitator by more or less exclusively asking questions as a way to help clients reflect on their challenges and to enable new perspectives on their problems. By contrast, a third-generation coach acts as a co-reflecting partner and thus adopts a more active and collaborative position as a fellow human companion through withness-thinking (Shotter, 2006) and by sharing his or her own thoughts and reflections with the client. Pausing and lingering in the dialogue opens new possibilities for fundamental self-insights (Stelter, 2019). Third-generation coaching indicates an intentional shift for the coach, away from more or less exclusively asking questions towards a collaborative meta-dialogue. Third-generation coaching can be an integrated part of other approaches. One key question remains unanswered: will more reflective and collaborative approaches inspired by third-generation coaching be more dominant in the future coaching scene (see Greif, 2014)? Furthermore, the idea of meta-dialogue might be most interesting and can even be connected to cognitive behavioural coaching, which also encourages meta conversations, conversations not just about what to do, but what I think, feel, and do.