JGSG Panel: “What impact is the coaching community having on the climate and ecological crisis?” 

“As a global coaching community, how are we partnering with each other and enabling  “radical collaboration” to accelerate climate action?    How could we step up the effectiveness of our community impact?” 

Coaching is a broad field, with room for people from differing traditions, philosophies of practice and approaches. We know there is a broad spectrum of starting places. For some it is easy to identify how it fits into their practice. And some have never considered this area as relevant and have never considered if and how Climate Conversations might fit into their practice.  The Climate Coaching Alliance has 3500+ members who are explicitly engaging with the climate crisis, but this only represents a small fraction of the global coaching profession.    There is still a long way to go … and wherever people are, is where we meet them.  

One historical and groundbreaking example of community and collaboration in the coaching profession is the JGSG (Joint Global Statement Group on the climate and eco-diversity crises, see more detail below*).  This is a unique collaboration of the 11 coaching professional bodies, which came together in 2019 to create a common statement and position on the climate and eco-diversity crisis, starting with the shared belief that the interconnectedness of all species and earth systems requires collective action and collaboration at local and global levels.  “Coaching, mentoring, coaching psychology and supervision are concerned with developing the potential of human beings, of raising awareness to enable people to take responsibility for their actions and ownership for their contribution. We have a significant role to play in fostering new ways of being in service to a healthy human society and a healthy planet.”

Join this keynote panel conversation with Magda Mook (ICF), Rita Symons (EMCC), Hetty Einzig (AC) and Eve Turner (APECS), 4 of the key leaders of the coaching professional bodies at that time, and Anjali Nair (IAC), whose professional body have joined since.   The panel will reflect on the progress of the JGSG and the coaching profession on this agenda as a whole since 2019, what insights and learnings have come from this, and what work remains for the coaching profession to collaborate together as a more coherent and effective global community, in service to this shared purpose.   

And we would love to hear what other communities are you part of, what might you share on impact, what further ideas can we create together? 

*More detail on the JGSG:    The JGSG is a unique collaboration between 11 coaching, mentoring, supervision and coaching psychology professional bodies, who together have memberships of around 300,000 professionals worldwide.  Its work started in 2019-2020 as the AC, APECS, EMCC and ICF, joined later by APAC, discussed what our profession could do about the climate and ecological emergency, seeing our role as creating a safe space for dialogue, exploration, and learning, not prescribing one right course of action.  Together the 5 bodies wrote the Joint Statement on the crisis, published on 29^th May 2020, which can be read here:  https://www.jgsg.one/joint-global-statement/ or on the CCA website.  Since then, 6 further bodies have joined, AoCS, COMENSA, EASC, IAC, IOC and ISCP, with more interested in signing up. Inclusion, curiosity, collaboration and compassion are central, with the group continuing to work together, meeting regularly and hosting roundtables.”