In Oct 2018, I was invited to be a panelist at the first ICF Coaching Conference. On the panel of “Eastern Wisdom in Coaching” because of the Tao being the heart of my life, work and lifework 😉 The panel was being anchored by CN Murthy, the Chair of the ICF Mumbai Chapter, also my former boss when I used to work at ITC in early 1990s. There were 4 of us on the panel with not a lot of time. I requested him that I would like to speak at the end. I find that I effortlessly weave threads of insights and there was grace at the end that made the closure powerful.

Many walked up to me and said they were touched deeply. Of them, one person (now a dear friend) was Debashish Mishra (Deb), the L&D head of RBEI (a Bosch company). He said he had met many well known coaches, but he felt there was something different here and asked, would I be willing to come and work with Bosch. For 3 years prior to this I had not done Corporate work. Though for 20 years prior to that, developing Co-creative Leadership was the mainstay of my work in the business world. Along with the Tao programs which were the song of my heart.

One thing led to another with a string of synchronicities, we got a contract to develop 20 coaches in RBEI (Bosch) through a 3 month journey. In hindsight there were many things that were cool about this opportunity. Some of them are worth sharing here.

The primary ones are

1. It brought together my brothers (Arjun & Rohit) and me who I have enjoyed working with. Gave birth to what is now called Ark. Born as a friend/child of CoEvolve, the work that I started in 2009 after I separated from Prativa with whom I had created Eternale Learning in 2000. 9 year cycles!
2. It opened up the possibilities to multiply inspiration
3. Our work in the past had been event based. Through this assignment, a design came alive to sustain and deepen transformation.
4. Deb wanted to democratize coaching. “Why should coaching only be limited to the senior leaders? Why should we have to pay through our nose to coach people?” (We were able to offer.
5. Enabled the Radical Coaching model to get established as a powerful methodology that honors and yet, challenges all methods. It requires a vulnerability and a willingness for the Coach to learn together with and even from the Coachee. And walking in love and truth, the ground that invites a leap beyond coaching into

There are more but for now, this is good. 😉

One of the deep insights was that Multiplying Inspiration is about what I would call “Ecosysteming”  (rippling it in the inner and outer ecosystem much like a Banyan Tree) had 5 dimensions:

1. Deepening – for the individuals within themselves
2. Heightening (Co-creating) – in the intimate relationships/ ecosystem
3. Widening also through Co-evolution – in the organization/ wider community
4. Sustaining – over time – and the true game changer is..
5. Awakening to Love beyond the personal story beyond time.

Photo by Michael Olsen on Unsplash