Introduction
Designs supportive environments.
Success, not to mention personal evolution, becomes sustainable when there are environments and failsafe structures which support it.  After all, who wants to rely on fortitude and willpower to get things done or to develop oneself?  Enter the Certified Coach who has been specifically trained in helping the client to design and install these environments.

The Purpose of This Learning Guide
1.  To learn what a supportive environment is.
2.  To appreciate why designing supportive environments is important and why it's one of the components of the 15 "Proficiencies".
3.  How learning to design environments will make you a better coach.
4.  What resources are available.
5.  How a coach sets up an effective environment.
6.  What mistakes coaches make designing environments.
7. To support clients to take the actions they want, to have the actions occur more quickly and to live in an environment that is inspiring vs. an environment that they suffer through.  

What the instructor covers in this teleclass
1. The paradigm shift of designing environments.
2. Environments vs. Self-Reliance
3. What is an environment?
4. How to assist your client in designing environments that support them to sustain their successes.

What are the general truths about designing supportive environments?
1. Increasingly we are a product of our environments.
2. The trick is to craft them to craft you.
3. Well-designed environments naturally increase your performance by 2X-10X or more.
4. With designed environments, willpower/commitment is optional.
5. You can outsource your success to environments.
6. The trick is to choose to respond to environments, and become an expert designer of environments.

Key Points/Topics
1. Environments as partners.
This is a paradigm shift for many coaches and clients. Your environments can be designed to make things easier for you, to automate processes - whether it be actions, mental processes, or personal habits. Being deliberate about your environments creates a relationship with them - which allows them to support and sustain you in reaching your goals. By creating a relationship with your environments they become much more then tools.

2. Almost anything can be an environment.
You might have to introduce this notion to your client since not many people think actively about their many environments. For example, people, technological systems, the television, office space, R&D teams, pets, School of Coaching, special interest groups, etc.

3.  Environments vs. Self-Reliance
Relying on willpower to get things done can be done - often at the cost of physical or mental strain and stress if relied on too long. Environments, on the other hand, reduce the stress by setting things up to get done more easily, with less effort.

4. Environments create safety.
Environments do this in two ways. First, they are based on fail-safe structures that provide certainty and reduce stress for the client. Second, by focusing on designing environments, it takes the pressure off the client to have to be a certain way - changing the environment to fit them vs. changing themselves to fit the environment. This eliminates, or at least reduces, self-judgment. 

What are the 7 types of environments?

What is the model for designing supportive environments?

You have a right to...
...perfect environments for you.
...to manage your environments as you wish.
...to craft and recraft your environments.

Environments work as a...
...system so that you don't have to do all the thinking and working.
...filter so that you can deal with smaller amounts of information or distractions.
...solution to the overwhelm of information you can experience.

Environments naturally...
...evolve you. They keep you responding and growing even when you don't want to.
...develop. You will re-engineer your environments as your needs and capabilities change.
...support you. They help you do more work with less effort and attention.

What can the client expect?
To shift from relying on pushing, willpower, and trying hard, to feeling naturally guided, supported, and pulled toward what they want.

What are some key distinctions?
1. Ideal environments inspire rather than drain.
Your most powerful (and helpful) environments will be those that inspire. Careful crafting, perhaps through trial and error, will create environments that pull you forward, helping you invest time and resources in the things you want.

2. Environments are sustainable.
The best environments are set up to be sustainable, and to help the client be successful in spite of themselves. They do not depend on the coach to keep them going.

3. See everything as an environment.
By viewing everything as an environment, it makes you not tolerate things that don't sustain you. It forces you to look at things differently and de-personalizes it. Clients will begin to recognize things around them as either sustainable environments or not. It brings a heightened clarity and sense of direction. Every goal has an environment to support it. If you can't come up with one, you might want to question the validity of that goal.

4. Environments vs. action.
When you set up systems that pay off for a lifetime, you don't have to spend so much time taking direct action. Think of it as deliberately developing habits that support you, so you don't even have to think about the actions.


How do you help clients design support environments?
1. Introduce the concept.
Since this is likely to be a paradigm shift, introduce the idea and see if the client would like to work on this. If not, don't push. Chances are they'll be curious enough to come back to it at some point.

2. Be on the lookout for things your client wants to upgrade or change.
Obviously the client has something they want to change - hence the reason they've hired you. Have your "environment glasses" on, looking for clues about successful and not so successful environments. It will help you provide examples and explanations to them.

3. Use successful environments as a road map.
Learn about the successful environments your client already has to provide clues for designing new ones or transforming existing ones. Have the client tell you how they work best, then design it from there. 

4. Pick something the client can accomplish.
In order to give the client the feeling of success so they can tackle the harder environments, help them select one they are likely to be successful with first. If it's something they've been struggling with all their lives, select a different area. 

5. Design environments to help the client take action.
The way a client has their environment set up can either support them in taking action, or make it more difficult by creating obstacles or hurdles to get over. Help the client assess what systems or structures they have in place that are helpful and which are a hindrance. The goal is to have environments that propel you toward action by making it easy and more enjoyable.

6. Design environments to have actions occur more quickly.
The faster an action can occur - whether by automation or self-initiation - the faster your client can get on to the next task. The speed of progress is very rapid, you want to help your client have systems in place so that they are in the flow, rather than scrambling to catch up.

7. Set up structures to strengthen the environments.
Think of it as the environment for the environment. If your client has to tend to the environment all the time, just to keep it functioning, then it's not really doing its job - to make their life easier and more effective.

8. Start with the environment of "designing environments". 
Walk the client through it. When the client is at the max of their efforts, it usually takes a person to lead them. Just giving them a plan or checklist might not be enough - even if they are "capable" of doing it on their own. The whole point is that their environments are not currently supporting them, so you want to set them up for success. 

What are 12 ways to get the most out of your environments?

What are some questions you can ask?
1. What is the purpose behind designing X environment this way?
2. How well is it working?
3. How sustainable is it? How much effort does it take for you to sustain it?
4. If the environment just took care of it for you, what would it look like?

Why is this a Proficiency?
1. Requires a paradigm shift.
Approaching everything as an environment, and establishing a partnership with it, is a dramatic shift from how most people (westerners, at least) think about themselves, their businesses, and their lives. It takes practice to engage with it fully and eliminate old habits of thought.

2. The ability to detect what works, and then build on it.
Identifying the nuances in successful, sustainable environments the client already has is a talent. Often the success factors are not readily apparent - to you or the client. 

3. Being inspiring vs. pushing or demanding.
Just as the environment needs to inspire, so does the coach. Designing - or redesigning - supportive environments requires consistency and follow-through, from an inspiring perspective. In times of stress, such as a changing environment, it will be easy for the client to revert to old, less productive habits. The Certified Coach is able to inspire the client to follow-through until the new environment is well-established.

4. This is a subtle, sometimes abstract, concept.
The coach must master this proficiency before they can effectively assist clients. The more environments you can learn about the more you can share with your clients. There are almost templates of environments.  

How does Designing Supportive Environments make you a better coach?
1. Empowers the client.
By focusing on the environment, the client begins to build long-term sustainable support for the changes they are making. This focus eliminates the tendency to focus on whether the client is "good" at something or not. 

2. Provides inspiration.
As your clients get the hang of this, they'll want to do even more of it. With each environment upgrade, they will be more and more inspired, finding more time and energy. The learning curve might be steep at first, but very exciting once mastered.

3. Focuses on long term sustainability vs. short term action.
While there are times when it is appropriate to focus on the very short-term, and many clients are happy to stay there, one of your goals as a coach is to help the client experience success with less stress. Long-term sustainability provides this. The less your client has to think about something, the more personal RAM is freed up for creativity, other projects, or whatever they want.

4. You'll get your environments in order, too.
In fact, you're probably already working on this just by listening to the real audio and reading this learning guide. As you focus on this with your clients, your own empowering environments will become even more self-sustaining. 

5. Magnetizes the client's attention to the goal.
By designing supportive environments, the client's attention will be drawn to where they want to be, what they want to accomplish, without having to think about it consciously. It becomes more automatic. 

How do you know if you're getting it?
1. Your own environments are supportive.
As you plan new projects you automatically think about how to design the environment to maximize success and sustainability.

2. You think about environments as relationships, not just tools.
You notice how your client (and you) interact with the environment, how the energy flows, and how each is impacted by the other. You recognize glitches and move to correct them.

3. You are curious about environments.
You will find yourself thinking about virtually everything as an environment and how it could be best designed. Not that you have to become obsessive about this - but you'll notice how fun it is. 

4. You notice when it's working and when it's not.
Getting too attached to what's been set up might prevent you from noticing when it's not as effortless as it could be. You'll notice when something could be better, and you make the change.

What are some common mistakes when using this Proficiency?
1. Taking too much responsibility.
If the client is resistant to designing environments, don't push it. The opportunity to point out a concrete example will present itself. Remember, the client has to come to this on his own in order for it to stick.

2. Giving a checklist when the client needs you to hold their hand.
Even though virtually anyone can complete a checklist and make changes, the point is that the client may already be operating at the max of their capacity (or think they are). Take the time to walk them through it so they get the experience of successfully redesigning an environment. As they experience the improved results, they'll be able to recreate it on their own - but be willing to hold their hand again if necessary.

3. Not understanding environments yourself.
 If you're not clear on this, you won't be able to explain it to your client. It helps to have done some of your own redesign first.

4. Not asking the client if they want to look at environments.
Some coaches might barge in without checking it out, and others might neglect to bring up environments at all. Either practice doesn't fit the criteria of a Certified Coach. Use all your Coaching Proficiencies. 

Resources
The 3 Generators of Client Value | here
The 5-Element CoachVille Coaching System | here
Certified Coach Training Resources | here
The Orb/Graphic Version  | view gif | view pdf
Twelve Ways to Design Your Environments  | view gif | view pdf
Bonus:  The 7 Types of Environments | view gif | view pdf

Are there success stories/testimonials related to designing supportive environments?
coming soon | got one?

Class Notes
Transcript of Training Call | here
RealAudio of Training Call | here
MP3 of Training Call | here* (to download MP3 file, right click your mouse over link) .


*instructions for downloading/using MP3 file here.






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