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Overview
The CoachVille R&D Team is an intellectual factory and provides significant levels of feedback and strategic input in the design, crafting, testing and perfecting of the intellectual property – and operations – of CoachVille.
Any CoachVille member may join the CV R&D Team. As a member, you will receive an email 2 to 5 times a week with ideas, questions, examples; you are asked to comment on the topics you wish to.
How To Join
To join, first read and agree to the guidelines which are described below.
(Note: If you have an AOL email address, you'll need to get an alternate one in order to join the CoachVille R&D Team; our memos are always in html and are larger than the 30K file size limit imposed by AOL.)
Guidelines
The R&D Team takes on some controversial topics, some of which are virtually guaranteed to push your buttons. This is fine, but the only rule as a member of the R&D Team is to be, at all times,
CIVIL & POLITE
We have had a problem with R&D members being so upset by something we are planning to do, or a project that we have taken on, or a thought-provoking question, that they have emotionally reacted and lashed out at us.
Not okay.
For example, when we asked for feedback on the "Everyone's a Coach" tagline, we got lots of negative responses (no problem – we like critical thinkers) and several personal attacks (i.e., "You are ruining the coaching profession," "CoachVille is cheapening the industry," "You are evil," etc.) It's fine to disagree, but when it becomes personal, it hurts.
Part of what CoachVille does IS to be a disruptive influence in our industry. Disruption is good. Currently the industry is moribund. We're shaking it up so that it can evolve at the pace it was meant to evolve at. This ruffles feathers.
So, some tips...
1. Before you share an opinion, FIRST challenge yourself to see what the bigger place is that you're coming from. If you think from where you usually think from, you won't be much help on the R&D Team (or to yourself).
2. When you receive an R&D email from us that you react negatively to, just hang out with the idea/topic for a day or two before firing off an email to us.
3. Use the process of being on the R&D Team to evolve and expand yourself. Every single time you receive an email from us, use it as a catalyst (or a cattle prod) to think bigger and be bigger. Don't be the same person you were before you read it.
4. In your comments/feedback, be honest, fully communicate, and point out what you like about the project/idea and where you see the flaws. Write from YOUR experience/preferences, not what you think "coaches" will like/dislike. You are the only one who matters here.
5. And, make sure you phrase your comments – especially the criticisms – in a positive, helpful tone.
Good forms for criticism:
- "I can't imagine that I would buy the new product as you are describing it because the price point is too high for me."
- "I like the general idea but here's the flaw as I see it..."
- "I don't have a solution, but something isn't right about this idea."
- "Here's what I suggest that you consider..."
Bad forms for criticism:
- "That idea sucks." [thank you for sharing]
- "That's not going to work." [instead, tell us how to fix it]
- "You don't know what you're doing." [needlessly insulting]
- "You shouldn't..." [not helpful]
- "That idea needs work." [this is assumed, yes?]
Which Type of R&D Member Will You Be?
Here's a summary of the "types" of coaches who are on the R&D team. We str asking you to move yourself to Type 1 as soon as possible. While we can benefit from all types, our best work is done by Type 1's.
Type 1. The Creatives
They can hear an idea and quickly come up to speed with it, integrating it into what they already knew/felt about the topic, see the potential AND flaws in it and come back to me with why it's good (far beyond what we had seen) and what's flawed about it (flaws we hadn't been able to see ourselves). In other words, whatever idea we share with them is a catalyst for their thinking/creative process and/or evolution. They "work it" and grow from it. It's more than them doing an analysis. And, sometimes, The Creatives totally TRASH an idea but they are nice about it and they ask questions or point out missing links in the thinking process so that we can learn, versus just being told it's a dumb idea. They help us understand a bigger place to look/listen from, so it works both ways quite nicely.
Usefulness: We read these emails first, both for the validation and for how they will evolve/expand our thinking quickly.
Type 2. The Cautionaries
They can hear the dea, and while they sense/inkle that it's an interesting one, it takes them some time to come around see exactly how it's a good one. So, they wait for a couple of days and then when they do see how the idea could/would work, they can become quite enthusiastic. But there is this buffering/arms-around-it time, that takes time.
Usefulness: This is the bulk of the coaching community, so we enjoy hearing from them and hearing what it takes to "come around" to see the potential/value of a shared idea. We are most curious how they make this shift because this is where most folks in the world are – processing information, especially disruptive or paradigmical/paradoxical information, and integrating it into their now-broader way of seeing life.
Probable Source: The buffer thing. Why is it there? Why is there delay? Where's the bottleneck?
Type 3. The "You-Should-ers"
These are mostly R&D members who have very strong opinions, and who often think we're not too bright. They are quick to give advice from a rather limited place. They see the world through a single eye. Theirs. Their theme/mantra is "THIS IS THE WAY IT IS." No peripheral vision, much less 20/20. Yawn. Reaction city.
Usefulness: They are tiresome but sometimes we find useful nuggets because they ARE pretty smart in their narrow area.
Probable Source: We're not sure what the source of this one is. They definitely have a strong desire to help and protect me from failure. But the motivation doesn't seem very clean.
Type 4. The Repeaters
They respond to ideas with comments/ideas based on ideas/situations that they already have had in their past and repeat what they FELT in the past about their original idea. In other words, when they heard the idea, they go into their heads and "find" a similar situation they had faced professionally and then share comments/advice from THAT place, instead of using my idea/question to look freshly and upgrade their past experience to be directly fitting to the idea that was emailed them.
Usefulness: These contributes are usually VERY smart and experienced. Perhaps too experienced. And, they miss out on the pleasure of experimenting with the ideas Iwe present. They jump into "expert or solution mode" too quickly and miss out on the richness or potential of the idea and instead insert themselves/their experience too soon. Not a lot of room for fresh thinking, but the feedback is VERY valuable because we learn so much of the expert/technical side or potential ramifications of our ideas.
Probable Source: Inability to recognize subtleties. Most of our ideas are laced with subtleties. If one jumps too quickly into repeat/analytical mode, they miss those underlying subtleties. Subtleties are quite rich.
Type 5. The Fear Barometers
Whatever idea we have, they first process the idea through their fear-barometers and THEN they give their feedback (usually fear-based). They look at the negative/consequence side. They look to see where they or other likes them could "lose" if wemoved forward with that particular idea? They have self-appointed themselves as the watchdog of what was.
Usefulness: There is definitely some value in this type of input because probably 25% of coaches think/process information/ideas in this way. They don't have the freedom/ability to think conceptually; the value of something is measured mostly by its potential risk to their status quo. Or to "coaching in general," whatever that means.
Probable Source: An inability to think/experience ideas – even disruptive ideas – on a conceptual basis. They route the idea through themselves first and thus it brings up reactions.
Type 6. The Contrarian Indicators
There are some coaches who email us (from the R&D Team and in general) that are incredibly consistent on being on the other side of the flow. In other words, when they say an idea is lame or fatally flawed or that we "definitely should not do that!" then we KNOW the project is going to be a success! And when they love an idea quickly, we know to get real cautious real quickly with that idea because it's probably going to fail in its current form.
Usefulness. Of course, we never tell the person they are a contrarian indicator!
Probable Source: Behind the times, big time. But they don't know it. They are living in a carefully constructed world with few fresh influences.
Still want to join the R&D Team?
Click here to join.
(You will need the generic CoachVille Member Area username and password.)
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