In our coach training, we have a number of processes, models, tools, moves, philosophies that are woven throughout the program. And one of those is what we call laddering. And from our perspective, what we mean by that is laddering is Any questioning or process of creating inside awareness that is kind of a step-by-step process.
And in our Certificate in Professional Coaching, our Stage 1 program, we don't overtly teach this as a model, but we teach it as a part of our WellForm goal, particularly as a part of the PROG and SCRIPT parts of that process. What we're asking... moving toward higher levels of emotional and value-based engagement by asking questions like, and what's important about that to you?
And if that happened, what would that mean to you? And how important would that be to you? And if that happened, what would that mean to you?
So we're using importance and meaning to help our clients ladder up in their mind toward what is this outcome that they really want and what's it connected to. So we use laddering throughout our program in what we call multiple dimensions. So I like to call it multidimensional laddering.
So there's upward laddering, which I've just described. And that can usually be some sort of context as to higher motivations. And this, of course, relates to what we call motivational capability or motivational balance, where people are accessing that.
During this program, Certificate in Professional Coaching Mastery, we're going to practice the most likely direction of laddering that you might use related to the four balances. But in this short video, I'm going to sort of introduce the overall concept, and then you'll have some documents that actually direct you on how we would use it in each of those dimensions that you might go. And that doesn't mean that... There's only one place we can apply it.
And it doesn't mean that we have to continue in a direction. Sometimes the laddering process can be up, forward, back, up, down, something like that. But there are times when it's better to stay with it until we achieve something. So often when we're doing an upward ladder, which is one direction, we can go and aim for what we would call a desired outcome. So this is the most desired outcome, you know, and it's not, it's something that's deeply connected to the person.
So that's one way we're laddering toward what is it that they, at this stage of their development and knowledge of themselves, ultimately. The other way we go upwards is also for a bit of disruptiveness, or it can be positive as well. So another type of ladder that we can go upward with would be what we call the best ladder. which would be, and what would be the best thing about that? And then they reply.
And we'll say, and then what would be the best thing about that? And they reply. And what would be the best thing about that? Usually at some point, we're going to shift over to meaning or importance or something's going to happen with our client.
And of course, in the whole laddering process, we're deeply present and engaged with our client. So we're observing their whole being. and their mind, their emotions, their semantics, and what's engaging in the realm of meaning for them, and also what's happening in the field of relationships around them.
So we're really focused on what we call the elements model as people are going up and down. It's sort of a guide for us to be present. The other way we can go upward is to use the best as a disruptive type of question.
So sometimes this can be, again, we have to contract and be in relationship with our client. But someone might say, well, I might get fired. And then we can say, what's the best thing about that? And again, that's disruptive, right?
Because they're speaking about it as a bad thing. It's maybe a dreaded outcome as opposed to a desired outcome. But we're actually spinning it and saying, and what's the best thing about it?
And then, of course, well, you know, I'd have more free time. And what's the best thing about that? I could find a better job.
Okay, what's the best thing about that? So, you know, we help them to move. in that direction.
And again, it's not about arriving at a destination as it is much more about in a direction. And we're creating awareness and insight, not necessarily nailing something down. So this isn't about nailing something down or drilling down.
It's about creating awareness, helping the client to see things differently and connecting to what's really meaningful to them, at least when we're up. And then, of course, there's the horizontal plane, forwards and backwards. So forward laddering could be a multiple different ways we do this.
One would be to. to ladder in terms of steps, which is a very simple way to do it. So if the person is able to think in steps forward, we could say, and what is the next step? And then if you did that, what's likely to happen?
So they're beginning to think about that. And then what's the next step? We could even go back, what are you, what's the, what's, what are you thinking about your first step now? So you're just going forward.
So you want to get there. What's the first step? You want to develop that. You want to figure that out. You want to find out what your ultimate goal is.
Where do we start? And then what do you think might happen after that? And what do you think's next?
So we're starting to get like a process or plan. And it can be very tactical, but it can also be very much thought. Well, I need to, you know, figure that out.
And once I get a sense of that, then I can figure that out. And or I need to, I need to really reflect on this and find out what I really want. And then, you know, if you did that, then what do you think would happen? So you're.
sort of helping them to move forward. It's a whole idea, direction forward, miniature steps, as small as possible, to help them to get a sense of that. And it can be steps, but it also can be assumptions or presuppositions.
So what's likely to happen if that happens? So go back to, I lose my job, so if you lost your job, then what would happen? This. And then what do you think would happen? Then what would happen?
And now we can get them to question that sort of chain of logic that they have. and emotion and whatever else is in the room. So that's forward. Backwards also relates to time.
And in this way, sometimes forward and backwards really nicely together. But sometimes people can't really see step by step by step. So sometimes if you say to people, what needs to happen?
They go, boom, and they go really far forward. In that case, we might need to work backwards and say, well, what needs to happen before that? And before that can happen, what needs to happen? And before that happens, what needs to happen?
And it could be they need to develop something. They need to learn something. They need to finish something. They need to have a conversation.
They need to think. Whatever it happens to be, they need to get well before they can do that other thing. So very often we can use that to help people figure out.
So they're going forward, but then it seems to be that they probably need to go backwards. And the other way is that. Sometimes people have an idea, oh, I know what I need to do, and they say it. And then we can say, well, is there anything that needs to happen before that?
So instead of starting with the first step, you're starting with maybe a tenth step or some other place, and we're working backwards. So that gives you a sense of how that works. And again, we still need to be present, we still need to observe, and we're inviting them to explore throughout.
The other thing that we're careful to ask is, you know, questioning their assumptions, but also inviting learning, because they might actually learn that this really works for them, or they might actually learn that they don't know what they really want. So there can be various learnings that come in the process. So it's really important to not look at it as a destination, I have to ask this and this and this, though sometimes that can be useful.
Again, the flow, we need to have a sense of working with who our client is. But that idea of just working incrementally backwards. incrementally forwards and maybe just pausing and saying, so what are you learning?
I'm learning that I jump to conclusions and I don't think very carefully. So this is a really helpful process. Okay, great. And we get them to explore how that might impact their life. So that's forward and backwards horizontally.
The other way we can do this is in the space of what, and the way I frame this as I call micro deconstruction of of an incident or a moment. So sometimes clients will say, give us an example of when they didn't behave the way they wanted to behave or even something went really well. We can use backward laddering to help them deconstruct the conditions, the flow toward them either doing something they really wanted to do or not doing something that they really wanted to do. And the reason why we do this in our methodology is not to figure out why.
We're not really interested in why. What we're really interested in is where they made choices or Left the choices to their autopilot mind to be made for them So we often use this and we'll work with this in the emotional balance piece Around deconstructing triggering events where we're helping someone to figure out in micro detail. So Frustrated. Okay. So just before your face did that what happened and we're looking for somatic.
We're looking for cognitive We're looking for emotional stories in their mind. I thought this, I thought that, I assumed that, I felt judged, I felt threatened. Okay, just before you felt threatened, what happened?
What were you thinking? What were you feeling? So we're incrementally exploring the journey back to the point where either we're getting awareness of that whole flow, but we're also then getting where on that do you have choice?
And again, who they are in this moment might be different than who they are in the future. So in that moment, this is what happened. Now that they're away from that incident, of course, they have a lot more choices.
And that's what we've said all along about resourcefulness and moments of choice. So this backward laddering process enables us to get awareness of the chain of events that leads to whatever it is we want or don't want happening for us. And where we make choices or where we didn't make choices. And that helps us to become aware we might need to actually do something way back there so that in that situation we'll be more resourceful. So that's backward learning.
And there's other places we can do that with thoughts, with ideas, with remembering practices. There's lots of different ways we can play with that. But in the sense of how we're teaching it, this is how we begin. And then the last ladder is the downward ladder.
And if you want to look up research on this, you can look up something called the downward arrow. The downward arrow is a direction. I guess we look at laddering as that sort of process. So our terminology is slightly different than some of the research and some of the other teaching on this. And this is, again, going down.
So again, there's a lot of use with caution. And before you practice this, maybe wait till we have that session where we explore this. We'll be doing that when we talk about cognitive capability or cognitive balance.
particularly around the re-authoring of stories. There's a space where we do that. But if we're upward laddering, looking for a desired outcome, when we're downward laddering, looking for the dreaded outcome. So worst case scenario, what's the worst that could happen, basically? What do you not want most of all kind of journey?
And again, we're using that similar... processes is abused upwards so what's the worst thing about that what's what would it mean if that happened we're using meaning and worst in order to help them to move down right and that means that the person has to be functional in general but also functional about this particular issue um and We need to be very careful and very, very attentive. And the checking in process is really important here. Contracting.
Would it be okay if? How are you doing? Is it okay if we go a little bit further?
Is this useful for you? Now, very often the client will just simply self-correct and go up. I was being demonstrated on in this space. And I think I answered two questions down and then I went up. Because I was like, this is stupid.
And I just went up. That train of thinking was just dragging me down. And I was like.
got down a few steps, it was just ridiculous. The stuff that was coming up in my mind, and I self-corrected. It doesn't mean I'm avoiding something.
The whole idea of this is to get me to be more resourceful. So once I begin to attach to what's really meaningful and important to me, I become more resourceful. So that's the idea here.
We're not trying to find the reason why. We're not trying to drill down to that deep, dark place. We're trying to help our client discover resourcefulness and develop the ability.
to work with what's happening in their mind in order to be more resourceful. So that's that sort of process as we go down. And again, we say proceed with caution.
Wait till we train you in it before you go too crazy doing it. But the idea is we're not trying to reach the dreaded outcome. We're using a downward laddering technique in order for our client to become more aware and more resourceful.
If that happens with one question, That's fine. Let go of it and wherever direction needs to go. But some people will work all the way down to that dreaded outcome, where we're coming to that sort of statement about us, like my life would be me. You know, my dreaded outcome is that my net value to the planet would be negative for all the years I've been here. Everything I've done that the worst case scenario for me is that I'd be there and breathing my last breath and go, crap, the planet's less because I was on it.
And that's like a even when I say that I have a feeling about it, it's an absurdity. And it's a useful thing. There's some positive elements of that, but that's like my dreaded outcome. By discovering that many years ago, it loses its power over me because it tends to do stuff in different ways. But it also helps me to realize, OK, wait a minute.
Yeah. Is this really true in this situation? So, again, once we get people down to that dreaded outcome, the questions we're going to ask are related to, is this true? And if they say yes, then we say, is this true all the time? Normally, functional, healthy people will not become worse.
But this is where we have to be careful. because we could get someone into a worse state than they were before. So usually they'll self-correct, and usually they're able to have a conversation objectively about that dreaded outcome because it's now not inside of them. It's something that's in the room and we can talk about. So is that true?
What about that situation? You told me about this before. How does that relate?
How does this help you? There's all kinds of ways we can work with that if we're skillful. And the other way, of course, downward laddering.
can work is by using it in a bit of disruptive and playful way as well. So we said, what's the best thing about that? We now use what's the worst thing about that? And what's the worst thing about that?
And what's the worst thing about that? And if that worst thing happened, what would that mean to you? And we can use this also disruptive way when people say, I got a promotion, you know, we could say, congratulations.
And what's the worst thing about that? We're not trying to rain on the parade. It's part of, again, that relationship, but we're trying to help them just have that thought. Look at it objectively.
Think about this holistically. Not get caught up. Be aware as they move into whatever that domain happens to be.
So that's an introduction to laddering. There's some documents with some questions. We're dividing it into the sections that's going to be brought up during the MACE model at different phases.
practice with it, do what we call micro practices. And ideally, you're integrating this into your whole coaching. But that's the beginning.
And looking forward to practicing with you, and helping you explore the various ladders for you, and also how you can create value for your clients. Thank you so much.