How can we overcome the limits linked to the introspective nature of coaching? The answer of the authors was to use an innovative form of coaching that gives a special role to coachees’ empathy, to their link to others, and to the collective. To do this, they relied on the advances of cognitive science by using the spatial theory of empathy (Berthoz, 2004). This theory argues that empathy is a spatial operation, one of decentering. The article reports on four coaching sessions during which they experienced empathy by decentering. These coaching sessions took place in a fast-growing special works company, as part of the integration program for newcomers. The integration of site supervisors and sales representatives, all young engineers with no experience in special works, is a considerable challenge for this rapidly growing company. The authors have selected several coaching sessions that present a range of organizational situations. This article shares the major lessons learned from these experiments, but also the limits of this type of coaching.
- Coaching
- empathy
- spatialization
- integration
- sociality