Our upcoming EASC Congress on 14 and 15 September 2018 will be dedicated to the topic of “VUCA world – and what are the contributions of coaching and supervision”. 

The term VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) is used more and more often to describe the special challenges companies are faced with regarding digital transformation, industry 4.0 and associated fundamental changes of business models and forms of cooperation. On the perceivable level, these dynamics are visible in organisations as a growing agility, swarm and design thinking, lateral leadership and organisational as well as individual resilience. Those working in companies and the public sector are increasingly expected to support and develop new forms of work. The cultural development of cooperation can hardly keep up with the technical development of communication media in this process. In view of this constant transformation and the disruptive changes, identity is becoming ever more important in this dynamic field between organisations and their employees.

As supervisors and coaches of EASC we deal with these topics in our day-to-day work and support people as well as organisations in the VUCA world.

In addition to the keynote speeches we will again publish a call for papers for workshops which reflect the whole range of practice in EASC. We look forward to your active participation; the call for speakers will be published after the 2017 AGM.

Where will the EASC Congress of September 2018 take place? The venue hasn’t been fixed yet, it will either be the border triangle of Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Lake Constance or Barcelona. Both are wonderful places to meet, the decision will be made during the summer and we look forward to the congress one way or the other!

The Ethical Guidelines of EASC have been revised by the Ethics Committee under Edith Mause’s leadership. They were discussed, agreed and supplemented by a short version for external communication and the website in a joint meeting of the Ethics Committee, the CQS and the Board in February 2017. In the current phase, they are discussed with the Institutes. This stage shall be concluded until September 2017; then the new Ethical Guidelines will be published at the website.

The discussion about a way to secure the coaching profession is ongoing on the German and the European level. At the Roundtable of Coaching Associations we have made the proposal to reinforce the joint endeavours with a shared brand of a certified coach. At the same time, the parliamentary faction of the German Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD is working on a draft law for the protection of the professional profile of the coach which is based on the quality guidelines issued by the Roundtable of Coaching, assigning the latter a core role in the certification of training courses (in addition to the accredited university studies).

EASC as a European trade association of supervisors and coaches also cooperates closely with ANSE and the EMCC on this issue. ANSE, a European umbrella association, represents the national associations for supervision in Europe (www.anse.eu). The European Mentoring und Coaching Council EMCC is the umbrella association of the national coaching associations in Europe (www.emccouncil.org).

Together with ANSE and the EMCC we will organise a working breakfast to be held in Brussels in spring 2018. Working title: “How can supervision contribute to the development of European society? What does coaching add to society – how does it manage differences?”.

It is our joint endeavour to influence the European Commission and achieve a Europe-wide regulation for the protection of the professions of coach and supervisor in the medium term.

The results of the 2016 coaching survey have been published. Last year, Jörg Middendorf once again asked coaches to take part in his online survey on coaching in Germany. The RTC Roundtable Coaching again supported this cause and we, EASC, asked our members to participate, too. 546 individuals answered the survey this time. The current survey is focused on “quality assurance in coaching”. Jörg Middendorf summarises: Thus, the results show the strong dominance of systemic trainings in the primary qualification of coaches. It is also interesting to see that nearly 50 percent of respondents declare themselves in favour of a stronger regulation of coaching as a profession. In contrast, approx. 25 percent express uncertainty regarding this question and about 25 percent pronounce themselves against it. So here the coaching community needs to have an intense discussion about the right path to take. [Translation from the German original]

You will find the results of the past coaching surveys at coachingumfrage.wordpress.com.

EASC again supports the congress of the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland, which stands out as an important international scientific congress on coaching in Europe. The theme of next year’s congress will be “Organisation, Digitization and Design”.

Here is an excerpt from the call for papers: “The interaction of person and organisation is an object of nearly every coaching. Progressive digitization leads to rapid development and profound chances in organisations: new forms of leadership, media-supported communication, democratisation of decisions, growing co-responsibility, virtual teamwork and internationalisation.

Where does coaching come into play here? Which contributions can coaching make? Which challenges arise from modern organisational forms? And what does that mean for the management of coaching as a service, from executive coaching to work integration?

It is the objective of this internationally oriented congress to bring together and systematically interpret practical and scientific developments on this topic.” [Translation from the German original]

The congress languages will be German and English; you will find a call for speakers and more information at: http://www.coaching-meets-research.ch/

With the next EASC Newsletter we want to further promote our networking and get better acquainted with each other.

• We want to introduce and briefly interview individual members from different countries.
• We want to give the Regional Groups the chance to report about their work and present themselves with a picture showing the members.
• We want to interview and present individual Institutes, describing their work focus and special features.

Who would like to use the EASC Newsletter to tell us something about themselves and introduce themselves? Mathias Hofmann looks forward to your messages to: mathias.hofmann@easc-online.eu …. or he will call you soon to ask if ….

The Board and the Office warmly invite you to attend the Annual General Assembly of Members, the Institutes’ Meeting, the Instructors’ Conference, the innovation workshop “EASC meets VUCA” and most of all the exchange and get-together on 14 and 15 September at the premises of EASC.

Venue:  Waldstraße 32, 10551 Berlin.

The agenda:

14 Sept 2017

• Institutes’ Meeting: 14:00 – 19:00 h
  afterwards: casual get-together with dinner

15 Sept 2017

• Institutes’ Meeting: 9:00 – 11:00 h
• Instructors’ Conference: 11:30 – 13:30 h
• Innovation workshop “EASC meets VUCA: the agile European network for coaches and supervisors who offer quality” (see below) 10.00 – 13.00 h
• AGM: 15 Sept 2017 // 15:00 – 18:00 h

The VUCA World doesn’t stop at EASC or us, coaches and supervisors. On the one hand, offers of online coaching and electronic self-learning modules on the internet are growing like mushrooms in autumnal Teutoburg Forest, on the other hand, the social networks are providing new marketing opportunities and apparent quality offers such as the so-called TOP coaches of XING. Thirdly, countless groups are actively involved in issues of supervision and coaching in the professional social networks, offering topic combinations for exchange and information in a differentiated way.

Why is EASC still needed in this situation?

Or to put is differently: how should EASC structure its services and communication in order to continue providing a special benefit for supervisors and coaches in Europe?

We have done quite a lot during the last few years, we have a joint homepage, we send information, we also have our Congresses, Institutes and Regional Groups. And we are a lobby and represent the interests of our members to the outside, in dealings with other associations and, together with them, vis-à-vis politicians, and we work together with scientists. This is not much, our resources are obviously limited. And that is precisely why the following question arises:

What can we do in a fundamentally new and different way, what does digital transformation, agility and modern networking mean for EASC? What will we look like in 2025 and what are we doing today to make this picture start to emerge?

We invite you to discuss, develop and contribute to the future of EASC with creativity and agility – all those who think that something needs to change for them to have a future with EASC and all those whose future is certain and who want to do something for the next generation.

15 September 2017, 10.00-13.00 h at: 10551 Berlin, Waldstraße 32. Moderation:  Mathias Hofmann

This event will be the pre-congress to our 2018 EASC Congress, as it were (see below)