The coaching approach for activation the innovation and creativity, the experience and case studies from central European countries

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the power of coaching approach foran improvement the creativity and the innovation competencies. The focus is given to Central European Courtiers with emphasis to Slovakia, where we can see rapid improvement in last years.The positive impact of coaching can be seen Slovakia as Slovak innovators are well ranked in international comparison according to recent research and statistics. 

In last 20 years both a living and working style have been significantly changed in the countries of Central Europe. Apart of sport segment we can observe a large interest to coaching from the side both of business sector and private as well. The coaching has been well established and is demanded in the business, career, communication, work-life balance is demanded very often. Recently we observe increased interest forthe coaching in the creativity and innovation. These demands are coming mostly from anbusiness area, a corporate environment, research institutions and the R&D of development companies. Also the increasing interest is observed from ambitious individuals. What is the reason?

Increased demand on the knowledge on the professional and personal competence has created the optimal platform for development of coaching schools, models and professional approaches(Rogers, 2006). Coaching is well recognised as strong approach for helpingclients in personal development and business progress and coaching is successfully applied in many areas of human activities. Especially the implementation of the coaching in creativity and innovation processes is promising for future development of individuals and society.

I agree with Gary Hamel (Gibson et al., 2011)that the future development and understanding the changes in business competition is asking for creative people for creative environment what is crucial factor for innovations. To crate the innovators we have to focus into to educational system where important values, belief and behaviors are formed and these features influence how creative thinking motivation will be developed in the future (Wagner, 2012). To shaping the innovators and creative individuals and teams we have in disposability of many coaching tools and skills(Rogers, 2012). Certainly we can see the enhanced demand for innovative ideas from variety of human activity areas: science, research, education, business, healthcare, pharmacy, entertainment, relax, arts, etc.(Trott, 2013). Innovation is a crucial drive

for development in 21st Century. To mange the innovation processes of either an individual person or thecreative teams can be seen from three perspectives. There are motivation, style and process. The first one can play a dominant role as inhibitor for creativity and change as we needfirst of all to understand what are the motivators and stimulators for fruitful creative thinking and generating nonstandard the ideas. Here comes the coaching attitude as a strong instrument for helping the client to find real answer for this question.

Thesecond perspective of innovation is the type. It is very important question for helping the client. In past there have been developed and proposed several models for types of innovation. Keeley at al. giveuseful classification of innovation types(Keeley et al., 2013). Same as we have individual learning styles we can se differences in individual approach to innovation. The third important innovation feature is innovation style. The innovation style has been introduced by Miller (Miller, 1989) and he also introduced the assessment model for determination of the innovation style or in other words an innovators type.. This is very helpful for a coach when working with client. The four basic innovators types can be taken into account: visioning, modifying, exploring and experimenting style. Individual innovationstypes are more significant when coaching a team of innovators. Miller continued to study and analyze the dynamics of the innovation process in the group and the results are presented in the book ten year later (Miller and Lawrence, 1999).There is completely different attitude of coach when working with creative team comparing to individual person. The task is based on the fact that when we have good creative individuals them it is not easy to build from them the well working and cooperating creative team.According my experience I have observed in my practice that working with high creative teams formed by strong individuals there is very critical to find motivating common line for all the members. This role of the coachisin helping the team to find it and establish it as a common motivation or common target for all members. This approach is supported by number of tools an techniques given by Eppler at al. in their publication(Eppler et al., 2014).

The third perspective in coaching the creativity we need to understand how innovation process is working, what are the phases of the process and what are their contribution to the final result (Ettlie, 2012). This is also helpful information for successful coaching sessions.

The role of the coach in innovation process is to help clients to be unique to be creative open for new ideas and be ready to distinguish all important messages and events, which can contribute him to find creative solution. In the coaching the innovation and creativity the often engagement are self-esteem, critical thinking and work-life balance. From the perspective of the coach what is the best coaching model?

There are many coaching schools and techniques used in coaching session (Cox, 2010)(Cox, 2013) The choice of them depends of the client character and the topic to be solved(Clutterbuck and Megginson, 2005). I personally have experience with Co-active coaching model, which is working with whole person both from emotional and rational perspective a helps to link professional coaching relationship. Or I am working with own model developed at Oxford Brookes University. Model is comprehensive and based on deep understanding of human learning styles and human change. Model is using the strength of the synergy of coaching partnership and is based on trust.

How coaching industry in working in central European Countries? There almost 50 000 coaches all around the world present time The number of coaches in Central Europe is estimated close to 4 000 and it is intensively growing each year. The coaches in Central European countries are working and organized in professional associations. Very often they are local Coaching Associations (CA) or International Coach Federation (ICF), European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). The World Wide association of Business Coaches WABC and International Association for Coaches IAC are also present. The significant part of coaches they are certified by professional association or body.

This profession becomes more and more recognized. The main areas for supporting the clients are business, life vision, leadership and executive coaching. The career coaching is very often demanded. Important indicator for evaluation the coaching application in creativity and innovation is the demand for this type of coaching. The demand in East European countries almost reached the world standard in last years. This is the answer why we can see dynamic increase of innovative products and ideas , startup projects and creative solutions nowadays.

In Slovakia there is given great coaching support to creativity and innovation. The coaching in this area is well recognized. It can be seen in number of young research workers and scientist, number of grants to new projects, number of valuable Start-ups projects and number of creative idea implementation in the country. This can be demonstrated by recent data published in Financial Times report on Innovators in East European Countries(Foy, 2015). According the data of the report of TOP 100 innovators Slovakia takes 2nd position as dynamic innovative country. In TOP 100 innovators Slovakia has 13 challengers following Poland with 27. The important is also the additional fact that in Slovakia there are 5 mil. inhabitants comparing to 38 mil. In Poland. 

The 2015 New Europe 100 list of Innovators Published by FT (Foy, 2015) 

The strong position of Slovak innovators and challengers is based on positive environment for generating new ideas but also the positive changes in education system. The result is based also on access to the information and open mind approach to all challenges coming nowadays. Theindividual and team coaching can give the significant contribution into the innovation and creativity.The coaching helps for future-shaping innovators and can enhance the drive for new and creative ideas.

References

1. Clutterbuck, D. & Megginson, D. 2005. Techniques for Coaching and Mentoring, Taylor & Francis.
2. Cox, E. 2013. Coaching understood: a pragmatic inquiry into the coaching process, London, SAGE.
3. Cox, E., Bachkirova, T. And Clutterbuck, D. 2010. The Complete Handbook of Coaching., London: SAGE. 
4. Eppler, M. J., F., H. & R.A., P. 2014. Creability: Gemeinsam Kreativ Innovative Methoden FüR Die Ideenentwicklung in Teams, Schaffer-Poeschel Verlag fur Wirtschaft Steuern Recht GmbH.
5. Ettlie, J. 2012. Managing Innovation, Routledge.
6. Foy, H. 2015. The 2015 New Europe 100: sectors in the vanguard of change. Finantial Times, Nopvember 26.
7. Gibson, R., Handy, C., Covey, S. & Porter, M. 2011. Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets and The World, Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
8. Keeley, L., Nagji, B. & Walters, H. 2013. Ten Types of Innovation : The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs, Wiley.
9. Miller, W. C. 1989. The Creative Edge: Fostering Innovation Where You Work, Basic Books.
10. Miller, W. C. & Lawrence, J. 1999. The Flash of Brillance Workbook: The Eight Keys to Discover, Unlock and Fulfill Your Creative Potential at Work, Perseus Books Group.
11. Rogers, J. 2006. Developing a Coaching Business, McGraw-Hill Education. Rogers, J. 2012. Coaching Skills: A Handbook, McGraw-Hill Education.
12. Trott, P. 2013. Innovation Management and New Product Development, Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.
13. Wagner, T. 2012. Creating Innovators (Enhanced eBook): The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, Scribner.