This morning ICF President Janet Harvey spoke the words of the mission of ICF to “lead global advancement of the coaching industry” before announcing the Prism awards given to organizations that embody the coaching culture. Recipients included Banner Health, Roche Turkey and the United States Secretariat. Honorary mention was given to the Royal Australian Navy. All of these organizations have committed to coaching in developing their current and future leaders. We celebrate them and the coaches working with them.

The metacatalyst this morning was David Whyte, speaker, writer and poet. David likened the journey of our lives to a “Pilgrimage.”   He explained a Pilgrim is “someone passing through relatively quickly, someone looking for the biggest context they can find or imagine, someone dependent on friendship, hospitality and help from friends and strangers alike, someone who has to ask for visible and invisible help; someone for whom the nature of the destination changes step by step as the end of the path approaches, and someone subject to the vagaries of wind and weather along the way. A pilgrim is someone up for adventure and good company. As we “pass through” our life here on earth our destinations change as we approach them. The coaches role, he described, as helping people move from names that no longer enliven them to names that do, as a part of our journey. At certain points it is time to leave the shoes behind.  He asked “What is the courageous conversation you are not having?”

ICF members can access the metacatalyst speakers on the web in about a week.