The Toronto ICF is 25 Years Old!

Last week I attended the 25th anniversary of the International Coach Federation Toronto Chapter. The conference room was full and buzzing with women and men on a mission. They spoke with passion and purpose, sharing stories of transformed lives, communities, organisations. I was proud to be among them. Especially as I was one of the founders of the Chapter. I saw old friends and colleagues and students – not so many now as it’s been years since I was involved in any significant way – but every one precious.

I felt proud of course. But mostly I felt disoriented. Out of body. Out of phase. My professional life and the life of the Chapter were, for many years, entwined. At the gala it felt to me as if all those years were layered one on top of the other and I was re-experiencing them all at once. 

I Was There in the Beginning

I was there in the beginning. Before the beginning really. When coaching outside the sports arena was still a novel concept and a coach was a lonely thing to be. Searching out community I found a small group of coaches meeting in a west end library in Toronto. Karen Wright, Melinda Sinclair, Peter Johnson, Lisa Garber, Dorothy Greenaway, Adria Trowhill. Apologies to the others whose names escape me now. We gained in strength and numbers. I hosted annual retreats to deepen our connection. We applied for a charter with the newly formed International Coach Federation and established our place as one of the leading Chapters in ICF.

I first read about coaching in 1996 in the Ladies Home Journal. Curious, I tracked down the people in the article and made my way to California (where all such movements begin) to see what they were up to. I started Lifescapers in the Fall of that year. I trained with the Coaches Training Institute and invited them north to Canada where I began to produce their courses in the Toronto area. Then Adler Professional Schools invited a group of us to create a coaching school to complement their Master’s programs in Adlerian psychology. The following years were taken up with building out the school and taking our program on the road to establish satellites.

A dozen years later I left the Adler School faculty, although I still taught from time to time and remained an active member of Toronto ICF. In the financial crisis of 2008 I led 70 of our coaches in a huge coaching marathon called Conversations for Power and Possibility in Starbucks stores up and down Yonge Street. And wrote a book based on the program that I created for that event.

I moved into corporate coaching, leadership development, organisational development – focused my attention on helping universities and hospitals integrate coaching principles and practices to transform the culture in their organisations. Here I learned many lessons on patience and the speed of large scale change. In the moment, I wondered if the work was making any difference at all. In retrospect I am amazed at what has changed.

“Faithful in Their Time and Generation”

When I used to go to church regularly, there were often prayers of remembrance for those who were faithful “in their time and generation”. At the ICF Chapter anniversary I felt pride in the contributions I’ve made to the coaching profession and this Chapter. Along with the bittersweet knowledge that my time and generation is passing. It felt good at the anniversary gala to see that the Toronto ICF is in good hands. But they aren’t my hands.

I’ve recently given up my membership in the ICF and my credential as a Master Certified Coach. I’ve also given up my corporate coaching, organisational and leadership development work. It felt like time to let my old professional identities and attachments go and travel in open space for a while.

It’s not easy to let go. Recently I’ve had a surge of demand for Conversations for Power and Possibility, the book and program that came out of the big ICF Coaching Marathon of 2008. The book has recently gone out of print, so I’ve made some minor revisions and will be releasing it again very soon. But this is a legacy project. Even as I felt the temptation to pull out all the stops and relaunch it as a program for people in organisations who are being pulled into the downward spiral of powerless and despair, the voice of my true desire whispered, “It is enough. You have done enough. The book has done enough. Let it go now to find it’s own way.” So that’s what I’m going to do.

What Will You Do With Your Freedom?

Open space is an exhilarating place. “What will you do with your freedom?” is the question I ask myself. For now, I’m putting on my travelling shoes, tucking my notebooks and sketchbooks into my backpack and going walkabout. I’m inviting small groups to join me on some of my expeditions (See Scotland Expedition 2025) and going solo for the rest. You can read about my ongoing adventures in living with creativity and imagination at Lifescapers.com.  

Three questions I consider in this story,

1. What are you most proud of?
2. What is it time to let go of?
3. What will you do with your freedom?

Yours with creativity and imagination,

Darlene