Dear Valued Members, Colleagues and Friends of ACTO,

An Ocean of Uncertainty

Like many organizations do in the last part of a calendar year, the ACTO Board is planning for the year ahead. In the context of asking, “what’s next?” we became acutely aware of how many of the factors we consider in our planning are unknowable. Not merely “unknown,” for that term implies that we simply need to research the data to find what we need, but “unknowable,” as in, no one knows!

You might be feeling the same as you look ahead, into that Ocean of Uncertainty. So many variables are in flux right now, the rate of change in each of those continues to accelerate, and the number of variables that we must consider in planning keeps growing. Forecasting the future is always a game of guessing, but this year is feeling particularly challenging.

Consider the topics that arose in just 40 minutes of conversation:

  • The proliferation of Coach training methodologies and resources and the challenge of differentiation
  • New rounds of distinctions in coaching competencies and ethical codes that require we update to remain current
  • Expansion of AI into Coaching and the training we must all do for ourselves to keep current in technology, let alone train our students and teams
  • Additionally, the degree to which AI affects every aspect of running a business, from confidentiality issues to how we manage social media to how we create, market, communicate, and develop curriculum
  • The erasure and/or weaponization of social identity that makes coaching more important than ever… and simultaneously makes it feel more dangerous to offer in some markets
  • The democratization of Coaching that we receive joyfully for the sake of impacting more people, yet cautiously because it’s upending our business models
  • Acceleration of climate shift and the challenges that many people face every day just to live their lives, and the anxiety it produces around infrastructure, comfort, and safety
  • The geopolitical climate and the increasing polarization that shows up in every aspect of running a business or a coaching organization like ours

Any ONE of the above would be enough to challenge us in planning, yet we must take ALL into account for the sake of our plan.

It felt important to us, as a board, to openly discuss all these issues, for they are the context in which we must proceed. We sense that all our members, from freelance coaches to larger CTOs, are grappling with the same.

Our experience reminds us why we belong to a community. Together, we are more capable of wading into and swimming the waters of The Ocean of Uncertainty. Together We Can!

Warmly
ACTO Board Members