Background. Milieu. Setting. Environment. That which surrounds and gives meaning to something else. The parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning.  All of these definitions relate to the word “context” (from the latin “to join by weaving”).

In the world of executive and organizational coaching, focusing on context is like working with a magic loom that can weave profound transformation.

While imparting skills, tools, or techniques certainly has a place in the coaching and consulting world, whenever a radical, non-incremental leap in perception, capacity or performance has taken place, it’s because the context has shifted, not because a skill was honed or a new tool was employed.  Contextual work is the ultimate energy-efficient technology; it can generate Himalayan scale change with relatively little force.  (It also doesn’t require a lot of space or equipment.)

So what is context, really?

For our purposes, let’s think of context as the worldview of a person or social entity (group, team, department, organization, community, country…).  It’s the way the world shows up for us in the different areas of our lives.   Here are some of the “things” that make up context within the business world (this is, by necessity, a very incomplete list)…

• What we perceive, see, hear, recognize, notice, pay attention to, etc., (as well as what we don’t perceive, see, hear…)
• The assessments we have about ourselves, our colleagues, our company, the marketplace, the world (and the assessments others have about all of the foregoing)
• The stories or explanations we tell ourselves about ourselves, our actions, our history, our possibilities, our limitations, our future—as well as those about our colleagues, our company, the marketplace, the world…(This includes what people call realistic, practical, common-sense—these only apply within a particular way of seeing things—change the context and what’s realistic or practical or sensible also change.)
• The moods or emotional spaces that we have (or that have us)
• Our expectations about how things should go (for us, our colleagues, our company, etc.  (This relates to the stories/explanations we tell ourselves.)
• The social and professional practices, routines and standards that are expected and “normal” within our given working environment (company, industry, marketplace, culture…)
• Our habitual physical posture and movement patterns (how we stand, sit, walk, carry ourselves), our breathing patterns, the ways that we become excited or calm, tense or relaxed, and so on.
• So-called “external” corporate, industry, market factors, forces, conditions or circumstances

Context both defines and is defined by what we perceive, how we think about what we perceive, and what actions make sense to us in any given situation.  How we see and think about ourselves (our self-identity) is a critical dimension of “our” context.  Oh, and contexts are usually invisible.

We only know that we’re in a particular context when we somehow step “outside” of it and suddenly see freshly what is normally just taken for granted. Contexts are invisible because they are habitual.  Like breathing air, much of context just happens in the background, without our conscious awareness (until we experience difficulty breathing—when the background of “breathing air” is quickly propelled into the foreground of our awareness).

Another way in which they are invisible is that contexts are abstractions—we can’t touch or feel them with our hands, see them with our eyes, or measure them with instruments. They only “exist” in our minds.

So contexts are invisible; they’re habitual; and they only exist in our minds…

NOTE: For those of you who just started wondering whether this is getting a little too woo-woo…try and take a deep, non-habitual breath and hang in there just a little longer.

Just because they exist only in our minds, it doesn’t mean that we can’t work with contexts—or that they are less powerful than more “concrete” things (like time management tools, leadership skills, or team building techniques, for example).  In fact, the opposite is true.  The fact that contexts are mental phenomena is what actually gives them their transformational potency.  All of the significant inventions, technologies and achievements that we humans have brought about, come from our mental constructs, our ideas, images, calculations, stories that arise in our minds and then find expression in the world.

Whether it’s Copernicus’ realization that the Earth revolves around the Sun (and not vice versa), Ghandi’s recognition of the inherent dignity of every human being (including the British “oppressors”) that led to his embodiment of non-violent resistance, or Steve Job’s vision of a “personal” computer for the rest of us—our capacity to create new contexts is what makes us the potentially creative, innovative creatures that we are.  Contexts animate us. They inspire us.  And they express themselves through our intentions and actions.  (And of course it’s not just our grand achievements that flow from contexts—everything, even the most mundane things we do flow almost effortlessly from the context we are each living in each moment.)

This is why my coaching and consulting is always focused on contexts: because of the central role of contexts in determining who we are and what we can become.  But we’ll get into themes like Identity and Possibility in future posts, along with some reflections on how to shift contexts, the role of language in Collaborative Leadership and other ramblings.

For now, I’ll sign off with this paraphrase of the famous football coach Vince Lombardi:  Context isn’t the only thing—it’s [literally] everything.

Posted in Contexts & Conversations, GJ Blog