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JUNE 2013 Hi folks, In this issue, we review the gestalt concept of perceptual patterns. Being able to determine if the client has created a perceptual pattern enables the coach to support the client to reflect on how he or she makes meaning. Often, when these patterns are broken, insights shift the meaning-making from either/or to both/and thinking, thereby increasing the client's capacity to think in more complex ways. Respectfully, Herb StevensonHerb Stevenson, CEO/President Coaching Perceptual Patternsby Herb Stevenson Perceptual patterns are innate to all behavior and meaning making. Basically, we create a set of underlying principles of what has been successful during the course of our life. If being a bully has led to some form of success, it is reinforced and becomes a perceptual pattern that is not questioned even when contradictory data surfaces. Furthermore, the more stress that an executive faces, the more likely they are to regress to time-tested perceptual patterns, literally removing the capacity to distinguish the forest from the trees. Michelle Barton and Kathleen Sutcliffe highlighted this process in their research on dysfunctional momentum ( Learning When to Stop Momentum, MITSloan Management Review, Spring, 2010, Vol. 51., No. 3.). In their research, they determined that "dysfunctional momentum occurs when people continue to work toward an original goal without pausing to recalibrate or reexamine their processes, even in the face of cues that suggest they should change course." (69) A patriarchal cliche' for this approach is "not stopping to check the map or ask for directions". Core ConceptGestalt Psychology underlies Gestalt theory. Perception and therefore awareness are critical components of Gestalt coaching theory. Basically, it is held that Gestalt Coaching changes perceptions and therefore what is possible by supporting awareness to emerge from the existing ground of possibilities and potential. Reality shifts by widening, deepening, and revealing new or alternative ways of thinking, perceiving, and therefore doing (driving and framing perceptions). According Laura Perls, "Gestalt....is experiential and experimental." (Perls, 1992, 51) Defining GestaltOddly, the most difficult aspect of Gestalt Coaching theory has been to translate the word Gestalt from German to English as well as from the various theoretical uses in Gestalt psychology, Gestalt therapy, and Gestalt Coaching. Ehrenfels, who coined the word in the 1890s, simply referred to gestalt and form interchangeably. "He insisted that the real essence of any perception was to be found in the Gestalt...[in] the immediate experience...(Pillsbury, 1933, 484-5) Later the Gestalt School noted that "experience... [and therefore]... all truly characteristic phases or processes of mind were just these gestalten or forms." (Pillsbury, 1933, 485) Though this may seem like complex and potentially circular thinking, the gist of gestalt formation is that we make meaning when we create perceptions via our interaction with the outside world and when we engage memories that spontaneously look inward to reason or understand how the experience has impacted us. Hence, how we perceive and make meaning, individually and organizational, is endemic to who we are and what we are willing to do. Where We Come FromThe significance of gestalt formation is that prior knowledge greatly influences our current perception and memory...Therefore, when we remember something we are reconstructing our perceptions of the event. "All experience and learning that has been fully assimilated and integrated builds up a person's ...background...[This background]...gives meaning to the emerging gestalten, and thus supports a certain way of living on the boundary with excitement. Whatever is not assimilated, either gets lost or remains a block in the ongoing development [or growth]." (Perls, 1992, 54) Gestalt principles of perceptual organization inform us in how we form perceptions and therefore in how we make meaning based on our existing knowledge and way of making meaning from experience, unless we are able to witness our own process.
The value of these principles of gestalt perceptual patterns is that it conveys that we tend to take short cuts while using our historically familiar past and our desired future to frame our perceptions of what we are seeing and/or making meaning in any given moment. As a result, our generally unconscious use of the principles of perceptual organization (filtering) as part of our ongoing gestalt-formation (meaning making) will then likely be guided by our client's perceptual patterns. The question that becomes relevant for coaching —are the client's perceptions real or fixed gestalts? And, more importantly, what as coaches can we do to create awareness around perception formation. Creating Awareness Around PatternsWhen coaching most executives, I assume that there are several perceptual patterns that have driven their success. Many of you probably call them assumptions; however, I tend toward perceptual patterns as they tend to have a long history of supporting the client through the white waters of their career. Metaphorically, the pattern varies for each individual. For example, if we use white waters as the key meaning making container for the client, they might have a pattern of riding it out on an inflated inner tube or in a Kayak or on a raft with a team, and, on occasion, on their back, toes pointed up and down river without any life vest. Some avoid the metaphorical container by swimming ashore and walking along the banks or by having a helicopter swoop in to recover them. Each perceptual pattern tends to inform the coach how the client filters the way to address their daily challenges and what they will see as usable pseudo-facts. To get a sense of these perceptual patterns, I often start the coaching process with the polarity of successes and failures. When I ask them to describe their successes, I will get a sense of how they filter their perceptions of what is success. Similarly, I get the same sense of how they form perceptual patterns of what they see as failure. I am never bored with their responses. At least half of the people have never had failures, only learning experiences. Others have vivid descriptions that suggest that the image is as fresh today as it was years ago when it occurred. Either way, the answers are clues for how the client frames the perceptions for each of these experiences. I often go one step further and ask how the successes and failures have served and dis-served them over time. This additional unraveling of their meaning making process tends to provide ample areas for revealing themes and patterns. ConclusionSlowing down the coaching process to determine perceptual patterns will provide insights into the repetitive and likely unconscious behavior of the client. Once these are revealed, many clients understand and start an immediate shift in behavior and relationships. Others can have an intellectual insight and no apparent capacity to actually change the pattern. In these latter cases, it is unlikely the client will be able to navigate the organization too much further as these patterns will preempt their success. In many cases, the individual realize the implications and begin a transition to another position, internally or externallly.
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