Our Roots

Practical Application in the Real World

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he Founders of ICC, Laura Divine and Joanne Hunt, became business partners in 1998 and formed their coaching school in 2003 following five years of developing and testing their coaching method with their own client base. Prior to this, they worked for a combined total of thirty years in the private sector in various leadership capacities. Their corporate roots brought focus to a method that produced results, was sustainable, and had practical application in the real world.

Training programs can be inspiring, but that’s not enough. If a coach can’t develop embodied skills with a proven method that they can rely on, that has meaning and value, and that works in the setting that the coach wants to work in, then it is not a coach ‘training’ program, it is a coach ‘inspiring’ program. The Founders of ICC, and all the teachers that they have trained, have very pragmatic roots.

So, the coaching method was perfected over time. And, the training program was perfected over time. It is a method that allows the coach to know the roadmap, know exactly where they are on the map, and know where they are headed. Yes, there is plenty of intuition brought to bear in this work – absolutely. The ICC method gives your intuition a place to call home. It gives it more power and leverage. And it gives your embodied learning a structure that enables it to thrive.

From the very first Module, even as a beginner coach, your clients will experience sustainable change. That is what embodiment looks like. It isn’t mysterious. You will know exactly how that change happened. Practical. Pragmatic. And yes, inspiring too.

Zen, Tai Chi, & Writing Practices

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hat do these three long-term practices have to do with our coaching method? Everything. As explored in the Story & Vision section of the website, our long-term lineage practices Zen (both Laura and Joanne), Tai Chi (Laura) and Writing (Joanne) sourced our understanding of embodiment and what it takes to develop new capacities. We were also athletes in our younger years which helped form our relationship to practice and its role in new skill development. Our Zen, Tai Chi and Writing Practices allowed us to develop a deeper understanding of cycles of learning, practicing, experimenting, iterating to next steps, integrating new learning, embodying that step, and starting the cycle again. It allowed us to better articulate the ‘form’ of our coaching method and a way to tell how you are doing relative to this form.

This deeply rooted understanding underpins our developmental coaching method and our coach training architecture. We call it iterative embodiment. This kind of learning builds dynamic resilience, allowing our coaches to be with their own and their clients’ development over time. It is responsive versus prescriptive. It calls for you to be awake to “what is” in this moment. To know where you are and to act with skilful means, to the best of your ability. At home. At work. At play.

Many coaching schools don’t have well-articulated coaching methods. A coach can go through years of training on how to ask powerful questions or develop practices or be present with a client, but what structure or form are they hanging all of that training on? Our powerful method is why many experienced coaches find their way to our school.

Our long-term practices give us roots in another way. These practices give us a longer view of time and a more nuanced view of contribution. A meditation practice can look like nothing is going on when the exact opposite is happening. Our practices also give us a wider view of development and how it occurs in cycles. Like a burst of energy as an artist or corporate executive, then integration time, then rest, then another burst.

Our method is real, is human, is approachable, and it works. The same holds true for our training method. Roots in long-term practice helped build this so we can stand behind it. And thousands of years of lineage traditions stand behind us too.

Integral Principles

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astly, we have shared roots in the Integral sphere. In fact, when we first met each other, we were amazed that we had all the same Integral books on our respective bookshelves. Living five houses down the street from each other, who knew? Integral principles were brought to bear in building ICC from a perspective of understanding the map of how humans see the world, move in their lives, and check on how things are going. These principles supported the ICC method from a “know where you are” perspective. It also provided a large enough map for holding the “all” of what it means to be a human being.

People are complex. We use Integral lenses to gain deep insight into our clients and students. The Integral map allows human complexity to be more closely understood and appreciated. But the theory alone isn’t good enough. It needs form and practice, and it also needs practicality in the real world.

Early on in its inception, we were approached by Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute and Integral Life to become involved with their business launches. We developed a partnership with these organizations and worked closely with them as they debuted their own unique Integral offerings. We were endorsed by Ken Wilber as the only truly “Integral” coach training school following a thorough review of coaching schools completed by his lead theorists. We continue to celebrate the good work of these root partners and the Integral world they are supporting.

The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts

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o, with these deep roots, we’re not just a Zen school or an Integral school or a Lineage school or a Practical in the Real World school. We are all of that and more. The whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. And, as each coach brings her/his unique roots to the equation, the whole becomes ever more useful, powerful, and responsive…for ourselves, for each other, for these times, for this place.