The Thinking Path: A Core Coaching Framework

The "Thinking Path" is a foundational coaching tool developed over 30 years ago by Chris Wahl and Alexander Caillet,  used to help individuals "compartmentalize their experience as human beings in four boxes." It simplifies human functioning and has its origins in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). 

• Core Components:

• Four Boxes: The framework consists of four interconnected elements:

• Thinking: Conscious and unconscious thought processes.

• Feelings: Emotional responses.

• Actions: Behaviors and decisions.

• Results: Outcomes produced by actions.

• Causality: The fundamental principle is that "Thinking drives feelings, drives actions, drives results."

• Application: It's a versatile tool applicable to "clients, to employees, to our peers, direct reports, and others in our life." It helps individuals understand the basis for their change.

• Enduring Relevance: Even decades later, Georgetown students "still use the thinking path and it's one of the key tools in their coaching toolkits."
  

  Introduction to Clients:

  Coaches can introduce the Thinking Path by:

• Drawing the four boxes: "Pull out a piece of paper and do four boxes and then label these boxes, thinking, feeling, etc."

• Starting anywhere: While the framework can be presented linearly (thinking to results), coaches can "start with whatever they're presenting." If a client expresses a strong feeling or an action that didn't go well, the coach can begin there and work backward or forward through the boxes.

• Asking guiding questions: Instead of formally introducing the model, a coach might ask, "What's beneath that?" to uncover underlying feelings or thinking. For example, if a client describes a frustrating action, the coach might ask about the feeling beneath the frustration and then inquire about the thinking or belief that underlies that feeling.
  

  Deeper Engagement:

• Iterative Process: Alexander Caillet suggests, "don't go for the first draft... have clients sit with it and come back and do it again and deepen their work around it." This allows for the uncovering of "deeper levels of thinking and thoughts and... deeper emotions."

• Inward Journey: Chris Wahl emphasizes that the model can facilitate "how much of an inward journey is a person willing to do?" helping clients respond to internal stimuli and understand their identity.

• Beyond the Surface: While effective at a "surface level," the Thinking Path can also be used to understand "a person's patterning, what they're unconscious about, the way they deal with or don't deal with their emotions and hide from them."

  
  Navigating the "BANI" World

  The speakers introduce "BANI" as a more current acronym (emerged since 2020 from Jamais Cascio) to describe the nature of disruption in the 21st century, replacing the older "VUCA" (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) model. BANI reflects what "people might be feeling in today's world."

  BANI Defined:

• Brittle: "Our systems, our processes, our procedures, our rituals, and our traditions seem to break... What used to be sound, solid systems and processes seem to break in today's world a little quicker and be a little bit less flexible than they used to be."

• Anxious: "A feeling that many people are feeling in today's world. Anxiety about the future, loss of control, etc." This includes feeling "uncertain about the future" and managing anxiety when there's "so much information and it's not necessarily all the information they need to feel grounded."

• Nonlinear: "Planning, the way we used to plan and the way we used to think about one step at a time and one step following another... that linearity has gone away and has led us to rolling strategies, rolling forecasts, rolling budgets seems to be a constant change and evolution."

• Incomprehensible: "A lot of ideas today seem to be beyond our understanding. AI being a particular case of it that we don't quite understand or comprehend how the whole system is working, and our lives seem to be, in essence, more incomprehensible."
  

  Focus on Anxiety:

  The speakers choose to focus on the "anxious" aspect of BANI, as many clients are "really working to manage their anxiety and having a tough time because there's so much information coming in." Key manifestations of anxiety include:

• Uncertainty about the future ("times 10 or maybe times 100 now for some of the clients").

• Feeling ungrounded due to information overload.

• Loss of control: "The more vertically you are developed, the more you can handle and recognize that control is an illusion."

  
  Applying the Thinking Path to Anxiety (Current State)

  Chris and Alexander apply the Thinking Path to a "current state based on this concept of being anxious."

• Thinking: "My future's uncertain."

• "I don't know what's going to happen to me."

• "My value is in question."

• "I'm worried about whether I'm adding value."

• "It's keeping me up at night."

• "I'm alone in this. I don't know who I can turn to."

• Feeling "under-resourced."

• Feelings: "I'm anxious and worried."

• "I feel overwhelmed."

• "I feel isolated."

• "I feel ungrounded."

• "I feel at a loss as to what to do."

• Actions:"I'm noticing I'm really reactive."

• "I'm losing my temper."

• "I am remaining busy with work... that's to stay busy and to not think about all the things that are bothering."

• "I compromise on self-care. I don't take time to stop and breathe."

• "I haven't been out in nature in a while."

• Results:"I'm losing touch with my family."

• "I haven't reached out to my friends in a while."

• "I'm sacrificing what's important to me."

• "I don't have time for them."

• "I'm having medical issues. I'm stressed out... the body takes a beating."
  

  Value of Current State Labeling:

  "Labeling of current state can be very gratifying and very healing in and of itself as a process. So spending some time in the current state can be really useful."