Thinking Outside Our Brains: Interpersonal Neurobiology and Organizational Change

L Page International Journal of Coaching in Organizations 2006

Organizational coaching and coaching in general draw on a number of different fields and academic disciplines. There is another field of study that integrates several disciplines. stimulated by the past decade of intense brain research, this field is called “interpersonal neurobiology” (Siegel, 1999). by showing that our brain processes are profoundly social, interpersonal neurobiology bridges the human paradox of being both inhabitants of our own private phenomenological reality and necessarily embedded in social systems and dependent on others. This leads to understanding what it is about coaching that literally makes our brains grow and how that growth creates “supersystems,” as people make enduring connections outside their brains. a cyclical process is outlined to illustrate the distribution of “collaborative, contingent conversations” as leadership skills throughout an organization.