Where Genius Grows Gideon Culman

“Once we can see that we are not this enduring, consistent, perfect self that we've constructed ourselves to be—that we see all the ways in which we don't show up aligned with our intentions or who we want to be in the world—we start to have compassion for other people and their challenges in doing so. Once we see our complexity, we can see others’ complexity.”
— Valerie Livesay
Embracing every aspect of ourselves can feel squarely at odds with how we’re accustomed to showing up in our lives. But what is the cost of only ever putting our best foot forward? In this episode Valerie Livesay invites Zafer Achi and Gideon Culman to reflect on their experiences of integrating the parts of their lives that they had until recently been reluctant to fully claim.

"The linear approaches are genuinely slow and methodical. And we've missed our window for that. We now need lots and lots of experiments that need unpredictable results, hopefully in the positive direction. And that's going to get us out of this next huge global challenge."
— Patrice Laslett
Patrice Laslett works as a partner at Cultivating Leadership. She is a faculty member of the Growth Edge Coaching workshops.

"One of the great feelings about intimacy is that it keeps unraveling itself. It keeps exposing itself. It keeps flowering anew. You keep feeling like you're discovering an unknown other for the first time, because what you're discovering is new for you."
— William Torbert
William Torbert's oeuvre of Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry has been making waves for decades. But when we approach Torbert's remarkably practical body of work intent only on optimizing our own effectiveness, are we doing ourselves a disservice? In this conversation about Torbert's memoir Numbskull in the Theatre of Inquiry we consider the importance of spiritual questioning that hinges on timely inaction.

"There is some really good coaching happening without even seeing the coach or knowing what the coach's name is. I've been doing some digital debrief . . . and it's my colleague Nick's picture up there, it's not even me. They don't even know who I am. And in some ways, it's kind of fun because I've got my invisibility cape on but in another way I can really see how it's more about the client and their process."
— Jan Rybeck

"It's very important to just take those few minutes to hold that coffee cup, to think of that good memory, to pull out an old photo, listen to one song that you absolutely love. But that's the stuff, just those little tidbits, because the rest of it is not joyful. It's not."
— Jodi Sleeper-Triplett 
Jodi Sleeper-Triplett is a Master Certified Coach, trainer, mentor, and speaker. She is the author of Empowering Youth with ADHD and contributing author of Becoming Self-Determined: Creating Thoughtful Learners in a Standards-Driven, Admissions-Frenzied Culture. Her company, JST Coaching & Training, provides student and ADHD coach training programs to individuals and educational institutions.

"I want to have my insides match my outsides. I want how I view myself internally to match my external behavior. That's my objective every day. That's my purpose. And if I do that, then I know I'm a good human for others."
– Carly Anderson
Carly Anderson is a Master Certified Coach. Since 2005 Carly has served the International Coaching Federation as an assessor, evaluating the skills of coaches applying for credentials. Carly also mentors coaches engaged in growth toward their next credential. In this conversation, Gideon Culman and Carly Anderson each share their path into master-level coaching and discuss how this journey has impacted their lives.