Submitted by Matt Kirilov, ACC
ICF Nebraska Chapter

Pro bono was provided to aspiring coaches, IT coaches, experienced life coaches, and anybody interested to experience coaching. For the past three years, every two weeks (on Wednesdays) the initiative Agile Coaching Circles met for an hour virtually as an Omaha, Nebraska based virtual meetup over Zoom. This is a group for anyone willing to try professional coaching. The people that show up are the right people, period. You don’t have to be an agilest to be here. Attendees range from master coaches to Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters to people who have never heard of Agile. 

This is a group of coaches and agile coaches who love to provide professional coaching help to those who want to learn, practice, teach, or need coaching. They focus widely on the professional coaching competencies. The idea is that the sessions held here at least resemble the Socratic, ontogonal coaching frameworks accepted by the International Coaching Federation and its competitors. The purpose of this meetup is to polish core (professional) coaching skills.

Generally, the following three roles crystalize in the meeting— Coaches, clients (the ones getting coaching), and observers (those who turn off their cameras and observe the coaching sessions until we open up a discussion window). During this time, they adhere to ICF ethical standards. Personal attacks, soliciting, and disruptive behavior are not welcome.

Through this initiative, dozens of people have been introduced to life coaching. Most of them not only learned about coaching, but also experienced it first-hand. At least three people introduced to coaching through the initiative became ICF Members and two obtained their ACC Credential. Multiple coaches and enthusiasts have practiced and learned from coaching for at least 75 hours.