The CARTA Dimensions Coaching Model

A Coaching Model By Michal Antczak, Leadership Coach, FRANCE

CARTA Dimensions

The road must eventually lead to the whole world. Ain’t nowhere else it can go – right? – Jack Kerouac, “On the Road”

I have developed this model with a specific niche in mind: coaching global leaders (both managers and individual contributors alike) in technology companies that either operate at an international scale or, in general, need to address the matters of collaborating with multicultural customers or employees. It’s a blend of coaching techniques, Agile management, and the application of research findings in the field of multiculturalism.

The model consists of two essential, complementary components – an agile engagement structuring approach (CARTA) and a framework for analyzing the multicultural aspects of the client’s challenges (Dimensions.)

CARTA

The acronym outlines the approach to structuring multi-session engagements as a series of iterations with testable outcomes and agile realignments of the client’s trajectory.

C	Chart a longer-term goal related to the challenges the client is facing. What do they want to achieve ultimately? Why is reaching the goal important to the client? What is the time frame in which they want to reach it? How do they hope to achieve the goal will impact other areas in their life? What are the intermediate objectives?
A	Analyze the potential paths for moving towards the objectives, establishing the probable milestones along each of these paths. Is there only one way in which the client feels they can reach the objectives? What are the alternatives? What steps does the client need to take along each path? What milestones can they reach in short one or two-week periods along each of these paths? How exactly will the client know that they have reached the milestones? What hard data (metrics) will they need to be certain about that? How will they gather it? What performance indicator based on that data will inform them about the measure of success? What external support will they need? Based on these, which path sounds the most realistic? Which one will the client decide to try first?
R	Reach the milestones, one by one, proceeding in short, one- or two-week sprints along the chosen path. Take the pre-agreed steps towards the milestones, documenting the observations and gathering the data to objectively assess the progress. Adjust the steps as needed, as required by the circumstances, or if the outcomes being achieved seem to be misaligned with the expected ones (ideally based on the collected metrics.)
T	Test to what extent the milestone has been achieved. Check-in every one or two weeks, as pre-agreed, to explore the progress together. Looking objectively at the data, have the milestones been reached? Does the selected path still lead to the desired objectives and the ultimate goal? Are the metrics the client is collecting still valid for measuring progress? Discuss the findings, observations, and learnings from the journey so far.
A	Adjust the plan based on the outcomes of the testing stage. How far is the client from reaching the ultimate goal? Is the goal still valid or does it need to be tweaked? Are the objectives leading to it still applicable? Is the selected path still the right one, or should a more valid one be taken from now on? If so, is it one of the paths identified earlier, or is a new one needed? What metrics and performance indicators will be used to measure progress from now on? Once the plan is adjusted, apply it from the next sprint onwards.

DIMENSIONS

The other essential part of the model is a way to methodically explore the multicultural aspects of the challenges the coaching engagement is focused on. The tool I use for that is a combination of cultural orientation dimension frameworks proposed by Erin Meyer¹ and Philippe Rosinski.² The table below summarizes these frameworks – all the essential details are provided in the respective books referenced above, while a broader summary can be found in my research paper, “High-Tech Leadership Coaching in a Multicultural Environment.”

Area	Cultural Dimension
Communication	Affective vs. Neutral  Confrontational vs. Avoiding Confrontation  Direct vs. Indirect  Formal vs. Informal  Low vs. High Context
Life Philosophy	Being vs. Doing  Control vs. Harmony vs. Humility  Individualistic vs. Collectivistic  Protective vs. Sharing
Models of thinking	Analytical vs. Systemic  Deductive vs. Inductive  Principles vs. Applications First
Organization	Competitive vs. Collaborative  Consensual vs. Top-Down  Egalitarian vs. Hierarchical  Stability vs. Change  Universalist vs. Particularist
Time management	Linear vs. Flexible Time  Monochronic vs. Polychronic  Past vs. Present vs. Future  Scarce vs. Plentiful
Trust building	Task- vs. Relationship-Based

Applying the combined framework is critically important during all the stages of the CARTA process, as it raises the client’s awareness of the multicultural dimensions of the issues that may be connected to the challenges they are trying to address. It provides a systematic way of looking at, talking about, and analyzing the possible approaches to how people interacting with the client can perceive important values, concepts, and behaviors. That in turn enables the client to discover new cultural choices, objectively assess cultural differences, bridge diverse cultures, and leverage cultural diversity as part of their coaching journey.

Depending on the challenges the client is facing and on how they frame both these and the long-term goals, I will bring up the existence of the different dimensions at different points of the CARTA process and invite the client to explore them. We will then discuss the client’s observations and realizations and see if and how they impact the client’s perception of their challenges and the definition of their goal and objectives. That, in turn, will lead to tweaks (or major changes) to the weights the client applies to the different aspects of their journey and the path(s) they may want to pursue, as well as to redefine the metrics they will want to use to measure their progress.

References

¹“The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business,” Erin Meyer, PublicAffairs, International edition, 2015
² “Coaching Across Cultures: New Tools for Leveraging National, Corporate and Professional Differences,” Philippe Rosinski, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2003