These days I'm following a course in didactics which gives me the chance to see how others teach, coach and interact with learners. In one of these courses I learned about idiolectic through Andreas Cincera.

My two cents

The goal of an idiolectic conversation is to help the coachee explore a topic without being forced into one goal. The coach asks short, concrete and clarifying questions often starting with "how, what, when, who, etc". Each question re-uses the language of the person as a basis.

Here are a few key differences with other coaching styles:

• open goal: this is an explorative mode.
• no reframe: the coach doesn't reframe and translate into his language. Instead he sticks with the language used by the coachee.
• word economical: the questions of the coachare by design short
• no why: the ' "why" question is avoided, as it's done by some hostage negotiators, as it puts people in defensive mode. Chris Voss, an ex negotiator for the FBI and the author of the book Never Split the Difference, explains in his book that "why" questions can make people defensive and he recommends instead of using questions that start with "how, what, when," etc. Those question can uncover the why in other ways.

I plan to use this as an introduction to coaching sessions by asking coachees if they would be open to first explore the topic that brings them to the coaching through questions. Then it other approaches are still needed I'll use those.

What the experts say

Here is how the creators of this method describe it:

"Idiolectics is the methodical approach to one's own language"

"Idiolectics is the conversational method that, in a consistent and uncompromising way, connects with the subjective life-world of a person."