How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 284

and from a sympathetic viewpoint. This can then be assessed for
recurring themes and constructs, these can be discussed with the
individual concerned.
Once constructs have been elicited their hierarchy and
interlinking can be found by 'laddering' and 'pyramiding'. The
former takes one upwards towards the highest core constructs
whilst the latter provides a detailed map of a person's lower
level construct map in any particular area. By asking questions
like "which is more important a or b?" and then asking 'why?'
questions one can ladder quite quickly and easily.
Pyramiding, on the other hand, requires questions like "what
kind of person does y?", "How does that/they differ from x?", this
process allows the client to narrow down their definitions and
arrive at the lower level constructs. This exercise does require a
reasonable sized piece of paper to record all the answers and
provide a sensible construct map.
One powerful tool for understanding why people are not willing
to change is the ABC technique (Tschudi 1977). Here A is the
desired change with constructs B1 and B2 elicited. B1 being the
disadvantages about the present state and B2 the advantages
about moving to the new state. However it is possible (if not
probable) that the current situation has some advantages which
may outweigh the disadvantages. Therefore C1 are constructs
which show the negative side of moving whilst C2 are the
positive aspects of staying the same. But, by looking at the payoffs for not changing we can identify the barriers and put
measures in place to overcome them (if necessary).
Kelly also proposed a form of dramatherapy for use with clients.
In his version, which he called 'Fixed Role Therapy', in
conjunction with the client he drew up a new persona (including
a new name and history) and encouraged the client to act as if
they were this new person. This allowed the client to 'try out'
new ways of looking at the world in a safe environment (if it
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