Presence, Systems, and a Little Play
Posted on Oct. 2, 2026 / Chapter News / Subscribe 0
At the Exploratorium on September 18, the ICF SFBAC Coaches Summit highlighted that coaches experience burn out just like our clients too.
Burnout, Unbundled - A Systemic Approach To Supporting Organizations Struggling With Burnout
Betsy Block, PCC-ACTC, ITCA, EMCC, EIA, reframed a topic nearly every coach is hearing about right now. When burnout shows up in coaching, it's tempting to focus on individual resilience by defining better boundaries, more self-care, and stronger coping skills. Organizations, meanwhile, often assume the only approaches are to increase the use of AI or tough it out.
Betsy's point was that decades of evidence tell a fuller story. Drawing on Christine Maslach's research, she walked through six systemic drivers of burnout, many of which are organizational responsibilities rather than personal failings. Once you see burnout that way, the coaching question changes. It's no longer just "How can this person cope better?" but also "What in the system is creating this?"
That's where systemic team coaching comes in. Betsy took us through an exercise of sharing viewpoints and repeating back what was heard and seen. This approach works on the levers that shift culture and workflow. Best of all, none of it requires heroics or big budgets.
As coaches, being present sometimes means widening the lens beyond the person in front of you to the system they're working in.
The AI Playground: Curiosity to Confidence
Mo Lei Fong, ACC, quickly introduced herself and the AI Playground session while inviting participants to experiment with AI through text, voice, images, and reflection. Her reasoning was grounded in research on active learning: people who learn hands-on are more likely to succeed and keep going. The goal was simple. Leave with at least one practical way AI could support your practice.
Even in the Bay Area where being “AI-pilled” (embracing how artificial intelligence changes how you work and build) is a common theme, it was wonderful to look around the room and appreciate that we are all learning together.
Many AI tools and tips were shared while conversations flowed from using AI to create books to read alongside our children to the most recent AI hallucinations. The importance of AI was not overlooked nor was the human aspect of coaching that brought us together on the day.
Tying it all together.
Presence and innovation aren't opposites. Whether you're reading a scene with a human partner or an AI tool, the underlying skills are similar. We all return to curiosity and a willingness to experiment without knowing exactly how it will turn out.
After all, play isn't frivolous. It's formative.
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