Jack and the Beanstalk - a powerful coaching story

We can see elements of coaching, the hero’s journey if you like, in many traditional tales and fairy stories.  And the more you look at them, the more you will see…

If we think about Jack and the beanstalk for example, we might start off by saying that it was about slaying giants, finding the courage and the confidence to destroy your demons, real or imagined.  Or maybe it is about climbing a beanstalk, up to a bigger and better place, finding not only gold but the source of wealth itself:  the hen that lays the golden eggs.

But then again it’s about planting magic beans, whatever anyone else might say, and waiting to see what grows.  And seeing how the beanstalk grows up, and up, and round, and out, leading to all sorts of extraordinary places that you couldn’t have imagined when you threw down those beans.

Or maybe the story is about how people change, and grow – or remain stuck in character.  There is Jack of course: curious, confident, hungry, full of desire, at times over-reaching.    But what about the Giant, striding around his empty castle, trapped by his own wealth and power.  Or his sad lonely wife, desperate for children, longing for any sign of love.   And then there’s Jack’s mother, who does nothing but worry and moan, the voice of negativity… and yet, at the end, is the one who fetches the axe.

And when we think about it maybe the story is not just about slaying giants – because the giant only dies when Jack and his mother are able to chop down the beanstalk.  Perhaps it is about breaking the ties that bind, real or imagined…

But what does all this have to do with coaching and NLP?  Well, it is a story that begins with a problem state (no money, no prospects, no joy in life) and ends in a positive end state.  We can see that in material terms (wealth, economic freedom) but mainly in the transformations that have taken place through the course of the story (freedom from fear, courage, confidence, a sense of your own power).  There’s some magic along the way, of course, but everything flows from the resources they have already got: the milk cow (poor old Daisy), and Jack’s confidence, resilience, curiosity, believing in the impossible…   What the magic beans do is open up new possibilities and let the story unfold…

The beauty of this and other stories is that there is no one answer… but many layers of meaning that curl and twirl like leaves on a beanstalk… meanings that we make and take from our own experience and map of the world… meanings that change over time… and with each reading… and I don’t know which part of the story has the most meaning for you now…?