The PRISM Story
We are proud of the important contributions that coaching has made and is making to business wisdom and success. The PRISM Award is intended to recognize coaching results in organizations and to demonstrate to others the value of coaching. The presentation of this unique award is one of the highlight events of the year for the Greater Toronto Area chapter of the International Coach Federation. An important piece of history for the ICF-GTA Chapter is that the Prism award was born right here, in this chapter under a talented leadership team.
The original PRISM Award was a simple yet elegant cluster of quartz crystal that represented the pinnacle of collaboration between coaches and client organizations. It represented clarity of thinking, harmony, and the alignment of many human energies working together to achieve dreams and business goals. It began as a tangible recognition of companies and organizations that have made the most of their opportunities to benefit from coaching initiatives.
Patti Burgess, the architect of the original award said that the concept for the award came to her when she thought of coaching as a tool to help clients create "full spectrum living" for themselves. The idea of a spectrum led to "prism" because of the ability of the quartz crystal to refract light into the full spectrum of colours.
Later, Christopher Schulz was called in to find an award that can be shared internationally with other ICF chapters around the world.
The criteria for choosing a winner in the selection process includes:
- The winning organization uses coaching for leadership development
- There are demonstrated organizational benefits from the coaching initiative
- There is an executive sponsor who actively champions coaching
- Individuals being coached include senior management
- The actual job of choosing a winner from the excellent nominees is a daunting task, because most nominees meet these criteria in varying degrees.
The ICF-GTA Chapter encourages all coaches and organizations using coaching as a leadership strategy to share their successes with this community and the business community at large through the PRISM Award Process.
The expanded international website is now here