Seite - 46 - in Coaching im digitalen Wandel

Kanatouri46 sets are used to support the clients’ reflection processes is how understandable, precise and clear the questions are, and how they are structured based on coach- ing methodology to support the clients’ outcome-oriented reflection processes. Alterity relations: Ihde (1990) discussed alterity relations that emerge in tech- nologies, which display a »quasi-other« quality and behaviour. In the example of avatar-based coaching, to be able to act within a virtual world, the client needs to merge with the avatar. Whilst this is a clear embodiment relation between the coaching client and the avatar, the relation between human and avatar is also an alterity relation. Using the ProReal software, an avatar-based virtual environment designed for coaching and counselling, coaching clients view the representation of themselves (their avatar) from a first or a third-person per- spective, and they may give their avatar a colour, a size, a posture and a cap- tion. These attributes are supposed to match the clients’ emotional states. The avatar becomes a technological extension of the client, a »quasi-other« which resembles the client, but it might display a different behaviour than the client would display in the physical world. This relation can also be reversed: How might the clients’ cognitive or emotional states change if the clients change the appearance of their avatar to match their desired state? For instance, could cre- ating a very tall avatar give the client a sense of confidence? In both cases, the experience of »being« in the virtual world is shaped by the connection between the client and the avatar. A chatbot is another clear example of what Ihde sees as the »quasi-other«. Clients’ interactions with coaching chatbots (e. g. PocketConfidant, Butterfly.ai, or Saberr’s CoachBot) can be understood as alterity interactions, because chat- bots are experienced as something more than just a computer program. They may be experienced as having a humanoid presence, an autonomy to ask reflec- tive questions, and perhaps in the future, as having a consciousness. The impli- cation of chatbots and avatars in coaching is that quasi-otherness influences the clients’ relation to technology, and it shapes their coaching experience. The anonymity, humanoid presence and reaction of the chatbot to the client could potentially encourage the client’s openness and self-disclosure. Or the represen- tation of the client as an avatar and seeing one’s avatar interact with the virtual world might lead to new insights about oneself. The digital coach As discussed in the previous section, the sensory qualities of different media may amplify, or they may reduce the experience, and the perceptual awareness Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0