As you all know, the Competencies standard (NS 11251) was published in early 2023. The Delivery standard (NS 11253) followed in August 2023 under the leadership of Paul O Olson and contains a legal framework for coaching contracts that makes coaching conversations a regulated, safe space.

I had invaluable contributions from Erik Eggen and the Standards Norway project leader Thomas Oskar-Andersen. The webinar was conducted in Norwegian as the standard had only a Norwegian version at the time.

The standard builds upon a similar Italian standard as well as ISO 20700 Services as a reference for deeper specifications that are normally not required for coaching services. However, we also wanted to create a framework that can be used by lawyers within organisational projects where coaching is one part.

In other words, we wanted a standard that can be applied to individual contracts standalone or as part of a larger set of contracts. IMPORTANT NOTE: it is a framework, not a standard contract.

Our purpose was to create critical jurisprudence for international assignments, an overall contract framework and guidance for individual coach-coachee contracting, Our work is of benefit clearly to coaches who otherwise are neither qualified nor powerful enough to object to large buyers who don’t necessarily understand the uniqueness of the coaching relationships.

Our hope is that the standard is sufficiently easy to use, practice-based, and applicable to writing invitations to tender and not just contracting. The standard is being written to cater for issues of jurisdiction as many of us work with contracts outside our home country.

Some legal questions will always be local to a country or state e.g. consumer protection that usually exists for products but not for services.