1. Words are the only sure weapon against oblivion
Lessons from coaching
What we can apply from looking at the nexus between coaching and literature to our own academic writing
Words are the only sure weapon against oblivion

2. The mysterious
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead – his eyes are closed...To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms.”

3. Group of students Low employee morale Lack of communication
Not feeling listened to
Personal problems impacting on professional lives
Absent – reference to increased productivity/falling share prices/streamlined ways of doing business

4. The art of being in the workplace
How to create solid and satisfying work
How to communicate with greater clarity
How to use Cheever’s story “The Swimmer” to learn how to write better and to develop our voices
How can the themes of loneliness, alienation and struggle help our coaching and our writing

5. Background to study
Emotional context of coaching in organizations is woefully insufficient
How can “The Swimmer” fill a gap in an emotional sense?
Critical tensions between rationality and emotion in the workplace (ongoing in Western philosophical thought)
Organizations present themselves as rational, reasonable entities

6. Cheever’s fiction Acutely sensitive to characters’ emotions
Much we can learn from how he handles emotion & “manipulates” emotion in his readers
Privileging story-telling
Guiding us to perceive our world in a more probing & thoughtful manner
Embrace the benefits of storytelling

7. Questions for discussion
How does Cheever manipulate the reader’s emotions?
Can you ask questions of the text that can apply to your own practice?

8. Being aware of lexical choices
Who is speaking to us?
How does the voice establish authority?
150 words on being “exposed”

9. Use of myth & the unconscious
The quest motif
Reader-response criticism – there can be a range of responses to the same text
Metaphor/imagery/drama
Striving to make others see and feel our world

10. voice Fiction provides lessons on developing a voice
Power of a text wholly dependent on a writer’s voice
Quality of text that lends it its social power
Voice or “persona” – the essence of conveying (or not) one’s authority
Persuasive
Infusing our own values & principles