Editing Fernando Flores (section)

== Influence on modern coaching industry ==
Flores exerted a significant influence on the development of the modern coaching industry by collaborating with or influencing several individuals who would become prominent leaders in the coach training industry. In the mid-1970's Flores was hired by [[Werner Erhard]] to offer workshops for his office staff.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2011-12-09 |title=A Historiographical Analysis of Integral Coaching |url=https://centreforcoaching.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/A-Historiographical-Analysis-of-Integral-Coaching-by-Mark-Hartnady.pdf |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=Centre for Coaching |page=39}}</ref> Shortly after, Flores began offering, through his companies Hermenet, Inc. and Logonet, Inc., a workshop called "Communication for Action."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Winograd |first=Terry |title=Understanding computers and cognition: a new foundation for design |last2=Flores |first2=Fernando |date=2008 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-11297-9 |edition=24th printing |location=Boston |pages=}}</ref> This workshop was based partially on his interpretation of the theory of [[Speech act|Speech Acts]] by [[J. L. Austin|J.L. Austin]] and [[John Searle]].<ref name=":0" /> 

For Austin and Searle, the theory of Speech Acts was just that, a theory; they did not pursue its practical implications. Flores transformed the theory of Speech Acts into a set of practices for refining how people take care of concerns, commitments, and relationships in conversation.As Flores expresses this in his book with [[Terry Winograd]], ''Understanding Computers and Cognition'': "there exists a domain for education in communicative competence: the fundamental relationships between language and successful action. People’s conscious knowledge of their participation in the network of commitments can be reinforced and developed, improving their capacity to act in the domain of language."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winograd |first=Terry |title=Understanding computers and cognition: a new foundation for design |last2=Flores |first2=Fernando |date=2008 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-11297-9 |edition=24th printing |location=Boston |pages=162}}</ref> Thus, "This training in 'communication for action' reveals for people how their language acts participate in a network of human commitments."<ref name=":2" />

As Hubert Dreyfus put it, Flores's work enabled people to "awaken from the sleep of thinking that they were exchanging information about the world, and take responsibility for the kind of being-with-others they were making for themselves ... By developing their sensitivity to their constituting roles, business people, among others, became more entrepreneurial, more flexible, and more innovative. This was Flores’s version of the authenticity Heidegger describes in Division II of ''Being and Time''."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wrathall |first=Mark A. |title=Heidegger, coping, and cognitive science: essays in honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus |last2=Malpas |first2=Jeffrey Edward |date=2000 |publisher=the MIT press |isbn=978-0-262-23208-1 |location=Cambridge (Mass.) |pages=349}}</ref> 

In her study of the emergence of professional coaching, Dr. Vikki Brock identifies the collaboration between [[Werner Erhard]] and Fernando Flores as a convergence point that gave rise to a specific and distinct coaching lineage.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Roots and Emergence of Coaching {{!}} Library of Professional Coaching |url=https://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/concepts/best-practices-foundations/the-roots-and-emergence-of-coaching/ |access-date=2023-02-26 |language=en-US}}</ref> However, after a brief association Flores and Erhard parted ways. Flores continued to develop his distinctive theory and practice of coaching and consulting. His 1997 book, ''[[Disclosing New Worlds]]'' (with Charles Spinosa and [[Hubert Dreyfus]]) captures some of the later developments in his approach.