The Prism Story

The Prism award was born at the ICF-Greater Toronto Area Chapter, in Toronto, Canada under the direction of a talented leadership team in the year 2000.  The first awards were given by 2001.

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:

1. The winning organization uses coaching for leadership development
   

2. There are demonstrated organizational benefits from the coaching initiative
   

3. There is an executive sponsor who actively champions coaching
   

4. Individuals being coached include senior management
   

5. 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.