Brief coaching is a philosophy, and a different way to practice coaching. Organisational coaching is often seen as an expensive, time-consuming process—and might be perceived as intrusive or intimidating by some coachees. In contrast, brief coaching is lighter, faster, more respectful of individual psychological needs, and much more economical to deploy at scale. It can be practiced in just a few minutes, where and when people need it. Self-coaching is the action of applying coaching techniques onto oneself, with or without the presence of a coach. With practice, self-coaching makes it possible to overcome limiting beliefs faster than traditional coaching, and empowers people to handle difficult situations more effectively—as well as recognise when it would make sense to get support from someone else. In the corporate world, it is estimated that roughly 40% of leaders & managers have a natural preference for brief coaching and/or self-coaching (which rely on "intrinsic empowerment") over traditional, more directive coaching approaches (which rely on "extrinsic empowerment"). This enables highly-scalable individual & collective interventions that reduce coaching costs and drastically increase organisational development ROI.

Kedo is a brief coaching method that helps manage problems, large and small, with a constructive mindset. With and without a coach. The method relies on a set of evidence-based self-coaching, brief coaching, and group facilitation techniques that have been tested, adapted, and selected for their effectiveness in helping people manage stress, tensions, overwhelming priorities, and all sorts of critical situations. Better and faster. Sounds difficult? Think again. When discovering kedo, most people start getting results within the first few minutes. And with a bit more practice, you'll find that kedo principles also help get the benefits of traditional coaching from conversations with friends, colleagues, loved ones, strangers, etc.—even if they're not coaches. Kedo can be practiced in a variety of individual and collective formats, by experienced practitioners ("kedokas") and beginners alike.

The English name kedo comes from the Japanese 勁道 (from 勁 "kei", power, strength, energy and 道 "dou", the way). The name also refers to "kedology" (from the Greek "kedos", taking care), the science of taking care. Just like judo is a martial art, kedo is a civil art—the art and science of taking care of energy and effectiveness.

At first glance, kedo dialogue may feel very similar to traditional coaching, but in reality it is quite different. Kedo dialogue is lighter, faster, and less directive than typical coaching approaches. Kedo is very much about making space for silence, deep introspection, and asking oneself "intelligent enough" questions (not necessarily the "best" coaching questions) to make space for autonomous thinking. Because it relies on very simple principles, kedo can -- at its most basic levels of practice -- be learned in just a few minutes, i.e. much faster than traditional coaching. This enables a very scalable model for facilitating dialogue and deploying individual & collective coaching interventions in organisations. Additionally, the non-interpretative nature of kedo makes it possible for coachees to bring up pretty much any topic they feel comfortable sharing, including personal challenges such as stress, anxiety, loneliness, overwhelming emotions, lack of self-confidence, etc. and still have a consistently positive experience as they verbalise those difficulties. Advanced levels of kedo practice include specific tools for addressing head-on such topics, but basic levels of practice already do a decent job at helping people feel better after they've been listened to. Because it encourages systemic thinking, kedo is particularly useful to tackle relational tensions, conflicts, and complex, large-scale problems that may otherwise seem too daunting to address.

The basic principles of kedo can be learned within a few minutes. But it usually takes a few hours of practice to get a feel for their depth, and a few more hours if you want to integrate them into your daily life. Most learners start noticing significant transformations in the way they think, talk and address stressful problems after 4-5 cumulative hours of practice. However more advanced emotional regulation and systemic problem-solving skills may require several dozen hours of practice before they can reliably be used in everyday situations. Overall, kedo is much simpler to learn than many other coaching approaches, and a great way to incorporate systemic thinking and mental barrier management into other reflective practices.