UK Training Industry Press Releases

There is little doubt that one of the current ‘hot potatoes' in the Learning and Development field is workplace Coaching. The percentage of requests for this particular topic have dramatically increased over the last few months.

Why is that? I suspect that is it linked to the current difficult economic times that we are all faced with and the desire to find a cost effective alternative to expensive ( and non specific ) public courses.  Having checked the records, because I know some of you will - yes we have covered this topic before! Way back in 2004 - doesn't time fly?

Definitions:

Training is typically one to many off the job, and coaching is one to one on the job. Coaching is a tailored, structured programme of skills and knowledge transfer designed with a specific learner in mind.

Benefits:

Tailored to the needs of the learner, on the job (therefore saving lots of external spend), at a time, place and pace to suit the learner, capable of immediate evaluation, ‘time to competence' is dramatically decreased. There are of course many benefits for the coach and the organisation as well.

What do we need to make it happen? An organisation that recognises the value of coaching and builds the process into the ‘way we do business' and coaches with the required skills and confidence to ‘make it happen'. What we don't need is simply the best widget maker passing on his/her experience in an unstructured, haphazard manner!

The Process:

A consistent, proven model is essential to ensure that your learning objectives are achieved. STEEP is one that I have used in many workshops for a wide variety of clients.

SPOT every opportunity to coach (when things go wrong, to motivate, to solve   problems, Health and Safety issues etc).

TAILOR and agree the coaching objectives with the learner. Be specific about what is to be learned and how the individual will demonstrate that they have learned it.

EXPLAIN and impart the knowledge and skills at the right time and place and in bite sized chunks.

EVALUATE the learners understanding - can they do it, write it down, talk you though it?

PRAISE for the effort, progress made, value added.

Creating a team of suitably trained and confident internal coaches could be one of the most cost effective initives that you implement this year.

As ever of you would like to discuss this issue further then do please give me call on 01785 823583.

Best Regards

Dave Chesters

PS funding from West Midlands Business Link for management development is still available for those of you in the West Midlands area.