Rating:

In a hurry?  Recommendation   

Coaching has been described as the most rapidly growing field in North America. Although estimates of the number of coaches worldwide vary, several sources have placed the number at 50,000. A recent study of 6,000 coaches revealed that coaching generates more than USD $1.5 billion in revenue.

The rise in the profile and availability of coaching has been fuelled, in part, by today's changing workplace. Business success now requires greater attention to the characteristics, desires, and needs of contemporary employees. Leadership styles that are dictatorial or autocratic are highly out of place as ways of dealing with rapidly changing goals and priorities. Instead, today's leader must engage in more empowering interactions and focus on maximizing employee learning.

Adding coaching as a key component of to business success has gained rapid acceptance as a way for leaders to empower workers and assist the organization to prepare for and manage change. In the last 10 years the number of organizations specializing in training coaches has grown from a dozen to more than 250.

While the more formal or specialized coach training programs have increased so also have the number of self-study materials, books, videos, and resources designed to help leaders, team members, and other employees learn how to integrate coaching actions into their everyday work life.

But all too often these materials lack the theoretical foundation, learning focus, and practical simplicity needed to take coaching beyond a fad or flavor of the month. HRDQ has addressed all of these important needs in a set of materials called CoachingAchievement.

The core of the product is the Facilitator Kit, which comes in a very convenient tote bag that includes two three-ring binders (the facilitator guide and the participant guide), laminated role cards, and a CD-ROM that includes a PowerPoint presentation, copies of worksheets, flipchart masters, and activity handouts as well as a form for training evaluation and a master for creating a certificate of completion.

The pivotal element of the kit is the Mars Rover simulation. This activity has proven highly valuable in other leadership and decision-making activities, and HRDQ has placed this simulation as a key element for helping participants learn about coaching styles. Anyone familiar with this simulation knows that its fun, frustration, and power can provide participants with a common experience they can use to maximize their learning.

HRDQ has very carefully designed these materials to assist in the delivery of a one-day experiential workshop. They recommend 12-18 participants in a workshop so that small groups of four to six can work together as a team on the Mars Rover simulation.

They have also very carefully thought out a coaching model that can be easily learned and placed into practice. They use the term "Breakthrough Coach" to describe the role of the performance-oriented emphasis on coaching in this kit. They identify five coaching skills—building rapport, observing and analyzing, questioning and listening, providing feedback, and facilitating learning—and a three-step coaching process—ACT, or assess, conduct, and track.

While the coaching skills and process may be somewhat familiar to participants, the exceptional value in this formation is the use of the highly engaging and learning-centered experiential model to deliver the program. Other coaching materials may attend to the importance of experiential learning, but the HRDQ materials demonstrate how to integrate this type of learning into all aspects of the Coaching Achievement program.

By using the experiential model, the workshop can accommodate a wide range of pre-existing skills, knowledge, and experience and deepen and extend this learning for all participants.

Delivering CoachingAchievement is made much easier by the details provided in the step-by-step guide, the support materials, theoretical foundations, and easy-to-follow instructions. HRDQ recommends, however, that facilitators be certified through their Distance Certification process or on-site training.

I can understand why this certification might be necessary. The materials are clear, concise, and straightforward, and the coaching model is elegantly simple, but facilitating the experiential process to truly ensure participant learning requires considerable skill.

Novice trainers, managers, supervisors, or team leaders interested in increasing the coach-like interactions of their team members and other personnel would be able to understand the materials and immediately recognize their potential and value. However, the skills required to maximize learning for participants are much more difficult to grasp and deliver.

Less experienced trainers might be tempted to excerpt or adapt parts of CoachingAchievement because of the attractiveness, for example, of the coaching practice scenarios, organization of the Mars Rover simulation, or intellectual appeal of the coaching model. Not only would such an approach lessen the power of those individual components, but it also defies the carefully crafted integration of CoachingAchievement.

The quality of the materials included in this kit requires a special note. The pages of the participant and facilitator binders are made of a heavy bond and are tabbed for easy access. Additional materials are laminated to survive extensive use, and the Mars Rover simulation pieces are made of high-quality materials that can likely survive long-term use and rough handling.

The CD-ROM contains a very useful, professionally produced slide presentation, which can be customized with company logos or other information, and the PDF files of the activity handouts can be very easily printed.

One possible drawback is the PVC plastic packaging; some people have physical reactions to PVC. To guard against this, trainers could shift the materials to inert containers after giving them a chance to breathe.

Additional program details: the Distance Certification package includes three two-hour telephone consultations with an HRDQ facilitator, a comprehensive facilitator kit, and 10 participant guides. The reusable support materials in the facilitator kit (game parts and card pack) can train three teams of four to seven participants each.

Recommendation
HRDQ has put together an excellent and comprehensive performance coaching program to assist employees at all levels of an organization. While the primary use of these materials will be to increase the coaching skills within an organization, I know that the materials would also be useful for other coach training organizations interested in learning how to integrate experiential learning with coach training.

I strongly recommended this product to any organization that wants to create a coaching culture.

Coaching Achievement Rating