Whilst most courses don't work, we ensure ours do  by addressing all the reasons that make most change efforts a waste of time.  We encourage and foster individual responsibility from our first contact. 

Preparation.

So before anyone goes near a flip chart we work with you to:

• Ensure the team or participants see a clear benefit for them.
• Encourage them to set specific behavioural goals with their management.
• Raise their awareness of current performance standards.
• Build rapport between the coach and participant before the classroom part of the programme.
• Set performance measures to ensure the programme outcomes are delivered.

Working Together.

The classroom part of the programme we:

 

• Openly discuss the importance of individual responsibility and encourage the participant to take control of their own success.
• Demonstrate the behaviours they need to adopt.
• Make the sessions stimulating and enjoyable.
• Create an environment that encourages an appropriate level of challenge ("profoundly uncomfortable" is sometimes the most appropriate level)
• Utilises the latest thinking in Accelerated Learning techniques.
• Offer practical, actionable advice.
• Deal with real challenges and issues.
• Builds their support network to give them the best chance to change their performance back at work.

Implementation.

This is the crucial stage. To give them the best chance of improving their performance, we support them with:

• E mail follow up
• Telephone coaching and Teleconferencing.
• Recommend further resources - e.g. book and web site recommendations, content summaries
• Briefings to management/colleagues in how to support the change.

 

If you Don't have Time for all This.

If you don't have the resources to do pre and post work, we usually recommend saving even more time and money by by not running the classroom part either.  From research and experience, we know that if someone doesn't make time before and after a course to prepare and implement, then they will not create the change they say they need.  There may still be some confidence-related benefits of a course. However, you are likely to get more enjoyment and confidence from taking your team to a swanky restaurant with their partners for a "team building" exercise than from running a course. 

 

If You Don't Have Time - Option 2.

One of the challenges our participants faced on our Collaborative Management course was difficulty in finding time to change behaviour. So we integrated a focus on personal/time effectiveness as part of the preparations.  This worked extremely well, helping the managers increase personal productivity before attending the course which made implementation much more effective.   

 

Use this List to Help Choose Suppliers.

Do feel free to use this with your current providers to understand what they do to help you overcome the barriers to performance improvement. Let us know what you find out.