Coaching workout. (Review).

Get Fit for Coaching: A Skill Practice Game, print, 2002, 2 hrs., HRDQ (800-633-4533, www.hrdq.com), $345. Other material: facilitator guide, participant guides (16), software.

Get ready to flex your feedback muscles, stretch your professional development goals, and exercise your listening techniques. Get Fit for Coaching Skill Practice offers a solid exercise routine for toning essential coaching relationship skills.

The training package is loaded with instructional support materials--you could almost say it is gym-locker size. A facilitator guide, supporting PowerPoint slides, theoretical background information on five core coaching skills (a one-page description on each skill), participant guides, and game materials are all attractively packaged in a large tote bag--or a gym bag, if you are an exercise enthusiast.

HRDQ understands that your training schedule may vary according to the participants' skill level as well as the availability of time. Therefore, they have included several formatting suggestions so that you can decide what's best for your company's needs--from a quick lightweight routine to a more substantial heavyweight option.

The metaphor allows you to have fun and create enthusiasm. This is the suggested "core" curriculum:

* Warm-Up: Review of Coaching Skill Areas

* Workout 1: Content Reinforcement 

* Pulse Check: Large Group Debrief 

* Workout 2: Coaching Skill Practice

* Cool Down: Final Debrief

The warm-up runs approximately 30 minutes and is supported with PowerPoint slides. The review is enhanced with class discussion points. Instead of modeling these essential skills with examples such as video clips, scripted roleplays, and so forth, the course includes optional "PartnerShare" exercises. The exercises are opportunities for participants to share real life examples and success stories. This helps to make the training valuable to participants, but novice participants may be challenged to give specific examples of successful techniques.

The first workout is a fun team activity with laminated "coach" cards that resemble a bingo game. The five letters in "coach" symbolize the five coaching skills:

* Build rapport 

* Observe and analyze

* Question and listen

* Provide feedback

* Facilitate learning

Teams "win" chips by answering multiple-choice questions correctly. The game is a fun way to review content but doesn't allow participants to break much of a sweat in working out their coaching skills. Many of the questions can be reasoned out logically and do not require a higher-level application of coaching communication skills.

I looked to the second workout to get the participants' heart rate up and fully exercise their coaching muscles. In this round, teams are organized into two pairs--a practice pair and a feedback pair. Participants have an opportunity to practice each of the five core coaching skills. Scenario cards are used to initiate the practice, with the feedback pair reading a brief description of the scenario to the practice pair. The situations are realistic coaching opportunities, but an inexperienced participant new to coaching responsibilities may not recognize how to enact the coaching techniques without more realistic modeling of the skills beforehand.

The skill practice scenario cards are not always clear in providing signals to which coaching skills the participant should use. For instance, the following scenario is labeled as a "Provide Feedback" skill:

This week alone, Bobbi, who's usually on time, has been late for work three out of five days. You've also noticed she's having difficulty keeping up with the work, which affects the team. Which skill would you use and what would you say?

The need to problem solve the situation may indicate listening and questioning skills--in fact, a similar scenario card is in this category. The cues given to the feedback team could also be interpreted as Building Rapport skills. So, like an inexperienced gym user, an inexperienced coach may miss the cues on when and how to use the coaching skills.

Therefore, I disagree with the qualification that the workshop target audience is appropriate for individuals with minimal coaching experience. I think additional orientation to coaching skills would be needed before using the skill practice sets. It would be appropriate for an audience of moderate experience and would work especially well as a maintenance exercise set.

The bibliography resources listed in the facilitator guide give the ISD designer a starting point to build additional content, if needed. The workshop can also develop more context-oriented scenarios by using the "Challenging Coaching Situation" pre-workshop needs assessment survey. Another helpful tool is the complimentary assessment instrument available from HRDQ, which is not included in the cost of this package.

Recommendation

Overall, Get Fit for Coaching structures a healthy exercise routine for maintaining quality coaching skills. Consider adding the workouts on a regular basis as part of your team's New Year's resolutions. If your company needs a basic introduction to the coaching skills, however, you'll need to add additional weight to get an effective workout.

Get Fit for Coaching product rating


Presentation         *** 1/2
Production quality   *** 1/2
Ease of use          ***
Value of purpose     ***
Value of content     ***
Instructional value  ** 1/2
Value for the money  ** 1/2
Documentation        *** 1/2
Overall rating       *** 1/2

Outstanding ****

Very good *** 1/2

Good ***

Above average ** 1/2

Average **

Below Average * 1/2

Poor *

NA Not applicable

NR Not rated (usually not enough information)

Diane Sidwell Jones ([e-mail]) is a training and development specialist for National City Corporation in Franklin, PA. She has been involved in various training and development projects in the banking industry since 1989. She has developed, facilitated, and supervised training initiatives such as customer service and sales, coaching and performance management, and several merger and consolidation projects.