Topics |
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Introduction |
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Background |
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e-coach
Was Designed to Respond Like a Real Coach |
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The
History of e-coach |
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Initial Research |
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Prototype Content Was Designed to Support Essential Workplace
Competencies |
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Advisory Board Provided Additional Input and Supported Product
Development |
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Prototype Was Tested With Actual Users in Various Corporations |
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Research Finding Confirmed that the e-coach Concept and Content
Satisfied the Needs of Individual Workers |
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People Want and Need More Coaching at Work |
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Most People Think that People in the Workplace Would Use an
Online Coach if it Were Provided. |
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Organizations Need to do More to Provide Help and Advice to
People |
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Sharing Data is Important to the Vast Majority of Users |
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The
Prototype Content is Useful "as is" |
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It
Appears to Us the People Will Use the e-coach Tool More When
They are Encouraged to Do So. |
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Remaining Questions |
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Next Steps |
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Conclusion |
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e
- c o a c h |
Closing
the reinforcement and performance gap for traditional and
e-learning
approaches. |
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By
Grace Ahrend, Fred Diamond, and Pat Gill Webber
Developers
of e-coach.
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Introduction
Based
on our extensive learning and coaching experience, we designed, developed,
and tested an online coaching tool called
e-coach. This paper shares all that we learned through the development
and testing of the e-coach concept and design, and it
explains the theory behind the product.
It should help the reader to understand what we learned about the
value of on-line coaching for reinforcement and learning; how
organizations can now use e-coach to promote successful
on-the-job use of skills and ideas presented in traditional and e-learning
courses or acquired elsewhere; and how
e-coach supports the
creation of workplace learning cultures. It identifies questions about the use of online coaching that
remain unanswered and summarizes the conclusions we have been able to
reach concerning possible future directions for the further development
and use of this product. We
offer this discussion as our reflections on experience and to share our
degree of understanding of what we believe is possible and what is not
after testing the product with over 300 different users in more than
fifteen different organizations.
Background
A
persistent and ongoing challenge to the success of workplace training and
learning comes from the lack of a reliable way to reinforce concepts and
skills taught in classroom or e-learning experiences in order to promote
successful carryover of what has been learned to the job and produce real
performance results. Many
types of useful and good training exist, but consistent, readily
available, and targeted follow-up reinforcement and coaching support is
far less pervasive. Neither
the methods – nor the individuals who would be able to provide them –
are available to most workers in most organizations.
Performance
support tools, such as checklists or process steps, have come a long way
in providing some specific help for using certain types of learning.
But these support tools are not always available when they are
needed, and they do not address the need to provide reinforcement or
support ongoing learning. Many
types of learning portals provide access to thousands of learning
activities that theoretically could promote and support ongoing learning
in a virtually endless list of areas.
However, these gateways to information do not help someone who has
taken a specific course to get specific help in identifying the next
logical areas of study to pursue. Nor
do they currently offer the kind of help and suggestions that would help
learners to significantly narrow the search for what they need. Chat rooms exist for sharing learning, but again, these
discussions are not specifically related to individuals’ discrete
learning experiences or to an area of learning an organization may want to
reinforce or promote. And
personal coaching -- by managers and organizational leaders as well as
paid professional coaches -- has increased, but it is definitely not being
provided for everyone as needed.
Our
understanding and appreciation of this ongoing and persistent set of
workplace training and learning issues led us to develop the initial
concept for coaching that we called
e-coach.
We believe e-coach addresses the needs discussed
above because it operates as an effective – and affordable – generic
personal coach that provides a way for organizations to make coaching
support available and promote collaborative learning.
e-coach is ready and willing to offer advice,
support, and development ideas for any employee at any time – 24 hours a
day – whenever an employee needs it.
e-coach
was designed to reflect our belief that no online coach can or should
replace the use of human coaches in the workplace.
Therefore, e-coach is not meant to be a replacement
for the human touch. Rather,
it was designed to be an effective adjunct to learning and “live”
coaching that can be beneficial for everyone in the organization because
it reinforces and strengthens good, solid ideas provided elsewhere.
We view it as a tool that can provide a baseline of coaching
support for learning for those for whom coaching may not be readily,
easily, or at all available – the vast majority of individuals who are
receiving traditional or e-learning training in today’s companies.
e-Coach
Was Designed to Respond Like a Live Coach
We
created a unique web-based coaching construct that enables any individual
with access to a workstation to access coaching and the kind of
development support generally considered an integral part of the coaching
experience. We designed it to
“respond” or “coach” in three ways:
-
The
first way is designed to support a person who is having a problem in
an area covered by e-coach and who wants immediate help
and advice for handling it.
In e-coach, this coaching function is called FAST
ANSWERS because it provides immediate help in the form of answers
to specific questions as well as concise advice for handling typical
situations.
-
The
second way provides assistance in self-paced and self-directed ongoing
development. When used
this way, e-coach offers additional information and
insights when a person feels that he or she would benefit from knowing
more about a given subject or skill.
e-coach provides ideas for practice and for
determining the strength of one’s skills, resource lists of helpful
materials, and job aids specifically designed to promote independent
learning and personal development.
It does not provide direct instruction as a training course
would, because it is not designed to be a standalone course in a given
competence. Instead, like
a personal, live coach, it supports learners in learning more about a
subject and putting everything they know and understand into practice.
This e-coach function, which serves as a source
of additional information and insights for those who feel they would
benefit from knowing more about a given subject or skill is called KNOWLEDGE
CENTRAL.
-
The
third way provides access to others who can also help – individuals
who learners can talk to about what they learned or the best way to
handle real situations that require the use of new knowledge or
capabilities. This area
of e-coach is called LEARNING
CONNECTION, and it gives every user the ability to ask questions,
explore ideas, offer advice, and learn from others through interaction
and collaboration with colleagues throughout the organization – and
beyond. We believe this
capability provides strong support for organizational learning as well
as individuals.
The History of
e-Coach
At
the outset, we knew there was a need for ongoing reinforcement for
training and learning, and we understood that managers and leaders in
organizations are limited in both their coaching abilities and their
desire to coach. We were also
aware that learners themselves, as a group, are not necessarily
self-directed when it comes to using or strengthening new skills.
Although a certain group of learners do appear interested in
pursuing learning and development activities on their own, most are not
– and, consequently, do not. Previous
research with senior leaders responsible for leading change in their
organizations contributed to this understanding and provided a strong
basis for concluding that there is a need for support and help for workers
who want to learn and need to learn.
Early
on in our exploration, we also came to realize that online learning, which
was “exploding” at that time – and which is still rapidly expanding
daily – is no more successful in developing new attitudes, skills, or
behaviors that may be required for on-the-job results and change than
traditional learning approaches. Specifically,
we began to understand that, typically, individuals respond to it in the
same way that they respond to traditional learning.
As a result, while online learning has the ability to provide
greater opportunities for initial learning, it does not in any way address
or eliminate existing – and persistent – problems associated with lack
of follow-up or targeted reinforcement needed to make the learning
experience really “work.” Therefore,
even for those who use online learning, the same needs for coaching and
support remain.
At
about the same time we became convinced that online training programs do
not eliminate the need for effective coaching and follow-up support for
training, we also recognized that the Internet would provide an ideal
medium for delivering the coaching that is needed to make any training
effective and for making it widely – and economically – available. Consequently, our focus shifted to talking and thinking about
how we could provide coaching to support existing training as well as
learners themselves rather than more training.
We felt that the time for developing an effective coaching solution
was right because the Internet provided a tool that would enable us to
simulate coaching-type interactions to provide essential help and support
– and deliver it to anyone in any organization with access to the
Internet. We also recognized
the potential for using the same tool to assist those who do coaching –
coaches themselves – because it could also give these individuals the
help they would need to effectively coach others.
These insights were the genesis of
e-coach.
Based
on our own professional experience and what we had learned from
preliminary research, we felt comfortable going forward on the basis of a
number of assumptions about the need for coaching for reinforcement and
development support and the usefulness of a web-based coaching tool for
providing it. These
assumptions were confirmed and validated as a result of qualitative and
quantitative research activities we have engaged in over the last two
years as we developed e-coach from an initial concept into a
working prototype that evolved into the product offering we have now
launched.
Initial
Research Included a Review of Current Offerings and Gathering Input from
Learning Experts
Initially,
we completed a thorough review of current offerings in the market to
determine that there was no product already available that we felt
provided the type of support that was needed.
Once we completed this research and made a determination that
nothing like what we had in mind was out there, we began to brainstorm
concepts and ideas for a possible online coach and to discuss what we were
considering with nearly fifty different people in learning, training, and
related fields. We asked
questions, we listened to feedback, and we continued thinking about what
was in the marketplace and what was needed.
By the end of six months, we had an idea for a prototype, and we
formed an Advisory Board.
Prototype Content Was
Designed to Support Essential Workplace Competencies
We
developed the prototype as a “generic” tool to provide reinforcement
and coaching support in the essential workplace competencies that we
believed – and research confirmed – are what most knowledge workers in
all types of companies need to succeed today because they are fundamental
for outstanding performance and success.
In the prototype construct, we clustered these competencies into
four comprehensive categories:
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People
Smarts content provides coaching support for interpersonal skills
and strategies that enable individuals to be effective with
executives, colleagues, and customers. People Smarts competencies include “Getting Along With
Peers,” “Interacting With Senior People,” “Teamwork,” and
“Handling Conflict.”
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Personal
Savvy content reinforces essential personal capabilities, such as
time management and self-directed learning skills.
“Managing Priorities,” “Managing Change,” and
“Solving Business Problems” are some of the competencies supported
in this section of e-coach.
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Business
Sense content covers a number of up-to-date business competencies
every person needs to succeed in today’s fast-paced, competitive
business environment. The
competencies in this category include “Consulting Skills” and
“Customer Retention.”
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Technology
Advice content familiarizes the user with his or her
organization’s technical resources and provides help for using them
effectively with up to ten links to a client organization’s own
technology resources.
Advisory
Board Provided Additional Input and Supported Product Development
The
members of our Board reviewed our initial design and offered suggestions
that helped us to create the final version of the prototype that was
subsequently tested. Although
the membership of the Board varied at different times, it was always made
up exclusively of learning experts and business executives from various
companies and learning institutions such as Lucent, Columbia University,
Citigroup, Highmark, Toys-R-Us, The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,
Carson/Thompson Financial, and Avon.
Board members were not paid or offered any financial incentives to
support e-coach or its design.
They participated as individual training and learning professionals
who were interested and concerned parties only.
As individuals and as a group, Board members confirmed the need for
a product like e-coach and recognized the promise of it.
Consequently, they supported our efforts to design the prototype
and try it out in a variety of organizations.
Prototype Was Tested With
Actual Users in Various Corporations
Once
we had a prototype version of e-coach to work with, we were
able to test the product with actual users in organizations.
We gave individuals who had been selected to participate in the
test unlimited access to e-coach for a limited period of
time (an average of four to six weeks). We provided a number of online surveys in the tool, and
invited users to complete and submit any or all of them as they used the
product throughout the test period. In
addition, we sent a Wrap-Up Survey to every test participant at the end of
the test period. In
this way, we collected four different types of data from surveys used
during two rounds of testing by asking users to:
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Comment
on content and specific coaching advice offered.
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Respond
to a survey that asked about their needs for technical consulting and
coaching help.
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Provide
insight into their backgrounds, work history, and experience to
determine how the product worked with different types of users.
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Provide
general insight into the current state of coaching at their
organizations; the current and potential need for a product like
e-coach
in their organizations; and their opinion about their organization’s
overall interest in the concept of online coaching.
We
collected a fifth type of feedback by speaking directly to them on the
telephone and by conducting face-to-face focus groups at two of the
companies that tested e-coach.
Research Findings Confirmed
that the E-Coach Concept and Content Satisfied the Needs of Individual
Workers
We
received considerable feedback related to how users feel about
e-coach
in response to surveys we embedded in the test version of the product and
a Wrap-Up Survey we sent to all individuals who participated in both
rounds of testing when each test period ended.
The overwhelming majority of this feedback was extremely positive.
For example, individuals said:
-
“I
really liked the look and feel of the text.” (User comment sent
in)
-
“There
isn’t anything like e-coach on the market today.
It fills a real need and should do real well in the
marketplace.” (User
and Advisory Board Member)
In
a nutshell, the message we heard from users was that the content is
“good” (e.g., “clear” and “easy to understand”); the concept
is “exciting”; and the tool is effective because it provides “a
convenient way to access the information.”
Also, many users told us they wanted more “detail” – they
would like to see the content “expanded.”
While this could be interpreted as a somewhat negative comment, we
see it as a positive one also. We
think users were telling us that they liked the content they saw so much,
they wanted more of it!
While
we learned about the product itself from survey feedback, survey findings
coupled with data we gathered all along from various qualitative research
activities that were an integral part of our work throughout the
development and testing of e-coach during the last two years
also increased our understanding of the usefulness and value of online
coaching in the workplace at this time.
This knowledge enabled us to validate many of the assumptions we
had made at the outset. For
example, we now know with the greatest amount of certainty that:
People
want and need more coaching at work.
Of
all the questions we asked in the course of our research -- in focus
groups, surveys, and informal conversations about coaching -- the one most
people responded to was “Do people want and need more coaching than they
get?” And the nearly
universal answer was a loud and clear “Yes!”
Consequently, we think people definitely want a place to go for
quick, short, and sound answers when they need them.
Even though some users indicated that they don’t necessarily want
others (such as their managers) to know they need this help, fewer than
five people in the hundreds we either surveyed or spoke to directly felt
that there was no need for more coaching at work and that whatever
coaching may exist is adequate. Rather,
the vast majority of those who responded to a Wrap-Up Survey we sent at
the conclusion of the test period, indicated that (1) “there was a need
for timely help and support in the form of coaching”; (2) they would
seek it if it [coaching support] was available”; and (3) “nearly
everyone needed it [coaching support] at one time or another.”
Most
people think that people in the workplace would use an online coach if it
were provided.
Our
experience and our research indicated that the vast majority of people
would use an online coach if one was available and offered good advice:
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“There
is no doubt an online coach would be used if the coach had answers
that made sense and would help me with my job.”
(User in a follow-up conversation)
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I
would say that this is something I already knew in the back of my mind
-- but it was helpful to have it written down for me.”
(User comment sent in)
-
I
think this was well worded and thorough.
It also took the culture into consideration by indicating that
the person needs to know what is expected.
This is very good -- Thanks!”
(User comment sent in)
This
was an especially gratifying finding, because receptivity to online
learning of any kind is still a hotly debated issue.
Although the use of online learning tools is growing, online
learning still presents many challenges because it does not appear to
eliminate the problems typically associated with traditional classroom
learning approaches.
Organizations
need to do more to provide help and advice to people.
If
anything struck us as surprising, it was the call for even more help and
support that we heard from a significant number of users who liked
e-coach
and felt it was useful but also felt there was room for more in-depth and
detailed information and that users would welcome it. Their views are summed up in comments such as these:
-
“Answers
need to go into even more detail.” (User comment sent in)
-
“Suggest
even more ideas to help people.” (User comment sent in)
-
“Despite
all the help that is out there, people still need more.” (Advisory Board Member)
We
heard the same message from users who completed the Wrap-Up Survey.
Only one-third of those surveyed felt enough information and help
related to ideas for more learning and how to be more effective was being
provided to employees in their organizations.
Between
the comments calling for more information and this survey result, we feel
confident in concluding that most organizations can and should do more to
provide more information and help, including more detailed and in-depth
help and support for specific topics and issues.
Many companies have resources for doing this, but, generally, they
are too broad and not really relevant to the specific needs of an
individual seeking help with a particular issue at a given time.
Sharing
data is important to the vast majority of users.
Most
of the individuals with whom we shared our ideas initially, as well the
majority of our Advisory Board members, supported our idea for a design
feature that would allow users to share information and ideas.
The majority of survey respondents also indicated that sharing
ideas and getting to know what others thought about situations was “very
important.” We heard
comments such as:
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“The
idea of sharing and learning together is key for our company and would
be a useful addition to the e-coach design.” (Advisory Board
Member)
-
“If
we don’t share and grow from lessons learned, we aren’t
learning.” (Advisory
Board Member)
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"I
want to know what others think of what I am doing.”
(User discussing uses of e-coach)
There
were a few people, however, who felt “neutral” to “negative” about
the desirability of having a place to discuss and share openly with others.
One Advisory Board Member put it this way:
“Our company may not like
the idea of people sharing too openly in a forum like the learning
connection.” A few
others indicated that anonymity would be important.
Based
on all of this input, we concluded that the usefulness of a feature that
enables users to share with others might not be universally accepted at
this time. Apparently
there are still companies that are not ready to allow people to share
openly, so we cannot assume that a product with a discussion feature is
right for every organization. It
may be that only the Fast Answers
and Knowledge Central functions of
e-coach are appropriate
for some and that any company that would use
e-coach would
need to consider its readiness for a learning-connection space.
The
prototype content is useful “as is.”
Many
people felt the content delivered in the
e-coach construct
-- the prototype of e-coach that we tested -- had value and
would be appropriate for certain audiences.
They said things such as:
-
“Responses
are excellent for a person new to the workforce.” (User comment
sent in)
-
“The
example used to demonstrate the recommendation was excellent and
concise. It can be used
successfully by most employees.”
(User comment sent in)
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“I
love the short, to-the-point answers.” (User comment sent in)
Many
of these users even said in the Wrap-Up Survey that they thought their
companies should consider leasing the
e-coach prototype –
if we were to make it available for leasing.
Because of this largely positive response to the content in the
generic version, we have already released
e-coach Version
1.0, and it is currently available for companies that want to lease it.
The
e-coach construct is also a valuable tool that can be used
without generic content as a template for “packaging” and delivering
information to follow up on any topic or learning experience.
Many
people who saw and used the prototype told us that the
e-coach
construct alone -- the Fast Answers,
Knowledge Central, and Learning
Connection template – could also fill an important market need
because it offer organizations an excellent “container” for
organizing, packaging, and delivering any material they might want to make
available as follow-up or reinforcement to any
traditional or electronic learning experience.
Some of the comments related to this finding were:
-
“e-coach
would be great with our product knowledge – we have thousands of
people who need updates on our products and services . . . we would
really like to talk to you about a custom version for our products.”
(Professional
colleague discussing a learning need in his firm after seeing the
e-coach
prototype.
-
“I
want answers that are a bit different – more detailed and in-depth
for senior people. (User
comment sent in).
-
“We
would need answers tied to specifics in our organization.”
(User comment sent in)
We
discussed these observations with our Advisory Board and other colleagues
in the learning and training business, and they agreed that potential
users were telling us that the e-coach construct – the
“container” itself without generic content – along with our ability
to synthesize information and material and present it in a clear, concise,
easy-to-understand way – had value all by itself.
Based on these findings, we decided to expand our offerings.
In addition to the generic version of
e-coach, we
will also be available to create custom content versions based on any
existing learning programs or materials for which an organization may want
to provide online follow-up and reinforcement.
It
appears to us that people will use the
e-coach tool more when they
are encouraged to do so.
We
had an opportunity to test
e-coach with a group of students
at a leading university who had just completed a course dealing with
leadership and managing interpersonal relationships.
As part of this test, after the class was over, we sent the members
of the class follow-up messages that contained links to specific material
within the e-coach
prototype that was directly related to material that had been presented in
class. We do not have
any quantitative data to indicate that this group of users actually used
more of the ideas and suggestions provided in
e-coach
than users in other tests we conducted, but it was our belief that they
did. Therefore, we have
decided to work with all purchasers of
e-coach — generic
or custom – to provide them with ways to prompt users with tailored
messages designed to increase traffic and use of
e-coach
material. Since we know
that people in corporations are overwhelmed with data and information, it
makes sense that they will be more inclined to look at something relevant
to what they are learning – and are presumably interested in – when it
has been brought to their attention than if they merely have access to a
tool, but do not know exactly what it has to offer.
Remaining Questions
We
have learned a great deal that has us embarking on the journey of
providing a tool we believe has already demonstrated its usefulness to the
market. Now our goal is to continue to work collaboratively – with
one another as well as with others – to continue to build on the
knowledge we already have as we help companies and individuals to realize
the greatest possible value from their learning investments.
At the same time, we recognize that the work we have done leaves
some remaining questions unanswered.
For example, at this time, we cannot say with any certainty:
Could
e-coaching replace other forms
of coaching in the workplace?
We
see e-coaching as one tool that belongs in the assortment of
coaching tools that can be useful for providing workplace coaching and
reinforcement. But we do not believe that
e-coaching will ever
fully replace a fuller, more diverse approach to coaching at work.
What we don’t know, however, is to what extent online coaching
can and should be used in conjunction with other approaches.
We see the role of e-coaching in the workplace as
similar to the role of e-learning.
Regardless of how much e-learning may become available – or the
sophistication of it – there will probably always be a place for action
learning, traditional types of seminars, discussion groups, retreats, and
other types of formats, and we think the same is true for
e-coaching.
Therefore, we would no sooner assume that
e-coaching
could or should replace all of the existing approaches than we would be
inclined to suggest as much for e-learning.
Since so much coaching – as learning – is social in nature and
requires face-to-face interaction in order to work, we feel a suggestion
that all coaching or learning be done on-line would be naďve and
unsubstantiated by any serious research or thought.
Our
guess is that certain types of coaching that are currently provided by
live coaches will someday be delivered as effectively by an online coach
like e-coach and that
e-coach will become a
more “sophisticated” coach. For
example, artificial intelligence will no doubt make it practical for
coaching done via an e-coach type interface to respond to
users much more specifically – and individually.
Certainly businesses are offering limited forms of such interaction
now with on-line quizzes and the like providing standard answers to
requests as diverse as what mutual fund to buy to which blouse would work
best for me given my size, shape, and budget.
Therefore, as technology evolves and changes,
e-coach
will, too, in order to take full advantage of emerging capabilities.
As it does, the question that we continue to try to determine an
answer to is “To what extent will people take advice and support from an
online coach rather than a person—and to what extent would certain
people actually prefer that?”
How
much customization is necessary?
Since
the 1970s when management training became common place at work, the old
question of buy or build has been with us.
We think that some combination often makes the most sense.
Why start at ground zero? But
then again, why stop with what is in the box—why not go beyond it and
develop things really pertinent to your own world?
We
think e-coach is a natural for customization, we just don’t know to what
extent customization is necessary. We
have some limited data to suggest that a follow up to a specific course
given by someone who is considered a hard-to-reach expert in his or her
field, for example – and to whom class participants might not otherwise
have access – would lend itself to a tailored or custom version of
e-coach
that would ensure continued access to that person when learners get back
to the workplace. We want to
do more work on this, but our instincts tell us that colleges or other
organizations that charge for attendance at a seminar or workshop could
expand their reach significantly by providing a custom
e-coach
follow up directly tied to the content of the course and using either the
same or associated professors or instructors to provide a measure of
ongoing follow-up reinforcement and advice through the Learning
Connection. We
are making this process available now with customization.
How
best can we integrate e-coaching
and live coaching?
We
all know that organizations continue to struggle to get more managers and
leaders to do more coaching, and we believe e-coach could
help to actually train coaches or make them more effective.
In our opinion, the presence of a tool like
e-coach
could actually support more live coaching by providing both a process and
content to managers who need one or both in order to do more coaching.
In addition, our experience suggests company’s may be able to
raise the quality of coaching by using a tool like
e-coach.
It is possible that having a tool like
e-coach
available might make a mediocre coach more effective and a superior coach
even better.
How
many different vendors should
e-coach
support?
We
are not sure how many additional materials and programs
e-coach
should direct users to or provide access to beyond the ones offered in the
prototype. For instance, the
current version is linked to AMA (American Management Association) books
and courses that users can consider.
These links were well received by those who used them to look at
the suggested resources they provided access to, and we plan to keep them
in. However, we do not know
if we should expand the selection of suggestions by adding links to
additional offerings, too. We’re
also not sure if e-coach should recommend internal courses
within a company that is using e-coach.
We’d like to do more testing to be certain that what we
ultimately provide is the right “fit” for users, so they will feel
they are being given enough suggestions without being overwhelmed.
We want to provide more than one option, because we think choices
are good, but we don’t want to offer so many that people will feel that
they are getting so many choices that they aren’t getting help.
Next Steps
We
are now ready to take what we have learned and begin to work with
companies to allow e-coach to help people to use the
learning they are getting, find new ways to keep learning, and continue to
improve their satisfaction and results.
Therefore, the generic version of
e-coach (v1.0) --
the one that is based on the prototype that received favorable feedback in
our tests -- can now be licensed. (Details
are available at our sales site, www.e-coachonline.com.)
The option to customize e-coach as a targeted
follow-up to any given course or group of courses is available.
(Examples of how customization would work are provided on the
site.)
Above
all, we will continue to collaborate with others to continuously increase
our understanding of the place of online coaching tools in the array of
learning tools available today.
And with their help and input, we will keep on testing
e-coach
and using what we learn to continue to make it even better.
Conclusion
As
the search for tools to support real learning and change and the creation
of learning organizations continues, we believe
e-coach will
be part of the solution.
e-coach
may not be a cure all or universal answer to all learning challenges.
However, it can provide an effective way to target and solve the
pressing need for specific follow-up and support to important and
expensive learning experiences organizations are providing.
It can also offer a practical way for individuals to share
knowledge, ideas, and resources. And because it provides a place to share – especially
around specific, shared learning experiences –
e-coach
could help individuals to use what they know, learn effectively, and
continue to learn more at the same time it helps companies to create true
learning organizations and achieve important learning and business
objectives.
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Grace Ahrend, Fred Diamond, and Pat
Gill Webber are co-founders and Principals of E-Coach Associates, Inc. an
organization formed to promote coaching and collaborative
learning in the workplace. ECA licenses
e-coach and is
actively engaged in ongoing collaboration with leaders in business and
education to continuously increase understanding of the role of online
coaching tools in the array of learning and performance improvement tools available today. |
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Conclusion
__________________________
As
the search for tools to support real learning and change and the creation
of learning organizations continues, we believe
e-coach will
be part of the solution.
e-coach
may not be a cure all or universal answer to all learning challenges.
However, it can provide an effective way to target and solve the
pressing need for specific follow-up and support to important and
expensive learning experiences organizations are providing.
It can also offer a practical way for individuals to share
knowledge, ideas, and resources. And because it provides a place to share – especially
around specific, shared learning experiences –
e-coach
could help individuals to use what they know, learn effectively, and
continue to learn more at the same time it helps companies to create true
learning organizations and achieve important learning and business
objectives.
|