Our previous blog was on what it means to be a Coach-Like Leader, and why so many get it wrong.
This month we look at ways in which organizations can leverage and reap the benefits of their investment into developing Coach-Like Leaders.
There are a number of steps companies can take when thinking of introducing Coaching Skills (or any behavioural shift initiative) that directly impact the success of the initiative and the ‘stickiness’ of behavioural learning.
In this blog we highlight 7 areas to pay attention to when developing and implementing any behavioural shift initiative.
1. Assessing Organizational Readiness
Behavioural change, at minimum, requires effort and often involves discomfort, even pain. The greater the shift, the greater the discomfort.
Human beings naturally move away from effort (or discomfort/pain) towards ease.
Adults, in particular, have spent a long time developing behaviours to maximise efficiency – maximising the benefit to effort ratio and, as people, this means that without a compelling reason to shift that behaviour, our default is to ‘protect’ ourselves from any need to change our behaviour.
This natural tendency is one of the significant blocks to ‘sticky change’ that organizations run into when trying to bring in a new culture or establish new leadership behaviours.
The result is that we take new learning and look for ways we’re ‘already doing that’, subconsciously proving to ourselves that very little, if any, change in behaviour is needed.
Ask
“How big is the gap between current behaviour/thinking and what we want to create?”
“What can we do to ease the discomfort and/or increase the appetite for the change, so that it is easier for people to truly engage with the shift?”
2. Key stakeholders
When planning an initiative for an organizational shift, it is imperative to identify and bring on board the key stakeholders.
Having a senior level sponsor who not only understands the initiative but believes in its importance plays a huge role in ensuring the success of the initiative.
This is true because of obvious reasons like budget support. It is also true because key stakeholders are people with influence.
If they don’t see the value in the initiative, they may speak out against it. However, even their silence undermines the ‘compelling reason’ needed to create readiness for change.
It is vital that you get your key stakeholders on board
and excited for this shift.
Ask
“Which key stakeholders does success depends on?”
“What is their understanding of and belief in this value of the shift?”
“What role can they play and how to best engage them?”
3. Budget
Organizational shift requires two types of budgets – Dollars and Time.
Some key stakeholders play an important role in planning for and/or freeing up dollars for the initiative.
Others may play the equally important role of ensuring that the time participants need for the training is factored into their key priorities and not simply added to the edge of their desk.
Whether action learning, reading, coaching or classroom time, when training is simply dumped on top of an already heavy workload a mixed message is sent about its value and it is a real barrier for participants to fully engage.
Ask
“What dollar and time budgets do we need to have commitment on before we launch the initiative?”
4. Communication Strategy
Often those planning an initiative have spent so long thinking about the Why, What, When and How of a training (or any other) initiative that it is easy to forget that others haven’t had the same time to process why this is even happening.
It is not uncommon for participants to hear nothing more than some vague rumours of an initiative/training until they get an email informing them of the date and time they need to be at the training.
The result can be a (virtual or actual) room full of participants who have little to no idea of why they’re being asked to neglect their (typically already overwhelming) workload to attend the training.
When this happens, we’re setting the scene for disengagement and frustration – making it hard for participants to be excited about the learning and the behavioural shifts that have the potential to move them to a new level of maximising the benefit:effort ratio.
A communication strategy thinks through what needs to be communicated to whom so that key stakeholders are on board, budgets are appropriately allocated and participants are excited (or at least not sceptical) about how this initiative is going to improve their effectiveness and their lives.
It also includes thinking through which decisions will benefit from broader input and who needs to be heard and/or give input into the design at each stage from inception to implementation and beyond. A good communication strategy maximises the ROI of any initiative.
Ask
“How do we need to communicate this initiative and to whom?”
5. Sourcing Providers
The size of your organization as well as the extent of internal expertise will be determining factors as to whether you look within the walls or beyond them for your training providers. Other factors include the political sensitivity of the initiative and the capacity of the people with the right expertise to take on the initiative (ie do they have the time?).
Regardless of whether you look internally or externally, there are a number of things you should expect:
i. They should be paying attention to and asking questions about the Organizational Readiness for the type and scope of behavioural shift you’re looking to create.
ii. Their solutions should be tailored to your needs/vision. It can be problematic if they are a one-size-fits-all solution.
iii. They should be able to clearly articulate back to you your core drivers for the initiative in a way that resonates and makes you even more excited about it.
iv. They should be working with you to determine the Key Stakeholders and the Communication Strategy.
v. They should be willing to work with your budget where possible and give you realistic adjusted outcomes if your budget isn’t going to allow you to get the outcome you’re aiming for. They should clearly articulate what they are committing to as well as what will be required of the organization and/or Key Stakeholders for success to occur.
vi. They should refuse to do the work if it is evident that the budget and organizational readiness isn’t what is needed to get the outcomes you need.
vii. Their expertise and understanding of how to create behavioural shift should be modelled through their interactions with you during the selection process.
While everyone has different price sensitivity,
remember to make VALUE, and not PRICE, your primary determinant.
Ask
Download our free form to determine if you should be looking internally or externally for the providers of any initiative you’re considering.
6. Implementation Strategy
Once you’ve determined what is needed and have selected your providers (internal or external) it is time to think about how you will implement the training/initiative. Thinking about implementation overlaps with and includes the Communication Strategy, Key Stakeholder involvement, Budget implications/restrictions and Organizational Readiness.
It also factors in busy and quiet times, other training loads and any extraneous factors that will affect the readiness and ability of either the whole organization or the particular participants to fully engage.
It includes balancing expediency and effectiveness (eg. what can we do virtually without compromising effectiveness and where do we need to budget for bringing all the participants together in-person).
An Implementation Strategy thinks through 3 separate and equally important stages; Before, During and After. Each stage should be designed into the plan.
Ask
“What needs to happen before the official start date?” (What will create readiness?)
“How the initiative will be rolled out?” (format, time-frame, etc?)”What structures/processes need to be in place to anchor, sustain and grow the positive shift after the intervention?” (Things that support ‘sticky change’)
7. ROI – what and how to measure
ROI, or Return on Investment, is something that is usually measured with facts and figures. The question usually asked is; “How do we prove a direct correlation between the intervention and either increased profits, decreased costs, improved safety record, etc?”
The thing about measuring the benefit of shifts in human behaviour is that even clearly evident benefit is almost never linear and often very hard to measure directly. This often results in no measure at all. We have a few principles on how to measure ROI on behavioural shifts. Behaviour shift initiatives are always launched with an outcome in mind and that outcome can be measured – anecdotally (qualitative data), and with a mix of quantitative and qualitative data.
The ROI of any behavioural training/initiative is most valid when it takes a long-term view.
Measuring outcomes needs to be over the short, medium and long term
with expectations that, sustained behaviour shift will continue to have
positive qualitative and quantitative benefits in the long-term.
Examples of Real ROI with Clients
Behavioural Shifts – resulting from team initiatives
- Building cross-functional learning spaces resulted in a break-down of siloed communication and information was shared which save the organization $500,000 (the total training cost was $50,000). There were many other short and long-term benefits, but this was a direct saving that paid for the training 10x over
- A department in an educational institution had been known as having a ‘toxic’ environment for over 10 years. We completed a diagnosis, coached several of the key senior leaders and facilitated a few sessions with the whole team.
The process saw people letting go of old grudges, slowly begin to extend trust and after 6 months the environment has tentatively shifted to a more positive, hopeful one.
3 years later a new employee joined the team. I happened to meet her at an unrelated function and asked her what the environment was like at the department – she described it as “wonderful, friendly, cooperative”. The culture had shifted and 10 years of negative history was replaced by a new legacy.
Behavioural Shifts – resulting from individual coaching initiatives
- The level of maturity in my confidence has grown by leaps and bounds and my direct-report now sees and values my strategic thinking ability
- I no longer feel intimidated by my senior leaders and am better able to represent my team’s needs. I am now equipped to separate my own
Much of the ROI from a coaching culture is non-linear, making it difficult to pinpoint or quantify while still revolutionizing the workplace. Having an emphasis on openness, learning and mutual trust allows people to step into freely into increased:
- Self- Awareness
- Self Management
- Relational Ability
- Dealing with Conflict
- Decision Making
- Priority/ Time Management
- Internal Confidence
- Organizational Insight
- Influence
The honing of these skills is difficult to quantify but it leads to better quick decisions, more collaboration and innovation because there is less fear. More comfort navigating unchartered territories, which as we all know from these past few years is an invaluable skill and the confidence in yourself and your team to take the risks which are necessary to be at the cutting edge of your field.
Some things to keep in mind when trying to assess the ROI of establishing a coaching culture are:
1. The timeline of change
Lasting behavioural time takes practice, ongoing effort and time to establish. One cannot expect an individual to change overnight, let alone a whole company of individuals. It is important to exemplify the patience necessary for a coaching culture to truly take place.
2. Identify incremental changes in behaviour
There is no such thing as a perfect company culture – yes, even one’s with an established coaching culture have their faults.
It is important to identify and celebrate the incremental changes individually and company-wide, you are striving for growth, not perfection.
3. Place emphasis on evaluation from the beginning.
All this being said, ROI is a foundational motivator for establishing a coaching culture. It is important to have clarity on what you are hoping to get out of this process and clear measures by which you will evaluate the success of your training/initiative. This can be co-designed with whichever trained facilitator you have selected, but it must be informed by the company’s specific goals.
Ask
“What is the outcome we’re aiming for?”
“What indicators can we measure in the short term?”
“What are the longer-term periods over which we need to measure the indicators to get a true ROI of the initiative?”
Interested in learning more?
Here are two useful articles that lay out more detail of how to measure behavioural shift:
https://finalmile.medium.com/how-to-measure-behaviour-change-f0a23897ca63