By Roxanne Cameron & Paul Lefebvre

INTRODUCTION

Many people are becoming interested in coaching and are wondering how they can introduce coaching in their organizations.

There are many ways you could go about doing this. One option would be to train as many people as possible in coaching; another might be to hire coaches to work with teams and individuals.

The following is a range of activities you can introduce right now without having to secure a significant budget or launch a major initiative. These suggestions help to create sustainable change because they involve and are directed by employees at all levels. In addition, they are implemented over time and do not depend on a one-time event whose impact and influence fades away as other priorities compete for attention. Finally, many of the suggestions involve capitalize on things already being done to create opportunities for coaching.

1. Formal training and the ritual of sharing. If you have a small budget, send some interested people from your organization on formal training. This could be a program offered within your organization or programs offered by other suppliers such as CCMD. Make an agreement with these participants that, as part of their training, they will spend a percentage of their time after the course giving back to the organization. They might write up a story about what they learned, conduct debriefings, or other activities, which share their learning within your organization.
2. Coaching Connection Website. Have some members of your team spend two hours on the website and ask them to hold a team meeting to discuss what they learned and how it could be applied. Website address is: http://leadership.gc.ca/coaching.
3. Coaching Book Club. Buy some key books on coaching from the list on the Coaching Connection Website. Have one person read a book, talk about it, and pass it on to someone else who is interested. Once a number of people have read the book, ask the group to share their learnings. Have the group develop an exercise to observe the workplace from the perspective of these new learnings. The group can then report back on what they have learned from doing this exercise, and determine what actions could be undertaken as a result.
4. Use a professional coach. Invite a professional coach to spend some time with your group every few months.
5. Conferences. Organize a conference to discuss coaching in the workplace or include coaching as a workshop in conferences you are holding for your group.
6. Link to a network. Create a network of groups and teams interested in coaching. These networks can be used to exchange best practices and share knowledge.
7. Write stories. Prepare write-ups on what you are learning about coaching and how you are applying it in your organization. Send your stories in to the Coaching Connection Website for possible posting.
8. Talking about Coaching. Review how your organization talks about coaching. Rather than treating coaching as a new or additional responsibility, talk about ways to integrate coaching into the manager role and into activities you are already doing e.g. performance review.