Coaching Multiplies Training By 88%
What is the relationship between training and coaching?
I have spent more than two decades of my life training leaders or hosting training events. I estimate that over that period we have trained over six thousand participants. That represents a lot of travel, handouts, guest speakers and expense. I have often asked myself, “What impact does all that effort have?” I have no doubt that such training has produced change in churches, in conferences and in leaders’ ministry. But has it produced enough change?
The most effective change that I have had the privilege of being involved in is when training and coaching have been combined. The fact is that more happens when coaching is added to training. Why, because coaching provides emotional support for change. A coaching relationship helps leaders work through the implementation issues and even more importantly helps to hold leaders more accountable to what they have planned to do. These are all important components in rolling out new strategies. The training alone approach struggles to provide these essentials factors in bringing about change.
A study by the International Personnel Management Association compared ‘training alone’ to coaching combined with training. They found that, “Training alone increased productivity by 22.4% while training plus coaching increased productivity by 88%.” 1 The two diagrams below illustrate graphically the difference that occurs in results when coaching is added to the training.
When a leader goes to a training event it is not just a matter of learning new skills or approaches but includes unlearning. It involves disconnecting from the old ways while applying new approaches.
Learning involves four stages: Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetent (UI). You are not even aware there is something to be learned. Stage 2: Conscious Incompetent (CI). You are aware there is something to be learned. Stage 3: Conscious Competent (CC). You learn the skill, concepts, and procedures and can apply what you learned with mistakes and omissions. Stage 4: Unconscious Competent (UC). You can perform well without thinking about it.
—— “It is not just a matter of learning new skills or approaches but includes unlearning —-“
Lipow says, “How to get from the CC stage to the UC stage is the trick. Most retreat before they get to the UC stage. The reason is that the route from CC to UC is unpleasant: we must become incompetent for a time and must do so in the eyes of people who regarded us as competent; we must abandon attitudes and practices that worked rather well and were efficient in favour of attitudes and practices which are uncomfortable and which make us temporarily inefficient. We must disconnect the neurological ruts we once created so as not to have to think before we act-in other words, we must unlearn-so as to be able to begin the long process of forming new neurological ruts.” 2
Making changes in the way you function or learning new skills usually requires intentional support. We have often found with our clients that they are aware of their leadership shortfalls, eg. time management, interpersonal skills, planning process, decision making etc. Most have even read books or attended seminars to address their weakness but still, they struggle. A common reason for their lack of progress is that they have given up too early in trying to learn new skills or approaches.
Coaching provides for the clients a non-threatening relationship where they can find emotional support to keep trying when they fail. The coaching relationship also provides accountability for the client and helps them remain focused in their pursuit of better ways to lead. Coaching provides the emotional “grunt” that is needed to enter areas that are unfamiliar to us.
The church invests significantly in training but still has a way to go in providing effective coaching to its leaders. Jesus modelled to us that in preparing a group of men to establish the Christian church that he spent time with them on a one-on-one level. I look forward to the day when every leader in every church feels supported in their ministry by another. Maybe we will double our effectiveness!
Happy coaching!
Rob Steed
- Public Personnel Management (Making training stick Winter 97, Vol. 26 Issue 4, p. 461, International Personnel Management Association)
- Why Training Doesn’t Stick: Who Is to Blame? Anne Grodzins Lipow Library Trends Summer 1989 page 64, 65