how do these courses work

Traditionally 'training' has been good at showing people 'what' to do. Some training gives people opportunities to learn from trying things out themselves so they have more confidence in 'how' to do them.

But for new behaviours to stick people need a damn good reason to change what they were doing before

In other words they need a 'why' to change.

Pleasure and Pain
Using an open coaching approach people can explore the pleasure and pain associated with their various choices and so build the leverage or the 'why' around any new decisions. This is a reflection of what they personally value and are motivated by.

With this in hand swift self-driven changes are possible.

Building Blocks
y:u programme designs employ the most practical subject matter expertise, tools and techniques (providing the what) and offer safe learning experiences (to unravel the how) and draw on state of the art coaching approaches (to connect participants with their why). These are the building blocks and the reasons that participants and their organisations tend to get such cracking results.

How does this approach affect staff retention?
One of the key causes of high staff turn-over is not listening to people. Our workshops help reverse such trends as they are designed to address the individual’s right to decide what works for them personally.

"One of the participants in the recent 'Service First' workshop told me how they felt this had helped turn their career around at the firm"
Allyson Walker, Berrymans Lace Mawer

How can you control the results if people can choose whatever they want?
Over the years what we have found is that when people have choices they do go for what works for them personally but, and this is really interesting, those choices tend to be the ones that suit their organisation.

Take an example - the you:coach programme. At first glance a coaching approach seems to take more time instead of just instructing someone what to do when they approach you with a problem. But participant managers soon discover for themselves that coaching helps their teams to make better independent decisions in the long run and so call on them less when future questions arise. Big picture – everyone wins. But you need to facilitate the learner on such a programme through the right process to make this crystal clear and compelling enough that coaching will be their preferred style of managing even when under pressure.

This was the experience of managers in SMG when they took part in their you:coach programme.

"The content was good and I can see how it really does apply to everyday life - this could definitely have a positive effect in the working environment."
SMG you:coach participant

Read more about what happened when SMG used you:coach

If you have some questions, just drop us a line.

Coaching has helped me keep focused in times of great change and to see the resulting opportunities

Chris Tong, Metronet

More client feedback