What does training with reinforcement coaching look like?

A class of 20-25 participants takes a one-day or multiple-day course. The training materials have provided them with tools and resources to use to implement the training. For the reinforcement coaching, they are divided into groups of 4-5 participants. Each small group meets with the trainer for an agreed number (usually 4-8) of 1-hour virtual sessions on a weekly or every-other-week schedule. The participants apply the tools and concepts, agree on goals and report on their progress, share their obstacles, and learn from other participants as well as the trainer. The trainer shares additional insights that weren’t shared in class. The participants practice the new behaviors until what was new has become habitual, yielding results and ROI.

Why is this your best value?

Rather than have the concepts/processes learned in training classes get lost in the business of everyday work, follow up with several small group coaching sessions with the trainer helps focus them on the implementation of the training concepts/processes. 

Advantages of Training Followed By Reinforcement Coaching

• Focused attention on applying the training to real workplace situations
• Scheduled accountability to achieve goals identified in training
• Get support while dealing with implementation challenges 
• Learn from and get support from others in the small group
• Get additional insights from the trainer/coach
• New habits and behavioral change
• Guaranteed results rather than a wish/hope that the training will yield results

Economics/ROI

If you look at the economics of providing a training course with reinforcement coaching, the bulk of the expense is to provide the training, bringing in the instructor, setting up the space, developing curriculum if you’re customizing one of our regular courses or developing new curriculum. Plus, the cost of the participants being away from their desks or workspaces for the duration of the course (one to 5 days) and having someone else cover. There’s the expense of an administrator or HR person making all the arrangements of date, place, materials and notifying us and the participants.

Adding on some virtual one-hour small group coaching sessions increases the cost by a small fraction of the overall expense and yet provides the biggest impact and gives the whole training project real results and ROI.

What training courses will especially benefit from being coupled with reinforcement coaching?

All course participants benefit from reinforcement coaching that follows their participation in a course. But these courses can especially realize impactful results when the participants receive reinforcement coaching focused on implementation, behavior change and generating results.

Process Improvement, Lean Six Sigma courses at the Green and Black Belt levels. We can help people get started on their projects, correct errors in the beginning so they don’t have a big impact later, help participant see results so they stay motivated, shorten timelines, provide examples from the trainer’s experience that can be applied to your company’s projects.

Manager as Performance Coach. For a manager to learn a new style of talking to a direct report, that manager needs practice and support so the new communication style can become a habit.Plus, the direct reports will need to adjust to this new way of being managed. Not every direct report will react similarly. Having support in this process is more likely to produce success.

Project Management. As your employees master concepts and tools, getting support in choosing the right tools and applying them appropriately for each project is a learn-by-doing exercise best supported by reinforcement coaching. We can also be instrumental in helping your project managers prep for the PMP exam.

How Leaders Build Trust, The Key to Performance and the Ability to Change. A leader always has blind spots that s/he can’t see. Reinforcement coaching can help a leader continually monitor his/her behavior as a leader, focusing on those actions that build the trust that s/he earns from the people in the organization.

The Change Catalyst: Leading People Through Change. Change is never easy. It takes time for people to adapt. There are always challenges. Support during the process makes implementation more successful.

Agile Lean Transformational Leadership. Leadership and cultural shifts take time. Reinforcement coaching can help leaders to address implementation challenges along the way. Working with a small leadership team can get everyone collaborating and working in the same direction.