One of the implications of constant change in the business environment is uncertainty in the shelf life of knowledge and skills; there is no guarantee that strategies and ruses that work well today will do a good job tomorrow. In response, many organisations are attracted to the notion of manager as coach as it offers the potential for creating and delivering focused, personalised and on-the-job development solutions as and when required. Nice theory but the reality is that many coaching frameworks work on the basis of transferring existing knowledge and skills and are therefore limited in their ability to help people embrace change in a sustainable way. It seems useful therefore to enlarge the boundaries of the coaching process so that they reach beyond the transfer of knowledge and skills and encompass how to be effective when confronted with novelty and ambiguity. Emphasising learning to learn rather than learning to perform if you will.

SLOW coaching provides a toolkit for nurturing change at three levels: action - where the emphasis is on performance and delivering results; skills - where the focus is on practice and stretching capability; and learning - where the goal is to uncover potential, catalyse different thinking and create new opportunities.

The table below summarises the key contrasts between traditional coaching postures and SLOW coaching:

SLOW coaching offers a robust set of building blocks for real world implementation:

	Flexibility of style, structure and focus in order to create and maintain an explicit connection between short, medium and long range business drivers and individual development.
	The four stage SLOW process (Situation, Leverage, Options, Who, what, when): adaptable and systematic scaffolding for structuring the beginning, middle and end of learning conversations.
	Guiding principles for applying the approach to a wide variety of tasks and contexts.

Applications

The SLOW coaching building blocks can be arranged in different combinations to offer a comprehensive toolkit for leading and supporting change:

	Performance management: a systematic framework for conversations focused on modifying or reinforcing action and building skills.
	Nurturing talent: interactions with the aim of increasing flexibility and adaptability, catalysing new thinking and identifying and exploiting potential.
	Influencing without authority: a repertoire of managerial and leadership behaviours for being powerful in ways that leave room for others to use their power.
	Selling products, services and ideas: principles for working relationships based on mutual trust, choice and commitment
	Facilitating teams: tools and techniques for enhancing team capability.

Implementing SLOW Coaching

We have been developing, delivering and refining SLOW coaching at Castleton for over three years. We are now licensing experienced management trainers and consultants to deliver in-house and public workshops. You become a licensed SLOW coaching trainer through experiencing a participant workshop and demonstrating your capability as a SLOW coach - both covered in a four and a half day accreditation workshop. Your capability as a SLOW coach is tracked through accumulating a portfolio of evidence combined with a process of self and peer assessment.

In becoming an accredited SLOW coaching trainer you have access to:

	Tried and tested workshop designs, including trainer guides,
	An array of experiential learning resources, including videos, case studies, exercises, role plays and general workshop materials
	Self-report diagnostics offering participants insight into their learning style and coaching style
	Coaching skills workbooks - a comprehensive participant resource that comprises: pre-workshop preparation; coaching skills video, written materials that underpin workshop activities, activities for managing post workshop application, practice and refinement
	A toolkit (in prototype now, launch Spring 2003) for applying SLOW coaching principles to facilitating teams. Includes a diagnostic framework for profiling team capability and a corresponding set of team experiences offering a ladder of escalating risk and challenge allowing teams a concrete vehicle for planning, doing and reviewing.
	A growing community of practice working with issues of learning, coaching and leading across a range of business sectors

For details of slow coaching workshop dates see: CPL Events
Further enquiries should be addressed to: jon.kendall@castletonpartners.co.uk