Jean Roberts

For small and medium commercial and nonprofit workplaces, creating a learning environment is both an opportunity and a challenge.  As with on-the-job training and on-the-job mentoring, on-the-job coaching can support such opportunities and challenges.

Three desired outcomes from on-the-job coaching are offered for your consideration:

1. people at staff, supervisor, manager or board levels experience a genuine learning environment at their respective level of activity – whether as coach or learner,
2. supervisors, managers or board chairpersons accept the opportunity for a valuable learning experience in planning and supporting in-house individual or group learning and development, and/or
3. shared learning and exploration builds trust, facilitates innovation, and demonstrates a genuine entrepreneurial spirit.

Three tools are offered below for one-to-one or group coaching related to a consistent quality of service. Most importantly, these tools enable the in-house coach and learner/s to practice ‘flying below the radar’, defined here as flying without the assistance, benefit or protection of the radar system.

Wikipedia defines a radar system as:

An object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain.

It goes on to explain that:

Radar systems must overcome unwanted signals in order to focus only on the actual targets of interest. These unwanted signals may originate from internal and external sources, both passive and active. Interference to radar signals can include:

• background noise, including random variations superimposed on the desired echo signal received in the radar receiver – or generated by external sources, most importantly the natural thermal radiation of the background scene surrounding the target of interest,
• clutter refers to radio frequency echoes returned from targets which are uninteresting to the radar operators,
• radio jamming refers to radio frequency signals originating from sources outside the radar transmitting in the radar’s frequency and thereby masking targets of interest. Jamming may be intentional or unintentional.

Workplaces can have a number of systems, including some designed to monitor and improve customer/client/consumer service quality.  Examples include:

1. performance management and monitoring,
2. customer/client/consumer service management,
3. customer/client/consumer satisfaction surveys.

These three systems are a means to a defined outcome – which for any system should be expressed in  organisational terms.  Staying with our focus of customer/client/consumer service quality, outcomes could include:

1. increasing staff retention,
2. staff actively participating in a learning environment,
3. continuous quality improvement,
4. cost-effective systems in terms of outputs and outcomes,
5. growth through referral and repeat business.

As with radar, any system may be effective as a system, but ineffective in terms of the defined outcome.

As with radar, any system can be subject to interference. The three tools offered below enable on-the-job-coaching to assess whether – and to what extent – interference is reducing the effectiveness or reliability of current systems.

As with radar, it may not be possible to eliminate interference – but it is possible to understand and therefore manage a range of interference factors that may, or have the potential to, reduce the effectiveness or reliability of one or more current systems.

These three tools for on-the-job coaching place a coach and learner/s below the safety and security of the in-house systems, ie working independently of the in-house systems. The coach is selected on the basis of his/her ability and willingness to share their knowledge, experience and competency: the learner/s are selected on their ability and willingness to increase their knowledge, experience and competency.  Together, the coach and learner/s need to agree on – and define – the desired outcome of their time-specific on-the-job coaching project.

Tool No. 1: Pin yourself to an order – the focus is the purchaser

This is the title of an article I read almost two decades ago in a training magazine and which has stayed with me ever since.  The coach and learner/s:

1. identify an order – any order – as soon as it is confirmed,
2. attach themselves securely to that order, and
3. accompany that order along its path with diligence – until it is satisfactorily fulfilled, signed off and archived.

This tool traces the experience of the purchaser, and enables the coach and learner/s to identify the effectiveness and reliability of systems and processes in place at every step along the path to satisfactory conclusion.  Has the selected order moved seamlessly through the total process, including in-house systems - if not, why not?  The coach and learner/s prepare a tracing of the selected order’s journey as a basis for negotiating improvements.

Tool No. 2:     Job tracking – the focus is internal responsibilities

This is the name I have used with corporate and nonprofit clients since the 1980s.  In recent years, it wears the title of quality accreditation or compliance with service standards.  The coach and learner/s:

1. place themselves at a point in the organisation where initial enquiries are received,
2. select a specific enquiry,
3. give this specific enquiry a permanent code so that it is continuously traceable,
4. follow ‘the job’ every step along its path through to satisfactory fulfilment, sign-off and archiving,

This tool traces internal responsibilities (not systems!) along its path – a person or team has to ‘own’ this job at every moment of its life.  If it sits somewhere until ‘next action’, then the person with whom it sits has responsibility for it until it is transferred to the person responsible for ‘next action’.   Has the coded enquiry converted to a job – if not, why not?  Has the coded enquiry been owned by a person or team throughout its journey, with each transfer of responsibility safely managed – if not, why not?  The coach and learner/s prepare a tracing of the journey as a basis for negotiating improvements.

Tool No. 3:     Continuum of service-user experience – the focus is your organisation’s performance at each sequential stage of this experience.

This is a common tool that can be applied to the concept and practice of customer/client/consumer service quality – and indeed to business development.   The coach and learner/s check the sequential stages in a service-user’s experience, and monitor the process and progress of a ‘sample’ service-user’s experience.  Sequential stages could be:

1.    awareness – knowing that your service is available,

2.    access – knowing how and when to make contact with your organisation, and deciding to make contact,

3.    matching of their needs, interests or expectations with your available service,

4.    negotiating price, quality, delivery and timeliness – together with terms and conditions,

5.    experiencing the service,

6.    your organisation satisfactorily fulfilling – and the service-user satisfactorily receiving – the agreed terms and conditions of the service agreement,

7.    evaluation and review of process and progress,

8.    satisfactory completion of the service agreement, and

9.    signing off and archiving of the file.

This tool breaks the service-user experience down to a number of discrete and sequential units of work, with each unit dependent upon satisfactory completion of the prior unit/s for its own effectiveness.   The coach and learner/s monitor the systems, processes and responsibilities applicable (a) at each unit of work for effectiveness and reliability, and (b) throughout the ‘sample’ service-user’s experience.  They may then contribute to an assessment of core business – is it the total service-user experience, or is it a selection of units of work within that total experience?

Do visit:

• Jean’s definition of a case study or scenario,
• Jean’s on-the-job case study (effective meetings), and
• Jean’s on-the-job mentoring (risk scenario), while you are thinking about introducing or reinforcing on-the-job coaching within your own organisation.