About a year and a half ago I wrote about an idea for a position of Coaching and Learning Development Coordinator. In addition, I wrote up a proposal for the position and sent it to about 25 baseball organizations. I got a few really cool noes. A couple of teams called to thank me, and one general manager wrote a really nice letter. Mostly, it got ignored (insert shrug emoji). Well, a lot has changed over the last year and a half. For starters, the baseball world is completely different as a result of COVID. Organizational staffs have been cut because of loss in revenue and minor league contraction. From an individual perspective, my view of the position has shifted as well because of conversations, experience, and learning more from my degree program. Something that hasn't changed is the thought that coaching and learning development are essential to any organization that hopes to be its best. With that, here are some thoughts.
A year ago, the idea for the role was to focus on coaches. I wrote about different groups of coaches and their great importance in player development. While I still think that is the case, I think focusing solely on coaches limits the position. More importantly, it does not create a learning organization. It creates a silo of learning. For a learning organization to exist, there needs to be an emphasis on continued improvement for all in the organization. That emphasis means expanding the idea of learning development coordinator to help other staff as well. I'm aware of some mental skills coaches within organizations doing some really cool work to help in the area. In my opinion, although commendable, helping to foster a learning organization is a full-time job. That's not a knock on the mental coaches and what they're doing. It's more just a recognition of all that goes into learning and development. As of now, I know of one organization that has two people in full-time learning development roles. Their titles are Learning Development Coordinators, and they work across the organization. In my opinion, positions like those should be expected rather than the exception.
One shift for me has been in the approach of the position idea. Last year, I didn't share a great amount of detail in the blog, but the actual proposal centered around different initiatives and services provided. An example was to help coaches create individualized coaching development plans. The idea comes from two very different areas. The first is pro baseball and hearing about how organizations have meetings with minor league players (I think at the end of a year typically) with various staff to help create a plan for players' offseason development. The second is our school's teaching and learning coach. Instead of there being one meeting at the end of the year, she meets with teachers at different points of the school year. The multiple meetings provide chances to check in, celebrate successes, and alter plans. It's good coaching and another chance to remind everyone to get outside their niche to learn. Although I think the plans are a good idea, I've realized jumping to initiatives first is backwards. What needs to happen first is determining need.
Prior to hiring someone full-time, the first thing an organization could want to do is see where they currently are in learning and development and, at least as importantly, decide where learning and development fits into the organization as a whole. Something I've learned, the hard way, is an idea's quality is only as good as how it fits into the organization as a whole. A project that fits into the way of the organization, part of working towards something bigger than the project itself, has a chance. One that doesn't fit is like sewing on an extra arm to the body of the organization. No matter how strong that arm is, isn't going to work if it doesn't connect with the "brain" (culture) of the organization. Eventually it'll wither up and be useless. Looking at what currently exists and for potential need would mean a variety of methods of collecting data. Surveys could be used to get a lot of feedback quickly. Undoubtedly, there would need to be a lot of conversations with people across different departments (individual interviews, informal discussion, focus groups are all possibilities). Some questions for those in leadership: What do you do to help staff learn? To help them improve? How does it work? What kind of feedback have you gotten? How does it fit into the goals and values of the organization? How do you show value for people improving? What do you have to show it's been helpful? What would you do differently if you could? What would make it better? You get the idea. For coaches and others: How have you gotten better in the last year? How do you know? What do you do to continue learning? What does the organization do to help? How does the organization show it values staff working to improve? What's the most helpful thing the organization has done to help you improve? What's something you wish it could do? Again, you get the idea. Regardless of the methods chosen, something that is really key when you're getting feedback is to explain to people why you're getting it and how it's going to be used. This helps them understand the feedback is to help the organization, shows you value them, and also helps with organic buy-in when they see the feedback being used. It also helps the likelihood of any initiatives being successful and sustainable moving forward on multiple fronts. Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is. Maybe they should just hire a learning and development coordinator to do it- ha!
There's certainly a lot more that would go into helping to create an improved organization of learning and development, but the initial steps provide a start I hope you can resonate with regardless of your role in whatever you currently do. Finding the blend of action to start and having purpose behind the action itself is something I'd guess we are all still trying to figure out. Once you think you do, you'll likely be humbled. All part of being a lifelong learner.
- Ben
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