Action Learning and the Grow Model for Coaching

I have a notepad with a running list of post ideas, so when I can’t seem to find inspiration for a post, I can fall back to the list.

Two of the topics on my list have been:

1. How to Design an Action Learning Program….

and

2. The GROW Model for Coaching

As with just about any blogging topic, chances are, someone’s probably already written about it. That usually doesn’t stop me, but in the case of these two topics, I’ve got to defer to Chris Morgan, who writes an outstanding learning and development blog called Learn2Develop. Just about everything Chris puts out there is extremely useful and technically spot on every time. It's a great reference source for managers, training professionals, and HR pros.

Here’s a three part series of posts Chris wrote on action learning that’s as good as anything I’ve seen on the topic, and written in plain language (which is another thing I like about his writing):

1. Ride the Credit Crunch with Action Learning

2. Action Learning… Part 2

3. Action Learning – the Final Part

I’m a big proponent of action learning, because it’s not only an effective way to engage managers in relevant learning, there’s often a nice ROI from the project work that the participants produce.
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I’m sure there’s hundreds of coaching models out there, but the one that seems to be the most universally used, and works best for me and others I’ve worked with, is the GROW model.

GROW stands for:
- Goals
- Reality
- Options
- What Next

Chris just published a post that provides a nice explanation and picture of the model, as well as links to three others sites to learn more about the model.

Thanks Chris, I’ll cross these two topics off the list!