COACHING +
LTTC ON COACHING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEVELOPMENT
FINAL REPORT - 2016 HUNGARY/ONLINE/TURKEY - APRIL - OCTOBER 2016
Long-term training course co-organised by the Hungarian, Turkish, and Belgian-FR “Erasmus+: Youth in action” National Agencies in cooperation with SALTOYOUTH Participation with the support of the “Erasmus+: Youth in action” programme.
1. BACKGROUND FOR THIS LONG-TERM TRAINING COURSE
Coaching has been introduced in the “Youth in action” programme as a way of accompanying groups of young people, facilitating their learning process and supporting their participation. The notion of coaching used so far in youth work and “Erasmus+ Youth in action” is not necessarily compatible with the definition of professional coaching used in business or personal development. It is rather a combination of mentoring, counselling and coaching and the methods used are slightly different from the ones used by professional coaches. The organising NAs and SALTO Participation believe that coaching is still needed to support Erasmus+ Youth beneficiaries. Coaching can be used for the personal and professional development of young people and for fostering their active participation in daily life. We organised this activity based on the methods and techniques widely applied in current professional coaching. Youth workers could benefit from professional coaching to allow them to integrate its approaches in their daily work to better respond to the needs of young people. With the above in mind, this second edition of the course was designed to help youth work practitioners to: • know, use and adapt coaching methods and tools easily in their daily work; • strengthen the learning process by implementing the full coaching cycle: set goals, identify new possibilities, make decisions, take actions, and reflect; • work on their personal and professional development to improve theirs and others’ employability prospects; • raise awareness of the entrepreneurial learning potential with coaching tools; • be part of a support platform for sharing and exchanging experiences and good practices.
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2.THE COACHING+ CONCEPT
This is a long-term project that included two residential training courses and a period in-between of practice. During the first phase hosted by the Hungarian NA, participants were introduced to the basics of coaching as a method that they can apply in their daily work to improve the quality of the guidance that they offer to young people in their personal and professional development. After the first phase, participants went back to their organisations and applied the new acquired coaching approach during the practice phase. The second practice phase (in between the two residential trainings) consisted of peer e-coaching sessions. Every participant chose a partner for her/himself and practised coaching based on real challenges and in a real coaching process at least 4 times, 45-60 minutes each time. The third residential phase, organised in Turkey, gave participants the opportunity to reflect on their coaching experiences and their own development. The challenges that they encountered were shared, allowing them to reflect on and become aware of their learning outcomes and competences acquired throughout the whole LTTC.
2.1 Aim
2.2 Objectives
• Assist youth workers in developing a coaching approach to improve the quality development of youth work with the support of E+YIA.
• Bring an innovative and empowering mindset to youth workers by means of individual and group coaching methods and tools; • Help youth workers to increase participation of young people in society, including those with fewer opportunities; • Help them build their personal and professional resources to contribute to their development in a holistic way; • Give them the possibility to transfer the acquired competences and inspire others to adopt the coaching approach. 3
3. THE PEOPLE
3.1 Organisers: • Raluca Diroescu - Project Officer - SALTO-YOUTH Participation Resource Centre • Ildikó Gulácsi - TCA Coordinator - Hungarian National Agency for the “Erasmus+: Youth in action” Programme • Mustafa Kemal Akbulut - Assistant Expert - Turkish National Agency for the “Erasmus+: Youth in action” Programme 3.2 Trainers: • Mónika Bölcskei - internationally accredited coach, trainer, facilitator and moderator. She works in business area in Hungary and in Europe, specialised in Action Learning and ADHD Coaching • Juan Ratto-Nielsen, PhD - trainer, facilitator, and consultant, specialised in lifelong learning, learning mobility and human resource development
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3.3 Experts - Former participants: • Anna Markus - Program Director of Management Innovator Awards, Co Founder at Coaching Point - Hungary • Ceyhun Uzun - EU Project Developer / Trainer - Erasmus+ Youth & Adult Learning Projects - Turkey 3.4 Participants: A total of 24 participants (7 males and 17 females) started the first phase in Budapest, Hungary and 22 of them completed the second phase, although with different intensity. The participants came from different countries Belgium-FR, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Malta, and Macedonia (FYROM). The participants came from various fields working with young people with a diverse background (youth workers, youth leaders, formal education professionals, HRD practitioners, etc.). Due to last-minute cancellations for various reasons, only 15 participants -12 females and 3 males, completed the third phase, therefore the whole LTTC. 5
4. THE FLOW OF THE LTTC
The long-term training course consisted of two residential phases and one online peer-coaching practice period in-between. 1.
First residential phase: Budapest, Hungary, 11-16 April, 2016.
2.
Second practice phase: Peer-Coaching, at least 4 times, 45-60 minutes each time, from April to October 2016
3.
Third residential phase: Izmir, Turkey, 4-9 October, 2016


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Budapest, Hungary, 11-16 April, 2016
Peer-Coaching from April to October, 2016
People
Method
Mentoring
Duration
Media
12 coaching pairs alternating coach/ coachee roles
Peer-Coaching, with ongoing mentoring by trainers
1 mentor (12 pax) Online/Email/ Skype/ Google Keep portfolio
45-60 minutes per coaching session
Online via Skype or face-to-face
Izmir, Turkey, 4-9 October, 2016
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5. OUTCOMES & CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Coaching in youth work: Understanding coaching What for?
The participants acquired a clearer idea of what coaching is and how it can be used in their practices and for their own development. They pointed out that coaching means a way to find motivation, discover their potential as a process towards development. They referred as a coaching approach can be transferred into their practices as a means of solving problems, giving new perspectives and increasing awareness towards achieving goals. The idea about coaching as a tool and an approach that can be used in youth work was part of the general understanding of most participants. They listed different ways to implement coaching in their practices. They mostly agreed on the usefulness of coaching techniques and methods at work and in youth work, for interviews, work camps, with students, self-coaching, etc. The ones that emphasised youth work will use it to empower young people about their possibilities in life and support them in their personal and professional development. Among the most relevant examples, there were those related to work with young people with fewer opportunities to help them identify their strengths, establish their goals and work to achieve 9
them, support EVS volunteers in their development and learning, training youth workers and people in their organisations. Regarding the organisations, a few participants mentioned that they would disseminate the coaching approach back in their organisations with an impact on their organisations’ change management process.
Understanding coaching How?
5.2 The coaching process within E+/Youthpass and its implementation During the first phase, there was a remarkable difference between participants that were familiar with the learning component supported by Youthpass in E+, and those that did not acknowledge the link between coaching and learning/Youthpass. 19 out of 23 respondents found a clear link between coaching and the Youthpass process or learning in E+. They understood coaching as a tool in youth work to help empower young people to develop their competences. They gave concrete examples of activities where coaching could be used, such as youth exchanges, training courses as facilitator, etc. The referred to coaching as a way to guide people to identify opportunities, empower them to identify their abilities and make use of the learning opportunities provided by E+. Many participants mentioned their first-hand experience with EVS, either as a volunteers, mentor or coordinator, and found coaching as a useful tool to facilitate the learning process in EVS to increase the self-awareness of young people and the competences they have obtained and understand them better. Coaching was identified as a useful complement to the Youthpass process in planning the learning process in E+ activities and recognising the learning outcomes in training courses and other E+ activities through reflection and evaluation. A couple of participants pointed out the significance of coaching linking Youthpass to youth employability and, specifically, to training young people to work on their skills and looking on the positive side. Moreover, coaching was considered a way to increase youth participation by letting them define new opportunities through E+. Finally, there were 4 participants that did not answer the question or explained that this course was related to general coaching sessions and not to E+ or Youthpass. 10
Useful ideas to take back home and share
5.3 What do we carry back home? Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
The judging & leaning paths
Silent coaching
Learning from our mistakes
Question Storming
Nature coaching
Different perspective for every situation
Theories
Promoting active participation
Knowing and understanding myself
Methods, tools, vision
Open questions, Open doors
Love yourself, gain yourself
“Active question” concept
Find the right question then you New plans new hopes, have the right answer motivation
Ideas on how to support EVS volunteers
Keep it simple
Coachee as a specialist on their life
Appreciative Inquiry
How to make useful and empowering evaluation
Accept mistakes as part of the learning process
4D method for future actions for youngsters at risk
Intuition
Don’t judge, don’t blame yourself
Coaching as part of EVS predeparture trainings
Active listening
Goals are tools to get closer to Powerful questioning my vision Action plans
Tell a story
Good tips
Finding new ways to ask questions
Inspirational quotes
Provoking as a technique
learner’s path
Reframing Work with Dixit cards Open ended-question Unlearning
Food for thought
5.4 Open Space Topics • Types of Coaching: shake it up! • Wrong is Right: Coaching Practice • Workshop - Cycles of Life (Tool) • Choosing Learning Path or not? and motivate yourself • Garden Exercise (Tool) • Coaching’s Power for Human Resources Employability Development • Let’s Write a Project (KA1 or YE) • Networking and Future Cooperation 11
6. EVALUATION
ALL participants c o n s i d e re d t h a t t h e i r objectives were achieved during the LTTC, in the final phase in Izmir, which also matched the general objectives of the LTTC.
The degree of satisfaction after the first phase regarding training elements was evaluated individually on a 1-10 scale. The course average score reached 8.86. The above graph reflects personal satisfaction based on individual criteria and does not intend to evaluate course contents or methods.
Participants’ objectives before the course could be summarised in 5 main topics: ✓ Learn coaching, its methods and tools (to apply them in youth work and their practices) ✓ Practice coaching ✓ Reach self-awareness ✓ Set own professional goals ✓ Networking for project development and future work All participants who completed the 3 phases of the course claimed to have met their objectives.
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MOMENT + Most participants considered Action Learning/ Group coaching as the moment when they felt t hat t he activity/exercise was wor king particularly well – so well that it helped them learn and understand something new about themselves, their challenges or their project in a way that was exciting or inspiring. Other moments that were mentioned were the reflection during the first phase and peer coaching during the second phase, and the open space activity that gave them an opportunity to speak about a topic they were interested in and receive feedback from their peers.
They found Action Learning so effective because it challenged them to learn about themselves and also offered an opportunity for peer-learning to put into action what they had learnt during the previous two phases of the LTTC. It was also an opportunity for reflection by working together to support and empower each other. The role of the facilitators was also appreciated especially when they corrected them during the exercise. For the other moments, the techniques applied by the trainers, the motivation, the insights into their personal learning processes, and transferability to their work were highlighted.
TOPIC +
process, the applicability in their projects and fields
There were a number of topics that participants
of work, and relevant
found particularly relevant to them, their
tools, such as
challenges or their projects. Group coaching
question storming
wa s a g a i n a f a vo u r i t e b e c a u s e o f i t s
and the choice map.
effectiveness as a method, the learning from
Getting
others and the focus on action plans. Then coaching practice as a whole including the second phase was chosen as a relevant topic with the different soft skills involved in the
to
know
themselves as learners became a relevant topic during the last phase creating opportunities for reflection and sharing.
The evaluation of methods ranked also high with 14 respondents satisfied “all or most of t he time”, and only 1 participant satisfied “some of the time”. When inquired about
the
effectiveness of the
•River of Learning •Group Coaching •Open Space •Facebook group •Programme displayed on the floor •Leisure time (Budapest and Ephesus) •Dixit cards
activities and the
•Choice Map
course as a whole,
•Learning Cards
participants agreed on these
•Peer coaching (2nd phase)
activities/moments:
•3rd phase (awareness phase)
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As the general impression was positive, they also identified some areas for improvement according to their personal needs:
• More energisers and name games, and team building exercise at the beginning • Emphasise the importance of everyone responsible for their development • More time for practice • F u r t h e r c l a r i fic a t i o n w h e n g i v i n g explanations, if necessary • Make people participate and ask more questions, especially because of language difficulties • More time for more detailed presentation of session results after debriefing
GROUP + The participants identified three main milestones in t he group development, i.e. g roup coaching/action learning, open space, and the river of learning, when the group as a whole was contributing the most to the process – and where participants felt motivated and energised. In the first one, the contribution of each set was evident and people enjoyed the experience, as well. The second one offered them a space to share, showcase their experiences and collect feedback from each other. Finally, the river of learning integrated individual learning into group learning. This connection made the group contribution possible and valuable.
In the evaluation they also offered some tips to make the group contribute fully all the time - i.e. practice and residential phases. •More teamwork/team building exercises at the beginning and through the course •More staying back (trainers) •Individual presentations by participants •More energisers •Make use of tconsideration for others •Give responsibilities to everybody •Clear steps of coaching •Smaller group
Participants also suggested extra topics they deemed useful for future editions of the LTTC:
•Other types of coaching •Projects for coaching •Group coaching: how to apply coaching to a group (team building, team awareness, empower the group, etc.) •Topics about relevance of context in coaching
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7. GENERAL REMARKS
During the final meeting, the team evaluated the training course and the learning process involved. We agreed that the contents together with the methodology have been delivered as planned. We were satisfied with the outcomes and pointed out elements for improvement for future editions of the LTTC. 7.1 Participants We faced a serious problem few weeks before the third phase in Izmir. Several participants cancelled or neglected their participation in the evaluation part. They had different reasons, such as changing jobs, different illnesses and death in the family, and fear of the political situation in Turkey. The low interest in the third phase caused difficulties for everyone in the team, especially for Mustafa from the Turkish NA. We felt disappointed because of the approach of the participants leaving the LTTC. Finally 15 participants completed the third phase, therefore the whole LTTC. 7.2 Venues The venue and the accommodation of the first phase was in the European Youth Centre of Budapest. The accommodation was in gender based double rooms, hostel style. The Hungarian NA provided full board and lodging for the duration of the event. The Turkish venue and the accommodation of the third phase was at the Hilton Izmir in Izmir, which was splendid. We all feel 15
grateful to Mustafa for finding and arranging this place for us. Learning, sharing and evaluating became easier with the comfortable surrounding of the venue after such a difficult period with the arrangements of the third phase and the barely explained situation of the drop-out participants. The venues were beautiful places where learning was a pleasure. At the same time neither the organisers, trainers, nor the participants were satisfied with the amount, the variety and the quality of the food in Hungary. Also the quality of the beds were awful, many people couldn’t get enough sleep and rest. In Turkey we experienced the opposite. If we measure both of the venues on a 1-10 scale, where 1 means that the place couldn’t be worse and 10 means that the place couldn’t be any better, we could consider the Hungarian venue as 4 and the Turkish one as 10. Both the organisers from the Hungarian and Turkish NAs did their best, but unfortunately the quality of the venue rank down a lot since the previous trainings in Hungary. 7.3 Coordination and logistics Thanks to the support and endeavour of the course coordinator, Raluca Diroescu from SALTO Participation RC, this edition could be realised and successfully completed. Ildikó Gulácsi from the Hungarian NA and Mustafa Kemal Akbulut from the Turkish NA were responsible for the coordination and logistics in each residential phase. They made a very thorough preparation work just as a remarkable support during the LTTC, as well. Mustafa had a very hard time dealing with the participants’ neglect and cancellation, and he did a great job for which we cannot be grateful enough. All information (including info letter from the organisers and trainers) and training materials met the requirements. Participants were satisfied and could use them well. Ildikó organised a very pleasant boat trip on the river of Danube and we had a nice dinner out in Trófea Grill in Pest. Participants had enough time to discover Budapest before the organised activities. Hungarian participants took over the responsibility of guiding others in town which was very kind and useful. Mustafa organised a guided tour to Ephesus with a traditional dinner out in a small village afterwards. We were all astonished with the wealthy history of the place. We spent a great afternoon and a lovely evening together. 7.4 Final remarks It turned out to be a great decision to make some changes in the 2nd edition of the Coaching+ LTTC. According to the participants’, organisers’ and trainers’ learnings the LTTC needed a strong-based second phase that could build the bridge between the first new knowledge part and the third evaluation part. This second practise phase gave a lot to the participants in strengthening their basic coaching knowledge, practising the coaching competencies, making and correcting mistakes, learning from each other’s coaching styles and learning from their mentors. As it was planned, we 16
carried out the second phase by giving them the opportunity to have the trainers as their mentors. They could turn to mentors for answers, encouragement, books and articles to read or simply sharing. In the first part of the LTTC, we managed to teach the participants the most important and relevant coaching competencies and skills they can use in youth work. In the second part of the LTTC we managed to support the participants in their own learnings. Last but not least, in the third part of the LTTC we managed to share and evaluate their learning. It was also a significant change that the participants clearly understood the aim of the third phase and were not disappointed for not learning a new methodology. In the third phase, we decided to spend a whole day with action learning sets and give everyone the opportunity to experience the topic-holder’s role. They could bring their own professional difficulties they faced during the LTTC Into this action learning sets, especially in the second phase as a coach. They could work on their own problems with the help of the rest of the group. It gave them energy, motivation and goals for their future. We facilitated the action learning sets in parallel which was also a good idea. With 2 trainers we could make 2 smaller groups so the learning was more private and deeper. Along the LTTC, we introduced coaching according to ICF standards. We introduced them to a model of how to choose our learning or judger’s lanes. It helped them to realise how they behave and how to change their mindsets. We also introduced 2 models, TGROW and 4D from Appreciative Inquiry. They understood the differences and could use them in appropriate ways. Although we proposed after the first edition of this training to introduce more physically active coaching models, we could not carry this out. To make such changes we would need at least one extra day in the first part. What we can still do in the third edition, to introduce one more tool, which is not about only asking questions and answering them, but forming the answers with their body as a sculpture and asking about their feelings, thoughts and intuitions. Regarding the number of participants, we were lucky with this small group. In the future we wouldn’t change this. As English is really a must in this training, we still stick to this requirement. In this training, the level of English was better than in the first edition of this LTTC. We look forward to a third edition to further develop our Coaching+ concept with new ideas and incorporating participants’ suggestions.
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COACHING + TRAINING COURSE REPORT
© 2016 - SALTO Participation Resource Centre Authors: Juan Ratto-Nielsen & Mónika Bölcskei This document and its annexes do not necessarily express the official views of the European Commission or the organisations and people cooperating with the ‘Erasmus+/Youth’ institutions. xviii