Put me in, Coach! - Using Coaching Loops

[suzanne_smith]

Do you need a way to mentor others and offer feedback after an action is completed in a task-based process like incident, problem, or change management? If you do, take a look at the Coaching Loops application. This useful app enables mentors ("coaches") to help guide individual users or groups ("coachees") through their work and provide tips to improve performance.

The following terms are important in Coaching Loops:

• Coaching discipline: process that can be coached
• Coaching opportunity: specific points in the process that can be coached
• Coaching assessment: coachee work review and feedback

For example, let's say the coaching discipline is incident management. Coaching opportunities in incident management could include updating an incident, changing incident priority, and closing an incident. The coaching discipline and the coaching opportunity must both exist on the same table - in this case they are both on the Incident table. When a user takes an action such as changing incident priority, an assessment record is automatically created for the user and assigned to the coach. The coach and coachee can then review the coachee task performance and enter work notes.

Creating a coaching discipline:

First, establish the process for which you want to coach users.

1. Navigate to Coaching Loops > Coaching Disciplines.
2. Click New.
3. Fill in the following fields: Short description, Discipline, Coachee Group, and Coaching Group. In the following example, the discipline is incident management on the incident table. We have a Coachee group named Customer Support and a Coaching group named Incident Coaching.
   
4. Click Submit

Creating a coaching opportunity:

Second, break the process down into specific steps where users can be coached to make better decisions.

1. Navigate to Coaching Loops > Coaching Opportunities.
2. Click New.
3. Fill in the Short description and Table fields.
4. Click Submit.

In the Snapshot field on the Coaching Opportunity record, you can add a script that defines the evaluation process applied to the table specified in the Table field. Shown below is the sample coaching opportunity (on the task table) included in the the base system.

 

Performing a coaching assessment:

Lastly, have the coach add an evaluation of the coachee performance in an assessment record and note improvements for the future.

1. Navigate to Coaching Loops > Assessments.
2. Click an assessment record.
3. Type a review of the coachee's task performance into the Work notes field.
   
4. Click Thank Coachee to save the record, close the record, and automatically send an email message to the coachee that lets them know the assessment was completed. The coachee can review all fields on the assessment record.
5. [Optional] To continue the dialog with the coach, coachees can click Review Assessment and type text into the Work notes.

Additional tips and information:

• You can use the coaching process on tables that do not extend the Task table. Copy the Coaching Opportunity creator for Task business rule, specify a new table, make any other necessary modifications, and save the business rule with a new name.
• Coaches and coachees can view useful assessment data in the Coaching Performance Dashboard by navigating to Service Desk >My Coaching History.
• Read the lively discussion kicked off by rfedoruk in the Coaching Loops Open Forum.
• Read an informative blog post about increasing process performance using feedback loops.