What happens when technology blends with coaching? You start to enable anyone to have affordable access to development.
Democratizing access to learning with tech
This month we are talking to our provider Sarah Schwab, Founder of an Edtech company that accelerates behavioral and soft skills development for corporations and individuals.
“Fusing the power of video, AI and virtual coaches, we improve the world’s behavioural skills”, says Sarah.
With her blended learning approach, she wants to democratise access to high-quality development. Reason being, that the learners often don’t get the support, feedback and coaching they need to improve their performance.
The impact of managers and leaders
Sarah is passionate about great leaders and managers. She says:
They are responsible for so much of the engagement, productivity, discretionary effort and well being of their team members. And yet there’s still not enough of them in the world!
Certainly, 1:1 coaching has been the path to improvement for managers and leaders. However, it is expensive and not very scalable. And yet it’s hard to improve without practice and thoughtful feedback. So Sarah and her team blended digital technologies with human coaches to deliver affordable, accessible learning solutions. With the goal to help, employees get support in improving their behavioral skills.
The magic of blended learning
Most noteworthy, there is something powerful in creating a safe space to practice along with high-quality coaching which blends the social support of a learning group. Sarah and the team behind her solution hold up a mirror to how one behaves in different business scenarios. And provide thoughtful feedback on what one does well and where a learner can improve. Lastly, you get the privacy of performing with your personalised tutor and coach as well as the benefit of sharing your experience and holding each other accountable for meaningful change with your fellow team members.
How it works
To start with, each participant gets access to content and video examples of what “good” looks like in the behaviour they are trying to master. Then they get to practice in two ways – firstly using their webcam, they record short videos in response to prompts from the platform and self-evaluate their performance. Then they complete a live role-play assignment on a video call and an external coach assesses their performance – not just where they can improve but also what’s gone well (too often this important reinforcing feedback step is skipped over! The goal is to measure exact progress against the competencies the learners are building. Aggregated performance data can be shared too which means it’s a fantastic tool to flag potential blind spots which blends for the entire team.
The recent impact study Sarah and her team conducted shows an average before and after improvement of 40-80%. An impressive result!
Hungry for more?
Firstly, do not miss Sarah’s workshops available through WeWent:
And if you would like to have a more tailored approach or focus on a specific skill reach out to us! Sarah offers a whole variety of business scenarios. From change, difficult conversations, building trust, coaching, and more.
