Creating the habit of Training

A friend of mine was reading a book recently when an observation in social media was recorded.

"Irony: Buying a book to help simplify and organize only to stagnate on the weight of the information in the next step, the recycle bin ...."

I laughed. No book should be ironic. But many are.

When I received an advance copy of the new book by Michael Bungay Stainer, habit coaching: Say less, do more and change the way you always, I expected it to be like his previous book, Do More Great Work. That is, I expected it to be accessible, attractive, full of vision, but very practical.

I hoped it would be removed far from being ironic, as in the case of the election of the book of my friend. Nobody wants to see a dog chewing on his newly received "Certificate of dog obedience."

Michael's new book is really cozy and spacious while being very practical and real.

Based on your experience and the company he started, crayon-box while working with more than 10,000 managers and leaders, Michael has written a training manual that ultimately can be used by anyone. He insists that training has become too complicated. The formation of training provided by other companies and 'gurus' is too theoretical and boring, he says. Even when you learn the skill training overcomplicated, Michael believes people new knowledge has not translated into action. It also indicates people end up providing more and often unnecessary advice rather than listen and ask questions to support colleague through a decision, action, project, etc.

Therefore, Michael has established certain truths to train to succeed:

Training is simple

Training can be done in 10 minutes or less

Coaching is a daily act, Casual

You can build a habit of training, "but only if it understands and uses the proven construction mechanisms and the incorporation of new habits."

These new behaviors become the arch of The Habit Training. There are seven in total, and Michael frames as part question, part solution:

Kickstart Question (discover the power of an opening question - what's on your mind?)

The question AWE (AWE = and what else ... get people to generate more options)

Question Focus (focus on the real problem, not the first problem)

Foundation questions (what the colleague really wants)

The Lazy Question (colleague asking 'how can I help' to move things forward)

The strategic question (the balance between saying yes and saying no)

The question of learning (what was most useful for you-the-colleague during training exchange)

When used in combination (in sequence) with expertise Michael has created a model very useful, informal training and day-to-day that can be used by the legions of managers in organizations today.

Each of the seven habits are broken down into different chapters. Within each chapter Michael combines great typography quotes bullets removed along with smaller type font, paragraph and bold text. As each chapter progresses, you are invited to physically write in the book (and lines space provided) their thoughts and actions it will take to reactivate the development of the seven habits. There are also links to videos of Michael has created and reinforces learning.

At the end of each of the seven chapters of habit, there is a section of "master" which supports what has previously read. Michael follows a similar pattern in each section ( "when this happens ..." and "instead of ..." and "I will ...") so the reader can strengthen and support the habit just read about.

The habit of Coaching is a truly delightful reading. If you are interested in changing the way it is currently training members of your team or organization, this is a book for you. It is extremely practical, something that managers of people could use to great effect.

Endorsements come from literary heavyweights such as Daniel Pink, Brene Brown and Dave Ulrich. In short, I agree with their collective support.

Unlike my friend who ended up throwing his book into the bucket, the habit of Coaching is simple, attractive and concrete. In fact, it is the opposite of being ironic.

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