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The development of a new car consists of a large number of very complex projects: the concept, the design, the interior, the drive, the chassis, the testing and, increasingly, the software in the car. All projects require one thing above all: outstanding software engineers and programmers who work together excellently in complex automotive projects.
Now engineers, technicians and software programmers are specially prepared for logical, predictable processes. And it works best in these environments.
There are jokes about it.
A mother asks her son, a programmer, to go shopping: “Please buy a loaf of bread, and if you have eggs, bring a dozen.” After an hour, he returns with 12 loaves of bread. “Why did you buy 12 loaves of bread?” asks the mother, irritated.
His answer. “They had eggs.”
Of course, this is a communication problem. Ambiguous statements or a rapidly changing context are detrimental to objective and logical communication. And throw people who think objectively and logically off track.
But the large projects require an enormous number of factual and logical programmers. Smooth communication and stable framework conditions can be created.
Coaching projects as a solution for complex challenges
To this end, various software providers have been successfully using “coaching at scale” for several months.
Word of this has not gotten around so far. We want to explain why it works so well.
Coaching is a structured conversation that accompanies the job.
Coaching is an individual consultation that usually takes place two to three times a month over a period of at least six months to 18 months.
To overcome complex, protracted challenges (e.g. developing one’s own role in software projects), they start from personal mindsets and follow a structure of goal setting, understanding the situation and developing alternative behaviors. Self-responsibility/discipline ensures sustainable changes in behavior, overcoming resistance and improved goal achievement.
Five key benefits of coaching for technology projects
Coaching improves clarity, goal achievement and well-being.
Despite the proven effectiveness of coaching, cost is the biggest barrier to its widespread use, e.g. for permanent staff in technical projects. The typical cost of a session can range from €150 to €350, with no upper limit.
However, new coaching platforms, such as CoachHub, BetterUp, etc., can drastically reduce these costs, in some cases by 50-60%. This makes “coaching at scale” a real option for significantly accelerating complex technology projects.
And it pays off.
Essentially, there are five points that can be evaluated in a specific project, backed up with euro amounts and used for an investment decision.
Point 1: Create a psychologically safe environment for collaboration.
Complexity in combination with fixed deadlines creates enormous pressure within the team in technical projects, which is often counterproductive.
Concentrated work requires, above all, privacy and a safe environment. Headphones on, an ideal office and good pay alone are not enough to resolve the contradiction between pressure to produce results and undisturbed, productive work.
The widespread use of coaching changes the way people interact with each other and creates a psychologically safe working environment.
Through a trusting coachee-coach relationship, a contradiction can be dealt with more easily, individually and elegantly. Every coachee has the opportunity to discuss their situation, perspectives and conflicts confidentially with their coach and to run through alternative courses of action.
Coaching can turn high-pressure projects into personal growth opportunities. And hardly anything is more attractive to the best programmers and engineers on the market than joint market success, as various studies show.
Point 2: Make communication more effective
The best employees are motivated when they solve real problems. They usually can’t do this on their own, and teamwork has to work well.
“Since my colleagues, my boss and I have been coached, we have become more productive,” says a software engineer. “When we add finished code to the codebase for review, I now get much better feedback. In the past, we often had comments that required a lot of questions or sometimes even got personal. The coaching culture has made it easier for us to deal with feedback and has made communication more precise.”
Every team has its own way of working together, right down to the use of certain terms. This cannot be ignored, it has to be worked out and it takes time.
Comprehensive coaching accelerates the growing together of the team.
Everyone who experiences coaching changes their repertoire of feedback possibilities by observing the coach. And effective feedback enables the team to develop its own way of working together.
Point 3: Promote standardization and process discipline
Processes create stable environments. Processes are essential and performance-defining in all projects.
Processes can be visualized, optimized, trained and measured. Surprises are minimized.
However, there are always deviations from processes.
However, this leads to additional work downstream and changes the context for downstream processes. Process discipline is therefore extremely important in order to accelerate technology projects.
Processes are often not adhered to because the process was not understood by the employee. Intensive training of the process, especially as part of comprehensive coaching, is crucial for success.
If the process discipline is already high, coaching can then lead to improved standardization.
It is important to understand what is what. And this is where coaching can help.
Do we currently have a VUCA situation because processes are not being adhered to? What is my role in the situation? Do I know the process? Or do we already have a high level of process discipline and should standardize further? What is the right way to bring the findings to the team and make them effective?
The combination of process training and comprehensive coaching can easily double or triple the effect. “We now always combine our process training with coaching,” the head of coaching at an internal academy of a manufacturer told us. “New technical knowledge can be incorporated into everyday work more quickly through coaching.”
Point 4: Promote well-being and personal productivity
High pressure in technology projects has long-term health effects. Everyone in the automotive industry knows examples of this in their own environment.
There is also a trend towards mindfulness techniques in our industry. Coaching can help to integrate positive routines into everyday life. A coach helps to recognize harmful habits and adopt positive habits. This ranges from office routines, nutrition, exercise, daylight, time with friends and family. Work and life are viewed holistically.
The effects on personal well-being are correspondingly positive.
And thus on personal productivity.
This can also be measured.
Point 5: Faster transformation programs
Coaching has its place in the targeted management of change processes. Comprehensive coaching via platforms can help the team through the emotional highs and lows.
It is the same both in the team and in the partnership: if one changes, the other must also change, otherwise the partnership ends. If one team member changes, all the others must automatically do the same. This individual adjustment can be supported and coordinated through coaching. In this way, even the most difficult transformation programs can be successfully implemented.
Coaching via a platform has enormous advantages here. This is because data (when was the coaching conducted, how often, etc.) and feedback (about the coach, questions about the program, goal achievement) are collected confidentially and in compliance with data protection regulations. Anonymized evaluations of this data can provide clear data points to drive the transformation forward.
If the adaptation to one another succeeds, in terms of goals, perspectives and actions, the result is a well-coordinated, high-performance team. If the adaptation is not successful, the transformation fails.
For the investment calculation, part of the benefit calculation of the entire transformation program can be used here.
Comprehensive coaching via a platform is the best tool we can currently use to accelerate technology projects. It is effective and pays off because it improves recruitment and feedback mechanisms, promotes resilience and establishes a nationwide growth culture.
With new coaching platforms, it can be integrated into the everyday life of large companies in a contemporary and cost-effective way.
The results are phenomenal. There are many examples of projects for this. If you are interested in references, please write to me.
Our forecast is that the use of comprehensive coaching in the automotive transformation has only just begun. In the coming years, it will become an integral part of everyday life in technology projects and an integral part of the offerings of internal academies.
