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In almost all restructuring projects, all training and event budgets are cut as a reflex. So simple, and at the same time a guarantee that the restructuring will go wrong.
Because 80 to 86% of ALL change projects fail due to mindset and behavior. And coaching, the “new training”, is the best way to strengthen the management team in situations of change and offers contemporary opportunities to support employees and improve performance.
But how can courageous investment in coaching actually pay off?
Today I’m talking to Daniel Breitwieser, Senior Director Automotive at CoachHub.
Steffen Szameitat: Hello Daniel. As an automotive expert, what was the most interesting car you’ve ever driven?
Daniel Breitwieser: That’s a very good question! I’ve never owned a car. After six or seven years abroad, I spent a lot of time traveling in big cities. Now I’ve been living in Berlin for six years and I’m a big fan of mobility. I mainly use car sharing. My first experience with a Tesla was great, I love it. I first had to google how to start it.
Steffen Szameitat: Was that a Model 3 or an X?
Daniel Breitwieser: That was a Model 3. It’s a great car, only the big screen in the middle takes some getting used to.
Steffen Szameitat: Tesla ushered in a new era for everyone. A lot has changed since then. The markets are currently very weak, costs have to come down. What role does coaching play in the transformation of the industry?
Daniel Breitwieser: Right now, people are looking at every nook and cranny: Okay, now we’re paying the price for the last ten years. Above all, of course, manufacturers are seeing what is happening in China and how market shares are shrinking.
Coaching@Scale is a lever for transformation that has never existed before and that now offers new opportunities to support a large number of people in a reorientation, reorientation, mindset change and competence change in a way that would otherwise not work at all. The old ways of training and seminars and business schools are simply no longer working. There is little digitalization, little data support. What has been done here in the last 20 years.
Most companies are somehow still in this structure and we can therefore simply offer a completely new lever, both through coaching and, incidentally, now that it is also new since our last interview in collective coaching.
And because you brought it up: the topic of restructuring. Yes, a large number of people have to reorient themselves, both within and outside the company. Because there is simply no longer the demand and the quantities to justify the structures that we have built up. I recently spoke to a top manager who said: We have missed out on consolidating over the last 15 years. And that is now falling on our feet.
Accordingly, there are many people who need support. Conventional methods will not work. We, on the other hand, can provide the support that is needed – for all stakeholders.
Steffen Szameitat: Does that mean that the “Mental Operating System Upgrade” is still running?
Restructuring requires a “Mental Operating Model Update”.
Daniel Breitwieser: There are companies that changed early on and said we need to upgrade our mental operating system. There is the individual mental operating system. And the “at scale” results in the collective and organizational Mental Operating System. We are still working on this, but the context has changed.
Steffen Szameitat: What successes do you see with your customers?
Daniel Breitwieser: There are really exciting developments with our clients. We have both qualitative and quantitative data that shows that coaching is often life-changing. Many of our clients report performance improvements of between 10 and 20 %. This has a direct impact on their productivity and how they approach their tasks.
I remember one client who said that through better time management and delegation, they were able to reduce meeting times by as much as 40%! Not only has this resulted in less time being wasted in meetings, but employees now have more room for creative ideas and innovation. These changes promote a much better working atmosphere in which people are more motivated and committed.
What I also find exciting is the ripple effect that we often observe: When a person experiences positive changes through coaching, their team also feels it. For example, if a manager learns to delegate more effectively and communicate more clearly, everyone in the team benefits. This has a positive effect on collaboration and increases overall performance.
Effects of coaching in restructuring.
We also see that many managers significantly improve their communication skills through coaching. Feedback from coachees shows that they are more satisfied with their work, which strengthens their loyalty to the company. It’s great to see how coaching not only helps the individual, but also the entire organization.
Steffen Szameitat: How do your customers experience and use the facts and figures about coaching?
Daniel Breitwieser: That’s exactly our sweet spot, Steffen.
Our platform offers comprehensive data analyses that go beyond simple statistics. Companies gain insights into the effectiveness of coaching and can see exactly how it helps with change processes. We collect data on various aspects, such as the coachees’ progress, the issues they are working on and the feedback they provide. This information enables companies to specifically identify where the biggest challenges lie and where there may be a need for action.
In addition, they can identify which skills are improving within the company and where further training may be required. This is a new dimension in the learning market, as companies are not only reliant on retrospective reports, but can make proactive decisions to develop their employees and the organization as a whole. Through regular self-assessments, we can track progress and encourage a data-driven approach to continuous improvement.
We have a team of behavioral scientists and solution engineers who work together to develop an evaluation design and success matrix for each major project. We hold clients accountable to look at their own performance metrics. It’s unfortunate how little German companies track what works when it comes to investments. We often shy away from using relevant metrics, even though they can be anonymized.
We have developed our own evaluation constructs, including pre- and post-surveys as well as integrated 180- and 360-degree tools on our platform in order to be able to demonstrate changes in behavior from multiple perspectives. Naturally, everything is carried out in compliance with data protection regulations and works council guidelines.
Integrate corporate coaching into program structures.
Steffen Szameitat: Are there best practices for program designs that work well?
Daniel Breitwieser: A very good question: strong leadership is crucial. Especially in these difficult times, we need strong leaders and we need a strong CEO AND a strong CFO. And coaching is the better training today, as it specifically develops behavior, mindset and skills. Training is still needed for many specialist topics.
Especially in difficult times, managers need to invest in coaching instead of cutting budgets for personal development. To be honest, we’re often talking about 0.3% of salaries for the idea of making people more effective. Yes, I didn’t understand the logic behind these cuts anyway, but we are investing right now.
Leadership development is business-critical.
There are strong CEOs who have a vision and say: We support our entire team, all our managers, with coaching. We have a radical change that we have to undergo with technologies and everyday behavior. This means that everyone, starting with me and our C-level, is in coaching. We expect each and every one of you to get involved. We are investing, there is no opt-in, there is an opt-out.
“Oh, you don’t need coaching. All right. Then please explain to me what your plan is for the next twelve months, for the strategy and the behavioral changes. For yourself and your team.”
So, that has to be key first. And of course that applies to the entire upscaling process. And not to somehow say: “Yes, we’ll do a bit of change management … Can we please save on the training and coaching?”
You don’t bring about transformation or change by taking this approach.
Corporate Team Coaching.
Steffen Szameitat: What is the concept of collective coaching?
Daniel Breitwieser: This is a completely new concept of collective coaching, which we call “co-dev”, an innovative format that brings 4 to 6 people together to work on challenges together. The focus is on the collective intelligence that emerges when like-minded people share and learn from each other. It is not team coaching, but a group of peers working in a supportive framework.
Each participant brings a specific concern or challenge, while the others act as advisors. This format not only promotes networking within the company, but also helps to break down silos and bring different perspectives together. It enables participants to learn from each other and develop creative solutions that they might not have found on their own.
The coaching follows a structured process that allows participants to clearly define the problem, share their views and work out solutions together. This results in exciting insights and action plans that can be implemented in the next session. Best of all, each participant has the opportunity to step into focus and learn from the others, enriching the overall learning process.
This type of coaching has proven to be particularly effective, as it not only promotes individual development, but also creates a culture of open exchange and continuous learning within the organization. As a result, participants feel more involved and can apply the skills they have learned directly in their day-to-day work.
Steffen Szameitat: Peers can, for example, be a group of division managers who are at the same level in the hierarchy.
Corporate coaching in the ERP rollout.
Daniel Breitwieser: Exactly. Co-devs are used in various areas, for example in an ERP rollout in a company with 80,000 employees. We bring the project teams together and support the transformation process so that best practices are spread more quickly. What works? How do you deal with resistance? We also offer a platform for sharing experiences and emotions. This allows participants to work together to find solutions that work in their projects.
Ideally, different departments or peers with similar goals should work together. That is important! For example, we bring employees from different car dealerships together to share best practices. Whether during the ERP rollout or in the Sales Academy – we support new training courses that focus on topics such as sales transformation and customer centricity. The teams are trained to implement behavioral changes in their day-to-day work and apply what they have learned in their projects.
Steffen Szameitat: Coaching is one of the oldest forms of learning. Now you have said (nice quote): “Coaching is the better training”. What role will AI play in the future of coaching?
AI chatbot versus coach.
Daniel Breitwieser: Would you say Chat GPT is a coach?
Steffen Szameitat: Well, you can use ChatGPT to learn. But I have a few more expectations of a coach.
Daniel Breitwieser: Which are?
Steffen Szameitat: Coaching helps to reconcile professional and private goals. We never have just one role, we never have just one singular goal, we have several. And that creates conflicts. I don’t yet see exactly how AI can recognize or even inquire about these conflicts.
Daniel Breitwieser: That’s right. I think we’ll get to the point where AI can do that one day. Of course, the question is always: can it do it as well as a human, like a certified coach who has already coached hundreds of people? At the moment, the answer is still no.
And that is probably always down to the person being coached. I do believe that acceptance is increasing rapidly. We launched our Amy as a prototype back then. Over 20,000 people have used Amy. As you say, coaching is one of the oldest forms of learning, but of course it’s also an expensive one.
Studies show that around 96% of companies see a clear ROI from coaching. Even if this is not measured precisely, people notice the difference. Coaching offers new opportunities to bring the topic into the mainstream. Our focus is on human coaching, and that will not change. The nuances that a person understands, as well as the kind of empathy and presence, are incomparable. Even when talking to such a realistic avatar, the fact that it is not human is not insignificant. That influences our thinking.
AI coaching also opens up many opportunities to improve human coaches. Our coach companion is also trained to the ICF standards. We are already using AI to optimize matching and combine sessions more effectively. Nudges, which are provided via our co-pilot, also help users to link learning content. If someone has discussed a topic with their coach, suitable learning opportunities could be available on the platform.
Steffen Szameitat: Last question: What would you say to a transformation manager in charge of a major project? What would you tell them? What question would you ask him?
Daniel Breitwieser: First of all, what role does investment in change management play in your plans? I read an interesting study that says that on average only 28% of the budget of successful transformation projects is spent on change management. In many cases, this proportion is even in the low single-digit range.
If you look at why transformations fail – according to McKinsey and BCG, 80 to 86% fail due to mindset and behavior, both at management level and among employees. A colleague of mine at Mercedes said he spends all day on change management, especially in our changing world of work. Many people don’t even use the basic software tools. Sometimes we feel digitalized but don’t realize that we are lagging behind in some areas.
So my question is: How is change management taken into account in your planning? What does your concept look like? It is important that change enablement is part of transformation projects right from the start and not just once the organization has already been restructured.
The later I start, the more difficult it becomes. There is a strong correlation between investment in change management and the success of transformation projects. The faster I implement new software solutions and allow employees to work in an agile sprint mode, the faster I see financial success.
This is my plea: we should ask the right questions and use network analyses. Studies show that around 30% of the success of change projects depends on the right social structure. If I don’t even invest in the crucial 2 or 3 %, I don’t even need to start.
Steffen Szameitat: Can you summarize: “No budget, no change.”
Daniel Breitwieser: Exactly, investing in change management is crucial.
Steffen Szameitat: Thank you very much for the interesting interview, Daniel!
Daniel Breitwieser: You’re very welcome, Steffen. I look forward to the next conversation!
