Teaching and Learning

"You cannot teach people anything, You can only help them discover it within themselves.” Galileo

“The great end of learning is not knowledge but action.” Peter Honey

These two quotes really reinforced to me the benefits of a combined coaching and mentoring approach when seeking to enhance performance. The traditional approach of sending people away on a training course to achieve long term behavioural change is likely to frustrate both the participant and the sponsoring organisation. Whilst courses may be a useful source of knowledge unless the participant is encouraged to relate that knowledge to their current context, internalise it into their way of thinking and act upon it, then the investment in the training is unlikely to show demonstrable benefits. However, when you combine a coaching approach with specific knowledge sharing to enhance an individual's skills and understanding, then you create the climate whereby real changes in behaviour and performance can take place, providing, of course, the individual has the desire to develop!