How to do peer coaching

Curious how peer coaching can help out your people? Here are 2 great peer coaching examples that create space, reflection time and build trust between people and across the organisation.

The first is called Talking Partners. Each morning two workmates get together to do 3 things:

• Meet

• Vent

• Work

Meet involves it being a daily ritual, vent allows each person to get stuff off their chest and work allows each person to encourage and support their workmate both generally in their role and on the day to day tasks. 

This practice happens at the US company, Next Jump, and many of their people describe this practice as having the greatest impact on their growth.

The second peer coaching example is the Situational Workshop (SW). The SW happens every week and includes two pairs of the Talking Partners and another colleague, a more senior and experienced person, who acts as coach to those four folk.

Issues explored in this group focus on a person’s backhand - the word the company uses for limitations. One of the benefits is that it explores real life challenges in the workplace and situations that are meaningful to the person seeking coaching. 

Interesting features of these 2 programmes are:

⭐️ Talking Partners are changed from time to time with focus put on matching people who will encourage each other and compliment each other's styles - so one person might be shy and one person might be outgoing.

⭐️ Situational Workshops are scalable. Each recipient is expected to eventually coach 4 others and so the students become the teachers.

⭐️ Even the most senior leaders of Next Jump take part in both of these peer practices, showing that commitment to learning and development is throughout the organisation.

What do you think? Would you like to be part of either of these peer practices? What benefits could they bring your organisation?