On November 14th, we had the pleasure of convening a panel on “Everyday Development: A New Take on Scaling Coaching.”  Experts convened from Netflix, the Boston Consulting Group, and HP to discuss scaling development using everyday interactions. Click here to register to view the recording. 

What is Everyday Development?

Everyday Development is a new paradigm for fostering growth within organizations by equipping each member of the workforce with a fundamental “developmental toolkit” to engage in growth-oriented interactions in their daily work. 

“We think it’s possible to use the building blocks of the coaching toolkit—listening, inquiry, empathy—to help people learn how to use a really well-placed question to take a transactional interaction and turn it into a developmental interaction,” says Michael Huson, CEO at the Hudson Institute of Coaching.

In this way, scaling coaching means transforming everyday conversations into opportunities for learning and growth.

Why there’s a need for Everyday Development

Over the past decade, coaching has gone through a democratization process, with a push away from only providing it for the elite few to finding ways to support coaching for every person in an organization across all levels. However, it is impossible for most organizations to afford individual coaching for everyone.

As Nicole Forward, former Head of Coaching at Netflix, describes it, many companies took the pathway of conducting short training programs to empower interested individuals within the company to become peer coaches.

“They conducted short training programs that were really only 2 to 3 days long, which don’t really match the depth of a year-long coaching certification,” says Nicole. “This started to impact coaching quality.”

So, too, did the advent of the pandemic, during which many people decided to become coaches, but didn’t necessarily go through training to do so.

“There were all these factors that have essentially led to this dilution of what coaching looks like and what it actually means inside of organizations,” says Nicole.

Everyday Development seeks to address this problem with more effective ways of scaling quality coaching.

Five takeaways about Everyday Development

“When people typically think of scaling coaching, they often think of it in a narrow, linear way,” says Michael. “‘If we want to scale coaching, we have to give everybody a coach.’ But that type of approach doesn’t really stick. We’re giving people coaches, but they don’t know why…There’s not a specific reason, it’s not always linked to the business. And we’re sometimes outsourcing some of the most important conversations in the organization to that client-coach relationship.”

It’s important to know how to use coaching strategically.

“The goal is really to build a toolkit for identifying when coaching is appropriate as well as exploring other development methods,” says Nicole. “Instead of ‘How can we offer coaching,’ it’s more, ‘What are we doing around this?’”

A step beyond a coaching culture: Organizations are increasingly recognizing the need to build a development culture in addition to, or perhaps even as a foundation for, a coaching culture. This means fostering an environment where individuals feel safe to experiment, learn from mistakes, and receive support for growth.

Nicole suggests tasking people leaders to regularly ask their team members three questions:

1. Where do you want to grow or develop further?
2. What ideas do you have about how you might do that? 
3. How can I remove any barriers that might get in your way?

But it doesn’t stop with asking questions. It’s critical that employees feel their leader acts on their answers, that they create a safe environment, and that they hold the belief that their team members are capable of change and development over time.

“I find so many [leaders] believe that their job is to solve, resolve, and fix everything for everybody,” says Dena Paris, Global Executive Coach and COE Leader at Boston Consulting Group. “Our role is to create an environment where people can succeed and reach their own personal goals.”

That means encouraging employees and leaders to have uncomfortable discussions, rather than “outsourcing candor,” as Michael puts it, to their coaching relationship.

“If we can give them the information and then the support that they need to have those types of conversations [with their managers],” says Dena. “Then it can proceed from there.”

It’s not about turning everyone into a coach: The objective of Everyday Development is to create a culture of developmental interactions embedded in daily work, not to make every employee a certified coach.

Everyday Development makes the building blocks of coaching accessible to everyone in the organization.The objective is to create a culture of developmental interactions embedded in daily work.

“I don’t want my managers to be coaches, my people managers and people leaders,” says Dena. “I think they should continue to be people, managers and people, leaders and tap into the coaching skill sets when needed.”

Unlocking benefits beyond development: The advantages of Everyday Development go beyond individual skill development. It can improve team dynamics by encouraging trust and collaboration through active listening and inquiry. It also empowers employees to take ownership of their careers by giving them the tools and support they need to drive their own development.

“I could sit here all day and tell everybody, this is your career path. And this is how you’re going to go, this is what you need,” says Dena. “Now, all of a sudden I’m just spoon feeding them all the way along.”

Rather, it’s a leader’s job to unlock career paths and ownership. That doesn’t mean being hands-off, emphasizes Nicole.

“I’d love to see a little bit more balance inside of organizations of: we give you agency, and we also remove the barriers we equip you with really good guidance about how to get there or ask you awesome coaching questions to help you figure out the best ways to get there for you. Then it’s personalized and customized for your desires and your needs and your motivations.”

Everybody learns and grows in different ways: While equipping managers with coaching skills is essential, they need to adapt their approach based on the situation. Sometimes a more directive “boss” style is required, while other times teaching or mentoring might be more appropriate. A key aspect of Everyday Development is helping managers become more comfortable using a wider range of leadership styles.

“For me Everyday Development really includes all the different ways people learn and grow,” says Nicole. “Whether formally or informally, and sometimes those can be small and incremental in nature. One example of a company that I worked for is that they actually asked all people leaders on a regular basis to actually ask their team members these 3 questions: Where do you want to grow or develop further? What ideas do you have about how you might do that? And then how can I remove any barriers that might get in your way?”

For Corey Wiltbank, Senior Director of Employee and Manager Development at HP, that’s meant developing programs for managers that acknowledge the realities of the often overwhelming and frequently shifting workplace of today.

“As the environment changes, what we’re asking of them becomes more complicated. They can’t possibly be a last generation manager to their employees anymore. They have to show up differently,” says Corey. “At HP, we’ve been on a journey over the last probably eight months or so to start building some of those foundational skills preparing for an opportunity within the next twelve months to turn our people leaders into everyday coaches showing up in a different way.”

That “different way” is putting good listening, providing good feedback, and asking great questions at the core of what managers do.

Conclusion: Move Toward Sustainable Growth

Everyday Development offers a more sustainable and impactful alternative to traditional coaching models by embedding development into the natural flow of work. By equipping individuals with developmental tools and cultivating a culture that embraces growth, organizations can create a more engaged, empowered, and adaptable workforce.

It also means being adaptable, being real about the results, and changing course when needed. 

We need to be able to say, “That didn’t work,” says Nicole. “And have a safe place to debrief and talk it through.”

Afterall, Everyday Development applies to everyone. That’s what it looks like inside an organization that prioritizes everyday learning and growth—scaled.

“There’s a messiness to it,” says Michael. “It’s the messiness of learning.”