A coaching session is a meeting between you and your coachee. As with any meeting, preparation will help you to achieve your desired outcome.

The Science of Better Learning

As a coach, you're in a unique position. You can look objectively at what's happening to your coachee and find opportunities for development that he might not be able to recognize.

Sometimes, it can be tempting to assume that all of your coaching energies should be focused on improving your coachees' performance. After all, this is often the area in which your organization wants to realize results. But not everything you observe will be performance-related. You need to watch carefully to get to the heart of the issues that your coachees face.

Sometimes you might have a feeling that a coachee is underutilized, needs to acquire new skills, or has performance issues that should be dealt with. But what if that feeling isn't there? How can you be sure about what's going on?

As a coach, you should observe the activities of your coachees and look for opportunities to support them. But identifying how you can help your coachees is only the first step. The next step is to persuade your coachees that they need your help.

The key to persuading your coachee to agree to coaching is to sell the coaching intervention in a positive, non- aggressive, and non-threatening way.

The key to persuading your coachee to agree to coaching is to sell the coaching intervention in a positive, non- aggressive, and non-threatening way.

You may feel that coaching can't always be planned, and things have to be dealt with as they happen. But there is always a benefit to being prepared--however quickly that preparation has to take place.

For organizations to work, goals must be set and rules must be applied. They form the structure or framework within which the organization can thrive.

The extent of possible planning depends on the circumstances of the coaching event. However, you should always consider the following three vital elements: 

• the situation,
• your attitude, and
• your words.

For organizations to work, goals must be set and rules must be applied. They form the structure or framework within which the organization can thrive.

You and your coachee need to know what you're working toward. If you don't have a goal, how will you know what you've achieved? If a coaching goal is to be useful, it must be mutually agreed on and SMART.

People can have different perceptions of the same situation. Perceptions are subject to distortions caused by opinions, judgments, hopes, concerns, expectations, and prejudices of the coach and the coachee. Before exploring options for improvement or development with your coachee, it is essential to review the reality of the current situation.

The key to understanding your coachee's situation is to do more listening than talking. Ask your coachee questions that invite her to explain what is happening and how she feels.

During discussions with your coachee, she may have a number of options available to her to meet her goals. It is important to carefully evaluate each option.

As a coach, you're not there to make decisions for your coachee. But you are there to support her in coming up with the best possible solution. Your input is vital to ensure that the options are considered and a way forward is established.

How often have you made a decision and not followed through? Maybe you've decided to become more organized, start a diet, or delegate more. Whatever you have decided to do, you have to be motivated to do it. As a coach, you're not only responsible for helping your coachee to decide what to do, but you also have to motivate and encourage her to do it.

Although your coachee has evaluated the options available and decided what to do, you must gain his or her commitment to act. This means exploring with the coachee what will be gained from taking the action forward and using this as a mechanism for motivating the coachee to get something done. This is a vital part of the wrap-up process because without it, you may find that your coachee lacks the will to follow through.

When wrapping up a coaching session, don't throw away all the excellent work already accomplished. Don't rush the ending of the session or try to dictate to the coachee what must be done. Even if you want to quickly finish the session, you must take time to follow the steps to ensure that the coachee is motivated

It can be tempting to think that once all the actions have been agreed on, you can leave your coachee to dive in and do it. But there is no substitute for ongoing support. 

As a coach, you must achieve a balance between support and interference. You need to support your coachee and help him to achieve his goals, but you also need to avoid interfering with his day-to-day responsibilities.

The coaching session has ended, you've agreed on what needs to be done, and both you and your coachee are armed with a list of actions you must take. So that's it. Or is it? How will you know whether things are progressing as you'd like, and if they aren't--what are you going to do?

If the coach fails to monitor the actions resulting from the coaching session, then the result can be that the coachee doesn't achieve his goals. One of the reasons that agreed actions aren't completed by either the coach or the coachee is that expectations may not be the same.

In theory this sounds fine, but sometimes it can be difficult to avoid reprisals or criticism when trying to ensure that goals are being met. 

However, recriminations and embarrassment can be avoided if you are sensitive in the way that you deal with the monitoring process.

Each coachee is different, and the circumstances that they encounter are unique. As a coach, you must be prepared to review progress and, if necessary, adapt your approach to meet the changing needs of your coachees.

Coaching isn't a one-time occurrence. Sometimes you may be asked to only deal with a particular issue, but often you'll be expected to provide ongoing support to your coachees. But what support will you give?

Sometimes, the decision about what type of support to offer is made for you because your coachee will ask you to give ongoing guidance in a particular way. In other cases, you must make a judgment based on the situation. 

For any coach, the goals of coaching should be to support your coachee and to ensure that you have more time to do your work.

Course wrap up and next steps.

In this course, you will learn how to plan, write, and present a business case to persuade key decision makers in your organization that your proposal is a winning initiative. 

This course will show you the principles for preparing an effective business case, and it will guide you through the writing process, from defining your business need and gathering relevant information, right through to assessing the financial impact of your solution.

A business case is a document containing all of the information necessary for an individual, group, or organization to evaluate a proposed project. A good business case enables you to secure the resources and capital investment you need to implement your project. 

The most obvious reason for putting together a business case is to persuade your organization to invest in a new project. However, a business case is not just a financial document.

It is important that you know when it is appropriate to write a business case, and that you have a clear vision of what you hope to achieve with it. 

A business case is, above all, a selling tool. You use a business case to persuade senior executives in your organization that your proposed project is more deserving of budget approval than other competing bids.

When writing a business case, you should bear in mind its function - what you and the decision maker want the business case to do. 

A business case defines a problem or opportunity, and outlines the steps that you intend to take to deal with the problem or opportunity. 

You use a business case to convince the decision makers in your organization that your project is deserving of resources.

A business case is a document that defines your project and its goals. It helps you allocate resources, make provisions for unforeseen obstacles, and facilitate good decision making. 

The basic components in a business case include a current and pro forma balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow analysis.

When evaluating your business case, company decision makers are interested in how your proposed project intends to reach customers and create sales. You present this information within the marketing components section of your business case.

1. Choose your business idea 
2. Define your business objective 
3. Determine the functions of your business case 
4. Prepare a generic structure of a business case (marketing components included) 
5. Research your business idea by needed topics and using appropriate research methods 
6. Analyze and compile results of research 
7. Align business idea, strategy and processes 
8. Determine the best angle to sell your business case 
9. Write your business case content 
10. Adapt your business case to various decision makers 
11. Emphasize high impact elements
12. Prepare to sell your business case

An effective business case must be well written, interesting, to the point, and able to communicate a message to the reader effectively.

For your project to be a success, you must complete a cost and benefit analysis to establish whether 

• all benefits are identified and quantified within the business solution
• qualitative benefits are clarified and incorporated into the business solution
• high-level benefits are authorized and all assumptions are approved by the relevant department 
• unproductive elements of the business case can be eliminated

Your business case must document certain assumptions about the proposed project. These assumptions should be tested with project stakeholders and operational managers before you include them in the business case. 

You need to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), as well as any risks associated with implementing the solution.

A powerful tool for measuring performance, Activity-based Costing (ABC) is used to identify, describe, assign costs to, and report on agency operations. 

A more accurate cost-management system than traditional cost accounting, ABC identifies opportunities to improve business-process effectiveness and efficiency by determining the "true" cost of a product or service.

It is important to research the costs, benefits, assumptions, and constraints associated with a project, and to include your findings in your business case. 

The decision makers who read your business case need this information in order to weigh the pros and cons of the project. You need to know how to identify and categorize the costs and benefits of your project.

Certain departments within your company can assist you in building your business case. In most companies, these can be broadly classified into seven categories: Research and Development, Facilities and Equipment, Materials and Supplies, Sales and Marketing, Financial Services, Legal Services, and Human Resources.

Sample Cost Identification Spreadsheet

Mismatches between corporate and project strategies are a major cause of project failure. 

All companies have a strategy, whether it is explicit or implicit. Some organizations devote a lot of resources to formulating their strategy in written form, while others simply act out their strategy and do not articulate it. 

A company's strategy integrates the company's major goals, policies, and actions into a coherent whole.

A business case is written to provide company decision makers with the data they need to determine the viability of investment in your project. 

In order to convey your message effectively, it's worth devoting some time to researching the people to whom the case will be presented.

Before you start preparing your business case, you must give some thought to who will use it besides company decision makers. 

Users of your business case may need to refer to the case to stay focused, to remain committed to your product or service idea, and to explain the basic concept to new managers should management change during the development phase.

When you are preparing a business case, you must include the information that is relevant to, and will influence, the decision makers. Different decision makers have different expectations from business proposals.

The layout and design of your business-case document can help you get your case approved. Valid research and good writing are essential components of an effective business case. However, creating a document that is easy to read and professional looking can help to ensure that your business case is read.

The way you write and design your business-case document can influence how it is received by your company's decision makers. 

"I think we're all in agreement that this business case is really well-written and very clear." Writing a business case involves more than just dumping information into a document. 

The production of a good business-case document involves designating the writer or writers, organizing the content, and implementing layout and design guidelines for the finished document.

Everyone on your project team should be involved in the development of your business case. This ensures a broad range of perspectives, and may generate information and ideas that you might have otherwise ignored. 

However, this does not mean that everyone on the team will write a section of the business case.

Background 

This is a business case that can be used in an organization. It is based on academic research, industrial research, case studies, consulting experience, and common knowledge found in the usability community.

An optional project based on the knowledge and skills developed during the course.

Learning reinforcement and course conclusions. Next step, presenting your case.

You think knowing stuff changes the game? You think sitting in a library, stacking up facts like you’re building a Jenga tower, is gonna make you a winner? Man, that’s cute. But life ain't a trivia night. Information alone? It’s worthless. It’s like having a Lamborghini in your garage but you never learned how to drive. You just sit in it, making engine noises. Vroom vroom. People walk by, they see the car, but they also see you ain't going nowhere. You got all this knowledge, all these textbooks, but when life throws a punch, you’re still looking up the definition of "duck." It’s what you *do* with that information that actually matters. Don't be the person with the shiny car and no keys.