Curriculum

This course is a required course in both the OLC Certificate and the full master’s degree. It offers an introduction to two major areas of study: First, you’ll explore the principles and frameworks of how individuals learn and develop, covering topics such as learning mindsets, expertise development, and the cognitive science of learning. You will also build your proficiency in using developmental tools such as the four-column Immunity Map and the Reflected Best Self Exercise. Second, this course examines how to foster learning in an organization and how to design productive learning experiences. In this area we examine how to assess learning needs, design a learning initiative to address those needs, and consider how to evaluate the learning initiative.

Topics

1. Transformational Learning
2. Adult Development
3. Mental Complexity and Performance
4. Technical Versus Adaptive Challenges
5. Fixed and Growth Mindsets
6. Novice to Expert Stages of Development
7. Multi-facet Model of Learning

Benefits

• Create and utilize an immunity map personally and in a coaching context
• Understand the advantage of a strengths-based approach to development, and utilize exceptional tools in the Positive Psychology toolkit
• Experience and apply the cognitive science of learning and to improve individual learning and development
• Assess cultural norms of a supportive and productive learning environment
• Acquire skills to complete an organizational and individual needs analysis, identify performance gaps, and develop an initial evaluation plan
• Recognize and enact the leadership characteristics that reinforce learning
• Instructors
• Bob Corbett
• Eric Fridman
• Ryan Smerek

Prerequisites
Prior to starting MSLOC 420 (as part of your MSLOC orientation), you will attend the OLCC Opening Session with your cohort colleagues.

You will also complete the Hogan Assessments Leadership Forecast Series of assessments and meet with an MSLOC Coach to debrief your assessment results. With support from your coach, you will develop an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) that articulates your customized learning objectives and will help you gain the most from your learning experiences.

This course is the second course required for the OLC Certificate, as well as an elective course available to full master’s degree students. It introduces students to both foundational and advanced methods and tools used in organizational coaching and collaborative consulting processes. Using their knowledge of themselves, their subject matter expertise, and their resourcefulness for learning, students will learn and practice the fundamental competencies related to engaging clients, including: how to build rapport; how to ask questions and leverage active listening to help clients determine the root cause of the problem (or opportunity); how to establish a trusting environment for the client engagement; how to collaboratively solve problems with the client; and how to maintain long-term relationships. The class takes an in-depth look at communication skills and how to adapt approaches for communication that may be necessary at the different steps in the client relationship.

The first half of the course engages client relationships primarily through the lens of consulting activities, while the second half of the course focuses on coaching as the key mode of client service and support. Whether you are taking the course primarily to learn about consulting or about coaching, you will experience both. There is usually a wide variety of expertise and experiences among the students in the course. Therefore, there is a strong potential for collaborative learning. This is also why you are not graded on your performance of experiential course activities. It is also up to you to use your personal and professional ingenuity to engage new activities you may be unfamiliar with. You might consider your experiences in the course like that of an entrepreneur who has been asked for something new by a potential client. What would you do? How would you prepare? Who would you reach out to? What resources would you consult?

Topics

• Phases of Client Engagements (process overview)
• Building Trust and Rapport
• Primary vs Secondary goals in client engagements
• Consulting and Coaching Models for Working with Clients
• Humble Inquiry and Active Listening
• Critical Thinking “On the Spot”
• Navigating Resistance (yours and the client’s)
• Facilitating Change
• Key Client Relationship Experiences: Entry, Contracting and re-contracting, Scoping calls, Agenda preparation, Preparing for client meetings, Opening client meetings
• Know Thyself
  • Authenticity
  • Communication Style
  • Adaptability
  • Letting go of reliance on expertise (“Needing to be the expert”)
  • Developing comfort with ambiguity
  • Using silence
• Internal Coaching/Consulting, Influence, and Politics
• Ethics

Benefits

• Develop your understanding of similarities and differences in consulting and coaching to discover and refine the ways you will work best with your clients
• Understand the key issues (e.g., trust, inquiry, resistance, ability to be in the moment) that arise when you work with clients and what approaches are available to you as you work with them
• Develop greater self-awareness about your communication style, how it affects others, and what you need to do to become more adaptable and effective during client engagements
• Advance your critical thinking and problem-solving skills to become more adept at responding “in the moment” to client opportunities and demands
• Apply your knowledge from other MSLOC courses (particularly MSLOC 420 Accelerating Learning & Performance) to the challenges that you might face with your clients

Instructors

• Michelle Albaugh
• Cecelia Burokas

Prerequisites

• MSLOC 420: Accelerating Learning & Performance

This course is open only to those in the current OLCC cohort. It is designed for those who are responsible for developing talent within organizations (as an internal coach or manager) or responsible for providing one-on-one professional coaching or mentoring to managers or leaders. Grounded in theory and research on coaching, adult learning, and instructional design, this unique course will equip you with both a deeper understanding of how a variety of coaching techniques can improve individual learning and performance – as well as the evidence-based knowledge necessary to design effective coaching programs at the organizational level. Examining best practices, assessments, tools and methods used by professional coaches, you will sharpen your coaching skills and learn how to adapt methods to meet the needs of diverse clients and contexts, while simultaneously developing your professional coaching identity and perspectives.

Topics

1. Comparing and Contrasting Coaching Models
2. Facilitating Individual Learning and Change
3. Using Assessments as a Coach
4. Questioning, Listening and Feedback
5. Applying Cognition and Emotion to Improve Coaching
6. Managing the Coaching Process
7. Introducing Coaching to Organizations
8. Managing Self as Coach

Benefits

• Coaching practice and competency feedback from master coaches
• Deep understanding of coaching methodologies
• Feedback on your coaching philosophy and how you present yourself as a coach
• A trusted network of coaching peers established via coaching circles

Instructors

• Michelle Albaugh
• Cassandra Mitchell

Prerequisites

• MSLOC 420: Accelerating Learning & Performance
• MSLOC 451: Building Transformational Client Relationships

Applying your knowledge of effective client engagement and coaching industry standards for ethics, you will contract with two or three clients for an eight-week supervised coaching engagement. Under the guidance of the instructor and a MSLOC Fieldwork Coach, you will complete a combination of coaching assignments and reflections to help you make progress in achieving your customized learning objectives. By the end of the quarter, you also will complete your OLCC digital learning portfolio (DLP), which will represent your coaching philosophy, the defining elements of your coaching practice, evidence of your coaching effectiveness, and your critical thinking about the field of coaching.

Topics

1. Implementing a Coaching Contract
2. Developing and Tracking Coaching Plans
3. Engaging In and Reflecting Upon Coaching Conversations
4. Leveraging Theories to Improve Your Coaching Practice
5. Sharing Your Coaching Knowledge and Expertise

Benefits

• Coaching practice with two or three external coaching clients, observed and supervised by an MSLOC Fieldwork Coach
• Two personal coaching supervisory sessions with an MSLOC Fieldwork Coach
• Developmental feedback from your coaching clients
• A digital learning portfolio you can use to promote your knowledge and skills as a coach

Instructor

• Judah Kurtz

Prerequisites

• MSLOC 420: Accelerating Learning & Performance
• MSLOC 451: Building Transformational Client Relationships
• MSLOC 453: Coaching for Learning & Performance

The OLCC Digital Learning Portfolio will be the culminating project from your OLCC learning journey and will include reflections along the way about who you are, and who you are becoming as a coach. The focus of the portfolio assignments will touch on these three areas: Learning, assessment and showcase. First, your digital portfolio is a place for you to explore the concepts you are learning about in class and take risks to apply and integrate and reflect on them as creatively as you like. Your digital learning portfolio is also a summative experience, meant to capture your learning journey and showcase the highlights of what you have learned about who and how you are as a coach through your education and training in OLCC. Finally, after you complete your OLC Certificate (or before if you like), your portfolio should be developed to the point where the content can be shared with others: Prospective clients, prospective employers, internal stakeholders, etc.