The Coverdale method was developed in the 1960s in the UK by Mr. Ralph Coverdale, a British management Consultantand. This methodology is still highly relevant today when clients want to develop the skills of managers and experts. The methodology can be refined and applied to many other topics in the context of leadership and collaboration. The focus remains on the topic of leadership and collaboration.
What is Coverdale Methodology?
Coverdale methodology is a systematic method of managing work and teams. Practical examples of work and tasks need to be discussed by adults in groups/teams. The objective of the assignment should be clear to all the group members. We have to set the success criteria to achieve the objectives. Setting the success criteria is very important to understand the client’s requirements and quality standards. The preparation/planning session will then have to be initiated and a detailed plan needs to be developed. Who does What?When?Why?How? and by what means? are some of the things to be discussed in detailed by the groups. Then the implementation phase (do it) comes when the sub-tasks have to be delivered as per the detailed plans and as per the agreed timelines. Then it is followed by a review process (of the implementation process). The tasks and sub-tasks are reviewed against the success criteria set before the starting of the assignment. What went on well and why and what did not go well and why. Then this is followed by a way forward or a future action plan by factoring in the major lessons learnt and the best practices, mitigating the risks. This is a cycle. Preparation-Action (Implementation) – Review.
Based on the learning objectives, we developed a design based on joint practical work in small groups. The learning objectives agreed with the customer are broken down by our consultants so that a constructive flow is created, ensuring that the participants achieve the agreed skills associated with the learning objectives at the end of the training.
We refer to the tasks the participants complete together as “neutral assignments”, as they do not need any specialist expertise to complete them. This avoids technical discussions, and the participants quickly get to work. This, in turn, is necessary to develop social and process skills in a concise space of time.
Working with Reviews
Another core competence of our consultants is to work with a particular review technique that enables sustainable skills development.
We start the review with a detailed analysis of the exercise that has just ended.
- Individual analysis:Each person first reflects on which behaviour of the individual team members helped achieve the goal and which behaviour was rather tricky. This first step is, therefore, about the personal views of the individual team members and not about an assessment of the situation in the sense of a “plus/minus list”.
- Sharing the analyses:In the second step, the coach collects all the participants’ thoughts and compares them non-judgmentally. It can happen that one person has experienced certain behaviours as helpful, and others have experienced the same behaviour as a hindrance. Once all aspects have been visualised for all participants, the group looks at the result together. The aim is to accept individual points of view and scrutinise unclear aspects to gain a common picture of the situation.
- The observer’s report:At least one person acts as an observer in each exercise. After the participants have shared their perspectives, it is the observers’ turn to present their observations. It is important that the observers also focus on “real” observations and do not fall into an evaluation mode. Instead of: “That was good or bad” we work with: “Person X said or did X at time Y. This had the following effect on the collaboration process.” These observations usually provide important insights for the group and serve as an aid, not a judgement.
- Own insights: At the end of the analysis, the participants record the insights they have gained from the exercise and share them with their colleagues present.
- After the detailed analysis, the most essential part of the review takes place, in which the group agrees on what they will consciously do the same next time, consciously do differently or perhaps no longer do before the next exercise begins.
For the coaches, the review is an essential working tool, as many aspects are addressed by the participants in the review that the coaches can use in the following plenary session to initiate the group’s next development step.
Review and impulse for the next iteration
The small groups meet for a joint debriefing at the end of each review, which takes practically the same time as the exercise.
If several small groups were active, the individual groups presented their results and reviews so that all participants had the same level of knowledge. During this phase, the coaches provide support as facilitators and allow questions to be asked of the other groups if participants want to know more about the exercise process in the other teams. In these situations, the coaches help to visualise the underlying principles from the practices experienced.
Once the exchange is over, it’s the coaches’ turn again. The aim is to provide precisely the right impetus for the group to take the next learning step and complete the next exercise, which builds on the first in terms of learning.
Number of iterations
When Ralph Coverdale developed the Coverdale Method with Bernhard Babington Smith in the 1960s, training sessions often lasted a week or longer. In the meantime, we have professionalized the method to build a specific skill set in two to three training days.
The basic idea of the method: As part of a training programme, participants can develop successful practices, for example, in collaboration, under laboratory conditions. Practices recognized as successful are repeated, refined, and consolidated into principles with the support of the coaches. It also works in the opposite direction: if successful principles already exist in an organization, for example, in the context of leadership, the participants develop successful practices under laboratory conditions.
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