Managers as Coaches – the Board Game

After months of research and development the new Coaches as Managers board game is about to be unveiled. Based on a set of simple, but powerful design principles, the new board game is an ideal tool for any trainer delivering coaching training to managers.

Interactive, Hands-on Fun

During the lockdown across most of Europe, the Managers as Coaches Erasmus+ project team has been busy creating a unique business game designed to develop and test the skills of managers as coaches.

The attractive MAC board game is simple to play and yet it provides masses of learning and enjoyment helping to develop and refine the skills of managers and workplace coaches. The game comprises a board plus four card decks, a dice, and a handbook. Managers take it in turn to roll the dice and to move their player’s piece around the board. Players can land on four different squares: Top Tips, Practice Problems, ‘What to Say’ and Coaching Skills.

When a manager lands on a Practice Problem space they must deliver a mini role play requiring them to coach another player on a ‘problem’. They receive feedback from the other players on the quality of the mini coaching session that they delivered – they are also awarded points depending on how they are rated by the other players. The ‘What to Say’ spaces require managers to evaluate if what is written on the card is a good or poor example of something a coach may ask or say – they get points according to their answer.

The Coaching Skills cards really test and challenge managers to be able to discuss and share examples of their coaching skills. They are asked a question and must provide a detailed answer – the other players will then score the manager using the model answer on the reverse of the card and will award them will up to five points. Finally, the Top Tips cards provide players with simple, practical tips to improve their coaching skills.

“The inclusion of the points scoring system introduces an element of competitiveness and fun’, said Exponential’s Moderation Manager, Anne-Marie Daly. She added, ‘Today, there is such an emphasis on on-line gaming, it is refreshing to see a traditional board-style learning activity. Although some of its impact will be lost because we will not be able to test the game in a group-based training course, I feel sure that it will be a hit when we can deliver face-to-face training as there is something special about sitting around a board game like this’.

The Managers as Coaches is also supported by a set of three practical learning modules: The Manager as a Coach, Performance Management and Coaching Essentials for Managers.

In the coming months, the Managers as Coaches training course will be launched alongside the Managers as Coaches board game. Considering the pandemic and the associated travel and lockdown restrictions, the Managers as Coaches course will be delivered on-line – watch this space for more details!

Another Erasmus+ project related to MAC is Coaching MAPS (CMAP) – this project has created a new and powerful coaching model which means managers can use one of the 12 ‘off-the-shelf’ Coaching MAPs to improving their organisation’s performance by adopting one or more High Performance Working Practices (HPWP).

To learn more about growing your business or improving your management team’s performance or any of the Erasmus+ projects, contact John Moore on 01455 845071 or john.moore@exponentialtraining.com