Jim Collison: I am Jim Collison, and
live from the brand new Gallup Studios
here in Omaha, Nebraska, This is
Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on
July 2, 2020.
Called to Coach is a resource for those
who want to help others discover and use
their strengths. We have Gallup experts
and independent strengths coaches share
tactics, insights and strategies to help
coaches maximize the talent of
individuals, teams and organizations
around the world. If you're listening
live, love to have you join us in our
chat room. It's actually right above me
there. There's a link on our live page
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know you're in chat. You can ask your
questions there. If you're listening to
the recorded version, you can always
send us your, your questions via email,
and many of you have been doing that --
appreciate it: coaching@gallup.com.
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Austin Suellentrop is our host today.
Austin is the CliftonStrengths Portfolio
Manager here at Gallup, and Austin, it's
always a great day when I get to spend
it with you. Welcome back to Called to
Coach!
Austin Suellentrop: Well, again, always,
always fun to be here. I appreciate you
having me. Thanks.
Jim Collison: We have we made it to the
second half of 2020, which is super
great. We're looking forward to some
exciting things ahead. I think we've
been doing a lot of work here.
Certainly, the last 6 months has been
just as busy, if not busier, and we have
a lot of things to update folks on. So
give us -- get us started today as we
think about an update.
Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. Good to be
here. Always, always fun checking in
with this crew. You know, when, when I
think about the last 6 months -- the
last 12 months, really -- if you think
back a year ago where we were, we were
preparing for the sunset of Gallup
Strengths Center. And the big move into
Gallup Access was sort of right on the
horizon. We were, we were prepping for
that. And when we, when we went through
that, that experience, sort of, I guess
October of last year was, was really, I
think the first big step in, in a series
of big changes; in a series of work and
effort we were putting together at
Gallup to try and consolidate all of the
different platforms we have, to try and
make the experience of interacting with
Gallup more streamlined and less places
to have to go to get what you need from
us.
And so I think about the last 6 months,
we've been working at that more and
more. And so I think we've learned an
awful lot in terms of how to best do
that, in terms of how to teach about
what the new functionalities are, the
new things that are coming, but also to
hear feedback and adapt in the moment.
So if I were to think about, sort of, I
would like to begin the conversation
today with giving you an idea of where
we are now, a little bit of what we've
done the last 90 days or so and then
also what's, what's some longer-term
things on the horizon be considering.
And then we'll get real tactical towards
the end about things coming in the next,
you know, couple weeks, in the next
couple months. We'll sort of wrap up
with that.
So when I think about the second half of
2020, and going into 2021, I think a
theme you're gonna, you're gonna
hopefully continue to see from us is
adaptation and improvement, and
continued effort to learn, to gain
feedback, and to make incremental
changes throughout. So I think about
things we're doing around focus groups,
with independent coaches, with clients,
with ecommerce buyers, people who just
like to, who are bulk buyers online.
We've been doing a lot of reaching out
and having conversations with, with
people who interact with us and buy from
us in different ways, to better
understand what, what you are looking
for, what our clients are looking for
 what kind of things they love about our
 platforms and our resources and our
 tools, and what kind of things we're
missing that we frankly need to, need
to improve. 
So we've been doing a lot of that. I
think that's one of the things I've
really appreciated about the craziness
of the last, you know, 120 days is I've
been able to be at home and connect with
people via Zoom on a more frequent basis
than maybe I ever had before. So I've
been able to build some better
relationships with, with people in that
sense; it's been really great to share a
screen and see when people click and
say, Hey, why is this there and why
can't I go that place? We've been doing
a lot of that. And I think you'll start
to see some of the changes and some of
the implementations of that feedback
here, here in the next couple months as
we start to implement more and more of
those changes
Jim Collison: Austin, I don't know why
going -- for some of us, you know, we
started working from home -- I don't
know why it took that to get that kind
of innovation going. We could do that in
the office, like it doesn't necessarily,
right. It's funny, the change, the kind
of the change in location kind of
prompted that right. We got better at
it, and so like like you said, we we've
been taking -- I all, I too have just
been saying, when people have been
reaching out to me, I'm like, "Can I
just call you?" Like, let's not do this
via email. Let's just, let's just chat
via video. So I think I've talked to
more people via video than, than I ever
have.
Austin Suellentrop: Well, absolutely.
And I think one of the, one of the
things I've experienced in that is,
frankly, I have, I have more, I've fewer
excuses as to why I couldn't. So I had
fewer excuses as to why I couldn't hop
on a call. And the people I'm talking to
have fewer excuses as to why they
couldn't hop on a call. You're already
on call, on video calls 6 hours a day --
many of us are, anyway. So hopping on a
video call with me to talk through it
has been a, it's been a fun experience.
So I think that's been something I've
really benefited from.
And one of the things, so one of the big
things that we've implemented that came
out of that kind of feedback loop was
something we just put into practice
towards the end of June -- June 22, I
think, is when it kicked off, was sort
of our coaches orientation program. So,
so if you're a Certified Coach, you
should have received a series of emails
towards the end of June that were sort
of the new norm when somebody becomes a
Certified Coach -- a "Welcome" email
with some great links to resources and
tools and an onboarding video and some
tremendous sort of "welcoming people to
the community" content, links to
exclusive content for coaches. We've
developed an entire landing page that
houses a lot of those questions that,
that newly Certified Coaches are asking
of us.
In the past, the only way you really
could get to that was to ask us or to go
to Jim on Facebook with a question or,
or something like that. And we've been
able to, you know, one of the pieces of
feedback our coaches have given us is,
it'd be great to have this all in one
spot. Be great to have a dedicated place
where I can go to get that. So our team
behind the scenes has been working
really hard. Andrew Bridger, one of our
partners in marketing, really led the
charge on this. And he did a masterful
job at putting this together. And so we
were able to get that to market end of
June. That's one of those things that
came directly out of the feedback from
our coaching community that we were able
to take, put some resources behind,
ideate back and forth. And this is sort
of Version 1 of that. I think you'll,
again, you'll continue to see that
evolve and you'll continue to see that
enhanced as we get more and more
interaction with it. It will be one of
those things that our, our new community
members, as more and more coaches get
trained and join our community, that
they'll be able to sort of to have as
their normal experience with community,
which will be a wonderful thing.
Jim Collison: Austin, let me say that
English-only to start with, so if your
preferred language was not English, you
didn't get it [the emails]. So don't
panic if you didn't get it. If -- and it
really is a summary, that, those 4
that's 4 sets of emails that we send
out, is really a summary of a page that
has all that information to begin with.
So we've been sharing it. Dean shared it
a little bit; we've been getting that
link in the coaches newsletter, some
other things available there. If you
have any questions or you want to get
more information on that, you can just
email us: coaching@gallup.com. No,
actually better use the certification
link. So go to certification@gallup.com,
and we can send you that link back out.
Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. And one of
the, one of the things -- and it seems
so simple, but it makes a big difference
-- one of the things that is a part of
that is in all those emails that we send
you, your discount code, your promo code
is included in those emails for your
reference, because that's one of the
questions we get asked all the time is,
"Where do I find my promo code?" And,
frankly, we didn't make it easy for you
to find that for a long time. It
required you, if you didn't get that
first email, it required you to ask us.
We're trying to share that with you as
many times as we can to make it
top-of-mind for you, A) so that you know
you have it, that you can -- that, and,
you can take advantage of it. But also
if it's, you know, whatever time it is
that you're needing to make a purchase
and you can't track it down, you can go
to this email, have it on, on hand in
file, right.
So those are the kinds of things we're
trying to enhance. To Jim's point,
English-only at this point. But again,
this is Version 1 of this as we continue
to grow this out. I think sistering with
that, sort of partnering with that, in
terms of development, the last, you
know, during this quarantine time and
during this time where we've -- so many
of us have been being forced to work
differently, and being forced to
interact more remotely and digitally,
we've put an awful lot of energy and
effort into our learning offerings and
to adapting our learning curriculum to
be virtual. And I'm remarkably proud of
the ability and the team that we have
had -- that we've put in place that's
transformed our, our training offerings,
our learning offerings to digital
formats, into things like virtual
instructor-led courses, the continued
enhancement of our, of our fully digital
interactive modules and things along
those lines. You can, you can expect us
to continue to invest in that and to
continue to enhance the learning
offerings we can offer virtually, not
only for you as coaches, but for the
clients you may serve, for the teams you
may work with, and continue to put out
more digital resources.
So getting off of a reliance on physical
materials. That's one of the biggest
sort of shifts. We were already wanting
to go there. So we were already in an
effort to cut down on shipping delays,
to cut down on the costs of goods to be
shipped across the world, to cut down on
the green impact to our, to our
environment of having to print and ship
all these things. We were already
working to get towards a more digital
reliance for materials. In the last sort
of 120 days has really just sort of
enhanced the speed with which we've done
that. So we're moving more and more
towards a digital experience. So that is
one thing we're really excited about
continuing to invest in and continuing
to enhance our offerings around.
I think a small thing that may go
unnoticed, we don't call it out, I think
speaks to what Jim is doing right now,
which is coming to you live from a brand
new studio in our Omaha office, right.
It's been a tough time for a lot of
organizations, for us included. And for
many of you. We believe this is a, this
is a dip in what we're going through
economically, we believe this is
something that we will come out of as a
country and as a global economy. And
what we're excited about is we're ready
to hit the ground running when that
happens. We're already running now. When
things start to pick back up, from an
economic perspective, we have invested
in podcasting and webcasting resources.
We've built a new studio. We're
continuing to enhance those offerings to
increase the amount of content we can
put out. Because we believe this is a
medium that is here to stay. And we
believe that it's a community we want to
continue to work with and serve.
So I think -- I want to make sure you
all know that, you know, as we enter
into the second half of 2020, this is
something we've invested in, we believe
in and we will continue to put resources
behind. So I -- it's a testament to Jim
and the impact you've made on the
community you've built, but also to all
of you who continue to use and take
advantage of this platform as something
we believe in as well. So I want to make
sure I call that out as we think about
sort of investments and things we're
doing right now for our community. The,
the last piece I'll touch on as we sort
of think about the, you know, where we
are right now is the new
gallup.com/learning experience. So in
the past, you know, as we were
sunsetting old websites and moving
things over to Access, you know, the,
the move to our new purchasing
experience, this was the next big step
was getting our learning offerings onto,
onto this new platform as well.
So gallup.com/learning went live on June
19. It is bright and fresh and newly
designed and got tremendous more depth
and quantity of content on what learning
offerings we can provide; has dedicated
pages and information on the virtual
learning offerings we have. We're really
proud of that. We're also really proud
of the learning experiences that we
offer there. Right. So I think that's
another sign of the investments we're
making to try to make your experience
and your interaction with Gallup easier.
Go to gallup.com. You can find it all
there. You don't have to hit all these
different sites like you may have had to
in the past. So that's, that's one of
the things, again, that's up and running
now that's based on feedback we've been
receiving over the years that we're able
to implement.
Jim Collison: Yeah. Let me, in the store
now, you know we had shop.gallup.com and
store.gallup.com, when we were making
that. The Shop now is, is, is referring
over to, Shop is referring over to
Store, there we go. And you shouldn't
have to anymore have, have to deal with
both stores, and the, and the stores are
getting enhancements as well. If you've
got -- one of the things, if you've got
feedback or comments or are struggling
with our store, there's some feedback
mechanisms in the store to be able to
get us that information. That's really
the most efficient way for those teams,
for those technology teams that are
working on those platforms. So if you
have questions on the platforms, they're
not working, they're brand new to us as
well and we'd appreciate your feedback.
So there's some feedback mechanisms,
whether it's using our chat, calling it
in if that's available in your country,
sending us an email. They would love to
hear and get those feedback on that
platform as well.
We've really doubled down in the Store
space, trying to make that better. One
of the things, Austin -- Ralph brings
this up just about every time we talk
about this -- is shipping, right? And
shipping's super expensive around the
world for us. Shipping's not -- and we
continue to make as many of our products
digital as we can. We're kind of on a
race at the moment to get everything
converted digital just as fast as we
can. We, we, we know, and, and it's not,
you know, staging product in those
countries to ship locally to make it
less expensive is -- it doesn't doesn't
necessarily work for us, nor does
shipping from the United States. So
we're aware of that -- when you're out,
when you're outside the U.S., buying
physical products, it's difficult
because it's expensive. It is. The
shipping is just expensive; expensive
for us, too, to be able to get it to
you. So that'll continue to be, as we,
as we make this, as what you're talking
about, as we think about the roadmap
going forward, we continue to make
efforts to digitalize just everything
that we can. So that is coming here in
the next, in the next couple years. What
else do we have on the roadmap going
forward?
Austin Suellentrop: Yep. I think sort of
if I were to think about a theme of
what's coming on the roadmap, I think
it's about getting tactical with
strengths. It's about getting those
really tangible, "What can I do with
this?" questions answered. So I think
the most common question or comment I've
received in my, you know, decade-plus of
working with strengths is, Hey, awesome,
I love this stuff, but like, what's
next? What do I do with it? And that's a
question that we get asked from all
sorts of audiences, whether it be
coaches, whether it be managers or
individual contributors.
So, a focus down the road, one of the
things we're building out is, is giving
more of a tool kit on how you can apply
strengths in different settings.
Thinking about, you know, what does it
look like to use your strengths
tangibly? You know, recommended actions
for managers, recommended actions for
front-line workers, recommended actions
for, you know, nurses -- those kinds of
thinking, where we can get really
tactical with how your strengths show up
in a specific setting, as a specific
role, in helping give tools that can
help us put our strengths into play, and
help you as coaches help your clients
see how their strengths show up every
day. That's a kind of a theme. So that's
gonna show up in a lot of different
ways: It's going to show up in the kinds
of things we publish, in terms of
articles and content we write, but also
in the kinds of things you'll see on
Access, in terms of interact --
interactivities and trainings and tools
and reports, and so forth. That's sort
of the vision, a big piece of that.
And another big piece is getting, is
building out what I refer to as our team
insights. So if you're in Access right
now playing around, and you see that
your personal bar chart, if you have
your full, your full 34, you see that
sort of bar chart with your your
domains, and which domain you lead with?
Well, you know, this year, we added that
bar chart at the team level. We have a
team bar chart. Well, what does that
mean? What do I do with that? How do I
put that into play, how do I put that
into action? So building out recommended
actions for teams and recommended
guidance for a team with a unique
makeup. How do you leverage that? How do
you take advantage of that? Those are
the kinds of things we're building into
into Access as a platform, into the
tools and the nudges, and so forth, that
can really help, help us get tactical
with how we use this day in, day out.
One of the things I'm really excited to
hopefully in the next month or two, I
have out there ready and enhanced is a
sort of Version 2 of our batch printing.
So batch printing, batch reporting,
being able to gather up 100 reports at
once and how we can download those or
print those. It was a really helpful
functionality when we were still doing
in-person workshops, back when that was
a thing. Remember that time, Jim, when
we used to have in-person events, right?
That was a, it was a really helpful
functionality then, but we're continuing
to enhance it, continuing to add more
functionality and make that more
streamlined for our, for our coaches and
our users.
Things that we're dreaming about on the
roadmap that I think, you know, maybe a
little bit further down the horizon, but
are things that are being explored and
experimented with right now are new data
visualization techniques on how we can
connect strengths and engagement. So if
you have a client who is using our Q12
data, how do you overlay strengths
information, strengths data for a team
onto that to make sense of it? What are
the connection points between our
CliftonStrengths science and our
engagement science that can really
provide the team a meaningful takeaway?
Those are the kinds of things we're
trying to work on, that are coming.
Again, don't have any hard dates on
those kinds of things. But those are the
kinds of things we're working on that
that's what we're thinking about down
the road.
And I've got a list a mile long that I
-- of dreams and ideas and things we're
considering. And those are the kinds of
things that we want to be getting
feedback on as we do more focus groups
and as we do more, more of these
conversations with you, as we do more
surveying and getting input and feedback
from our community. These are the kinds
of things we're gonna be kicking around.
I think we have some things that are a
little more tangible on the horizon. So
if you think about the next month or two
months, there are some things that are
coming, and the big one that's coming in
the next 30 days is the introduction of
our new CliftonStrengths Domain colors.
Right.
So we've been talking, we've been
talking about this for almost a year
now, right, that these were coming. But
here it is, it's time. We're excited for
these new Domain colors to arrive. And
so, beginning in August, so less than a
month away, we'll start to, we'll start
to transition some of our content to the
new Domain colors. So where will you see
them? gallup.com, anything on
gallup.com. So you think all of the
strenths marketing content, all of the
articles and things along those lines on
gallup.com, anything around that, the
new domain colors will be introduced in
the month of August. CliftonStrengths
for Students will have the new colors
introduced in August. Gallup Access
itself -- so you log into the platform
and you have your landing page that you
look at with the DNA strand and the
periodic table that shows up. Those will
all get updated in the month of August
as well, as will any reports you run
through Gallup, through Gallup Access.
So when you go to download your report,
and access, you'll see the new domain
colors there as well.
Also, during that time, and that sort
of, you know, during the month of
August, all of our resources that you
could download in Access, including
Digital Kits, and things along those
lines, any of that that is in English
will be updated with the new Domain
colors during the month of August as
well. So that by -- by early September,
all of that will be transitioned to the
new Domain colors. After September,
that's when we'll start hitting on our
translated content. Right. So that's
when you'll start seeing us working
through any of those downloadable
resources that are in other, in other
languages, right. So we didn't want to
delay the launch of these colors to get
all of our, all of our other language
content translated. We wanted to get the
English stuff out first, and then we
will start tackling all of our
non-English content as well.
So by early September, those, those new
colors will be here, and we're really
excited about that being able to expand
the usability of our reporting and of
our color palette to all of our users --
colorblind included, rather than sort of
our current color palettes. So we're
really excited about this. And it's
something that it's hard to believe it's
only a month away.
Jim Collison: Austin, if folks have
printed material in the old colors, do
they have to change them to be
compliant?
Austin Suellentrop: Great, great
question. Absolutely not. There is no
expectation on our end that you have to
discard any old content. Those colors
are still valid. There's, there's going
to be a lot of people who, that's how
they associate our colors, and that's
how they associate their strengths. And
there's nothing wrong with that. We
still have a huge inventory of physical
goods ourselves; there's no materials
ourselves in those colors. It's not like
we're going to snap our fingers and all
of a sudden, we strike the world of
those old color Domains, right. This is
a transition. And this is the
introduction, and it's part of why we
wanted to tell you, you know, last year,
in 2019, that this was coming this year,
and we've been trying to keep you
abreast in the Coaches Newsletter over
the last couple months that this is sort
of the timing we're looking at. And we
know change is tough -- difficult, and
none of us like change. This, I think,
is a positive change. I think the
branding, the look and the feel and the
freshness of the new colors will help,
help sort of liven up some of our
reporting as well. So we're excited
about it. But no, there's no -- nobody
should feel any pressure to have to
implement these new colors Sept. 1.
Jim Collison: Digital Kits are included
in that right. So if you're on the
digital kit, you'll get that upgrade you
get.
Austin Suellentrop: Another one of the
benefits of having access to Digital
Kits rather than paper kits, right, is
as we make changes like this, we will
flip a switch and the Digital Kits will
be in the new color scheme.
Jim Collison: And if you haven't
purchased that Digital Kit, if you're on
a paper kit, we do have a discount
available for you in that. Send us an
email coaching, or certification -- I
love the coaching email address for some
reason today --
certification@gallup.com. It's because I
say it 1,000 times, and we can get that
discount code out to you. I think one of
the things I want to say, because I
handle so much feedback, is be patient
with us during this 3rd and 4th quarter
on these colors. One, I never
anticipated 4 colors being the focus so
much attention and focus on that. And
then two, we're going to be, it's a
challenge for us to get it into every
place. And so don't expect it
necessarily ever, you'll probably find
it. There's probably some dark crevices
in our infrastructure where it may, it
may stay out there a little bit longer
than we anticipate. So be patient with
us through that. If you do find it, let
me know. If you find it, let's just say
maybe like in October, if you find it,
let me know. And we'll track that down.
So appreciate your patience on that one.
Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. So I think
the, the last thing that's coming, the
last big change, the last big new thing
that we're really -- I'm just jazzed
beyond belief for this is the
introduction of Gallup Global Strengths
Coach. So Gallup Global Strengths Coach
is the new name for our beloved
Accelerated Strengths Coaching course.
So we renamed the course. It is going
through a, an enhancement and sort of a
redesign, if you will, a little bit, and
that new name is now out there. So if
you were to go onto our new
gallup.com/learning, you'll see Gallup
Global Strengths Coach is listed, and it
says "formerly Accelerated Strengths
Coaching."
And that new name represents a bit of a
shift in the focus on coaching that
we've seen here in the last several
years. It's designed -- the new course I
want to begin by understanding, it is
95% the same experience that all of us
have gone through, right. What we've
done -- the 5% that's different is --
we've folded in updated research data
points. So the data points and some of
the metrics we've included in that
course for the last 10 years, right,
we've got new research, we've done new
meta-analysis. We, I just launched last
month, a new test-retest reliability
research. We've folded in our latest
research. We've also incorporated some
best practices have after having taught
this class for a decade and having, you
know, you know, thousands upon thousands
of coaches go through the course, we've
learned some things from its original
design. But the core of the course is
still the same. It talks about the
themes. It talks about, Name it, Claim
it and Aim it. It gives our coaches the
chance to practice and to understand the
strengths-based philosophy.
So I want to make sure all of our
coaches out there who have -- who are
alumni of this course understand there
is not a need for you to go back and
retake this course. I know many of you
love the new cool thing, and you love to
be sort of abreast of the newest
greatest things. I just want to make
sure you understand it's, it's -- it's a
very similar experience to what you
would have gone through before, but
it's, it's updated its look and in its
design, and the color scheme, right. So
the new the new Domain colors are folded
in throughout this. The Digital Kits
people get when they go through this
course are the same Digital Kits you
have access to right now. Right? So
there's not going to be a whole lot of
new tools that they're getting that you
aren't getting access to.
But what it's doing, is it's helping
align the conversation around coaching
to just how critical having a coaching
mindset is in the new world of work.
That as we think about the impact that
coaches have with an individual, with a
team, with an organization, that it
doesn't stop there. It impacts cities
and states, countries and economies when
we do this well. That the
strengths-based approach to human
development is at the core of impacting
the global economy. And I think all of
us as coaches who are committed to the
cause and who've devoted our lives to
this, we believe that and we know that.
And so the reason you see the name
change is we're making sure we're overt
from the beginning to the world about
this course. That's what this course is
designed to do. It's designed to help us
change the world. Not just this one
interaction with a person, but how the
ripple effect of that could have across
cities and states and countries around
the globe overall, right?
So I wanted to take a moment to make
sure you all know, this is our prize --
this is our prize possession. We love
this course; we love the participants
who go through this course. Having
taught this course many times myself, I
will tell you, there is no more
committed group of individuals that I've
ever met than participants in our 4
1/2-day coaching course. Some of the
most loyal and and dedicated people I've
ever met go through that course. They
dedicate their lives to helping other
people. And the new name is
representative of us elevating to the
world the impact this could have.
So I call it out here. We've put a lot
of time and energy soliciting feedback
over the years around this, not only
from a content perspective, but from an
overall experience. How do we give
participants time to practice coaching
as much as we possibly can? How do we
fold in ICF principles throughout this
as best we can? So that new course --
the name is out there now. We'll start
delivering that course this fall as
well. So we're really excited. These are
the kinds of things we've been working
on to try and enhance the coaching
movement, to try to continue this
momentum we've built and that we have
going, so really excited about that;
really excited for what the next 6
months to a year have in, have in store
for us as well. Hopefully, it does not
involve any more talk of pandemics, but
it likely will for the short term, at
least, for the next -- for the
foreseeable future. So anyways, Jim,
that's me talking an awful lot. I
probably rambled more than I should. But
I appreciate you having me on to chat
through it. Love to answer any questions
that are out there.
Jim Collison: Yeah. No, we'll take your
questions from the chat room. A couple,
Austin, just to review again, the change
in colors was primarily due to ADA
compliance, right and plus some other
color compliance globally to make sure
those with visual impairments could see
those. Listen, we understand, change is
always difficult. And anytime you change
anything, including a studio, you get
all kinds of really, really helpful
feedback on it. And so, it's, it's, it's
difficult. It's -- it's been -- and it's
been a difficult transition, we
understand that. So, it is changing.
Austin Suellentrop: I will say for the
colors: These colors we've vetted,
tested and gotten feedback from, from a
variety of different perspectives, a
variety of different stakeholders. And
the main driver was our current 4 colors
are not compliant with the Americans
With Disabilities Act. They are out of
compliance. They are not discernible for
people that are colorblind on a
grayscale pattern. You cannot clearly
distinguish between the 4. So when we
looked at options, and what could we do
to change the colors, change the way we
represent our Domains, to be in in
alignment with our branding overall, to
be fully compliant with ADA, to allow
for both on-screen and printed
compliance, as well as what we call sort
of look and consistency, meaning can we
use the same font on all 4 colors? When
you have a yellow Domain like we have
right now, in Influencing, right, we
often have to use black font on that, to
make it show up. When you use black font
on that to make it show up, and then you
try to use black font on purple, like we
have for Executing, it doesn't show up
on purple. So we have use white font on
purple. So it creates inconsistency in
how we have to create things, right. So
one of those things was we wanted
something that could be white font
consistent on all.
So there are a lot of factors that go
into this. Our team and our graphic
design team that put this together, and
they put together several options that
were vetted and tested. And before we
landed on sort of hit the nail, the nail
on the head for all the criteria we were
looking for, and again, we've been
socializing them since November of last
year. So I hope they don't catch any,
they didn't catch anybody off guard in
that sense, but they're coming next
month. And we're really excited about
it.
Jim Collison: Andrea had asked a
question. While you said the new Global
Strengths Coaching course is 95% the
same, is there an opportunity to have
access to the new meta-analysis and best
practices?
Austin Suellentrop: Absolutely. Great
question. So any of the research that
we're folding into this is absolutely
either already publicly available -- so
it's either out there already -- or we
will absolutely be able to produce and
share with you, Here's what, here's the
big things that changed. Here's what you
can expect differently. In terms of
that, again, that 5% that's different,
most of it, I will tell you, you're
already in the loop on. The vast
majority of it are things we've already
socialized, but the course itself,
right, the design of the course hadn't
been updated. So our course leaders were
having to either go in and sort of teach
it off the cuff because they knew it
differently, versus how the course is
designed. But Andrea, great point and
great question. Anything that's included
in that that would be distinctly
different than what you you've gone
through? Yes, we'll be able to share
with you.
Jim Collison: Austin, what -- I think
we've covered most of those questions.
There's been some studio questions we'll
cover in the postshow. Anyhow, lots of
stuff. I know, it's funny. It's a shiny
new object. So it's, it's super funny.
Any other questions you've been getting
from, from individuals? Any, any hot
questions that, that we can answer
before we kind of wrap this thing up?
Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, I think the
most common question I continue to get
is, is getting around sort of the
ability for us at Gallup, what can we do
to help, help our coaches deliver,
deliver virtual learning, or deliver
virtual workshops? How do we do this?
How do we help you do this better in a,
you know, when you aren't able to do it
in the way you've always done in-person
workshops, and so forth? I think one of
the things I love -- Dean's done some
great stuff in sort of best practices
using Zoom and different platforms.
We're finding that more and more of our
clients, more and more of the people we
work with, don't use Zoom, for a variety
of reasons. So how do we get comfortable
in different platforms? How do we get
comfortable, sort of platform-agnostic,
if you will, delivering virtual
experiences?
I think that's something we're dedicated
and we're committed to learning
ourselves. We're really investing in our
course leaders and our coaches to get
better at the same thing. So I think
we'll continue to learn best practices
around that and be able to share that
content with our coaches. That, that, to
me, is the kind of thing you can expect
to see in things like our Learning
Series that we do every, every year for
our Certified Coaches is how do we put
together some really great developmental
content for you around virtual
experience and creating an exceptional
virtual experience? That's the kind of
stuff that, you know, I don't think we
pretend to have all the answers on yet.
We're learning a lot as well.
We have got some absolute experts in
our, in our organization that are
coaches, that are course leaders that
are documenting that for us right now
and helping teach us ourselves. So Jim's
been doing the podcast thing for years
and years and years, right. And he's
great at it. Jim teaches other people in
our company how to be great at this.
What does it take? How do you do this?
Jim works with our clients on teaching
them how to do it. But it comes from his
experience of having done it with
excellence before. So that's what we're
building right now internally, is we're
building our comfort of excellence with
delivering virtual content, with
delivering coaching sessions via, via
videocam, and how that is different than
in person, how it's different than over
the phone, and delivering virtual
workshops with excellence and how that's
different than maybe in the past we've
done it. So I think that's one of the
things we're trying to sort of gather,
but I get asked that question a lot.
Jim Collison: Austin, you made the
mistake of saying giving an exact
percentage, and now people are gonna
kind of quote you on that for the next
50 years, probably. That 5%, which you
just -- it was just an example, right?
But repeat again for me the difference,
when we think about what's, what we've
added, and I'm pretty sure it's, it's
experience, right? When you mentioned
the ICF piece, you mentioned more
actually coaching examples. It's not
like there's new material that we --
Austin Suellentrop: Correct.
Jim Collison: OK.
Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. So so let me,
let me get really clear on this. A) The
course is not finished yet. OK, so the
course is in its final stages of
production, but it's not finished yet.
That's why it hasn't gone public yet.
It's why I've haven't taught it yet.
Jim Collison: Well, it's kind of public.
I mean, we've, it's available, the name
is available on our site. We had to do
that for technology reasons, but keep
going.
Austin Suellentrop: So what's, what is
different, there is a greater focus on
actual practice of coaching. So if you
were to go through this course versus
your old, old course, you would get more
time, minutes-wise, to actually practice
coaching. You would get more time to
learn about the specific themes. So we
do spend a little bit more time on
specific themes. And you'd get, we
actually fold in specific ICF coaching
competencies throughout the course.
Those are the 3 big things that I would
say are added, OK, plus that refresh of
data and best practices and so forth,
OK, that I mentioned. Well, how do you
make up for that? How do you add things
into a course without taking things
away?
The big thing we have taken away from
the course is -- are some of the videos
that we played during the course, right?
So in the past, there was a lot of,
Watch this video; let's talk about it.
Watch this video, let's talk about it.
We would maybe watch a coaching call
conversation and debrief it. That is
either now done as part of the, the
digital experience. So part of Digital
Kits or sort of prework homework-type
stuff that we can do using digital
formats, or we just don't use the video,
and we go into a demonstration in the
room, or we, we maybe play a 30 -second
clip of something instead of a
minute-and-a-half clip of something,
right. So those are the kinds of things,
when I thought about best practices that
we've learned, best practice from
teaching that course was we didn't need
as much video content. We need some but
not as much. Right. So that's how we
sort of got things out to make room for
things that we wanted to add.
Jim Collison: Yeah, good clarification.
There is a tendency to have a little
FOMO on this, and I'm like, ah, I'm
missing out!
Austin Suellentrop: Look, I've been
involved in the design of this course. I
want to go through this course!
Jim Collison: Yeah!
Austin Suellentrop: Like it's -- but I'm
making sure we understand, you're not
fundamentally getting anything that
different. What I, what I am committed
to, all of you, is I'm committed to
showing you, best I can, I'm showing you
here, here's, here's the new stuff.
Here's what it looks like. You make an
educated decision for yourself. If you
choose -- we're not going to tell you
you can't come. We're not gonna tell you
you can't take the course again. I'm
just making sure you understand there's
not a need to. If it's that important to
you, we'll just set -- I just want to
set appropriate expectations for you
that you're going to see a lot of the
same stuff you saw before.
Jim Collison: Good. I think with that,
we'll call it a wrap. Certainly if you
have continued questions, everybody
who's out there today in the chat room
knows how to contact me, but if you
still, still have continued questions,
you can send us an email:
coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget to get
access to all the resources:
gallup.com/cliftonstrengths is available
for you there. Don't forget to sign up
for the CliftonStrengths Community
Newsletter that's still available every
month, just kind of in addition to what
you're getting. If you're a Certified
Coach, you get a newsletter; this would
be for the greater strengths community.
The bottom of any page there you can
sign up for that newsletter. We'll send
it to you once a month. If you want to,
if you're very first time you're
listening live, and you want to know, or
you're listening to the recorded version
you're like, How do I get in this chat
room that sounds so important? And it
is. You can join us live:
gallup.eventbrite.com -- B-R-I-T-E --
gets us there as well. We have a couple
social groups you may want to be
involved with as well:
facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach. Also
on the LinkedIn group, just search
"CliftonStrengths Trained Coaches" and
I'll let you in there as well. Want to
thank you for joining us today. We will
definitely do a few minutes of postshow.
With that, we'll say, Goodbye,
everybody.
