Discover why coaching drives real behaviour change, far beyond training alone.

In Episode 256 of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares research by Joyce and Showers that vividly demonstrates why most training programs fail to produce lasting change. Even when participants are engaged and their skills improve during a workshop, very little of this translates into real-world practice without ongoing coaching support.
Mark and Shawn unpack the surprising findings – from 0% transfer rates after lectures and demonstrations, to over 90% transfer when coaching is added. They reflect on how this research has influenced their own work and discuss why organisations must go beyond the “sheep dip” approach if they genuinely want behaviour to change.
If you’re involved in learning and development, change programs, or leadership training, this is essential listening.
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Tags: Storytelling, Behaviour Change, Learning, Coaching
This story starts at 1:22
Back in the 1980s in the United States, two researchers, Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers, conducted a study to understand why so much teacher training didn’t lead to any real change in classrooms.
They looked at different approaches to professional development. The first method was the most common: simply giving teachers a lecture about what they should do. The results were pretty striking, although participants learned some information, the percentage who actually applied the skills in their classrooms was zero. Nothing changed.
Next, they tried adding demonstrations, where the trainers would show exactly how to do the techniques. This improved people’s understanding a bit, they could answer questions more accurately, but when they measured whether the teachers used the skills back at work, again, the transfer rate was still zero percent.
Then they introduced practice. So now, teachers could try out the new skills themselves during training. This boosted their knowledge and skills up to about 60%, but when it came to real-world use, it only made a tiny difference, about 5% of participants actually applied what they’d learned.
Finally, Joyce and Showers added ongoing coaching. This meant that after the initial training, teachers had support; someone to guide them, answer questions, and help embed the new approaches. And that changed everything. With coaching, over 90% of teachers consistently put the new skills into practice in their classrooms.
Their research made it clear that knowledge alone doesn’t create behaviour change. Even practice isn’t enough by itself. Coaching is the crucial piece that helps people bridge the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.