about Coaching, and Global coaching

   We see justifying gestures, acknowledging the powerful leverage of information, data and knowledge generally. We are now in a knowledge-based society. Knowledge is power. And yet far too often human resources is relegated to a department focused on forms, policies and procedures. However, HR is evolving; and may well find its footing more meaningfully as a backup department to all other departments. A significant aspect of this movement is the internal development of knowledge management.
   To be clear, part of the evolution of knowledge management has, or will likely include, the documentation of processes. Sometimes this occurs with such rigor that employees feel that they are establishing everything the company needs so that they are creating their own plug-and-play replacement opportunity. Naturally, if the company has done its own job properly from the start it is looking to hire human value, not just human bodies; and therefore this approach misses the point (nor is this good for general morale).
   Knowledge management as such has only been around since the early 1990’s. Its larger consideration is not just to capture and distribute base knowledge, for the opportunity is larger than that. To extend experiences and insights, to organically distribute, and in the process continue to represent and create; this is the larger opportunity of knowledge management.
   Software has its place, has been being developed, and some of it is very useful; however, this tends to speak more to the base concern. Course work has and continues to be developed and implemented; there are now certifying institutions for such business coaching. Certainly, this is a movement with more potential than software, though every iteration has its place. It seems the best evolution of this consideration to date is an internal network of coaching elders. Such a networking coordination necessitates a managerial expression on the part of HR.
   By this method, the goals are extended. Behaviors and situations are assessed, competencies are weighed, benchmarks are monitored and support is inherent. Bright noticed the Japanese senpai-koai (senior-junior found in the organizational setting) or oyabun-kobun (leader-subordinate-apprenticeship relationship) approach; somewhat different from the strategy-based US, or socially based UK approach. Although it must be said that these relationships still tend to be one-on-one, they bring us nearer where we wish to be with group mentoring. These relationships are long-term; and as such, forward organizational trust, as well as reduce turnover.
   The proposition of taking this one-step further and having HR pair a junior to more than one senior simply takes this to the next level. No longer are all your eggs in one basket, and any weaknesses of one are offset by another. The junior becomes an active seeker with wise friends, experts in their own right, in their surgically selected fields.
   Such an approach becomes increasingly significant when looking to establish business interaction with another country and culture; no one could possibly be the quintessential expert on everything that may arise. Such an approach also offers more to the junior by spreading out responsibilities among a variety of seniors.

Bright, M. I. (2005). Can Japanese mentoring enhance understanding of Western mentoring? Employee 
   Relations, 27, 4, 325-339.
C. Brooke Orr and Nancy R. Lockwood, SPHR, GPHR, SHRM Research Department. http://www.shrm.org/. Retrieved 
   8/15/2010.
Nonaka, Ikujiro (1991). "The knowledge creating company". Harvard Business Review 69 (6 Nov-Dec): 96–104.
   http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2007/07/the-knowledge-creating-company/es.