A description of Covocative, an e-coaching tool. The article was written by Matt Poepsel for our E-coaching Community of Practice in August 2013 http://ecoachingbase.wordpress.com/

1. The Genesis of an E-Coaching Software
Platform, by Dr. Matt Poepsel
There’s growing interest in the topic of e-coaching. I’ve spent the past few years conducting
research and building a software package in this area, so I thought I’d share my observations
and experiences.
I was working as a Product Manager in a software company when I decided to formally study
the psychology of personal development. I enrolled in a part-time doctoral-level program, and
I took an interest in Positive Psychology, and more specifically, the movement toward
Evidence-Based Coaching.
During that time, I kept returning to a few key observations:
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We know a great deal about the psychology of optimal human functioning, but
judging from how our organizations operate, you’d never know it.
Technology has revolutionized almost every aspect of our lives – the way we work,
travel, shop, communicate, etc. – but there are painfully few examples of how this
ubiquitous technology has helped increase the effectiveness and availability of
coaching.
Coaching has a sort of distribution problem where a relatively small number of expert
coaches (say 10,000 or so) pales in comparison to the number of people who need
their expertise (say 100,000,000 or so). As a result, coaching isn’t getting to those who
need it most, and in organizations, its high price tag often keeps it relegated to the
most senior roles.
I decided that my dissertation would contribute to the field by determining whether an
Evidence-Based Coaching program could be effective when delivered exclusively online. In
my study, a professional coach led asynchronous individual and group online discussions
along a series of structured coaching exercises.
The results were encouraging. Study participants who received online coaching were found to
have a significantly higher level of success than a control group who did not receive the
coaching. The experimental group scored higher in terms of goal attainment, subjective wellbeing, and level of hopefulness – each highly desirable coaching outcomes.
Unfortunately, the off-the-shelf software package I used for the program was incredibly
limited. It became apparent that e-coaching needed a purpose-built software platform to
achieve the objectives of being efficient, effective, consistent, scalable, and affordable. After
completing my PhD, I set out to create such an e-coaching software platform.
Covocative was born.
When I thought about the specific design objectives for the Covocative e-coaching software, I
decided that I wanted it to:
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Make expert coaches more scalable
Help managers become better on-the-job coaches to their direct reports
Get coaching to places where it’s needed but not making it today

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Support multiple coaching formats including self-coaching, peer coaching, coaching
by the manager, and expert coaching delivered by professional coaches
Let’s take a look at some of the major elements of the Covocative e-coaching software.
Focus Areas
Focus Areas are major themed areas of skills or capabilities related to a given coaching
program. They provide structure to the supporting content of the coaching package and
directions for future development and growth. When coaching is used as training
reinforcement, learning units or topics often make for natural Focus Areas.
In a traditional coaching interaction, the coach provides the structure and manages coaching
conversations and topics in real-time. In a technology-supported system – particularly one that
relies on asynchronous communication – an explicit structure is much more important. This is
similar to an educational setting where an expert lecturer may not need more than a few notes
to facilitate a lively session in a classroom, but a structured curriculum is essential to an elearning system that seeks to present the same subject matter.
Assessment
Assessments help establish a baseline for current proficiency and provide important context
for subsequent coaching conversations. In the Covocative software, these assessments are
directly related to the Focus Areas for a given role. As a part of the onboarding process, each
new user provides a self-rating for each Focus Area on a scale of 1-10 using a series of
“sliders” in the software. This is analogous to the popular “Wheel of Life” used by many
coaches. Coaches often observe that this simple but powerful tool can help individuals think
about areas they might want to improve and what actions they might take to make that
positive change.
After the coachee completes the self-assessment, the coach or manager can ask probing
questions about the self-report, such as “What made you score this area a five instead of a
four?” or “What would it take for this rating to become a six?” This information is also used
by the coachee to select the Focus Areas they’d like to work on improving alongside his or
her coach and/or manager. At any time, coaches and managers can view each coachee’s
scores through the Assessments tab of the coachee’s profile.

3. Sample Goals
Goal planning and follow-through are critical to the success of any coaching process. The
psychology of goal attainment is incredibly robust with contributions from Dweck, Latham,
Locke, Halvorson, and Sheldon to name a few. Even so, very few workers are regularly and
properly setting behavioral goals and following through to their successful achievement.
To make matters worse, many individuals find it difficult to set appropriate and relevant goals
without first being given a template to guide their planning and execution. Using the
Covocative software, a coach or subject matter expert can design a simple set of “starter
goals” that align with each Focus Area. These are behavior-based goals, and they help
individuals focus on setting and pursuing goals as a healthy habit. The software is
“intelligent” in the sense that it recommends starter goals based on the area of focus chosen
by the coachee. The software also supports self-defined goals as a coachee gets more
comfortable with the practice of setting goals and tracking progress.

4. Coaching Exercises
Exercises reinforce the critical thinking and behavioral follow-through required for successful
development. Coaching exercises typically present a scenario, a small number of tips,
techniques, or thought-provoking questions in a given developmental area. To complete an
exercise, the coachee is asked to develop a response to the question (thinking) or take some
specific action (doing) noting the results as a response to the exercise. The coachee submits
the exercise response, and the coach or manager can provide feedback virtually or they can
review the response live as part of a larger coaching session.
Covocative exercises have been centered on specific behaviors that encourage the coach and
or manager to follow up with the coachee after he or she has completed the specific action. In
this way, coaching exercises are a fantastic way to reinforce training concepts and to support
organizational change. The exercises can include embedded multimedia content such as
video, audio, or graphics. Another great use of an exercise is to include coaching-style
exploration around job aids or other content and materials.

5. Coaching Discussions
One of the most surprising findings in my research was the nature of social support that took
place in the online group coaching platform. Participants suggested that they benefitted both
from the shared experience of pursuing personal development alongside others as well as a
type of “helper therapy” where offering suggestions and support to others bolstered their
wellbeing and performance.
Collaboration and social support are fostered through the Covocative software using coaching
discussions. Discussions are most often open-ended questions that are posed to a larger group
of participants for open exploration and discussion. The questions are intended to allow group
members to contribute to the collective peer coaching process. In this way, the coaching has
several benefits: it creates a positive culture of mutual support, it offers opportunities for peer
learning and feedback, and it allows managers and supervisors to tap into the collective

6. wisdom and input from the broader group.
Leaderboard
Online Community Handbook
There is a great deal of work being done in the area of “gamification” and creating incentives
for online participation and follow-through. In the Covocative software, coachees receive a
point every time they complete a coaching activity using the system. Setting a goal, updating
goal progress, completing a coaching exercise, and “liking” another user’s discussion
response are each coaching activities that add to the coachee’s total score.
The leaderboard creates an atmosphere of friendly competition in the spirit of professional
development and mutual support. It also allows a coachee to see the goals and activities their
peers are pursuing. Some coachees may find that this type of measurement and recognition is
motivating, while others will be either self-motivated or more motivated by the opportunities
for social connection and support.

7. Notes
The Covocative software allows coaches, managers, and coachees to log and share notes
related to the coaching conversations, pre-session prep work, homework assignments, and
more. This simple note-taking system provides a consistent cadence to the coaching
conversations within an organization and is a major improvement over current practices in
most organizations. Notes can be shared or marked as private depending on their subject
matter. An expert coach can also use this visibility and system to provide coaching
recommendations for managers in their work with direct reports.
Using the Notes module, the coach or manager has a central system of record for the ongoing
development of the coachee. Often, an annual performance review strikes panic in a manager
who can’t recall conversations beyond a month ago. The Notes allow the manager to review
conversation topics, achieved goals, changes in assessment scores, completed exercises, and

8. more.
The Future of Software and of E-Coaching
Over time, I expect to see innovative examples of how software can enhance and extend the
availability and delivery of coaching inside organizations and beyond. I have every
confidence that as the methods of human communication continues to evolve, so too will
coaching because at its heart, coaching is about a purposeful conversation.
If I were to create a “wish list” of research to support e-coaching, I’d include studies that
address questions such as:
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How does the effectiveness of e-coaching compare to that of face-to-face and
telephone-based interventions?
What are the observed differences in attitudes and perceptions of e-coaching across
generations and roles in the workforce?
To what extent to coaching diads comprised (say of new/experienced employees or
high proficiency/low proficiency employees) impact long-term performance and
retention?
What are the subjective experiences of coachees participating in an exclusively ecoaching format?
When considering the future of e-coaching, I often ask myself one of the most powerful
questions in a coach’s toolkit: “What’s possible?” Considering what behavioral scientists have
discovered about human performance and what computer scientists have already
accomplished in so many non-coaching domains, I can’t help but feel that we have some
catching up to do.
In an effort to help us collectively answer these and other important e-coaching questions, I’m
happy to donate my software, expertise, insight, and support to any researcher or practitioner

9. who’s interested in conducting a quality coaching study or implementation in an
organizational context.
We have so much work to do, and I’m looking forward to collaborating with you on ecoaching’s next chapter!