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Development of the Career Plan 50+ (CP50+) Toolkit and the Career Coach
Masters Training

Conference Paper · October 2011

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2nd  Career  Coaching  Conference                                                                                                                      September  27th  2011,  National  Council,  Ljubljana,  Slovenia  

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAREER PLAN 50+ (CP50+) TOOLKIT AND

THE CAREER COACH MASTERS TRAINING

Dr. Tatjana Dragovic, Glotta Nova, Slovenia

Kurt Andersen, MSc, Human Communications Centre, UK and the Open University,
UK

0. Abstract

The article accounts for the development of the Career Plan 50+ (CP50+) Toolkit as
well as for the design and delivery of the Career Coach Masters Training (CCM)
carried out for participants from four European countries. The choice of the content
and the strucutre of both the Toolkit and the training have been presented and
discussed. The importance of considering career planning for older employees has
been emphasized and the potential overlappings of age mangement, knowledge
management and career coaching have been explored. The CP50+ Toolkit and the
Career Coach Masters (CCM) training have been developed as part of the EU funded
project called Career Plan 50+ (CP 50+) .

Key words: career planning, coaching, career coaching, career plan toolkit, age
management, knowledge management, 50+, knowledge transfer

1. Introduction

Career planning has been widely explored at the organizational level as a stepping
stone for improved efficiency, profitability, corporate growth, work commitment and
above all utilization and development of talent (Walker, 1973). On the other hand,
career planning at the individual level might be steered by completely different
motives ranging from ambitions through living one’s own values to personal and
professional development. The common pattern, though, on both organizational and
individual level is that a consideration of career planning is more frequently present at
the start (or in the initial phases) of the working period of human beings than towards
the end of it.

Vladimír Spidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal

Opportunities said at the XVIII International EURAG Congress in Ljubljana in 2005
that ‘by remaining in the workforce, older workers can continue to contribute to the
economy, to society at large, but also to their own personal dignity and well-being.’
(XVIII International EURAG Congress, Ljubljana, 30.9.2005).

This idea of retaining talent and knowledge of older workers as well as transferring
their knowledge and expertise to younger employees was the main theme of the
international EU funded project called Career Plan 50+ i.e. career planning for
employees over 50 years of age.

 
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2. Career Plan 50+ (CP50+) Project: summary

The overall aim of the international project (called CP50+ as an acronym of Career
Plan 50+) is knowledge and talent retention of the 50+ employees through knowledge
transfer within companies as well as career development of the 50+ employees.

The CP50+ project was carried out as part of a LEONARDO DA VINCI TRANSFER
OF INNOVATION PROJECT under the Lifelong Learning Programme (2009-2011).
The project’s main outcomes included:

a) A publication called ‘Career Plan 50+ Toolkit’ containing concrete tools for
retaining knowledge, talent and skills of the 50+ employees.

b) A 32-hour long training called ‘Career Coach Masters (CCM)’ where coaches from
four different European countries were trained (by the authors of the CP50+ Toolkit) in
applying tools from the Career Plan 50+ Toolkit in small and medium enterprises
(SMEs).

c) A manual called ‘Career Plan 50+ Manual’ containing instructions for applying the
tools from the CP50+ Toolkit. The CP50+ Manual was used for the CCM training.

d) A 32-hour long training called ‘Career Coach Practitioner (CCP)’ where Career
Coach Masters (in four European countries) trained in-house coaches, HR staff and 50+
employees on how to elicit, formalize, utilize and transfer knowledge and skills.

e) A ‘new’ career development for the 50+ employees where they become (in the last
10-15 years of their working period) so-called ‘multiplicators’ of crucial knowledge
and skills and thus extend (if they desire) their career beyond the retirement age as
internal (or external) knowledge management consultants for their organizations.

The two projects that represent the foundation for the CP50+ project are Adult
Educator in Companies (ADEC) and KNOWMOVE. The ADEC project addressed a
strong need for training of in-house trainers in specific areas, mainly communication
and experiential training skills and an upgrading of knowledge and skills based on
more recent developments in psychological and educational research. The
KNOWMOVE project addressed age management in SMEs and knowledge
management/transfer within companies.

Before the Toolkit was produced, extensive research was carried out in 4 different
European countries involving 32 SMEs. The results demonstrated, on one hand, a
preference of the 50+ employees for practical workshops with coaching elements for
further career development and on the other hand a strong need in the HR departments
for retaining knowledge and talent of the 50+ employees.

The project brought together a team of leading specialists in the automotive industry,
teaching, training, psychology and adult education from across Europe to develop a
toolkit, a manual and a training programme for a group of coaches and in-house
trainers. The human resources (HR) experts, coaches and in-house trainers help to
elicit, formalize and utilize the knowledge and skills of the 50+ employees; thus
companies will manage knowledge and talent retention and at the same time provide an
opportunity for further career and personal development of the 50+ employees.

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3. Age and Knowledge management

Over the past decade, the challenges arising from the ageing of the workforce in
Europe have triggered a range of different policy responses from governments and
social partners. The increased participation of older workers in the labour market is
seen as a major factor in achieving more sustainable economic and social
development in the European Union. Concerns about pensions, economic growth and
the future labour supply have fuelled a range of policy recommendations and
initiatives to support longer working lives and later retirement (Age management in
companies in Europe).

Over the next 20 years, the average age of the working population will increase and
the number of men and women of working age will decline. The challenge is how to
develop the skills and employability of older workers, while maintaining the health,
motivation and capacities of workers as they age. Actions need to be taken to combat
discrimination and negative stereotypes of older workers. Above all, working
conditions as well as employment opportunities must be appropriate for an age-
diverse workforce.

A person retiring from a company withdraws an immense amount of know-how and

skills. New employees taking their place usually lack deep personal knowledge and
experience of the company’s way of acting as it has been formed over years and
decades.

It is essential to remember that both age and knowledge management are complex
areas. Age management means recognizing that people of different ages have different
needs, qualifications and skills, and managing the different age groups and their
knowledge to create the highest possible value. Age management should lead to all
ages being taken into account in working teams, and the strengths of all ages utilized,
appreciated and taken advantage of. If the knowledge of people of all ages are utilized
and collected, costly knowledge loss can be avoided.

Knowledge management, on the other side, requires first a definition of knowledge.

One proposed framework for categorizing the dimensions of knowledge distinguishes
between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge represents
internalized knowledge that an individual may not be consciously aware of, such as
how he or she accomplishes particular tasks. At the opposite end of the spectrum,
explicit knowledge represents knowledge that the individual holds consciously in
mental focus, in a form that can easily be communicated to others (Alavi & Leidner
2001). Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in
an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights
and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied
in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice.

Age and Knowledge management can be divided into different levels, which are all
vital. Decision makers at all levels need to become aware of the issues and make a
strategy for how to handle the situation:

a) National/ European Union level – handling an ageing population in Europe.

Adjusting laws, tax levels and providing incitements for development in the

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area.

b) Organizational level – retaining knowledge in organizations when employees

retire or resign; knowledge transfer from older to younger work force; training
ageing staff to make the best use of their capacity; creating an environment
where workers can and want to stay longer, instead of retiring early.

c) Individual level – developing the older work force to keep them updated with
necessary skills and developing their abilities to keep them attractive on the job
market; supplying flexible work solutions to make it possible to adjust work to
the requirements of an older workforce; informing employees about age issues.

The first step in age management is to create awareness of the issue to enhance the
incitement to analyze and handle the questions. The problems are easily overlooked,
especially in organizations with mainly younger employees. But the shifting age
structure, the future lack of qualified staff and the implications for recruitment will
soon be apparent all over Europe. Besides recruitment, the issues of handling
knowledge management in general and knowledge transfer specifically, developing a
learning organization and improving leadership issues are vital for all companies and
employees of all ages, since knowledge and information become more and more
essential in the marketplace today.

By thinking about issues regarding age management and knowledge transfer, a base is
built for developing a better introduction for new employees. With a knowledge
transfer strategy and continuous documentation, the amount of knowledge loss when
people leave (older or younger) can be minimized. Part of an age management strategy
could be to encourage valuable personnel to stay longer to ease the influence of this
transitional period where a large amount of employees are retiring. Another part is to
find ways to attract new employees (young and old) and create an environment where
people share and learn across age boundaries.

When knowledge is lost the risks are that an organization finds itself with a reduced
capacity to innovate and more costly errors tend to occur, since new personnel needs to
be trained, does not know the business as well, and might therefore be less efficient.
Even if some knowledge is documented, it is essential to consider tacit knowledge and
e.g. the immense value of somebody’s relationships, contacts and networks or almost
intuitive feeling for and knowledge about a specific machine, product or process. That
cannot be replaced quickly no matter how much it is documented.

Knowledge retention can mean investing in programs that encourage things like phased
retirements, culture change, mentoring, coaching, knowledge bases, communities of
practice, and e-learning. But before making decisions about what to do, it is helpful to
understand the types of impacts that knowledge lost in retirements or turnover can have
on an organization’s business performance. An ongoing study by De Long at the
Accenture Institute for Strategic Change (2002) has identified at least four ways in
which lost knowledge can affect an organization’s business performance (KnowMove
project).

- Reduced capacity to innovate. Losing experience and expertise when senior

people retire, particularly in Research & Development, can slow down and

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reduce the quality of innovation, which is central to many organizations’

business strategies today.
- Ability to pursue growth strategies threatened. Losing knowledge because of
retirements increases the number of new hires needed in an already difficult
market. But what is easily overlooked is that increased retirements also make
the task of assimilating new employees more difficult because the availability
of potential mentors is greatly reduced.
- More costly errors. Having less experienced employees working in, for example,
increasingly sophisticated manufacturing operations increases the risks of
serious and costly mistakes.
- Less efficiency. Lost knowledge can also have another important impact for an
industry focused on cost cutting and productivity improvements. What
organizations really lose through people leaving is efficiency and effectiveness;
knowledge of how to get a job done faster and better.

4. Success strategy: how to capture the 50+ experts’ knowledge

One of the most important things to think about when it comes to knowledge and age
management is to adjust the approach to your specific organization. Even if more
general approaches and models can be useful and inspire further thought, they should
always be adjusted to the needs of the organization. If that is not done, the wrong issues
might be handled, it will be more difficult to implement any changes (if management
and personnel do not see the need or use for changes) and the risk is then that the
change, if there is any at all, will be primarily superficial.

The Career Plan 50+ (CP 50+) project focuses particularly on knowledge transfer of
50+ experts in connection to their career development. Knowledge transfer can be seen
as a three-phase process. The first one includes the elicitation of the knowledge that is
valuable and crucial to transfer. Frequently this involves eliciting even the knowledge
of which the experts themselves are not aware, so called tacit knowledge.
The employees commonly have the following types of knowledge:

• managerial knowledge;
• technical knowledge;
• applied knowledge.

They apply the knowledge and skills in working situation or activities, they achieve
personal experience in doing that and they convert this kind of knowledge into
individual competencies.
In other words, individual competencies are a combination of:

• knowledge;
• ability to apply it (applied knowledge / experience);
• ability to make others apply it (moved Knowledge).

When knowledge is applied in business processes together with individual skills, the
organizational competencies set grows.

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The second phase of the Knowledge transfer process is knowledge formalization

when the elicited knowledge gets a certain form i.e. structure that can be expressed
through more or less organized written documentation.

And the third phase is about knowledge utilization, the application and use of the
elicited and formalized knowledge thus concluding the knowledge transfer circle (as
shown below) with practical application of concrete transferable competences.

Figure 1 Knowledge transfer circle

The three phases of knowledge transfer process could be translated into concrete steps
to follow in your organization.

In organizations the knowledge elicitation phase could be initiated by conducting so-

called knowledge loss risk assessment. The knowledge formalization phase could be
merged with development of knowledge retention plan while in the knowledge
utilization phase the implementation of the knowledge retention plan should happened
followed by monitoring, evaluation and revision. Thus the knowledge transfer model
becomes tangible and ‘alive’ particularly when adapted to the specific context of
different organizations.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PHASES KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESS IN

YOUR ORGANIZATION (concrete steps)

Knowledge elicitation 1. Knowledge Loss Risk Assessment

Knowledge formalization 2. Knowledge Retention Plan

Knowledge utilization 3. Implementation of Knowledge Retention Plan

4. Monitoring, evaluation and revision of the plan

Table 1 The application of knowledge transfer model in your organization

The objective is to capture knowledge and competencies of older workers, making

these available to the organization and at the same time giving an opportunity to the
50+ experts to become knowledge ‘multiplicators/transferers’ in the organization. By
taking over new roles at work they will get the opportunity to further their own career
and personal development.

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Before embarking on the journey of ‘unwrapping’ each of the phases of the

development of the CP50+ Toolkit and the Career Coach Masters Training it would
be useful to present the overarching approach the knowledge transfer process will be
based on.

There are plenty of different approaches to knowledge transfer in organizations from

regulated and obligatory models where employees are obliged to share their
knowledge in a structured and documented manner to more relaxed and voluntary
approaches where knowledge sharing happens ‘ad hoc’ and randomly.

The Career Plan 50+ Project attempts to avoid the traps of either extremely obligatory
or extremely random approaches. The regulated and strictly structured approach may
have many advantages for organizations as documented knowledge ‘stays behind’
once experts retire. At the same time this kind of approach may cause experts
(particularly 50+) to feel forced to spend more time documenting how tasks are
performed rather than performing them. Their motivation and efficiency can suffer.
The more relaxed approaches to knowledge transfer may have advantages for
employees in the way that they do not have to spend extra time on documenting tasks
and procedures. However, once the source of information (e.g. 50+ expert) is gone,
the knowledge sharing process stops and the organization can find itself with neither
instantly available nor documented core knowledge and competencies.

The CP50+ Project finds a middle ground and offers an approach that can combine
the advantages of both the above mentioned ones in order to ensure benefits both for
individuals and organizations. The suggested approach is the so-called coaching and
modelling approach. The international survey findings in four European countries
back up the decision (see p.14).

5. The Coaching and Modelling approach

The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as an interactive process

that helps individuals and organizations develop more rapidly and produce more
satisfying results. Since one of the main messages of the CP50 + Toolkit is that the
process of knowledge and talent retention is a two-way process, which includes both
an individual and an organizational level (elaborated elsewhere in the article),
coaching seems to be a suitable approach.

A simplified description of the coaching process could be that on the basis of listening
and observation a coach elicits resources, potentials, competences and solutions from
the client by asking questions and providing support. Through the process the client
enhances awareness of own excellence, i.e. awareness of own potentials, resources,
knowledge, competences and much more. The client also gets full awareness of
interferences that could hold him/her back from achieving full potential. While the
coach provides feedback, questions and an objective perspective, the client
him/herself is producing the results s/he desires.

The implication of the use of a coaching approach in the knowledge transfer process
is that employees (in our case both 50+ experts and younger employees and/or
novices) get empowered by raising their awareness of own potentials and at the same

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time gain awareness of interferences that, with the help of a coach, can be minimized.
On the organizational level, a connection to human capital development is easily
drawn since the higher awareness of individual potentials might lead to further career,
professional and personal development.

From the above description it is clear that coaching differs from more regulated
approaches to knowledge transfer where more directions and instructions are used,
since in coaching listening, observation and questions dominate. However it also
differs from more relaxed approaches based on random transfer of knowledge where
things are left to chance and to voluntary involvement of employees, because
coaching has a ‘prescribed’ structure and as a process is well documented. Thus,
coaching as an overarching approach to knowledge transfer provides a framework
which allows, on one hand, individuals/employees to develop their potentials fully
and, on the other hand, it allows organizations to retain talent and knowledge in an
unobtrusive and inspiring way.

In the context of knowledge transfer, a coaching approach could be used on many

different levels. The CP50+ project suggests that organizations could introduce the
coaching approach (and a modelling approach, elaborated further below) for
knowledge transfer, firstly by having a designated in-house coach (if possible) or
educating managers in coaching skills so that they can ‘step-into’ the role of an in-
house coach. They could coach 50+ experts in getting full awareness of own
competences and in acquiring the necessary skills for sharing and transferring their
managerial, technical and applied competences (elaborated later in the chapter).
Secondly, in this way the coaching approach will be introduced to 50+ experts who
could in turn use the same approach while sharing and transferring their knowledge to
younger employees/novices. Consequently, the 50+ experts could acquire and develop
new competences and thus develop a new career path for the last decade of their
working period and hopefully extend it even further beyond retirement age by
becoming an external coach on a part-time contract basis.

The simple format of the coaching process is focused on defining present and desired
state of affairs (in the context of knowledge transfer that would be present status of
existing competences and desired status of acquired/transferred competences) and
developing a plan for bridging the gap between the two.

PRESENT STATE ⇒ DESIRED STATE

Figure 2 The coaching model

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An example of the process of coaching first between the in-house coach and the 50+
expert and then between the 50+ expert and the younger employee/novice may
include the following stages:

Client: 50+ Expert Client: Younger employee/Novice

Coach: In-house Coach or (HR) Manager Coach: 50+ Expert
with acquired coaching skills
1. Identifying the managerial, technical or applied 1. Identifying the managerial, technical or applied
competence the 50+ expert possesses competence the younger employee/novice desires
to acquire

2. Creating a concrete definition of the goal. 2. Creating a concrete definition of the younger
Which competence would you like to share with employee/novice’s goal. What exactly would you
colleagues? like to learn?

3. Creating a vision of how it would be possible 3. Creating a vision of how it would be possible
for them to share that competence with other for them to acquire that goal.
colleagues.

4. Evaluating how big is the gap between what 4. Evaluating how big is the gap between what the
the 50+ expert would like to share with/transfer to younger employee/novice would like to achieve
colleagues and what the 50+ expert is capable of and what the novice/learner is achieving at this
sharing at this moment. Are the communication moment.
skills in place? Motivation skills? Presentation
skills?

5. Making a step-by-step plan how to bridge the 5. Making a step-by-step plan how to bridge the
gap. bridge.

6. Carrying out the plan. 6. Carrying out the plan.

7. Building in the necessary support structure. 7. Building in the necessary support structure.

8. Celebrating the success and moving forward. 8. Celebrating the success and moving forward.

Table 2 An example of steps involved in the coaching process

For the coaching process to be successful, a toolbox of essential skills should be in

place. Some of the skills include:
- specific communication skills (e.g. pacing, rapport, calibrating, etc)
- linguistic awareness (of language patterns in particular) and
- meta knowledge on asking questions.

6. The development of the CP50+ Toolkit: structure and content

In the initial phase of the development of the CP50+ Toolkit, the framework of
‘multi-layerness’ was firstly constructed. As mentioned both in the very introduction
to the article and in the section on age and knowledge management, it is crucial to
gain awareness of different levels that are affected by loss of knowledge or career
planning in general.
One of the main messages of the CP50+ toolkit is that the process of knowledge and
talent retention is a two-way process, which includes both the individual level, in this
case, a 50+ expert and the organizational level. The process should be mutually

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beneficial for the 50+ employees’ career and personal development and the
organization’s human capital development. The catalyst between these two levels is the
in-house coach.

By ‘zooming in and out’ (to use a cinematographic metaphor) on and around the two
mentioned levels (individual and organizational) several important layers came into
focus. The process of ‘zooming out’ from the 50+ employees brought in an overarching
benefit of career development that would inevitably lead to the 50+ employee’s
personal development, as well. ‘Zooming in’ on the 50+ employee, on the other hand,
narrowed the focus to the motivation and skills for knowledge transfer. ‘Zooming out’
from the 50+ expertise and competencies brought in the overarching benefit of
knowledge and talent retention as well as human capital development in organizations.
‘Zooming in’ on the 50+ expertise and competencies revealed the value of developing a
systematic approach towards transfer of the existing knowledge and competencies
through coaching and modelling.

Individual level In-house coach Organizational level

Figure 3: The individual and organizational levels of the process of knowledge transfer

Thus the CP50+ Toolkit followed these two levels of the process of knowledge transfer
throughout all the chapters whose content is summarized here:

The Introduction (chapter 1) covers purpose and scope of the Toolkit as well as basic
information about how to use it.

The current context (chapter 2) shifts the focus to recent age management and
knowledge management contexts within the organizations in the European Union.

The Success Strategy (chapter 3) builds on the knowledge transfer model and offers
both concrete tools and examples of how to use them for each of the phase i.e.
knowledge elicitation, knowledge formalization and knowledge utilization.

Finally, an Organizational Knowledge Basket (chapter 4) filled with tips, hints and

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ideas to make the knowledge transfer process in organizations effective and smooth.

Chapter 3 is the core of the Toolkit since it contains all the knowledge elicitation,
formalization and utilization tools on both levels (organizational and individual, see
Figure 3). Some of the basic coaching skills are integrated in the structure of chapter
3, e.g. questions as a coaching tool appear in each section as “Questions for your
organization” in order to help readers reflect, gain awareness, learn and develop new
ideas about the knowledge transfer process in their organization.

Questions for your organization

- Which competences are crucial in your organization?

- What are the risks (if any) involved in early retirement of your employees?
- What kind of system do you use to formalize the existing knowledge in your organization?
- What have you done so far to ensure knowledge transfer from more to less experienced employees?

Table 3 An example of opening questions in Chapter 3

Once the structure of the CP50+ Toolkit was designed, the development of the concrete
coaching tools for all three phases of knowledge transfer process (elicitation,
formalization and utilization) started. The tools were developed based on the authors’
experience of carrying out coaching processes (individual and team-based) in different
corporations around Europe. The developed tools are listed below according to the
level they address (organizational or individual):

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESS – KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESS -

3 PHASES ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL (concrete tools)
Knowledge elicitation 1. Knowledge Loss Risk Assessment
2. Competence needs Analysis
3. Action plan
Knowledge formalization 4. Learning Management System
Knowledge utilization 5. Evaluation
6. Feedback ⇒ Feed forward
Table 4 The tools of the knowledge transfer process on organizational level
Example of a tool for knowledge elicitation on organizational level is presented
below:
 

Questionnaire for Competencies needs analysis

1. Which competencies would you consider crucial in each of your organizational units? Without
which competencies the organizational units could not function? Make a list.
2. If you could choose only three crucial competencies in each organizational unit, what would they
be?
3. If you could choose only three crucial competencies in your whole organization what would they
be?
4. If you were to start a new business from scratch (in the same field) which competencies would you
‘build into’ the foundation of your new organization? Choose the most crucial ones.

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5. Identify the key staff/employees who possess those competencies (listed in 1, 2, 3 and 4)
6. How many of those key employees fall into the ‘Immediate risk’ and ‘At risk’ category?
7. What would have happened if they were to leave within the next two months? What would be the
consequences? Where in the organization (e.g. in which organizational unit or in which phase of
your business/production process) would the greatest impact occur?
8. What kind of succession plan have you already developed?
9. What could be improved? Make a list.
10. What will be the next step?
 
Below are listed the tools for the knowledge transfer process on individual level:

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESS – KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESS -

3 PHASES INDIVIDUAL LEVEL (concrete tools)
Knowledge elicitation 1. Description of competences
2. Competence inventory
3. Competence development wheel
4. Competence development
questionnaire
5. Action plan for competence development
6. Career development interview
Knowledge formalization 7. Modelling interview
8. Chunking/SSS
9. Mind Mapping
Knowledge utilization 10. Evaluation
11. Feedback ⇒Feed forward

Table 5 The tools of knowledge transfer process on individual level

 
Example of a tool for knowledge elicitation on individual level is presented below:
 

 Action plan for competencies development

DESIRED HOW TO ACQUIRE TIME FRAME: OUTCOME

COMPETENCIES IT? (How long will it CHECK:
(concrete steps) take? When do I (How will I know I
start? When do I have acquired the
finish?) desired
competencies?)
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Table 6 Action plan for competencies development

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2nd  Career  Coaching  Conference                                                                                                                                      September  27th  2011,  Drzavni  svet,  Ljubljana,  Slovenia  
 

The development of the CP50+ Toolkit proved to be rewarding both for the authors
and for the partners in the CP50+ Project. Once the Toolkit was completed, the
development of the Career Coach Masters Training and accompanying manual
started.

Since the Toolkit works not only as a guideline for knowledge transfer but also as a
prompt for the CCM (Career Coach Masters) Training it is part of a bigger package
including:

a) The CCM Training (Module 1: face-to-face + Module 2: on line) and

b) The CP50+ Training Manual.
 

7. The development of the CCM Manual and the CP50+ Training: structure and
content

The main outcome of the CCM Training was to equip Career Coach Masters with
knowledge, competencies and skills for using the CP50+ Toolkit in order to coach and
train Career Coach Practitioners (CCPs). Since the CCMs were supposed to both coach
and train the structure of the Manual and the CCM Training was the following:

There are two main parts of the Manual and the Training: first dealing with the
coaching tools and their application, whereas the second part focuses on effective
training delivery skills.

The Manual is divided into eight chapters, whose content is summarized below

The Introduction (chapter 1) covers purpose and scope of the Manual as well as basic
information about how to use it.

The Coaching and Modelling Framework (chapter 2) shifts the focus to the overarching
(coaching and modelling) principles that are the foundations for the knowledge
retention process presented in both the CP50+ Toolkit and the CP50+ Manual.

Chapter 3 builds on the knowledge transfer model (presented in details in the CP50+
Toolkit) by adding to each of its three phases (elicitation, formalization and utilization)
four sets of skills for a Career Coach.

Thus, chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 elaborate each of the three phases of the knowledge
transfer process and the accompanying set of skills i.e. chapter 4 deals with the
importance of communication and motivation skills for Knowledge elicitation; chapter
5 explores the connection between strategic thinking skills and Knowledge
formalization; chapter 6 is dedicated to the influence of systemic thinking skills on
effective Knowledge utilization; chapter 7 briefly addresses self skills.

The dynamics of the training process is the topic of chapter 8, which takes readers
through the ‘nuggets’ of effective training delivery and providing conditions for
effective learning thus equipping Career Coaches with an extra set of skills.

Just like in the Toolkit, Chapter 3 is also a core of the CCM Training and the CP50+

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2nd  Career  Coaching  Conference                                                                                                                                      September  27th  2011,  Drzavni  svet,  Ljubljana,  Slovenia  
 

Manual. It encompasses the coaching matrix which provides the content for the CCM
Training and the CP50+ Manual.

The following coaching matrix has been adapted from the matrix Dilts (1996) has
explored in connection to leadership. Since in the context of the current Career Plan
50+ project, (career) coaching is carried out within and among companies, it seems
appropriate to make connections to leadership, which represents the driving force of
introducing and implementing changes in any company. Introducing a systematic
(career) coaching of the 50+ experts in order to ensure their professional and personal
development as well as knowledge retention is certainly going to be a change from
the usual practice of rather abrupt loss of expertise after the retirement of the 50+
experts.

The coaching matrix introduces four elements that make up a typical coaching
situation:

a) Oneself as a coach.
b) The desired goal or outcome of the coachee.
c) The coachee i.e. other(s).
d) The system in which the coaching interaction is happening.

Figure 4 The coaching matrix (adapted from Dilts, 1996)

 
The four elements make it clear that (career) coaching is a multi-layered process that
needs to take into account more than just the ‘main actors’ i.e. the coach and the
coachee. In order to ensure a successful coaching process, adequate skills are required
for each and every element included in the matrix.

Starting from the coachee or ‘other(s)’ as indicated in the matrix, it is obvious that a
(career) coach would need to possess effective communication and motivation skills
in order to encourage, support and motivate the coachee on his/her journey towards
the desired goal or outcome. It would be hard to imagine a coach without such skills.
Communication and motivation skills encompass more specific skills, such as
understanding of communication models as well as establishing and maintaining
rapport. If we go back to the knowledge transfer model and focus on all three phases
i.e. knowledge elicitation, knowledge formalization and knowledge utilization, the
first set of skills for (career) coaches can best be applied in phase 1, i.e. the
knowledge elicitation.

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2nd  Career  Coaching  Conference                                                                                                                                      September  27th  2011,  Drzavni  svet,  Ljubljana,  Slovenia  
 

Next element in the coaching matrix focuses on the desired goal(s) or outcomes of the
coachee. The (career) coach’s role is to help the coachee verbalize and define
precisely his/her goal as well as encourage the coachee to discover the best strategy
for achieving the defined goal. Thus, the coach needs skills for strategic thinking.
These skills, for example, include know-how of setting goals successfully and
defining small significant steps (SSS) that lead to the goal. In the CP50+ Toolkit, the
small significant steps (SSS) tool was presented as part of the tools for knowledge
formalization. Hence, the connection between strategic thinking skills and phase 2 of
the knowledge transfer process (knowledge formalization) is easily made.

The system as an element in the coaching matrix could very easily be overlooked.
Frequently (career) coaching is seen as an ‘individual issue’, something that is carried
out one-to-one and in isolation from the system surrounding it. This is far from being
the case. Not only in the context of the CP50+ project (where we indeed deal with
career plans on both individual and organizational level) but also in the everyday
contexts of companies, it is clear that a company’s system, as well as the bigger
system(s) companies belong to, are important for the overall growth and development
(both of organizations and of individuals). Since growth and development are usually
associated with the coaching process it is no surprise that (career) coaches need to
possess systemic thinking skills in order to help their coachees achieve their goals in
the existing systems (i.e. company’s system, professional branch’s system etc.).
Phase 3 of the Knowledge transfer process, knowledge utilization, is associated with
learning (sometimes even from mistakes) and eventually with growth and
development. Thus yet another connection between the knowledge transfer model
and the coaching matrix has been established.

The ‘self’ as a coach is perhaps a self-explanatory element of the coaching matrix and
yet more complex than it seems at first sight. Even though it is logical to say that a
coach is supposed to possess several sets of skills (as described above), none of them
would be useful for the coaching process unless the coach him/herself possesses ‘self-
skills’. Self-skills are concerned with so-called ‘state management’, ability to change
roles from individual ones to the organizational ones, as well as with the overall skill
to recognize one’s mission, learning and potential for growth and development. The
mentioned skills clearly do not address directly any of the three phases of the
knowledge transfer process, rather they address the whole concept of knowledge
transfer.

Having explored the knowledge transfer model and the coaching matrix, the overall
connection between the two has been established.

                                               
Figure 5 The connections between the knowledge transfer process and the coaching
process

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2nd  Career  Coaching  Conference                                                                                                                                      September  27th  2011,  Drzavni  svet,  Ljubljana,  Slovenia  
 

The coaching matrix with its accompanying skills (as presented below) was the basis
for the structure of the CCM Training and the CP50+ Manual. Each training session
or chapter explored further connections between certain sets of skills and the CP50+
tools associated with each of the three phases of the knowledge transfer process
(elicitation, formalization and utilization).

Figure 6 The coaching matrix with accompanying skills

The CCM Training was delivered in two Modules, one face-to-face (2 days) and one
on-line. The face-to-face Module focused on presenting and practicing all four sets of
coaching skills as well as training delivery skills whereas Module 2 focused on
applications of the (career) coaching tools and forum discussions of the application
experiences. Module 2 was delivered in a Moodle environment and lasted for a month
(4 hours per week on average). The richness of discussions and sharing experiences
and opinions proved to be an additional value for the participants of the CCM
Training.

The CCM Training used an experiential approach to teaching and learning in order to
address all four sets of coaching skills and achieve the defined outcomes (listed below):

1. Behavioral demonstration and understanding of effective career coaching

concepts, models and strategies.
2. Understanding and designing taxonomy for the Career Coach Practitioners
(CCP) training.
3. Professional development of in-house coaches/trainers and HR managers
through sharing of good practice.

The outcomes were achieved through the workshop format applying experiential
learning through live demonstrations of coaching sessions, pair work, peer and trainers’
feedback that was part of feedback-feedforward loop (including video recordings) and
through (self) reflective learning.

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2nd  Career  Coaching  Conference                                                                                                                                      September  27th  2011,  Drzavni  svet,  Ljubljana,  Slovenia  
 

The two-day face-to-face Module 1 followed a ‘first content then its application’ model
which means that both days’ morning sessions focused on content and the afternoon
sessions on application. The morning session on the first day covered coaching tools
from the CP50+ Toolkit and the second morning covered training design and
taxonomy. The afternoon sessions focused on application of the acquired content with
the first afternoon being dedicated to transfer of the presented coaching tools to real
contexts and testing them among peers followed by both peer- and trainer - feedback.
Thus the second afternoon was dedicated to a practical demonstration of training skills,
taxonomy and live (video recorded) presentations also followed by detailed peer- and
trainers- feedback.

The CCM Training Knowledge standards were also developed and involved the
following elements:

• I. Core Topics that each Career Coach Master needs to be competent in and able
to deliver as part of the CP50+ training for Career Coach Practitioner (see the
CP50+ Toolkit),
• II. Eleven Core Competencies that each Career Coach Master needs to have and
be able to demonstrate (see the CP50+ Manual)
• III. Knowledge Standard Assessment

The knowledge standard assessment consisted of three assignments as listed below:

• Assignment 1: presentation of core coaching concepts and processes in front of

a group of fellow Career Coach Masters (during Module 1)
• Assignment 2: preparation of taxonomy, training design and curriculum for
Module 1 and Module 1 of the Career Coach Practitioners (during Module 2)
• Assignment 3: a report on the application of one of the Knowledge elicitation
tools in real context (during Module 2)

The development process of the CP50+ manual, the CCM training and the knowledge
standard procedure proved to be rewarding both for the authors/trainers and
participants which was evidenced in the evaluation questionnaires at the end of the
training.

8. Conclusion

The background of the CP50+ Project and the processes of the development of the
CP50+ Toolkit, the CCM Training and the Manual described above are the attempts
of mapping out the ‘journey’ that the partnership of seven partners from five
European countries went through in the last two years.

With the prospect of the next 20 years, when the average age of the working
population will increase and the number of men and women of working age will
decline, the challenge remains how to develop the skills and employability of older
workers, while maintaining the health, motivation and capacities of workers as they
age.

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 2nd  Career  Coaching  Conference                                                                                                                                      September  27th  2011,  Drzavni  svet,  Ljubljana,  Slovenia  
 

Actions need to be taken to promote the expertise of older workers as well as effective
knowledge transfer. Career coaching with the focus on 50+ employees and knowledge
transfer might be the first step towards bringing benefits to both individuals (50+
employees’ career and personal development) and organizations (human capital
development). Hopefully, the Career Plan 50+ Project has planted a seed and the 50+
employees in societies of (at least) four European countries might be a ‘living
example’ that, as Vladimír Spidla said, ‘by remaining in the workforce, older workers
can continue to contribute to the economy, to society at large, but also to their own
personal dignity and well-being.’

The project was co-financed by the EU programme Leonardo da Vinci and the authors and all the
partners would like to express their gratitude to the EU Commission for their support without which
this project would not have been possible.

References

Age management in companies in Europe, European Foundation for the Improvement of

Living and Working Conditions.
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2006/08/en/1/ef0608en.pdf (accessed Sept. 2011)

Alavi, Maryam; Leidner, Dorothy E. (2001). "Review: Knowledge Management and

Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues". MIS
Quarterly 25 (1): 107–136. doi:10.2307/3250961.

Andersen, K., Dragovic, A. and Ghosh, S. (2011) CP50+ Toolkit, Glotta Nova, Ljubljana

De Long, D. W. (2002) Confronting the Chemical Industry Brain Drain: A Strategic

Framework for Organizational Knowledge Retention, Accenture.

Dilts, R. (1996) Visionary Leadership Skills, Meta Publications

KnowMove project (http://www.crfproject-

eu.org/ProgettiCRF/Sito/sites/KnowMove/top.htm) [accessed 12/10/2010]

Walker, J. W. (1973). 'Individual career planning: Managerial help for subordinates', Business
Horizons, February, 65-72.

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