Where did it come from?
The G.R.O.W. model was created in the mid 1980s by business coaches Alan Fine, Sir John Whitmore, and Graham Alexander (not to be confused with the inventor of the telephone -Alexander Graham Bell). It was first published by Sir John Whitmore in his book “Coaching for Performance" in 1992. This model helps learners to achieve their goals by generating the will to grow and try out new things.
Using the G.R.O.W model for learning design
Let’s say an organisation has asked Elewa to design an e-learning course on Time Management for their employees. To create impactful content, we apply the G.R.O.W model in our design.
Goal: What do you want?
We define clear and specific learning goals that inspire, challenge, and motivate the learners to engage in the content. The goals should be relevant to the learners’ needs and overall learning outcomes.
An example goal would be: By the end of the course the learners will be able to apply simple time-management techniques to be more productive at work and have more work-life balance.
Some questions whose answers guide us at this stage include:
What would you like to work on?
When are you going to achieve it?
What are the benefits in achieving this goal?
Reality: Where are you now?
Next, we need to understand the learners’ challenges, current practices, and knowledge about Time Management. When we understand this, we can create content that closes any knowledge gaps they may have.
But how can we get this information from learners? By talking to them! We conduct learner interviews and focus groups to get first hand information.
From this research we might learn that activities like social media take up their time get some insight into why they engage in these activities.
Some questions whose answers guide us at this stage include:
What is the real issue?
Who else will benefit from its resolution, and in what way?
What is getting in the way of them managing their time?
What actions have they taken to overcome these obstacles?
Options: What could you do?
Having set our goal and understood our learners’ current situation, we think about all the different ways to deliver this course. We could offer the course as videos, case studies, or even in-person training sessions.
Within the training itself, we present the learners with various time management skills they can use to be more productive at work. These options could include, setting clear priorities and time-blocking.
Some questions whose answers guide us at this stage include:
What would you say to someone else with the same goal?
What different options do you have to achieve your goal?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
Will: What will you do?
Last, but not in any way the least, we then create a personalised course for the learners. We do this using one or more of the options we explored in the previous stage.
But in this example, the organisation requested we use an e-learning mode of delivery. Let’s decide to create a course that can be consumed on Messenger, Whatsapp, and Telegram. Our course will include videos, images, voice notes, and text.
Within the training itself, we give the learners a call to action. This is simply actionable steps they can do to achieve their goal – become more productive by managing their time better. This allows the course to have impact even after completion because they are skills they will continue to practice.
Some questions whose answers guide us at this stage include:
When are you going to start each action?
On a scale of 1-10, how committed are you to taking these actions?
What could someone else do to give you support, and when?
GROWING the learner
The G.R.O.W model really comes to life when it’s also applied in learning delivery. Watch this space, as a blog on that will come out soon!
