The Challenge: To enhance and develop key talent.

The Solution: To create top-notch coaches who have a consistent philosophy, standards and approach to developing people.

The Results: At the completion of the pilot, a survey showed that 100 percent of the respondents felt their coaches met their expectations and 93 percent would continue with coaching if given the opportunity. An organizational decision to integrate coaching with other learning and development program offerings means that coaching will be another reason why the recruitment section of the company’s Web site promises to help people “Build a cool career at Adobe”!

In the businesses and households that have computers, Adobe Systems Incorporated is synonymous with some of communication’s most magic wands. This billion-dollar software company has helped people and businesses communicate images, information, and ideas better and more cost effectively for more than 20 years.

With approximately 3,500 employees located across the world, Adobe established that one of its major goals is to enhance and develop key talent by coaching its people and teams and by improving organizational effectiveness through learning and development. This commitment helped it to be named the best high-tech company to work for in America (FORTUNE magazine, 2004). And, this same commitment led it to The Ken Blanchard Companies to help in creating top-notch coaches who have a consistent philosophy, standards, and approach to developing people. “We selected Blanchard’s Coaching.com because they have a pool of coaches who were willing to learn the Adobe culture and work within our models. We also liked the scalability—their phone-based model allowed implementation on a worldwide basis,” says Melissa Daimler, a Senior HR and Organizational Development Manager with Adobe.

In order to evaluate whether consistently applied coaching could help meet its objectives, Adobe launched a coaching pilot program to enhance and complement the skills and tools of high performers. Desired outcomes were that there be a positive impact on the participants being coached, the team with which they work and/or manage, and the effectiveness of the organization.

Results

One hundred percent of the participants feel the coaching program should be continued at Adobe. They reported the following results: increased awareness of themselves (53%); enhanced ability to identify leadership skills and style (48%); increased communications (40%).