If your teams have screwdrivers, they’ll be busy. If they have power tools, they’ll be effective. As a leader, one of your main jobs is to build a strong team. Upskilling your teams is like swapping out screwdrivers for power tools, dramatically enhancing productivity and innovation in every project they touch. There are many ways leaders can go about managing the upskilling process. We’d like to explore the pros and cons of a few:
Conventional Training
Think of this as your standard classroom setting or online courses. It’s a broad brush approach – great for elevating basic skills but less effective for project-specific scenarios. It’s often too general and lacks long-term engagement.
Pros and Cons:
(+) Extremely scalable
(+) Great to raise the baseline of skills
(-) Limited in impact by lack of project-specific context
(-) Expert-led training is limited in impact by its short duration
(-) Content-led training is limited in impact by its low engagement
This is an effective practice when your team is encouraged to start working with a new technology or practice. It can really help to get teams started down a path. But, you might need something more to keep the team moving forward on that path.
Community of Practice
Imagine a group where professionals gather to share knowledge – that’s a community of practice. It’s like a think tank for pushing skill boundaries. The challenge here lies in maintaining consistent involvement and managing the group. We’ve seen many of these types of meetings degrade in effectiveness over time.
Pros and Cons:
(+) Extremely scalable
(+) Great to push the ceiling of skills up
(+) Builds cross-team relationships
(-) High administrative burden on the community
(-) Difficult to sustain high engagement
This can be a really great way to keep your most engaged learners connected. If done well, the ideas covered in these meetings can trickle into the norms of your teams. Just understand these communities need a lot of support to sustain themselves.
Apprenticeship
This is hands-on training, where new talent learns directly from experienced mentors. It’s highly effective for transferring in-depth, practical knowledge. However, its impact is limited by the number of available mentors and their expertise level. Given apprenticeship programs are primarily geared towards new entrants to the industry (apprentices), these sorts of programs don’t tend to serve more experienced team members well.
Pros and Cons:
(+) Tacit knowledge transfer
(+) Hyper-contextualized learning
(+) Great to raise the baseline of skills
(-) Limited in scale by the number of mentors
(-) Limited in quality by skill of mentors
(-) Limited in scale as the focus of investment is on the individual
(-) Large upfront time investment
Apprenticeship programs make phenomenal onboarding experiences. They can drive a lot of adoption around core practices. They’re also really great if you’re trying to grow talent instead of simply “buying” it. Make sure to have growth opportunities for senior developers as well. If people churn shortly after graduating from an apprenticeship program, that can stunt the ROI of a program like this.
Co-Dev Coaching
Our unique approach combines the best of all worlds. We pair experienced coaches with development teams, guiding them through real projects. It’s about learning by doing and elevating the entire team’s skills together. The limitation? The number and skill level of available coaches.
Pros and Cons:
(+) Focus of investment is on teams, not just individuals
(+) Tacit knowledge transfer
(+) Hyper-contextualized learning
(+) Great to raise the baseline of skills
(+) Delivers software while coaching
(-) Limited in scale by the number of coaches
(-) Limited in quality by skill of coaches
Co-Dev Coaching programs are designed with team dynamics in mind, suitable for groups with diverse experience levels. They are particularly effective for teams requiring a surge in motivation and performance. Co-Dev Coaching programs normalize experimentation and continuous improvement. To get the best ROI, be sure to mix in some conventional training where appropriate to ensure coaches are focused on adoption and not on teaching the basics.
Our Approach
At Pragmint, we developed the Co-Dev Coaching approach after feeling limited by the previously established choices. We also created the STEP program to focus our coaching efforts on incremental improvements (read more here). This ensures we’re creating lasting change in an area before moving on to the next area of improvement.
Tightening the Last Screw
In the end, upskilling is about helping teams get better at what they do, day by day. It’s like moving from a trusty screwdriver to a power drill – capable of achieving more in less time. Each team will have a unique situation, and certain upskilling models will work better or worse for each one. The important thing is knowing what models are out there and understanding when each is the appropriate tool for the job. That way, your software teams can flourish and help their respective organizations reach their goals.