Organizational Development Consultant and Executive Coach Gatts Consulting
Session Description: Most organizations that launch internal coaching programs focus on the hardest part first: getting leadership to say yes. But what happens when leadership is already on board — and the real challenge is getting employees to walk through the door?
This learning lab tells the story of building an internal coaching program at a mission-driven state organization dedicated to expanding affordable housing access. Leadership recognized the need early. Resources were allocated. Coaches were trained. Yet the most critical hurdle wasn't executive buy-in — it was awareness, adoption, and creating a culture where employees saw coaching not as remedial intervention but as a development opportunity worth pursuing.
Drawing on first-cohort feedback and real implementation data, this session moves beyond theory to examine what actually happened when an internal coaching program went live inside a public-sector organization.
Participants will explore the decisions that shaped the program's design, the communication strategies that drove — and sometimes failed to drive — engagement, and the early indicators that signaled what was working. Through small-group exercises, participants will apply lessons from the organization's experience to their own organizational contexts. You will draft awareness and adoption strategies tailored to your workplace, identify common barriers to internal coaching engagement, and pressure-test your approaches with peers facing similar challenges.
Whether you are launching a new internal coaching program or trying to reinvigorate an existing one, this session offers a practitioner's roadmap grounded in real results, honest reflection, and the practical tools you need to move from program launch to organizational liftoff. You will leave with a working draft of an engagement strategy you can implement immediately.
Learning Objectives::
1. Identify common barriers to employee awareness and adoption of internal coaching programs and analyze how organizational culture, messaging, and program positioning influence engagement rates.
2. Evaluate feedback data from an internal coaching program at a mission-driven organization to distinguish which launch strategies drove meaningful participation and which required iteration.
Develop a draft awareness and adoption strategy, incorporating peer feedback and evidence-based engagement practices they can implement within 90 days of the conference.
