Better than GROW: the ACDC model drives real behavioural change
Effective coaching is an essential skill in a leader’s toolkit. Great coaching enables individuals and organisations to achieve their goals, drive performance, and foster continuous growth.
What is the GROW coaching model?
The GROW coaching model has been around for a long time – it was developed in the 1980s by Sir John Whitmore and Performance Consultants International – and it does provide a good framework that structures coaching conversations into four steps: Goal - what the coachee is aiming for, Reality - what their current reality looks like, Options - what possible solutions could be to achieve their goal, and Will - what. Like planning a journey, the GROW model helps coaches and their clients navigate the path to success by setting clear objectives, assessing the current situation, exploring possibilities, and committing to action.
GROW vs ACDC
The GROW model can be effective in a corporate setting for personal development. It can help employees set long-term goals, identify the challenges and opportunities that they face, and develop strategies for achieving their long-term aims. But when it comes to the tactical, everyday coaching and feedback conversations that drive short-term wins that become long-term drivers of performance, the GROW model lacks the specificity and direction that a tactical behavioural coaching can bring to a leadership conversation.
The ACDC coaching model is precisely geared towards achieving specific, short-term objectives in a business or organisational context. In its essence, it can be applied to any leadership conversation that is aimed at communicating and getting buy-in for change. It can be used to address behavioural issues or problems that the organisation is facing; like improving performance, increasing efficiency, or solving specific problems.
Diagram showing The GROW model image versus ACDC and where they fit - the GROW model works best for yearly/quarterly performance review conversations whereas ACDC is your daily, weekly, monthly behavioural coaching tool
In our experience, this difference in focus is responsible for many GROW coaching model learning programs failing to deliver a measurable business return on the organisation’s investment. When the goal remains too big or too long term, inaction is the most likely outcome. While the GROW model can help your employees with their career path, ACDC coaching model is more immediate and focused on improving the overall effectiveness and competitiveness of the organisation, while building employees' skills and motivation day-to-day. It's also incredibly easy to learn and use, enabling leadership development and building coaching skills quickly.
The GROW model can help individuals set long-term aspirations and identify challenges, but its effectiveness in delivering measurable business returns is often limited. ACDC, with its emphasis on immediate impact and performance improvement, aligns coaching efforts directly with the organisation’s goals and competitiveness.
What is ACDC tactical behavioural coaching?
The ACDC coaching model provides coaches with a step-by-step guide, ensuring a consistent and structured approach throughout the coaching conversation. It equips leaders with the necessary coaching skills to facilitate powerful coaching conversations that yield real results. From active listening and effective questioning to goal setting and action planning, ACDC empowers leaders to navigate each phase of the coaching session with confidence.
ACDC focuses on adjusting micro-behaviours to equip leaders with the ability to conduct a tactical coaching conversation that leave an immediate mark on business performance. The model is segmented into four purposeful phases, with each phase embracing five critical micro-behaviours. These micro-behaviours help team members gain insight into their performance, their behaviour's impact on current results, and the adjustments necessary for improvement.
The ACDC coaching model with four phases (Agenda, Current State, Desired State and Commitment) plus delivery skills underpinning it.
What sets the ACDC coaching model apart is the encouragement it places on team members to immediately commit to the deliberate practice of a new micro-behaviour. This sense of urgency fuels real behavioural change, eventually culminating in these micro-behaviours becoming minute adjustments that trigger major impacts and sustainable behavioural evolution.
Compared to the traditional GROW model, the ACDC model represents a more adaptive, timely approach. Instead of focusing on distant, higher-level goals, it homes in on the practical, day-to-day behaviours that form the backbone of organisational change. It's not just about reaching a predetermined target; it's about nurturing ongoing development and refinement. The ACDC model takes overarching strategy and dissects it into manageable, achievable tasks that your team can identify with and actively support.
Here's how the ACDC coaching model works:
ACDC is a simple behavioural framework that gives structure to your leadership conversations while still allowing you to coach in your own style. Similar to the way you use the GROW model, it has four phases (Agenda, Current State, Desired State and Commitment). What sets it apart from the GROW model is that under each phase, there are a set of 5 micro-behaviours. These micro-behaviours capture the key moments that will ensure your coaching conversations are effective in driving real behavioural change and tangible performance outcomes. These four phases are complemented by five delivery skills that enable clear communication and effective rapport building.
ACDC coaching is designed to address specific, short-term objectives in a business or organisational context. It is tailored to deliver immediate impact and drive performance results. By targeting critical micro-behaviours, ACDC helps individuals understand their current performance, identify the behaviours influencing their results, and determine necessary changes. This focused approach ensures that coaching sessions lead to tangible improvements and prompt real behavioural change.
AGENDA: setting the focus and purpose of coaching
This stage of the ACDC model sets your conversation up for success. You’re more likely to get a commitment at the end of a conversation if your team member has clarity at the very beginning. The Agenda phase is about setting the focus, purpose and steps of the coaching session ahead. Setting the agenda means your team member knows what to expect from the session and that it will be worthwhile.
A photo of a leader coaching their team member.
CURRENT STATE: creating self-awareness through observation and feedback
It’s pretty hard to work out how to get somewhere if you don't know your starting point. The first C in ACDC is about raising awareness of the current reality by helping your team member understand the link between what they are currently doing and the outcomes they are achieving. By establishing this link with your team member, you help create the motivation for change.
Similar to the GROW model's current reality exploration, Current State should always include a discussion of what the team member is currently doing and how it’s working. In ACDC, the discussion on this 'reality stage' is targeted towards observation and feedback, building towards a real case for change that's explored further in the next phase.
DESIRED STATE: creating the case for change and practising new skills
This component of ACDC is about helping team members find new and better ways of doing things to achieve an outcome they care about. It's our job as coaches to help them experience an 'ah-ha' moment as they discover something new that provides the impetus for change.
Desired State is also where you practise new skills. Role play is the most effective form of practice when looking to make a behavioural change, and ACDC makes full use of this technique. While the GROW model explores solutions in the 'Options' phase, ACDC gets really clear on the skill to build and how to do it.
COMMITMENT: goal deconstruction and incremental progress
The Commitment component (the final C) of ACDC locks things in. It creates a clear plan of attack for how the team member can proceed, including setting goals and how to measure and evidence their success. This is vital for ongoing improvement and for the morale of your team. Commitment is about setting a small, tactical goal – linked to an overarching, big-picture goal – that a team member can immediately focus on and take personal responsibility for.
ACDC coaching adopts the psychological principle of ‘marginal gains’, breaking down large goals into smaller, achievable steps. This approach recognises that sustained progress and achievement are best accomplished through incremental change. By focusing on micro-behaviours, ACDC facilitates goal deconstruction, enabling individuals to make steady and measurable progress towards desired outcomes. The emphasis on deliberate practice of new micro-behaviours encourages sustainable change and contributes to overall organisational success.
The benefits of ACDC coaching
Enhanced leadership effectiveness & improved business performance:
ACDC enables leaders to deliver tactical leadership conversations that drive behavioural change that directly impacts overall organisational performance. It is at its heart, a performance coaching tool, that can be easily adapted for group coaching, one-on-one coaching sessions or even team meetings and focus sessions. Compared to other coaching models, like the GROW model, ACDC gets more granular about business performance - helping team members to see how the small things they have control over impact larger organisational goals.
Increased employee engagement & enhanced motivation:
Coaching conversations using ACDC foster engagement by acknowledging and supporting individual contributions and development, and inspiring individuals to set and achieve goals, boosting their motivation and driving success. This is similar to the GROW model, which also uses SMART goal setting, but the GROW model won't often get down small enough for those goals to be implemented immediately.
A photo from above of four people in a group coaching session.
Behaviour change & skill development:
ACDC identifies and addresses behaviours hindering performance and develops specific skills required for individual and team success. This fosters competence and confidence, resulting in tangible and sustainable behavioural change. This differs to the GROW model; which doesn't get granular enough to target specific micro-behaviours that can be coached every day.
Accelerated learning & increased self-awareness:
ACDC simplifies change and inspires learning, facilitating faster acquisition of knowledge and skills. ACDC coaching conversations also deepen self-awareness, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and areas for development.
The ACDC coaching model is also incredibly easy to learn - while GROW coaching skills can take years to master, the ACDC model targets the key coaching moments that matter, or the 20 micro-behaviours that anyone can master in weeks that are proven to increase the likelihood of driving behavioural change.
Improved communication & better decision-making:
ACDC coaching encourages effective communication by providing individuals with the tools and techniques to have meaningful and impactful conversations, and through the ACDC coaching process, individuals develop critical thinking, problem solving skills and learn to make better-informed decisions in their day-to-day work. You may only use the GROW model once a quarter or once a year - ACDC is designed to have short, sharp coaching interactions daily or weekly, providing effective, in the moment feedback when it's most valuable.
Enhanced accountability & cultivation of a learning culture:
By committing to deliberate practice of new micro-behaviours, individuals take ownership of their development and become more accountable for their actions. The ACDC approach fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the organisation.
The GROW model has its place in opening longer-term career-based conversations. But for your everyday behavioural coaching that’s specifically targeted at immediate performance metrics you want to move, shift your thinking from the GROW model as your means for implementation, to the ACDC Tactical Leadership model. ACDC is the best coaching framework out there for driving behavioural change.
Want to know more? Get in touch with a consultant.