Understanding Purpose, Agenda Setting, and Evidence Gathering

Preparing for coaching, appraisal and feedback discussions is the central focus of this video, which addresses AC 2.1 from the FREE07 unit on Coaching, Appraisals and Giving Feedback. The video draws a clear distinction between the three types of conversation — coaching, appraisal and feedback — and examines how their differing purposes shape the preparation required before a discussion takes place. It considers what happens when the purpose of a conversation is unclear and how misaligned expectations between a manager and an employee can undermine an otherwise well-intentioned meeting.

Agenda setting receives dedicated attention, with the video covering the components of an effective agenda, the logic of sequencing topics, and the importance of sharing the agenda with the employee ahead of time to support their own self-reflection and preparation. The discussion then turns to evidence gathering, where the video identifies several distinct categories of evidence relevant to these conversations: performance data such as sales figures, quality metrics and customer satisfaction scores; observational evidence drawn from meetings and day-to-day interactions; colleague and customer feedback; and documentary sources including emails, reports and project records. Criteria for selecting appropriate examples — including recency, specificity and representativeness across both achievements and development areas — are also addressed.

The Situation-Behaviour-Impact framework, commonly referred to as SBI, is introduced as a method for structuring the concrete examples a manager brings into a discussion, and the video explains how it applies to each of the evidence types covered. Throughout, the video situates these preparation steps within the broader indicative content for AC 2.1, touching on role requirements, objectives and the practical considerations that determine how formal or informal the overall approach needs to be.