The term Agile Coach has been used to describe a myriad of roles within the Software Development space - anywhere from a Scrum Master, Project Manager, to an agile curious Technical Lead. Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition by Lyssa Adkins is the definitive book on what truly makes an Agile Coach.
Coaching a full-time job for agile coach, and part-time job for all leaders
Constantly need to reawaken and refocus
Take it to the team
Ch1 - Will I Be A Good Coach
Agile is sufficient, coaching deepens it
Agile exposes the dirt - sunlight is the best disinfectant
40% Doing, 60% Being - a agile coach models agile all the time!
Time and budget remain constant, only scope is flexible
Native Wiring:
- Read room
- Care for people over products
- Cultivate curiosity
- People basically good
- Act in the moment
- Thirst for learning
- Excellence worth pursuing
- Intolerance for "way we do it here"
- Messiness is expected
- Risk being wrong
Find your voice
Journey to Coach
Ch2 - Expect High Performance
Quest for high performance moves away from the hamster wheel - autonomy, mastery, purpose #drive
High performance is a journey towards something better - next right thing
Lead by believing
High Performance Tree, roots as values - team kick off technique
Ch3 - Master Yourself
Coaching starts with you, but it's not about you
When you coach, bring yourself
Start with self, identify growing edge
Identify Conflict Resolution Style
Use Nonviolent Communication - for leaders there is no such thing as a trivial comment
Practice your Servant Leadership
Grow your Emotional Intelligence
Master yourself in the moment
Master higher levels of listening
Ch4 - Let Your Style Change
Shu-Ha-Ri
The student is the teacher, the teacher is the student
Agile Coach Styles:
- Teaching
- Coaching
- Advising
Ch5 - Coach as Coach-Mentor
Achievements:
- Astonishing results
- Healthier growing teams
- Help individuals next step
Coach team at beginning and end, then individuals in the middle
Be present, coach out loud as
Tone: loving, compassionate, uncompromising
Meet them half step ahead of where they are - one on one agile coaching
Guarantee safety - Psychological Safety as a Prerequisite #modernagile
Open with observation or invitation
Ch6 - Coach as Facilitator
Coach creates container, team creates content
Their meeting, not mine - focus, wander, attention
Self-sufficiency is the goal
Help them see
Agile Ceremonies
Stand up - commitment and coordination
Sprint planning - know work, fresh start, shared goals, focus
Sprint review - true up, show and tell, feedback, ask for help
Retrospective - inspect and adapt, how, do better
Ch7 - Coach as Teacher
Learn about process, team, and work - GO
Understand teams current agile aptitude, then reinforced core competencies
Break ice for the team, but don't spend all day - more success task orienting team over relationships
Create a Shared Vision that engages on multiple levels - individual, team, company
Create team norms, aka Working Agreements - values, social, logistics, and conflict resolution
Work ahead - envision, backlog, get going
Constantly teach agile roles - PO, Manager, Coach
Ch8 - Coach as Problem Solver
Do not inflict help on team - let them learn to solve own problems - empower
Doing something for someone else, is doing something too someone else
It's the team's commitment - take the problem to the team
Don't go looking for problems, address them as they arise
Rubric:
- problem
- pause
- take to team
- allow team to act, or not
Problem Levels:
- process
- performance
- team dynamics
Run health checks - Agile Team Dynamics
When problems arise, get some space - sleep on it - reaffirm agile process that can solve
Agile Manifesto and Principles are the source
Reveal the system to itself #orsc
System is organic, not mechanistic
Ch9 - Coach as Conflict Navigator
Escalation Path Conflict Model
- hear complaints
- feel energy
- observe language
Teams often can self navigate up to level three - self organization
Response modes:
- analyze
- structures
- reveal
Don't carry complaints for team, have individuals address other party directly when possible
Intervention Steps:
- have you shared with party?
- dry run?
- would it help if I go with you?
- when/where
- dry run?
- may I tell party on your behalf?
No anonymous complaints
Boost positivity to negativity ratio - at least three good to bad
Ch10 - Coach as Collaboration Conductor
Cooperation or Collaboration
- Collaboration: greater sum parts
- emergence
- Cooperation: sum parts
- smooth transitions
Collaboration built upon cooperation
Collaboration Behaviors:
- speak unspeakable
- build up
- here all voices
- nurture collaboration intimacy
- faith in emergence
- get unstuck
- play seriously together
Human beings first, then work mates
Make sure all voices heard
When muscle is built, go conductorless
Ch11 - Agile Coach Failure, Recovery, and Success Modes
Failure Modes:
- spy
- seagull
- opinionator
- admin
- hub
- butterfly
- expert
- nag
Recover - replace fear with trust
Success Modes:
- magician
- child
- ear
- heckler
- wise fool
- creeping vine
- dreamer
- megaphone
Practice, awareness, next right thing
Ch12 - When Will I Get There
No finish line, keep learning and integrating skills
Skills:
- instilled agile practices
- started up agile team
- coach 1x1
- coached team
- coach po
- coached outsiders
- coach change
- instigated paths to performance
- accepted their ideas
- mastered yourself
- model agile values and principles
- navigated conflict
- self-path of growth
- started giving back
Measure self as leader, not manager
Only you know when you have arrived
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