I saw this wonderfully courageous and informative post by Sabine Canditt the other day where she wrote about Sustainable Scrum.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sustainable-scrum-responsible-choice-sabine-canditt-x0gef
After just completing a The Week program facilitated by the amazing Ann-Marie Kong, it touched my heart.
That said, I wanted to highlight one comment reaction/interaction between Sabine and Erich Bühler
Erich said—
Thank you for bringing this approach into the world! Scrum does provide an iterative approach for teams to create value, but its scope is limited to the product level and struggles with dynamics across the whole organization for several reasons.
Without updating the underlying business and financial model at a strategic level, Scrum alone cannot transform organization-wide sustainability.
I talk a lot about the first step in coaching any client (individual, system, team, etc.) is to build a relationship, gain empathy and understanding, and then gain an idea of where/how to help initially. So, do NOT start to coach until you’ve done some relationship-building.
But what does a coaching relationship, or a professional relationship in general, look like? What are aspects of that? Here are a few things that come to my mind—
Making + taking the time.
Explaining what you do—what is Agile Coaching.
Building some empathy; walking in their shoes; understanding where they are coming from.
Meeting them where they are.
Listening; reflective listening; building metaphors together.
Connecting with their language, not yours.
I’ve decided to consolidate my blogs on Substack, specifically Moose Droppings and RGalen Consulting.
The historical posts will remain here, but all new posts will be on Substack here - https://bobgalen.substack.com/
I encourage you to join me there…
Thanks for the memories!
Bob.
I saw this wonderfully courageous and informative post by Sabine Canditt the other day where she wrote about Sustainable Scrum.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sustainable-scrum-responsible-choice-sabine-canditt-x0gef
After just completing a The Week program facilitated by the amazing Ann-Marie Kong, it touched my heart.
That said, I wanted to highlight one comment reaction/interaction between Sabine and Erich Bühler
Erich said—
Thank you for bringing this approach into the world! Scrum does provide an iterative approach for teams to create value, but its scope is limited to the product level and struggles with dynamics across the whole organization for several reasons.
Without updating the underlying business and financial model at a strategic level, Scrum alone cannot transform organization-wide sustainability.
This is a short take recommendation to listen to Sandy Mamoli’s November 2023 Oredev talk in Sweden. The title is—
Are you drowning your autonomy in good intentions?
We ask our leaders for their trust, support and empathy – and so we should. We rightfully demand to be treated like responsible adults. But are we behaving as such? In these uncertain and fragile times, we have allowed our employers to become like our 1950s husband: Someone to take care of all our needs – financially, emotionally and socially. In return we have sacrificed our strength, our autonomy and our independence. But is this what we actually want, and how do we redress the balance?
There has been a lot of focus on the experience of employees and teams in these recent times. In this session, I will touch on this from the perspective of how people have changed their relationship with their employers and how we keep looking for “answers in a box”. I will also share what I have learned from conversations with leaders in three countries, and how they feel about this new and emergent context in the workplace.
Thank you, Sandy, for providing such a thought-provoking and relevant topic that, quite frankly, I needed to hear.
Everyone—Take the ~30 minutes and give it a listen!
Stay agile, my friends,
Bob.
There seems to be a mad dash to incorporate AI into everything, including the agile ways of working community.
As an example, this article—Product Management Will Be Taken Over By AI In 5 Years, makes a bold prediction of the demise of an entire species.
Matt Davis made a very brief comment when he shared the article—
It's never too early to start leaning into the human aspects of Product Management. Roadmap planning? Prioritization? Feature definition? Market research? Measurement? - All automated. Focus on the other things.
That connected me with the actual response we all should have to AI. Particularly for us in the agile community.
So, instead of—
Burying your head in the sand;
Frenetically trying to learn everything you can about AI;
Allowing it to replace your learning journey;
Or Building AI replacements for yourself.
Perhaps we all should be—
Leaning into the human aspects of Agile Coaching…
I’ll leave it as an exercise for each of you to discover what that means for yourself. But it doesn’t mean asking powerful questions, getting more certifications, or blindly following framework definitions.
Stay agile, my human Agile Coaching friends,
Bob.
I talk a lot about the first step in coaching any client (individual, system, team, etc.) is to build a relationship, gain empathy and understanding, and then gain an idea of where/how to help initially. So, do NOT start to coach until you’ve done some relationship-building.
But what does a coaching relationship, or a professional relationship in general, look like? What are aspects of that? Here are a few things that come to my mind—
Making + taking the time.
Explaining what you do—what is Agile Coaching.
Building some empathy; walking in their shoes; understanding where they are coming from.
Meeting them where they are.
Listening; reflective listening; building metaphors together.
Connecting with their language, not yours.
I recently replied to a LinkedIn post by David Pereira. It was a wonderful post, and I applaud David’s boldness and courage in sharing it.
Here’s a post comment from Stefan Wolpers—
While I agree fully with your personal stance regarding professionalism, David Pereira, some people will shy away, given the current economic climate. Some of the previously aggravated people may seek an opportunity to settle scores.
And here’s my comment—
I love the clarity (No BS) here. Clarity for David and clarity for those who want to work with and who don't want to work with him.
That said, David has the unique privilege that allows him to adopt this clarity. Many don't.
This post is not about David per se. Instead, he inspired me to write it.
And, NO, not that AI.
I became aware of Appreciative Inquiry perhaps two decades ago. I read a book on the subject and it literally changed the way I was leading folks in my organization. Influencing me to shift my leadership mindset and thinking from—
Deficit versus Asset thinking
Strengths versus Weakness thinking
Positive versus Negative thinking
Affirmative versus Denial thinking
Learning Organization versus Status Quo
It also inspired me to become more aware (and appreciative) of—
Becoming much more strengths-based in my self-awareness and leadership approaches.
Amplifying strengths when coaching individuals.
Using more appreciative and positive language when providing feedback.
Including the teams in co-creating and crafting a shared vision.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
In my 2004 book, Software Endgames, I leveraged the Pareto Principle extensively when considering defect clustering and triage.
2013, I wrote one of my first posts about the Pareto Principle.
in 2017, I wrote the following - https://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2021/5/17/revisiting-pareto-and-you
But I realized just the other day that I hadn’t revisited Pareto for six years, and I felt it was time to focus on it solely in the context of Agile Coaching.
80% of your coaching impact will be realized by 20% of your coaching clients.
80% of your client's realized value will emerge from 20% of your coaching time.
I want to offer two discussion threads for your consideration. Both are from LinkedIn and are quite critical of the place of/for Professional Coaching (leadership coaching, personal coaching, life coaching, ICF coaching) in Agile Coaching contexts.
Huy Nguyen initiated the first discussion, and Francesco Bianchi initiated the second. I’ve only pulled a small selection of the comments from each post—so I would encourage you to read the entire thread.
In the end, I plan on drawing some of my inspiration and conclusions from the discussions. Partly as a wrap-up but also to provide some personal clarity I’ve received from these discussions (and more).
I want to thank Huy and Francesco for helping me focus my thinking and for serving as thought leaders in our community. Taking a stand or speaking out your truth is not always easy, so I applaud both of them for their courageous role modeling and ongoing contributions.
Huy Nguyen reacts on LinkedIn to the following Bob Emiliani article - https://bobemiliani.com/seeing-beyond-what-you-know/
Savita Pahuja is an agile coach who is a principal in CoachingSaga. I’ve met her in user groups for some years, and her balance, thoughtfulness, and experience have always impressed me.
She recently wrote two articles about reflective practice and self-reflection for Agile Coaches that I want to bring to your attention—
From an Agile Coaching Growth Wheel perspective, reflection is one of the foundational elements of Self-Mastery.
I’d encourage you to read both of them and to follow Savita’s future posts.
Stay agile, my friends,
Bob.
