Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
We've Moved
We've Moved
Walking Their Talk, Sustainability, Inspiration
Robert Galen
Sustainability

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.

Sustainability
Short-takes, Inspiration
Robert Galen
Sandy’s Take
Sandy’s Take
Short-takes, Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
The Human Aspects of Agile Coaching
The Human Aspects of Agile Coaching
Coaching, ACGW, Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
Keys to Building your Coaching Relationships

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.

Keys to Building your Coaching Relationships

Cabochon coach

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What Type of Agile Coach are You?

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What Type of Agile Coach are You?

Michael de le Maza offered the following metaphor for agile coaches and coaching on LinkedIn the other day

Pebble agile coaches vs. Diamond agile coaches.

Pebbles are well rounded. Diamonds have facets.

If you go to a restaurant and they have Chinese food and Italian food what would you think? What if they had Opus One and Two-Buck Chuck?

You wouldn't like that restaurant, right?

And yet many agile coaches pride themselves on being well-rounded. They coach Scrum and Kanban teams. They coach executives and individual contributors. They coach flow and culture. They coach marketing teams and software development teams.

These are pebble agile coaches. They are well-rounded.

Diamond agile coaches have facets. They specialize in one or two areas.

Think about the great agile coaches you know.

Are they pebbles or diamonds?

What do you want to be?

Here’s my LinkedIn reply:

Michael, it almost sounds like I have two choices as an agile coach:

Become (or stay) a pebble and say yes to everything. Stay average, stay mediocre, stay "pebbly". That being well-rounded is, in some fashion, bad or not good.
or...
Become a diamond. Shine in a few areas. Be excellent in a few things. Say no to things when I don't have the excellence or brilliance to meet the need.

I wonder if there is a sort of middle ground if you will and not polar or binary opposites? For example, can I become a cabochon? Can I be well-rounded AND shiny/with rounded facets?

I guess I don't view well-roundedness as a coach as being something less attractive. Saying 'yes' to everything, probably not a good idea. But, at least for me, I'm aspiring to be a well-rounded, shiny, cabochon of a coach ;-)

More details…