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

Coaching Stance

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The Missing Coaching Stance

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The Missing Coaching Stance

I’ve historically shared different agile coaching models that help to define the various focus points (stances) of an effective agile coach. Currently, my favorite model is the one that Mark Summers shared from a Scrum Alliance Coaching Retreat working group. It’s called the Big Wheel of Agile Coaching and you can find out more about it here.

The other day I was in a coaching session with my personal coach and the notion of inspiration came up as it relates to being a coach. And we were exploring how one of the roles of a coach might be one of providing inspiration.

And as I thought about it since then, I’m starting to think that this isn’t simply a concept or minor activity, but that it might be a full-fledged stance (or new spoke) in the Coaching Wheel. So, in a major way, my coach inspired me to write this…

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Mirrors and Windows

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Mirrors and Windows

We were collaborating in the Moose Herd the other morning about agile coaching stances and when to be prescriptive (consulting or advising stances) and when not to be (coaching, facilitative learning, or

(I’m referencing the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel here for the stances…)

As I sat and listened to the discussion, I thought of a metaphor for the coach to help when adopting certain stances. I likened it to a mirror and a window.

The Mirror

This is where you simply serve to reflect back to the client you’re coaching. You, add, change, or delete nothing. How could you…you are a mirror.

The mirror reflects; clearly and succinctly. It says nothing. It does nothing. It owns no actions. It simply reveals the system (or the client) to themselves.

A Tale of Two Coaching Sessions

A Tale of Two Coaching Sessions

In a recent Agile Moose Herd group chat we explored a coaching dojo session. My friend Rob Walsh showed familiarity and vulnerability by playing the ill-behaved leadership role. I might add that he did a terrific job. As did the coaches, Rich Brents and Dan Puckett. Afterwards, I asked him to write up an account of his experience and he was kind enough to do so. Here’s the synopsis—

Dojo

At a recent meeting of the Agile Moose Herd, Bob Galen (aka Chief Moose) suggested that the group do a dojo session where we would role-play a coaching session. I volunteered to be the client, and Bob suggested a scenario involving a senior executive of a tech company with a tendency to “swoop” into the details of the development efforts. He explained that this exec would jump into team meetings and dev sessions with ideas that he felt could make the product better. However, his actions served to demoralize the team and strip from them any sense of ownership of the product. The team saw them as mandates, not suggestions or helpful tips. Recognizing that something was wrong in the team, the company had hired an Agile coach to help set things right.