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.