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

Prescott's

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Coaching the Brine

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Coaching the Brine

In Prescott’s Pickle Principle, Gerald Weinberg shares the metaphor of cucumbers (people) and the impact that brine (company cultures, systems) can have on them (pickling). The notion is that if you are a change agent you need to be aware of the fact that you (the person, the cucumber) may be pickled by the brine (the culture) before you can effect change on the culture. That you can become “part of the problem”, if you will.

And there’s a bit of subtlety to it in that many of us are unaware (lack the self-awareness) that we’ve been pickled.

I was reminded of the principle just the other day when I read this LinkedIn post by Magnus Hedemark.

Lately, I’ve been thinking of a corollary to the principle.

Sure, as an agile coach, particularly an embedded or internal coach, I can easily become pickled. But what if I actively coach the brine instead of the cucumbers? What if I intentionally spend the majority of my time at the brine level?