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

Think

,

Stop Reacting

,

I find myself and so many others, when confronted with something, we immediately begin reacting. And it’s made me think there is an alternative reaction to immediate action. That we have the option to focus on creativity, thoughtfulness, and the power of slowing down. For example—

  • Stop immediately going into problem-solving or solutioning mode;

  • Stop immediately going into fixing mode; and

  • Stop immediately going into directing mode.

And instead, take more time—

  • For balanced consideration

  • To ideate

  • To noodle

  • For creating and exploring options

  • To consider consequences, pros/cons

  • To view things from a wide variety of perspectives

This connects to Weinberg’s Rule of 3.

Wrapping Up

So, the next time there is an emergency, the shit is hitting the fan, or your boss is asking for immediate action or solution…

Stop, Pause, Breathe, and then Slow Down!

You just might find yourself reacting with better results…

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.