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

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Agile Coaching Theatre

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Agile Coaching Theatre

In this article, Tanya Snook talks about the notion of UX Theatre. Essentially, if I read it right, this is when an organization is going through the motions of UX research, study, analysis, etc. but with no real goal to change.

Here’s a quote from the article as several snippets—

There is a strange phenomenon in the world of user experience design.

It happens when designers are asked to pretend to do the work of design and aren’t actually permitted to do the work of design. It happens when we are asked to conduct research that never gets used. When we deliver findings that get shelved because they don’t align with executive or shareholder expectations. When we’re asked to facilitate workshops in which staff pretend to be users because it’s cheaper and faster than doing research with actual users. Or when we only get to review the design when the product is about to hit the street, and it’s much too late for any actual design improvements.

This frustrating reality is an open secret within the user experience industry and one we have long accepted as a normal consequence of working in a field that balances creativity and research.

We call this UX Theatre.

…

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Coaching Stances Applied

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Coaching Stances Applied

Agile Coach and provocateur Michael de la Maza posted the following on LinkedIn

Scene: Final round of interviews for an Agile Coaching position. Down to the final three candidates. Everyone is tense, but pretending not to be.

(curtain rises)

Client: We have a problem with people arguing. What would you do about that?

Agile Coach 1 (with swagger): I would step in immediately to prevent further damage.

Agile Coach 2 (confidently): I would ask the people who are arguing what they want to get out of the argument.

Agile Idiot (cluelessly): What is the problem with people arguing?

(curtain falls)

[Based on the life and work of Steven Davis.]

As of October 14th, 2021 the post had received 42 comments.

For example, Steve Peacock answered this way in dissecting the scenario—

Another "it depends" situation.

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Ongoing State of Agile Coaching

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Ongoing State of Agile Coaching

The State of Agile Coaching report was recently published by a collaboration between the Scrum Alliance and the Business Agility Institute. I participated in the survey and I eagerly awaited to see what surfaced. Since this is the first of its kind, I knew that the insights would probably surprise me a bit.

Links for you—

https://businessagility.institute/learn/state-of-agile-coaching-vol-1-2021/504

https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/state-agile-coaching-report

Here’s a quote from the preface of the report:

The idea for this report was born out of a sense of frustration and necessity. We had just read an article from Anand et al on McKinsey.com, “Growing your own Agility Coaches to Adopt New Ways of Working.” The authors wrote something that gave us pause:

“While the role [of agility coach] has exploded on LinkedIn and many profiles claim to be agility coaches, there is no degree or accepted global accreditation that provides comfort around the skills and experience needed for the job.”

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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.

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Agile Coaching – I have a Dream…

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Agile Coaching – I have a Dream…

I’ve been practicing “agile stuff” since about 1996—so for ~24 years. For ~20 of those years, I’ve been actively coaching agile notions at the team, group, organization, and company levels. In 2012 I received my CEC with the Scrum Alliance as an indication of how invested, serious, and (hopefully) skilled I was in the craft and practice of agile coaching.

In other words, I’m a relatively long-time agile coach who’s seen and experienced quite a bit over that time.

I participated in the Scrum Alliance – Guides Open Space sessions on Friday, October 23rd. I was in one session where we explored the CTC & CEC coaching tracks. The focus of the session was on formalized mentoring & training, but we didn’t explore that. Instead, the discussion ambled around the lack of clarity of what it meant to be an “agile coach”.

As I was listening and engaging in the discussion, I was scribbling down notes and ideas around the topic. I created a flow if you will of things that I’d develop or require if I were creating my own vision for developing agile coaches. And I worked on it after I left the session and into the evening.

The session was cathartic for me in a way. And I took the perspective of—

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Agile Coaches need MORE than Coaching Skills

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Agile Coaches need MORE than Coaching Skills

I earned my CEC (Certified Enterprise Coach) certification with the Scrum Alliance in 2012. I’d applied in 2011, so it took me about a year to go through the process at the time. If my memory is right, I believe I was about the 43rd CEC at the time.

I did a search of CEC’s and CTC’s on May 26th and it showed 118 and 156 worldwide respectively. That’s ~300 coaches. The growth of CEC’s over an ~8-year period was ~10/year.

I had been serving in leadership and agile coaching roles for quite a few years prior to that. I’d also been part of a couple of fairly successful agile transformations at the organizational level. So, while I was confident in my coaching capabilities, I was excited to go through the process as a way of validating my journey, experiences, and skills.

Back then, the focus was on the breadth of your stances.

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Coaching during Coronavirus—Take it Easy…

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Coaching during Coronavirus—Take it Easy…

“Lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand

And take it easy”

From the Eagles – Take it Easy

I was talking to my Agile coaching colleague and friend, Leon Sabarsky, the other day and he shared a shift in his coaching that has been influenced by the COVID-19 Pandemic and all of its impacts on our lives.

He said that he was simplifying, slowing down and “softening” his coaching. He used “encouraging stretch” in sprints as an example. In his before pandemic coaching, he might try to push his teams more to stretch in their sprint delivery efforts. But now, he’s backing off on all of that as folks are working remotely while tired, stressed, worried, sleep-deprived, fearful, and simply overwhelmed. Not to mention having new coworkers (kids, pets, spouses) who are not always contributing to focused work and productivity.

This REALLY resonated with me. First, it’s because it’s not something folks seem to be talking about. Most people in the online Agile community now are pivoting towards:

  • Providing virtual training (masses of online training)

  • Sharing how to work effectively remotely

  • And scrambling to keep their jobs/revenue streams flowing

But not many are talking about the psychological impacts and what leaders, coaches, and Scrum Masters can do to help.

Here are some ideas that Leon and I came up with to pivot from getting more shit done or recovering revenue, to simplifying things and being kinder to one other. Please consider them in these really challenging times.

Announcing - A Coaching Offer You Can't Refuse

Hi everyone,

I'm very pleased to announce that I'm an ORSC trained coach as of February 2020. I can hear you saying...what does that mean, Bob? Well, let me share a bit.

ORSC stands for Organization Relationship and Systems Coaching. It's a coaching program that is sponsored by CRR Global.

I've wanted to sharpen my saw in the pure coaching realm for a number of years. Yes, I'm a knowledgeable and successful agile coach. But that brand of coaching doesn't have a formal/professional system behind it. It's more focused on mentoring, consulting, and teaching than it is on pure coaching. And I wanted to deepen my experience on the pure coaching side of things.

It turns out there are two primary "schools" of coaching. One is Co-Active coaching, which is more focused on individual, one-on-one coaching. The other is ORSC, which focuses on coaching the relationships in systems. Systems, in this case, are small to large groups. They could be a Scrum or Kanban team, a senior leadership team, or a group of Scrum Masters or managers. I've chosen ORSC because of the systems nature of the coaching. It gives me a set of tools and approaches for coaching systems in improving their relationships and their results.

ORSC training is a series of 5 classes, which as of February 2nd, I've successfully completed. Now I'm moving into an 8-month deeper study and practice cohort that will lead to my becoming an ORSC Certified Coach. 

An Offer you Can’t Refuse


As part of that certification, I have to do a lot of ORSC (group-based) coaching. Imagine that. So, I'm looking for anyone in my network for help. If you'd like to explore my coaching—

  • Your Organization (technology, product, customer support, marketing, etc.)

  • You Executive / Leadership teams (either whole or in parts)

  • Your teams (Scrum team, Kanban team, non-profit team, virtually any team)

  • Partner coaching (couples, business partners, collaborators)

as entire groups or in sub-groups, please reach out to me. I'd love to work with you and your partner, team, group, or organization to help your continuous improvement journey.

And, since it's part of my certification journey, the cost will be very low relative to the value you’ll receive. We can either do this in-person or virtually, via Zoom. 

So, if you're interested, please reach out via email - bob@rgalen.com This coaching offer is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.