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 != Life Coaching...Really?

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Agile Coaching != Life Coaching...Really?

Brett Maytom posted some thoughts on LinkedIn, including an article entitled Exposing the Truth: Life Coaches Masquerading as Agile Coaches. As of March 2, 2023, there were 69 comments on LinkedIn to the post. 

Brett is a trainer with Scrum.org (PST) with over 20 certifications posted on his LinkedIn profile. Simply as a reference, I saw no certifications or training mentioned around any aspect of agile, professional, or life coaching, which I found interesting. He only references himself once as an agile coach in his experience history from 2014 – 2016.

In one of the comments, Brett gives some additional background context behind the article—

Context:
One ruffled my feathers last week, and what they were saying just had no business or product sense.

A few people in my network and local communities are like this. They only talk about agile in the context of a life coach for a few years now. I have tolerated it because I know them personally. I have now had enough of it.

Also, many companies promote life coaching courses, claiming they need this. People are getting suckered into that.

I attended an "agile coaching" course in 2014 (ish), which was more of a life coaching course. I was not impressed. Ken was on it too, and he walked out after the first half day. I should have too but I did not as I traveled to USA for it.

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An Agile Coaching Conversation

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An Agile Coaching Conversation

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn from Oluf Nissen that made me pause and reflect. I captured a link to it and have revisited it every few days to check in on the ongoing comments.

Sometimes the stream of comments is the most valuable part of the “conversation.” Of note, Lyssa Adkins, Damon Poole, and Michael Spayd weighed in with comments.

Here’s the original post:

I came across an old video with Lyssa Adkins a few days ago, where I noticed and was reminded of the idea that professional coaching is probably mostly a "spice" for the work of agile coaches. It's a surprising reminder, given the amount of posts here on LinkedIn that encourage us to deepen our coaching skills and almost make it sound like you can't help people if you don't have incredible depth in coaching. I don't know what to make of that yet.

Michael Spayd weighed in with this comment:

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What Happened to Agile Coaching?

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What Happened to Agile Coaching?

Todd Charron posted a rather Big Question on Linked in February 2023. And it’s supported by this blog with more details. 

I thought I’d share a snippet from Todd’s post to whet your appetite—

But I don’t see these kinds of coaches as often as I used to

Now I see--

  • “You’re going to have bring in more coaches”

  • “You have to follow the process exactly”

  • “If only we had management support / buy-in”

  • “Which certification should I get next?”

  • “I’m studying to be a life coach…”

The last one, in particular, annoys me

It’s like a bunch of life coaches discovered Agile

And since they can’t get hired as life coaches, they figured they’d get businesses to pay them for “Agile Coaching”

These coaches are doing the activities they want to do instead of focusing on the mission

And the mission is:

Helping the client solve their problems

Instead, what we get is:

Coaches pretending to help businesses while they convince people to quit their jobs

I’ve seen this more times than I’d like to admit

This isn’t the only coaching anti-pattern

Among the 38 comments by March 1st, I also wanted to share these two from Sam Perera—

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Creating Teachable Moments as an Agile Coach

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Creating Teachable Moments as an Agile Coach

I was in a Moose Herd session the other day, and someone brought up the challenge of teaching as a coach. That people had to want to be taught. That they had to be curious to be taught. They had to be vulnerable to say—I don’t know, can you help me? And that if they didn’t adopt this empty vessel posture, it was nearly impossible to teach them.

Some of the phrases we shared around how to ask for or detect their receptiveness included—

  • Are you curious about this?

  • Can I teach you about agile estimation?

  • What do you know about agile?

  • I think you misunderstand the agile mindset; can I tell you what it is?

All of these are sort of binary, yes/no questions. I would argue that they put whoever you’re asking them of on defense. From a power dynamics perspective, you’re saying—I know, and you don’t. Can I bring you up to my level…yes, or no?

And I would argue this probably isn’t the best first way to engage someone in their learning.

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The 10 Rules of Agile Coaching

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The 10 Rules of Agile Coaching

I wrote this article in 2018 and it’s received quite a bit of attention over the years. I recently saw it reposted again by Comparative Agility and it made me think about the notion of “rules of Agile Coaching”.  

Not don’t get me wrong. I’m not a rules guy. I actually wasn’t that fond of the title of the first article. I guess I may have been inspired by the quote—The first rule of fight club…

But all of that being said, as I mulled it over again, other aspects of agile coaching emerged that I thought I’d share with you. And, if one rule was good, then certainly ten are better. So, here we go—

The 1st Rule of Agile Coaching…

Be coachable 

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Cowardly Escaping the Real Work

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Matthias Orgler posting this on LinkedIn in October 2022— 

#Agile #values are not an add-on to agility, they're the bulk of what makes #agility work.

While most #transformations focus 90% of their effort on #frameworks, roles, processes, they run the risk of never reaping the benefits of agility. Because 90% of what makes agility actually work has nothing to do with frameworks.

I understand that values, mindset and changing your view of the world is scary and seems too soft for business. Frameworks and detailed descriptions of roles, organizational structures and processes mollify us. They're something tangible to hold on to and we feel as if we're making progress. But in reality, we're cowardly escaping from the real work: adopting a new view of the human being, agile values and an agile #mindset. We're escaping true agility and rob our companies of huge possible benefits. 

⚠️ Neglect #agileValues at your own risk.

What struck me most deeply in Mattias’ post was this statement—

But in reality, we're cowardly escaping from the real work: adopting a new view of the human being, agile values and an agile #mindset. We're escaping true agility and rob our companies of huge possible benefits.

You might say that this sounds too dramatic, too judgmental, too negative or critical, and too extreme.

I actually found it boldly courageous and an act of telling us (the agile consulting, coaching, and certification communities) that we have no clothes.

That we’re not focusing hard enough on what truly matters.

What say you, are you cowardly escaping by focusing on the easy bits? If so, what will you do to change that?

Stay agile (in mindset and values) my friend,

Bob.

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Metaphor in Agile Coaching

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I am a Sleeping Tiger (metaphor) 

Like being as Busy as a Bee (simile)

I’ve been experimenting lately in my coaching with the power of metaphor and simile, leveraging them within my reflection and with my clients. I also use metaphors in my classes, and I create (or emerge) my own when reflecting on my personal life.

For me, it’s an exploration device to help clarify and better understand something. I’ve found that metaphors allow for deeper insights and discovery.

I’ve also discovered, and I’m in my infancy here, the power of Clean Language and Clean Questions when trying to invoke or emerge metaphor. Here are some examples of clean questions—

  • Working at your Best, you are like what?

  • Being at your Worst, you are like what?

  • Making decisions is like what?

  • A high-performing agile team, is like what?

  • Working at your Best as an Agile Coach, you are like what?

  • Being your Worst as an Agile Coach, you are like what?

  • Switching coaching competencies/stances is like what?

  • Learning and growing as an Agile Coach is like what?

All of these questions might inspire a metaphor in a coaching conversation. A picture, a model, a context for you and your client to explore. One where we are trying to gain…

  • Deeper insights and understanding

  • Increased empathy

  • Better balanced relationship

  • Clarity

With the other person using their Metaphor (not ours or our conversion of theirs).

When you seek to understand, use words and terms as close as possible to the other metaphor. We want the least amount of translation variability for the other person. In other words, we stay close or adjacent to what they’ve said.

As I said, I’m just now beginning to understand Clean Language and the power of metaphors in my coaching.

Here are a few more resources for you to explore--

And two helpful videos

As my understanding increases, I’ll share more about my learnings in a future post. But until then, closing this article is like what?

A rainbow emerging from the clouds and touching the tip of my nose.

Stay agile, my friends,

Bob.

 

 

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The Six Types of Courage

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The Six Types of Courage

I’ve long been curious about courage. My most recent connection is to it being one of the 5 Scrum Values and, when asked, it always emerges as my favorite value.

Why? Part of me doesn’t really know why.

I am a big fan of the Wizard of Oz and the Cowardly Lion role. Always smiling when he—finds the Courage that was essentially always inside of him.

Another aspect is that I think it takes a great deal of courage to show up as an agile leader, agile coach, or other change agents in agile transformations. It certainly isn’t for the timid or faint of heart!

So, imagine my delight when I found the reference on Lion’s Whiskers to their 6 Types of Courage and the thinking around it. It expanded the nuance and depth of understanding around the term. So much so, that I’d thought I’d share it with you.

Although many times we see a blend of two or more of these types of courage, there is generally one that dominates the occasion.

Here are the six types of courage:

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Courageous Authenticity

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I think it’s hard to walk your talk publicly. But especially challenging in the world of agile coaching. I recently saw this post by Lucia Baldelli and thought I’d share it because it struck me as a wonderfully courageous act on her part.

I found the comments interesting as well.

I don’t think I’ll add anything else, as I think her—

  • Courage,

  • Role model,

  • And, Authenticity…

Speaks for itself!

If you care to check out some of my own ideas on coaching ethics, you can read more here.

Stay agile my friends, AND thank you, Lucia!

Bob.

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Agile Coaches, Might WE Be the Problem?

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Agile Coaches, Might WE Be the Problem?

I ran across a post on LinkedIn by Huy Nguyen. I think I’ve met him briefly at an agile coaching retreat or event, and he struck me with his thoughtfulness.

The post was titled an Agile Coaching Thought of the Day where he posited the following question:

Is there a Western/Colonial bias to the Spiral/Laloux developmental models?

In and of itself, a thoughtful question.

Here’s a large part of his post—

In Agile settings, I question the value the use of these "developmental" models. Teal is not a business objective. It's not a requirement for a successful business, yet we often put a bias toward it - as if coaches have an agenda to push clients into. Agile falls prey to the same thinking. IMO this is problematic.