Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching

It’s finally here. What’s here, you might ask?

My new book.

Cool! What’s the title?

Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching

The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond

About the Book

The profession of Agile Coaching is, in a word, confusing. That’s because of a number of factors, including:

• It gets conflated with Professional Coaching and it’s so much more than that;

• There isn’t a standard or generally accepted model for what it is and isn’t;

• Clients don’t understand it, so shared accountability is unbalanced with their coaches;

• There is specialized nuance around the skills of coaching at the Team, Enterprise or Organizational, Technical, and Leadership levels.

This confusion has created a space where nearly anyone can claim to be an Agile Coach with little experience and narrow skills. Resulting largely in mediocrity and negative impacts for our clients, who by the way, are counting on and paying us for help.

Bob Galen has written Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching to help alleviate the confusion. The book centers on the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel as the competency and skill maturity model to baseline your agile coaching skills against. Its core goal is to “raise the bar” as to what true excellence looks like and to help you establish a personal development and growth plan.

Bob intentionally uses the term Badass to create a vision of professionalism, craft, passion, accountability, and expertise that you need to bring to bear in service of your clients if you represent yourself as an “agile coach”.

Being an Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coach isn’t easy, quick, or for the faint of heart. It takes lots of hard work and dedication. It also requires a map to point you in the right direction. Consider this book that maps to coaching badassery, personal growth, and client service.

Sample Chapter

If you’re “on the fence” about whether the book is right for you. I’d recommend reading the Introduction, as it explains the intent, overview, and major themes within the book.

• Introduction

Getting a copy?

If you’re mostly interested in e-copies, I’d recommend purchasing your copies from Leanpub. You get more version flexibility that way AND you’ll be able to receive future updates too.

• Amazon versions are available here Paperback & Kindle.

• Leanpub (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI) versions are available here.

Landing Page

Once you get your copy, you’ll want to check out the book’s Support & Repo Page for helpful information and ongoing shares & updates.

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Why over Way!

I often see something that I re-post on my blog. Something that I think is thoughtful, compelling, and useful in our agile journeys.  

Some folks influence me more than others. John Cutler is one of those. Here’s one of John’s posts that I just had to share with you. I like it that much…

I continue to encounter agile coaches / transformation coaches who position the Why of "digital transformation" as "agility" or "learning faster" or "a mindset shift". When I ask what the burning business need is for agility, outcome-centricity, product thinking, learning faster, or a mindset shift, they often don't know. When I ask about the existential threats to the business, they don't know, or they respond with something very high level like "innovation".

I ask more questions..."will the business exist in ten years if the status quo remains?" ... "what is the biggest product fail of the last year?" ... "where would learning faster and experimentation have helped?" Not sure. "Would you invest in company stock? Why? Why not?" Not sure. "If things were working, what would you observe?" "Well, more empowered teams". Why? Not sure.

To me, this is putting the Way before the Why. The goal isn't product transformation. The goal is what product transformation will enable!

You have to know the business reality. For example...

"At the moment our commercial business accounts for 60% of revenue, and consumer business accounts for 40%. We're paying more and more to keep that 40%, and despite our efforts, we're losing to upstart fintech companies that know that demographic better, and aren't saddled down by the weight of a commercial business. If we can't figure this out, we'll continue to lose market share, and our share price will plummet. Meanwhile, the commercial side of the business is rife with opportunities to use data science to streamline operations and eek out margin. Supply chain disruption will eventually get us there as policies come up. The three major efforts from last year fell flat with no outcomes. We need to do better in a highly complex environment..."

"And this is how product thinking can help....[here]"

You have to know this stuff like the back of your hand. Listen to every investor call. Know the existential threats to the business. You have to think like a business person and an entrepreneur. Otherwise, you'll find yourself just going through the motions.

The goal isn't agility. It is what agility enables. Same with product thinking, DevOps, rate of learning. Etc. Why over Way.

I hope found it valuable. Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

2021 Reflection

It struck me that if I had one thing to pick as I leave 2021 the feeling would be grateful. I am incredibly grateful— 

• That my business did well and is exiting the year with resilience. And for each and every client who puts their trust in me.

• For the many incredibly diverse learners who attended my virtual workshops over the year. I was blown away by your curiosity, engagement, and growth mindset.

• For my children, grandchildren, and furry children. They are a great blessing to me and they are a big part of my legacy.

• That I had the opportunity to record another year of Meta-cast’s with Josh Anderson. Thank you, Josh, for putting up with me.

• For the opportunity to work with my colleagues and friends at Zenergy Technologies. This is my second time around with Zenergy, and I’m grateful that they “took me back”.

• To complete my Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching book and to have “stayed with” the title. Jen, Rhiannon, Mark, Stuart, Kim, and DeAnna I couldn’t have done it without you.

• To everyone who developed the vaccines that continue to save many lives. I’m humbled as I think about the resilience of our human spirit.

• For those who co-taught workshops with me. I’m not the easiest person to do this with, so thank you for your patience and partnership.

• To give back and share some of my privileges with my D&I support efforts. I’m grateful for my friendship with Aanu Gopald, who has helped me with my BLM support efforts.

• To my wife Diane for her daily partnership, love, and support. Honey, I can never thank you enough for being a part of my life’s journey.

• For everyone in healthcare, public service, and education for their seemingly tireless and selfless support of others. What wonderful role models.

• That even though I’ve been health-challenged over the past few years, I’m doing fine and taking things one day at a time.

• For Jorgen Hesselberg allowing Mark Summers and me to develop the Agile Coaching PI for Comparative Agility.

Most of all, I’m grateful for each and every day that I have the opportunity to do something I love deeply, with people who are incredible, and that makes a small difference one person at a time.

Wrapping Up

As we enter a new year, I’d encourage all of you to look back with appreciation and gratitude and capture the “good things”, small and large, you’ve experienced this year. I know it made the way forward so much brighter and hopeful for me and I wish that for you as well. So, long 2021, and good morning 2022!

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

https://www.agile-moose.com/blog/2021/10/16/practicing-gratitude