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
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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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Two More Leadership Ideas

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Two More Leadership Ideas

Trauma-Informed Leadership

Kima Tozay recently wrote an article entitled 6 Reasons to Practice Trauma Informed Leadership in Your Workplace.

Here are three snippets from the article—

What is trauma-informed leadership?

According to David Tweedy, a Clinical Psychologist and Healthcare Executive, “Trauma-informed Leadership is a way of understating or appreciating there is an emotional world of experiences rumbling around beneath the surface.” He affirms that “when emotional responses are triggered in the workplace, each person responds according to the extent of their emotional scars, traumas and emotional strengths.”…

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Two Leadership Ideas

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Two Leadership Ideas

Congruence

Heidi Araya recently published an article entitled Dear Executive: Incongruence Comes with a Cost.

Here are two snippets from the beginning of the article—

Another example of incongruence would be that management tells teams to work in a specific way (“agile” for example), but do not model this themselves. For example, teams must be transparent and report their metrics upwards, but leadership is not transparent with their decisions or metrics. A common one is managers saying they want people to “work more as a team,” but promoting individual metrics for productivity instead or assigning individuals to projects. 

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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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I’m a quitter too

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I saw this post from Bob Gower the other day about being a quitter and it inspired me to write this post. 

I’m closing in on a 40+ year career. 1981 – 2023

  • I’ve had ~ 15 jobs in those 40 years.

  • I’ve been laid off twice.

  • I’ve been ugly-fired once. Don’t ask.

  • I’ve quit, without having a backup job, ~5 times.

  • My longest run at one job was ~10 years; my shortest run was ~5-days.

  • I’ve demoted myself twice.

  • I’ve reorganized myself out of a job at least once.

  • I’ve hired my replacement at least 5 times.

Key Observations

  1. My tolerance for corporate bullshit was much greater early in my career.

  2. One consistent theme is that I’ve reflected on each and every job and the drivers for my leaving, and that’s made each step or pivot better for me as I’ve learned, adapted, and grown.

  3. I’ve learned to blame myself less and less for the driving forces behind my decisions.

  4. Looking back, I’m incredibly thankful for the entirety of the ride. It’s made me who and what I am. It’s also made me much more resilient.

Wrapping Up

I just want to thank Bob Glower for his courageous role model and inspiration. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken this powerful trip back to memory lane.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

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Moose on the Loose in 2023

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It can be said that this Moose has ups and downs between getting out of the forest and meeting other Mooses (and other forest denizens) and staying at home in my Moose Den.

If you want to meet me virtually or in person, this is my 2023 journey map.

As my speaking calendar emerges, I’ll keep it updated throughout 2023, so check back often…

Early 2023 Meetup Presentations

Emerging 2023 Conference Plans

Out and About

And, if you ever are in my hometown area of Raleigh / Durham, North Carolina (Cary specifically), then I’d love to meet with you for coffee.

Two of my favorite haunts are—

  • Esteamed - a wonderful coffee shop in downtown Cary with a beautiful purpose.

  • Crema - a relaxed coffee vibe right around the corner from my home.

And no fru-fru coffee for this Moose. Just dark roasted, hot, and black.

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You’ve Got a Friend

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You’ve Got a Friend

Carol King is one of my favorite artists from the 1970s and 80s and You’ve Got a Friend is one of my favorite songs of hers. So, it sounded like a good theme for this post. 

This article is inspired by all of the layoffs I see in the technology community—particularly the agilists who are finding many companies not valuing their contributions. There are also quite a few thought leaders in the community using this as an opportunity to (1) foretell the end of agile ways of working or (2) to explain how their new-fangled agile approach (Agile 2, SAFe, Elon, Flow, whatever) will deliver us from all the chaos.

I know quite a few of you are caught up in these challenging times, so I thought I’d share the following story and some related advice.

My story

It was the year 2000. I’d moved to North Carolina 4 years earlier and just joined Lucent (Bell Labs) as a Director of Software, leading a large team. I felt like I’d just won the lottery to find the job of my dreams. Then the telecommunications bubble burst in 2001.

Layoffs were rampant across the industry, tens of thousands of jobs were lost, and our entire optical networking facility of ~300 folks here in Raleigh, NC was let go. To say that I was devastated is an understatement. To add insult, I was selected to be on the leadership “closing crew” who helped everyone pack, leave, and turn the lights off in the building.