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

Ethics -- Front and Center...Again!

Ethics -- Front and Center...Again!

In March of 2022, I posted an article with the title—Agile Coaching Ethics – Front and Center. 

In a nutshell, I was reacting to a situation that a fellow agile coach brought to my attention. It was a clear violation of ethics and, to be honest, it pissed me off.

It also inspired me to take a look around our agile community, and in particular agile coaching, to check on the ethical focus from the primary agile certification and influencing bodies.

My assessment wasn’t exhaustive, but it was intentional. And I found that, outside of the Agile Alliance, there was less than stellar focus on agile coaching ethics from the following groups—

  • iCAgile

  • PMI

  • Scaled Agile

  • Scrum Alliance

  • Scrum.org

  • Scrum Inc

1-Year Later

Well, it’s been a little over a year since my first post, and I thought it time to follow up to see what has improved or changed in this space…

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My Journey into Change Artistry

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My Journey into Change Artistry

I came upon this LinkedIn post by Angela Belle Agresto— 

One of the biggest potential pitfalls to implementing successful Agile methodology? Resistance to change.

This can stem from various factors, including fear of the unknown, lack of understanding of Agile methodologies, or attachment to traditional ways of working.

Resistance to change can slow down the transformation process and hinder the adoption of Agile principles across the organization.

Want to overcome this obstacle?
💼 Involve all stakeholders from the beginning;
💬 Communicate the benefits of Agile methodologies; and 
🙌 Provide adequate training and support to help employees adapt to a new way of working.

For more like this, be sure and check out the latest from the blog: Agile Transformation Best Practices – Expert Tips for a Successful Implementation

I used to view the world of change much as Angela does. That is, I need to go through a “process” with you to change you from point A to point B in your operational thinking and ways of working.

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Reframing Rejection

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This is a short post but an important one.  

I was in a Moose Herd session on March 8th, and Don Miller referenced a conference submission reaction that Christina Thomas posted on LinkedIn.

He brought it up as an example of how someone beautifully handled things by reframing and with an eye toward learning and the future.

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to do that when rejected. It often takes me quite a while to pivot from it.

I want to applaud Cristina for her vulnerability and for being a role model.

Here are a few related posts for those of you who want to submit for conference speaking opportunities—

Stay agile my friends,

Oh, and Christina, please keep submitting. Yours is a voice and a perspective that needs to be heard!

Bob.

 

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Putting the ME Back into Agile Coaching

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Putting the ME Back into Agile Coaching

 I want to share two quick stories…

First story…

I was mentoring the Agile Disciples USA group a while back, and I presented an idea, theme, and set of slides around the notion of agile coaches needing to be more assertive when it came to—

  • Communicating their value,

  • Showing their value,

  • Demonstrating their value,

  • Claiming their value,

  • Declaring their value, and

  • Owning their value.

in their organizational contexts.

You might have thought I suggested harming a puppy with the reactions in the Zoom room. Reactions like—

  • But we’re servant leaders; it’s not about us;

  • We can only measure our impact thru those we coach;

  • It’s up to our coaching clients to sing our praises, not us;

  • I don’t want people to think I’ve got a big ego or am full of myself;

  • Value determination comes from our clients.

You get the picture. And I certainly understood where they were coming from and honored their humility and selflessness, but I wondered if they were missing something important.

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The Gambler in Agile Coaching

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The Gambler in Agile Coaching

For some unknown reason, I was thinking of the Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler, the other day as I pondered some of today’s challenges in agile coaching. Here’s a famous excerpt from the song—

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done

And I began to think how applicable these lines were to working as an agile coach. Yeah, I know, but I had some free time on my hands…

Here’s what I came up with.

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Agile Coach as Consultant?

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Agile Coach as Consultant?

The wise Nigel Thurlow posted the following on LinkedIn –

A consultant should never implement solutions or attempt to fix anything. In most cases they’ll simply create thrash and often make things worse.

They should instead light the way and teach others to “learn to see”. Once others are able to see the consultant can guide them on contextually relevant tools, techniques, methods, and approaches.

Hint: you should be an expert generalist and possess deep knowledge beyond frameworks. People solve problems, not frameworks.

Teach others how to fish. Help them see and solve their own challenges. Trying to fix companies will only result in frustration for both sides.

Caveat: leaders (the ones with big job titles) must be engaged and participatory otherwise the best that can be hoped for is a short-term placebo effect.

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Beyond the Agile Certification Alphabet Soup

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Beyond the Agile Certification Alphabet Soup

The debate on the value of agile certifications has been raging on for decades. And one thing for certain is that it hasn’t dimmed the enthusiasm of the companies and organizations creating them.

For example, in 2016 I had a wild idea to explore and capture as many agile certifications as I could. I found 113, and I’m sure it wasn’t an exhaustive or definitive number.

Apparently, my work inspired Anthony Mersino to update the count in 2019-20. Bless his little heart. He found 270 at the time, over a 2x increase from my inventory. He called the post—The Circus of Agile Certifications, and I resonated powerfully with that somewhat snarky title.

Imagine that, 270 distinct certifications! I think it’s safe to say (pun intended) that there are probably ~300 unique agile certifications as I’m writing this post in 2023.

And the problem with most of these is that they are granted by simply attending a class and, in some cases, a quick exam. But are classes enough for learning, growth, and success in agile ways of working?

My answer would be a firm…No!

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Why do Agile Coaches have an Aversion to Consulting?

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Why do Agile Coaches have an Aversion to Consulting?

It seems to be an ongoing topic within the agile coaching community.  

Can an Agile Coach provide advice or consult with a client? The predominant answer seems to be no. Or something like—if you’re providing advice, then you’re NOT coaching. So, do you want to be a Coach? Or do you want to be a Consultant or Advisor? But you certainly can’t be both!

I’ve always wondered where this position comes from. If I’m advertising myself as an Agile Coach serving my clients…

  • Is it simply wrong to mix the two? Am I doing my client a disservice if I give them advice?

  • Or is it a skills challenge where many coaches find themselves under-skilled or uncomfortable delivering consulting advice?

  • Or, is it easier or less risky to professionally coach versus providing consulting advice?

  • Or is it something else altogether?

My initial reaction is that it might confuse Professional Coaching and Agile Coaching.  Thinking that they are the same. As I explored in my Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching book, they are not.

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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: