In January 2021, I wrote a blog post that, to be honest, had a more significant impact than I could have imagined in the agile coaching community.

It coincided with—

  • Publication of my Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching book;

  • My community work on the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel;

  • The release of the initial Comparative Agility, Agile Coaching PI assessment;

  • And my growing frustration that the world of Agile Coaching was too focused on professional coaching skills.

I’ve always felt that specific constituencies need the occasional nudge from an influencer, and I’ve been nudging Agile Coaching hard since ~2019 - 2020. I’ve challenged the Scrum Alliance, iCAgile, and other organizations to rebalance their focus. I’ve also worked with the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel team to provide inspiration and focus for their efforts.

And now, I’m excited to say this class has emerged as a means to continue that momentum to rebalance and refocus the profession and craft of Agile Coaching.

One final point: as of January 2024, there’s been a whirlwind of challenges in the community questioning the need for and value of Agile Coaches. There have been many layoffs and job/role eliminations. To go on record, I’m an optimist. I don’t believe the problem is the need for Agile Coaches and Agile Coaching skills. The issue has been the depth and breadth of most Agile Coach skills.

We need highly skilled, well-rounded, and Badass Agile Coaches. That’s been our Achilles' heel. Fingers crossed, this Masterclass will help you achieve increased Badassery in your Agile Coaching.

IKIGAI – Purpose of the Masterclass

  1. To expand the Agile Coaching skills of anyone operating in agile contexts.

  2. To create a longer-term, collaborative cohort container where Agile Coaches can establish longer-term relationships and learn from one another.

  3. To provide modeling and coaching stories & examples from multiple class Guides.

  4. To anchor on the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel and Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching book as foundations for your Agile Coaching skills journey.

  5. To move beyond superficial certification classes and one-stance coaching—diving deeper into sharpening and refining a broad set of Agile Coaching skills.

  6. In essence, to bring Badassery to the profession of Agile Coaching.

Reimaging Agile Coaching

Existing coach training and certification programs seem to be ALL focused on team coaching and (professional coaching, mentoring, and facilitation) competencies. While these certainly have value, we believe the over-focus on these has led to insufficiently balance-skilled and enabled Agile Coaches.

Given that, in this Masterclass, we will have—

  • More focus on Self-Mastery dynamics and their impact to your overall coaching effectiveness.

  • More focus on Organizational (Leadership & System) Coaching skill development.

  • More focus on higher-impact & value Agile Coaching stances—Advising, Transforming, Leading / Modeling, Serving Product.

  • More focus on effectively communicating (Storytelling, crucial conversations, radical candor) as an Agile Coach.

  • More focus on the importance and impact of grounding your Agile Coaching on Ethics.

  • More focus on how to demonstrate, communicate, and confirm the Value you’re creating as an Agile Coach—or how to gain Skin-in-the-Game.

  • More conversational practice—both within each class and within your learning teams.

To the best of my knowledge, no Agile Coaching programs have this sort of pragmatic, advising-based, and value-driven focus.