Book Notes from 'Coaching Agile Team' By Lyssa Adkins
Coaching at the Very
Beginning
- The coaching intervention at
the beginning of the teams first sprint together sets the tone for much of
what follows
- Coaching intervention as the
team start-up, teaching the team about the agile framework to be used
- Teaching them about the
vision of the project and the work ahead.
Coaching in the Middle
- In the middle of the sprint,
coaching at the whole team level quites down.
- As a simple, lightweight conversation between team members, a
midsprint check yields renewed ideas and plans about how they are going to
get the rest of the work done.
- Since agile coaches protect
the teams' ability to focus by leaving them alone to work - midsprint is
the perfect time for individual coaching
- When someone does something
particularly helpful or powerful, talk to them about it in front of the
rest of the team.
Coaching at the End
- The end signals a natural
time for the team to look back at how they've worked together and decide
what to do to make the next sprint even better.
- The retrospective - during
this intervention, facilitate the teams conversation so that they come up
with a few things they agree to change in the next sprint
- Generate a list of
improvements
- Learn how best to learn from
one another.
Coaching at the Release
Level
- Coach individuals and teams
at the same time.
Coaching Tone
- No matter whether you are
coaching at the whole team or individual level, set your coaching tone to
these frequencies
- Love
- Compassionate
- Uncompromising
- You don’t ever have to say
these words - love, compassion - for them to know that they are valued and
supported.
- Coaching helps each person
get to that next level of professional growth that makes their work
relevant to their whole life.
- True saying in coaching - a
friend loves you the way you are - a coach loves you too much to let you
stay that way.
- Love them too much to let
them stay that way.
- You know what an excellent
agilist looks like, talks like, and acts like.
- Teams whose definition of
agile has been twisted around dysfunction of the people in and around the
team and the organization itself
- As their coach - I hold out a
clear picture of what agile done well looks like, and I do not ever
compromise that vision.
Coaching People One-On-One
- There comes a time to work
with people one on one.
- Four pieces of groundwork to
set in place
- Meet them a half step ahead
- Guarantee safety
- Partner with managers
- Create a positive regard
Meet The a Half Step Ahead
- The basic principal in
coaching states - that we meet our coaching clients 'where they are' - not
where we are or where we thing they should be or where we know they have
the ability to go - but where they are, right now.
- To detect where they are -
listen to them.
- Listen to their beliefs
about how the working world works and should work.
Guarantee Safety
- Agile coaches uphold an
environment of experimentation and risk taking because we know that only
such a place will brilliance emerge.
- Coach them to work together
to resolve problems within the team.
Partner with Managers
- Positive intentions revolve
around your desire to help each person reach their full potential.
- Each team members manager
affects the whole team overtly and covertly.
- Overtly, the managers
performance review expectations drive certain behaviors
- If the manager does not
support agile, its hard for the team member to invest fully in the team.
- Basically you need to know
how the team will be rewarded so you can see whether it supports or
thwarts working in a shared commitment environment.
- Manager realized how
detrimental the message would be to his main goal - which was to get more
and better products from the agile teams.
- Partnering with managers can
often be helpful and essential.
- In a sense some intense
coaching coming up soon with a team member- let the team members manager
in on the action.
- The behavior that gets in the
way of an agile team is the very behavior the manager has been telling a
direct report they should improve for some time.
- Agile gives managers great
help in that regard. Because an agile demands full participation.
Create Positive Regard
- You don’t have to like people
you coach - but you do have to help them.
- They know when you view them
as a problem to solve rather than as a human being with hopes, dreams,
desires.
- Stay out of the box and see
people as people rather than as problems.
- As you prepare to coach
someone - check yourself.
- A truly compassionate
attitude towards others does not change even if they behave negatively.
- Genuine compassion is based
not on our own projections and expectations but rather on needs of the
other.
- Feel genuine compassion for
where this person is in life and work.
- You are ready to be
uncompromising in your knowledge of what it means to be a good agile team
member and to help a person move towards that vision.
How you Coach People
One-On-One
- Starting the Coaching
Conversation
- Its almost certain that the
coachee will not be accustomed to real conversation in the workplace. So
they will likely be uncomfortable at first.
- As soon as you start
coaching a team, open the one-on-one conversations immediately when
there's nothing wrong and there's every chance for a wide ranging open
dialog.
- Remember your job - to help
each team member take the next step in their agile journey.
- Watch for the Arc of the
Conversation.
- Look for the arc of the
conversation
- Conversation Beginning.
- Someone started the
conversation -
- Usually its venting on the
coachee part
- Be aware of when the real
reason the coachee has started to talk begins
- Conversation Middle.
- This happens because the
coach asks powerful questions that invite introspection
- Note something the coach
purposefully avoids during the conversation - problem solving
- Conversation End
- Once the coachee has chosen
the action to take, the coach supports the coachee by setting up
accountability for that action.
- As you repeatedly coach
someone, without forcing, move from soft accountability to explicit
accountabilities.
- Remain on the same peer
level with the coachee
- Keep it positive and moving
forward
- The person is more important
than the formula.
- Subject Matter Expertise
Coaching
- All of these people may have
far more subject matter expertise in their specific area than you have.
- Coaching From a Distance
- When you coach at a distance
- you will not witness the events as they unfold on the team firsthand.
- Know your Limits
- Your main job as agile coach
revolves around enabling people to use agile well
- Reinforcing practices or
helping someone see how agile solves something they struggle with
- Means getting into how
people feel about their work or their role on team
- Expect that as you coach
people will start to open up to you - work and life.
- Offer expertise about agile
- don’t offer your expert opinion on their life
Coaching Product Owners
- Working with product owners
means teaching them their role and then showing them how to work agile to
their best advantage.
- Need to focus on business
value and not on managing the next move of every team member.
- They will need to learn to
trust the team.
- Show the product owner new
ways for agile to benefit their company and their careers.
- To be able to coach product
owners - you need a common language.
- Once they understand their
role - then you start coaching them
- You must address anything
that affects the teams ability to deliver and improve.
- Focus on team improvement -
team health rather than personal opinion or politics
- Coaching the product owner -
three categories
- Running their business
- Being product owner for the
team
- Getting good at the product
owner role.