How much Coaching has your Agile Coaching?

Hi survivors! 

Today we will explore two language differences: Coaching vs Agile Coaching. 

Let's try to answer basic questions about this dilemma... These are hard questions, and I will try to provide short answers, and leave you the door open to your own investigation and experimentation. 

I want this blog post to be an invitation for you, to explore and experiment in your own environment.

What is an Agile Coach? 

Lyssa Adkins was one of the first to use this name for such a "role" in an organization game. 

 

She found out someway, that to use the "coaching as strategy" for cultural change in agile transformations, was one of the key elements for success. 

In his work defined that an "Agile Coach" plays 4 different strategies to facilitate learning processes in this transformation processes: Training, Mentoring, Coaching and Facilitating.

• Training is to learn by doing practices and methods that has some proven effectivity. 
• The Teacher has more "knowledge" about the content.
  
• Mentoring, is assisting to improve based on having a big and deeper experience on the practice field. 
• A Mentor has more "experience" on similar fields. 
  
• Facilitating, is like moderation. Is to follow some format, method to assist and enable the right flow of a meeting or conversation. (Meetings moderation, workshops) 
• A Facilitator can moderate a debate following some "structure" to enable results inside a defined time frame. 

Ok, if Training, Mentoring and Facilitation brings knowledge, experience and structure... then... 

What is Coaching? 

 

• a relation to co-create possibilities 
• 
  

Where does coaching comes from? 

Sports, and how the "inner game" affects performance. 

Where does a coaching process focus to cultivate a change? 

• Observer (Ontological coaching) 
• the way of "being"
  
• Relations (Systemic coaching)
  

On what does a Coach focus to, in a coaching conversation? 

• Language
  
• Emotions
  
• Body
  

What are some areas to work in a coaching relation?

• Learning
  
• Maturity 
• Emotional Intelligence 
• Social Intelligence
  

What has to do all this with Agile or agility?

Today and here we are talking about "Individuals and Interactions", and not about "processes and tools". In other words: Humans and Relations. 

And, we are talking about how the Human nature, interactions and relations affects our "effective action capacity", what obviously will affect our "performance". 

(yes, also profit)  

To be, or not to be... effective. That's the question

I want to be like Google, Amazon...

As "Agile Coach", Do I must learn it?

Not at all. Even if its a "core" competence, I don't think its a "must", and not everybody would be interested or motivated to learn this discipline.

Where I can learn more about this?

The Observer and the World 

The Phenomenon 

The power of Relations 

Maturity 

 

 

 

 

Emotional and social intelligence 

What skills are required for it?

Who should care about it?

Everyone that is interested on developing "relational skills", specially leadership roles, as "coaching" is a type of leadership.

Conclusions from 20 years - Manifesto for Agile Software Development

 A day like today, a 12th February, 20 years ago... 17 thinkers initiate what will became a world big change: Manifesto for Agile Software Development. 

The Software Industry was totally frustrated and in crisis, the success rate of Software Projects had very bad numbers. 

During more than 20 years, science tried to bring a "scientific" solution to the "Software Problem". 

Agility bring to the table simple strategies to deal with complexity. At the beginning, many people were skeptic, 

Mike Beedle, the man behind "Agile"

 

Regarding Jeff Sutherland, "Mike brought the agile name on the first day", and it refers more about "adaptability" and "light weight" meaning. Usually confused with "velocity".  

The 4 main values on agility's Core

 

The 4 values behind manifesto, written on the hand of Martin Fowler. 

What's the balance after 20 years?

 Improvements achieved and widely implemented: 

• Iteration model
  
• Team working 
• Education and trainings 

 

Partially achieved

• Decisions de-centralization 
• Self-organized teams 
• Commitment 
  

 

Poorly achieved

• Cultural change
• Coaching  
• Professional Dignity 
• Respect 
  

 

 

All you need, is Trust

Hello apocalypse survivors! 

Today we are going to talk about Trust. 

This article is based on Marco Leone's presentation at ICF. Original was in spanish, but here will provide an english version plus some of my own understandings. 

ICF has a new fresh Coach Competence list. And on its list has one crucial element to enable a Coaching relation to grow and cultivate:  

cultivates Trust and Safety

What is Trust in this context?

Is a "phenomenon" that happens in the context of our human relations.

When we lost Trust, we feel insecure, unsafe. 

Trust is composed by conversations. But not any kind of conversation, but the type of conversations that can creates the future I want to have with the others. 

Is a feeling or a mood that involves some judgements about the future into a relation. 

•  is not an accident 

How can we cultivate Trust?

Sincerity, Care and Competence. 

Trust is a "Skill", that includes these 3 competences.

When one of these 3 fails, Trust fall down immediately. 

When we express sincerely, and we care about others good, and we show proven competence to create results, then we are creating a background where Trust can be cultivated. 

Commitment is a big player in the Trust game. But its not its components. Trust will be the effect of honor our commitments. 

Someone is Sincere, when there is no lies. 

Someone "cares", not only when "cares about the other", but also when "I care about your good". "Care" is a feeling, and an action. 

The other needs to feel cared.

For this is important to sustain the relation through Time. 

Trust has many dimensions:

• How others trust on you
• How you trust on others
• How much you trust in yourself? 
• How your Trust feeling, impacts in your relation with certain reality? 

To Trust or to not Trust, is that the question?

In front of Trust Phenomenon, we can hold 4 types of strategies or attitudes. 2 will open possibilities, 2 will close them. 

 

• Naive 
• Negative, not constructive. 
• Is to trust on anything or situation. 
• Is a childish attitude in front of Life, and can drive to a disaster. 
  
• Trusted 
• Positive, constructive. 
• On this level, you know that is possible that someone can lie or dishonor the commitment, but you decide to take the risk. 
  
• Prudent
• Positive, constructive.
• The Prudent attitude, is to take all necessary measures to reduce risk. 
• The Prudent person takes control and surveillance of the situation. 
• The example, is when parents will give permission to a teenage daughter to go to party for the first time. They will make all necessary questions, and will take all necessary measures to avoid risk and dangers. 
• Where is the party
• Who will supervise it
• Who will drive you back home and when 
• When will the party ends... 
• etc...
  
• Suspicious
• Negative, not constructive. 
• Prefers to never trust in nothing, on any situation. 
• This is a typical situation in persons that get hurt on a Love relation, and decides to not love anymore. 
• Or those who where mistreated by managers, and then decides to not trust never again in the management. 
• Or also, when managers decides to never trust in his own employees.
  

Why the 2 extremes are negative? 

Because they can drive to negative experiences, and negative experiences will damage our skill to Trust. In us and in others. 

Now we are unveiling a new Phenomenon:

Trust is not inside of you, is in the Relation. 

Is a Co-Creation

We don't "coach" people

Coaching is a relation, is a dancing. You never "dance" the other. You "dance with" the partner.

Trust is not a phenomenon of Coaching, is a phenomenon of Life. 

No human relation can prosper without Trust. Is an elemental basic emotion, and even it precedes "Love". 

We use to think that we are in a relation with our partner, because of Love. 

Did you pay attention what happens with Love, when Trust falls down? 

Our Love relation falls down with it. And we would like to stop loving, on the same time that we stop trusting.  But it don't works that way, and then we suffer.

On the other direction, when we Trust so much on someone, Love appears.

The Relation, as a phenomenon, brings us a new paradigm.

Power is not inside you

We have Powerful Relations

The Guilty Paradigm

In this post we will explore the difference between two different mindsets: 

Guilty vs Responsible. 

The Field Principle

Hello Quarantiners !!!

Today I want to share with you one of my last and fresh thougths. 

The Field Principle 

The Soccer teams has a big advantage over Software Teams: they have a Field. 

In this Field managers cannot walk in during the game play. 

This Field is the space where they can play the game. Inside this constraints, they can be self-organized. That means: they can take a sort amount of decisions by them self. In front of a problem, they are empowered to immediately implement a solution. Actually, they are accountable for. 

Imagine how annoying could be for the players if outside people just walk in, control the ball, give them some indications, tell them "what to do", and a long etcetera...

Let your teams play 

Let your people do their job. They will be thankful. 

In a Scrum Team, the scrum master is accountable for keeping the rules in the game, and in this case, to keep the "Field" clean from intruders. 

But be careful with the metaphor, "putting a foot into the field" does not means specifically "to not put a foot into the developers office". Yes, that's one meaning. But there is more: 

Decisions. 

There is some sort of decisions, that should belong to the team. That's the meaning of "empowering" them. but, coming back to the "field" metaphor, to "invade the field" is also to take decisions that belongs to the team. 

There is no general model, and in everyplace this may vary, so I cannot tell you exactly what sort of decisions belongs to the team. You should decide and design in your space, what's better for you. Anyway, I can share some "field invasion" examples:

• Assigning a Commitment without being accepted
• Deciding about Team structure, without asking the Team 
• Doing estimations without asking the Team 
• Micro management and micro controlling 
• Writing requirements and detailed plans, without communicating a Vision neither nor transparent Strategies. 
• Sitting the developer as far as possible from customers and end users
  

 

As you can see, and maybe understand, is not only about respecting "physical space" but also "decisions space". 

And what about you? 

• What way are you invading and dis-empowering your teams? 
• What kind of "healthy distance" can you stablish to enable your teams to perform? 
• How much are you interfering and cutting  their Flow? 
• Do your teams has everything they need to create value? 
• How does your processes help everybody to see the Field limits and co working rules? 

Have a nice and safe day...

Daniel 

Coaching a Scrum Team

(picture source: www.tuleap.org)

Welcome to my new post. 

Today I want to share with you some perspective about how to use "Onthological Coching" questions to support a Scrum Team. This is a good example about how much has to do the "Coaching" discipline with the "Scrum Master" and/or "Agile Coach" roles. 

Long story short, I will share with you some "model quesions" to each Scrum Event. 

 

Enjoy! 

Keep safe and healthy. 

• Refinement 
• Are we ready for planning? 
• Do we see impediments or dependencies on the way?
  
• Sprint Planning 
• What do you want to achieve in this Sprint? 
  
• What is our Commitment? 
• What's Sprint Goal and/or Purpose?
  
• Daily
  
• What is happening? 
• What is holding us back from performing? 
• What's our progress toward Sprint Goal?
  
• Sprint Review 
• What is the delivered Value? 
• What did End Users won? 
• What represents Delivered Quality?
  
• Retrospective 
• What you want to change?  
• What did you learn from this experience? 
• What's your new discovery? 
• Given "x" problem: What can we do about?
  
• What change looks difficult or impossible? 
  
• What is preventing us to reach more optimized performance? 
  
• What if...?