Language vs. Intent

Imagine if one day you walked up to your significant other and told them, “I love you” and their response was, “te amo”. Would that be the source of a disagreement? Probably not; but time after time coaches find themselves in “violent agreement” because one uses one term to describe an agile concept and the other uses another.

This is compounded when working on an agile transformation. Organizations have their own vernacular, their own “native language” and this can be an impediment to progress in a transformation. The terms used can have deep roots and even multiple meanings within the organization leading to further miscommunication and misunderstanding.

If you, as an adult, have ever tried to learn a new language you understand how difficult it can be. The impulse to translate literally rather than understand the meaning of the words can be a challenge. Going into an engagement it is important to remember this. Pedantic responses can cause frustration, distrust and unnecessary conflict especially when there is alignment of intent.

Language, the words we use, can be important. They are integral to our culture and identity. We need to respect them and seek to understand not only the words but the true intent behind them.

Coaching Fatigue

Typically, when you begin a coaching engagement there is a period of observation and assessment. This is the way we get to understand the lay of the land and get a feel for how mature our teams are going in.

Put yourself in this situation though: As a team, this might be the third, fourth, or greater time that you have been observed and assessed. This can lead to coaching fatigue and it can hinder your ability to be successful in your engagement. The teams might be particularly resistant to accepting your coaching, especially if it contradicts advice they have received from previous coaches.

This is exacerbated by the fact that we, as coaches, seem to never agree on our agile philosophies. There is a tendency within the community to let our own biases turn each coaching engagement into an entire re-do regardless of previous progress.

There are; however, steps we can take as coaches to try to limit coaching fatigue.

Instead of immediately going into observe and assess mode, take time to talk to the team about previous coaching they have received. What were the lessons learned, what were the strengths of the previous coach? How can you build on that to move the team to achieve greater success?

Most importantly, what can you, as a coach, learn from those who preceded you? As a coach, you should always seek to improve. Not by advancing your own agenda but by learning new things and new ways of thinking.

If we can get over ourselves as alleged experts and realize that we are part of an evolution of agile thought, we can overcome coaching fatigue and move our teams forward in their agile journey.

Four Flavors of Agile Coaching

Every Agile Coach is different. Each comes with his/her unique skills, personality and experience. With this diversity in the coaching community, patterns begin to emerge.

While it is impossible to generalize and pigeon-hole every coach into a small set of categories, my observations have led me to the conclusion that there are four basic “flavors” of agile coaching. Each has value and each has challenges and the best coaches are the ones who can flow from one to another with ease and at the appropriate times.

In my experience, coaches I have interacted with fall into one (or more) of the following “flavors”

1. The Psychologist
2. The Professor
3. The Analyst
4. The PMO Exile

The Psychologist

At its core, agile development is about people. People build the things that bring the value that keep us in business. That makes this coaching flavor very valuable when it comes to mobilizing teams and getting them to reach a sustainable and predictable pace.

Dealing with overcoming conflicts and adapting to a world in which personal and team empowerment can be a daunting task, and this coach can help to recognize deviation from an agile mindset and help to maximize the effectiveness of an agile team.

The Professor

Even though agile development has been around for quite a while, it is still a relatively new concept to many technologists. Not only because of lingering legacy models of development but also because of the variety of agile methods and the evolution of knowledge in executing in an agile world.

The professor is an agile coach who is expert at distilling the necessary knowledge and presenting it in training classes, workshops and webinars. Good ones are able to take the material and translate it to the business context of their clients and build a strong persistent base of knowledge within the teams under their care.

The Analyst

While agile at its core is about people the stark reality is that the success or failure of an agile team is based upon results. Development costs money, usually a lot of money and the stakeholders want to know that they are receiving value for the cost.

In addition, in order to know we are improving, we have to be able to measure results to validate that our improvement experiments are working.

This leads to the coach as analyst. The analyst is able to identify and understand what the right measurements are to achieve those goals. This is critically important because the wrong measurements will lead to devastating effects in stakeholder perception and team morale.

The analyst not only can apply focus to the right measurements but also what to do with them to help the team improve and maximize their potential.

The PMO Exile

Agile development requires discipline but it is a new type of discipline. Teams are expected to be self-directed, the responsibilities of traditional project management are distributed across various roles on the team. There are some things, especially in larger organizations that are beyond the control of each individual agile team.

The PMO Exile can be a valuable flavor of agile coaching as in these situations, coaching is needed beyond the team. Product Managers, Project Managers, People Managers, Directors and Vice Presidents need coaching too. In order to apply this coaching, the coach needs to understand the traditional viewpoint in order to help the organization transform to a new mindset and way of working.

Too much of one Not Enough of the Others

As I said in the intro, each of the flavors of agile coaching adds value to agile transformations. The best coaches among us are able to move from one flavor to another with ease. Each coach will have their strengths and areas with opportunities for improvement but it is important when engaging a coach that you look for one who brings a “Neapolitan” approach to coaching in your organization.

Now for the Discussion Part

What other flavors of agile coaching have you experienced?

The Journey Begins

Please allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Michael Callahan and I am a technology consultant with an affinity for Agile Development. Some call me an Agile Coach but sometimes I’m not really sure what that means.

I’ve created this blog to share insights based on observations, opinions and experience on a wide range of agile topics.

Hopefully you find value in these posts and pages. If nothing else I hope to generate conversations and make work better, one person at a time.