What's an agile coach?
How can you transform your team?
Agile coaches help companies that want to transform - they focus on progress. But what this looks like is specific to each customer and that also means that every day is different.
Sometimes, it's about teaching new techniques to large teams; sometimes, an agile coach can set goals for an organization or support individual managers.
However, it does not stop here. Agile is more than just a way to efficiency and can be used in almost every aspect of life. For example, a Kanban board can be set up to organize a family reunion.
Agile is not suited for software development
Agile's success in software development has drawn other industries to adopt this practice. Currently, one can see that financial companies, personnel teams, and even veterinary clinics are using these methods to stay organized and productive - this fits for any industry, but especially well in the technology industry.
Agile is no longer a niche practice, and you can find a variety of agile coaches, each with their own specialization. This could be the case, for example, with a focus on organizational transformation or technical expertise in software. As an agile coach, you support individuals, teams, organizations - so you have to be prepared to intervene on each of these three levels at any time.
But some skills are better suited to companies that already have their own agile coaches—coaches for coaches, so to speak. As an internal agile coach, you’re probably overseeing projects throughout the company, and an outsider’s perspective can often bring more clarity. Scaling customer approaches and implementing agile techniques are part of her work. Internal coaches shoulder a great deal of responsibility throughout organizations and can thus benefit from agile training. For instance, suppose you want to build an organization into something bigger. You’ll need coaches within the organization who are knowledgeable in these areas and can help scale the type of change.
Agile coaching is a kind of therapy
The process is not the only thing that will be changed – the team dynamics will also be examined. For example, a company may have the goal of creating more transparency. In this situation, it is important for the leadership team to show exactly how it is working towards the company's goals, and not just articulate demands to employees.
When examining the workflow of an organization, it can help to find ways to shorten development timelines while still delivering high quality products. A common misunderstanding in these cases is the assumption that it is about getting things done in less time. "Sometimes we may have to slow down to speed up."
Give the teams the power over change
Most people prefer autonomy when they experience change, so teams should take the lead in discussion and coaches should guide them to find their own solutions. Nobody likes it when people are constantly telling them what to do and what is right.
The team must be committed to sustainable change for it to be successful. If the team feels like they are being pushed into a process or implementing solutions they have no responsibility or say over, it will not work in the long run. Communication is crucial to this, and the team must feel like they are working together.
The process is a dance between the exchange of expertise and the demonstration of empathy - it's simply in the nature of coaching work. Agile Coach is an interesting position because it is a position with influence but not with authority. There are personal relationships and trust really important.
Strengthening team dynamics
It is not uncommon for one to focus on a solution to a problem and then discover other problems that were overlooked. It is difficult for people to realize where they are wrong, and here a coach can be really helpful. You will have a team that presents one thing, but then you work with them and you find that underneath it is something else that has been bothering them all along.
The agile method of discovery requires that coaches are able to do accurate research and ask people for their opinion on what could work better.
It is important to be aware of the implications of what is said in an organization. Do not only listen to the words that are spoken, but also to the unspoken words and the body language of people. Sometimes the solution is simple: Are people happy coming to work? If there are many unhappy looking employees, something in the system is causing this type of dissatisfaction.
When it comes to team dynamics, people often look to Bruce Tuckman's phases of team development for guidance. These phases show how a team progresses from beginning to end. In the early phase, all teams are at their best - they're just getting started. Eventually, people will show their mistakes and learn their limits. That's how people learn to work together.
In the next phase, teams establish behaviors and practices, and finally move into the "performance" phase, where everyone works optimally.
Agile coaches and scrum masters can help effectively design certain milestones by providing teams with a wide range of possibilities - so you don't have to keep using the same exact retrospective format.
Conducting retrospectives with different techniques can provide more insight and creativity. For example, a wall of post-its can help team members share their feelings about what worked and didn't work in a sprint, while a data-centered retro can help teams evaluate their performance against metrics and identify areas for improvement.
Changing the format, questions asked, or activity conducted can keep things interesting and also lead to new insights and new action plans for the team.
Asking the right questions
As an agile coach, it is important to determine who you will help and how you will proceed. The teams you work with will come to you for guidance on various things. Their requests can be specific, such as recommendations on the level of detail required for backlog items, or more general, such as advice on how to deal with team members who do not work well together.
Metrics are also very important - for example, using information about the predictability of deliveries and the state of the backlog to find out which teams and problems need to be addressed. And listening is a skill that can lead to a deeper understanding.
It is helpful for trainers to ask questions in order to identify weaknesses and to elicit more informative responses. Important are questions that directly relate to the topic: What hurts you most in everyday life? Which problem should disappear quickly? Where is time wasted?
Asking questions of this nature helps to understand the underlying issues and contributing factors that are necessary for developing the right solutions. Many people spend too much time complaining or describing the problem - this should be turned around and asked: What does good look like?
A true understanding of the why behind something will set you on the right path sooner.
