Walking Their Talk, Sustainability, Inspiration
Robert Galen
Sustainability

I saw this wonderfully courageous and informative post by Sabine Canditt the other day where she wrote about Sustainable Scrum. 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sustainable-scrum-responsible-choice-sabine-canditt-x0gef

After just completing a The Week program facilitated by the amazing Ann-Marie Kong, it touched my heart.

That said, I wanted to highlight one comment reaction/interaction between Sabine and Erich Bühler 

Erich said—

Thank you for bringing this approach into the world! Scrum does provide an iterative approach for teams to create value, but its scope is limited to the product level and struggles with dynamics across the whole organization for several reasons.
Without updating the underlying business and financial model at a strategic level, Scrum alone cannot transform organization-wide sustainability.

Sustainability
Short-takes, Inspiration
Robert Galen
Sandy’s Take
Sandy’s Take
Short-takes, Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
The Human Aspects of Agile Coaching
The Human Aspects of Agile Coaching
Coaching, ACGW, Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
Keys to Building your Coaching Relationships

I talk a lot about the first step in coaching any client (individual, system, team, etc.) is to build a relationship, gain empathy and understanding, and then gain an idea of where/how to help initially. So, do NOT start to coach until you’ve done some relationship-building. 

But what does a coaching relationship, or a professional relationship in general, look like? What are aspects of that? Here are a few things that come to my mind—

  • Making + taking the time.

  • Explaining what you do—what is Agile Coaching.

  • Building some empathy; walking in their shoes; understanding where they are coming from.

  • Meeting them where they are.

  • Listening; reflective listening; building metaphors together.

  • Connecting with their language, not yours.

Keys to Building your Coaching Relationships
Personal Thoughts, Short-takes
Robert Galen
Privilege Awareness

I recently replied to a LinkedIn post by David Pereira. It was a wonderful post, and I applaud David’s boldness and courage in sharing it. 

Here’s a post comment from Stefan Wolpers—

While I agree fully with your personal stance regarding professionalism, David Pereira, some people will shy away, given the current economic climate. Some of the previously aggravated people may seek an opportunity to settle scores.

And here’s my comment—

I love the clarity (No BS) here. Clarity for David and clarity for those who want to work with and who don't want to work with him.
That said, David has the unique privilege that allows him to adopt this clarity. Many don't.

This post is not about David per se. Instead, he inspired me to write it.

Privilege Awareness

Training

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Who Wants to Become a Badass Agile Coach?

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A Masterclass 

When I first conceived the Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching book, I was reacting to my perceived lack of professionalism and craft with many agile coaches in our community. Among other things, I felt that—

  • There were many coaches in name only with a few certifications under their belts but not enough experience or skill. Chasing the money, if you will.

  • There was an imbalance towards Professional Coaching over more powerful stances such as Mentoring, Advising, Leading, and Transformation (see ACGW reference below).

  • As a community, we had failed to do an excellent job of communicating what agile coaching was, was not, and the value or impact it could have on the individual, team, and organization we are coaching.

So, initially, I envisioned creating a masterclass for agile coaching. It is not necessarily aligned with existing certifications but a place where agile coaches could immerse in all aspects of coaching skill and practice—significantly raising their skill bar to benefit themselves and their clients.

But then my work on the book and contributing to the Comparative Agility—Agile Coaching PI assessment and Agile Coaching Growth Wheel got in the way. So, a few years passed.

Masterclass

But now, my attention, focus, and hope for our profession fall back toward a class. But not just any class, a Masterclass rooted in—

  • Developing your inner coach (self) first.

  • Becoming more well-wounded in your skills & competencies.

  • Understand the place for a professional coaching stance, yet do not let it dominate your agile coaching.

  • More than teaching. A place where a group of like-minded coaches can collaborate—learning together, practicing together, and growing together.

  • Nurturing collaborative learning in small groups.

  • Becoming, dare I say it, a Badass Agile Coach.

And, of course, grounding the class in—

The class will be an immersive experience. We’ll meet for 2-hours each week to dive deeply into a specific topic or area. That will go on for ~12 sessions or ~3 months. Beyond the 2-hours per week, there will be an additional 2-3 hours of study and small-group learning. So, overall, a ~5-hour commitment per week of your time.

The class will also be constructed so that you get personalized coaching to help you in your learning journey and professional development. We’ll use the Comparative Agility PI as our base platform and include 2, 1-hour, 1:1 coaching sessions.

What It Is not?

It is not for beginners or novice agilists.

It is not for someone who is only seeking a certification.

It is not for someone who struggles to prioritize their learning.

It is not for someone who thinks Agile Coaching is a destination rather than a journey.

Who’s interested?

This post aims to test community interest in joining my first masterclass cohort.

Without giving additional detail, my questions are—

  • How do you feel about the idea?

  • Would you be interested in participating in a cohort? Why?

  • What would you be willing to pay for the experience?

  • What would be the Top 5 areas you’d like to work on to improve your Agile Coaching skillset?

Here’s a link to a short survey to answer those questions.

I hope to begin the first one in early March 2024, but we’ll see how the market (Y'all) responds. And please share this with interested colleagues across your networks.

Stay agile, my friends,

Bob.

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What Makes Agile & Scrum Training Effective?

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What Makes Agile & Scrum Training Effective?

Is the title of a recent article by Anthony Mersino. In it, Anthony lists the following factors that increase training effectiveness—

  1. Agile training should be engaging;

  2. Agile training MUST be interactive;

  3. Agile trainers should share real-world experience;

  4. Agile and Scrum training should be fun;

  5. Agile and Scrum training should be Just-in-Time.

I don’t disagree with anything Anthony says. Although, I have written about keeping classes balanced so that there isn’t too much interaction or fun. I know that sounds odd, but there can always be too much of a good thing. You can read some of my previous thoughts around agile training in this list in the following posts: