The term Agile Coach has been used to describe a myriad of roles within the Software Development space - anywhere from a Scrum Master, Project Manager, to an agile curious Technical Lead. Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition by Lyssa Adkins is the definitive book on what truly makes an Agile Coach.

Coaching a full-time job for agile coach, and part-time job for all leaders

Constantly need to reawaken and refocus

Take it to the team

Ch1 - Will I Be A Good Coach

Agile exposes the dirt - sunlight is the best disinfectant

40% Doing, 60% Being - a agile coach models agile all the time!

Time and budget remain constant, only scope is flexible

Native Wiring:

• Read room
• Care for people over products
• Cultivate curiosity
• People basically good
• Act in the moment
• Thirst for learning
• Excellence worth pursuing
• Intolerance for "way we do it here"
• Messiness is expected
• Risk being wrong

Find your voice

Journey to Coach

Ch2 - Expect High Performance

Quest for high performance moves away from the hamster wheel - autonomy, mastery, purpose #drive

High performance is a journey towards something better - next right thing

Lead by believing

High Performance Tree, roots as values - team kick off technique

Ch3 - Master Yourself

Coaching starts with you, but it's not about you

When you coach, bring yourself

Start with self, identify growing edge

Identify Conflict Resolution Style

Use Nonviolent Communication - for leaders there is no such thing as a trivial comment

Practice your Servant Leadership

Grow your Emotional Intelligence

Master yourself in the moment

Master higher levels of listening

Ch4 - Let Your Style Change

Shu-Ha-Ri

The student is the teacher, the teacher is the student

Agile Coach Styles:

• Teaching
• Coaching
• Advising

Ch5 - Coach as Coach-Mentor

Achievements:

• Astonishing results
• Healthier growing teams
• Help individuals next step

Coach team at beginning and end, then individuals in the middle

Be present, coach out loud as

Tone: loving, compassionate, uncompromising

Meet them half step ahead of where they are - one on one agile coaching

Guarantee safety - Psychological Safety as a Prerequisite #modernagile

Open with observation or invitation

Ch6 - Coach as Facilitator

Coach creates container, team creates content

Their meeting, not mine - focus, wander, attention

Self-sufficiency is the goal

Help them see

Agile Ceremonies

Stand up - commitment and coordination

Sprint planning - know work, fresh start, shared goals, focus

Sprint review - true up, show and tell, feedback, ask for help

Retrospective - inspect and adapt, how, do better

Ch7 - Coach as Teacher

Learn about process, team, and work - GO

Understand teams current agile aptitude, then reinforced core competencies

Break ice for the team, but don't spend all day - more success task orienting team over relationships

Create a Shared Vision that engages on multiple levels - individual, team, company

Create team norms, aka Working Agreements - values, social, logistics, and conflict resolution

Work ahead - envision, backlog, get going

Constantly teach agile roles - PO, Manager, Coach

Ch8 - Coach as Problem Solver

Do not inflict help on team - let them learn to solve own problems - empower

Doing something for someone else, is doing something too someone else

It's the team's commitment - take the problem to the team

Don't go looking for problems, address them as they arise

Rubric:

• problem
• pause
• take to team
• allow team to act, or not

Problem Levels:

• process
• performance
• team dynamics

Run health checks - Agile Team Dynamics

When problems arise, get some space - sleep on it - reaffirm agile process that can solve

Reveal the system to itself #orsc

System is organic, not mechanistic

Ch9 - Coach as Conflict Navigator

Escalation Path Conflict Model

• hear complaints
• feel energy
• observe language

Teams often can self navigate up to level three - self organization

Response modes:

• analyze
• structures
• reveal

Don't carry complaints for team, have individuals address other party directly when possible

Intervention Steps:

• have you shared with party?
  • dry run?
• would it help if I go with you?
  • when/where
  • dry run?
• may I tell party on your behalf?

No anonymous complaints

Boost positivity to negativity ratio - at least three good to bad

Ch10 - Coach as Collaboration Conductor

Cooperation or Collaboration

• Collaboration: greater sum parts
  • emergence
• Cooperation: sum parts
  • smooth transitions

Collaboration built upon cooperation

Collaboration Behaviors:

• speak unspeakable
• build up
• here all voices
• nurture collaboration intimacy
• faith in emergence
• get unstuck
• play seriously together

Human beings first, then work mates

Make sure all voices heard

When muscle is built, go conductorless

Ch11 - Agile Coach Failure, Recovery, and Success Modes

Failure Modes:

• spy
• seagull
• opinionator
• admin
• hub
• butterfly
• expert
• nag

Recover - replace fear with trust

Success Modes:

• magician
• child
• ear
• heckler
• wise fool
• creeping vine
• dreamer
• megaphone

Practice, awareness, next right thing

Ch12 - When Will I Get There

No finish line, keep learning and integrating skills

Skills:

• instilled agile practices
• started up agile team
• coach 1x1
• coached team
• coach po
• coached outsiders
• coach change
• instigated paths to performance
• accepted their ideas
• mastered yourself
• model agile values and principles
• navigated conflict
• self-path of growth
• started giving back

Measure self as leader, not manager

Only you know when you have arrived

Reference Journal Events: Start, Finish