Agile Coaching Bandwagons

The following are examples, off the top of my head, of bandwagons that we’ve been historically jumping on in the Agile space as practitioners, coaches, and Scrum Masters—

• Agile as the Goal

• Professional Coaching

• TFTBOTR

• Enterprise & Scaling Frameworks

• Scrum, Kanban & Flow

• Certification Extravaganza

• Miro, Jira, etc. boards & tools

• AI in Agile Coaching

The problem I have with all the bandwagons is that, to date, they haven’t helped us help our clients as Agile Coaches. Largely, they’ve been diversions from what matters most.

And if you look around today, the value of Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches couldn’t be lower in the eyes of our coaching clients, sponsors, and stakeholders.

Yet here we are again jumping on the AI in Agile Coaching bandwagon and hoping that IT will save the day for us.

Another way of looking at the bandwagons is that we seem to be looking for easy buttons in our development as change agents. Something that doesn’t require too much human learning and growth on our part to make an impact. A unicorn, if you will.

Well, there are no unicorns, and there are no easy buttons. In fact, as I explored in this post, the key to our learning and growth is tacit knowledge, which isn’t gained via classes and reading.

What we need to develop is—

1. Deep empathy and respect for our coaching clients (especially leaders).

2. Deep domain skills so that we can step in and have direct technical, business, and organizational impact.

3. Broad Agile Coaching skills to meet clients where they are and help them achieve their goals.

4. Humility and emotional intelligence.

5. A balance between the team needs and organizational needs.

6. More applied experience! Less talking and questioning and more doing. Taking risks with our clients.

While looking for those Easy Buttons, we’ve largely ignored our own development and growth in the above areas. We also often lack the self-awareness to recognize when we are in over our heads and to back off.

And our learning comes not from certifications and books; it comes from direct experience gained through hard work and time.

That’s probably why so many are avoiding it.

Peter Fischbach and I have developed and delivered a more immersive sort of coaching class over the past three years. It focuses largely on developing your tacit knowledge. We hope to inspire you to tackle more of those challenging but elusive skills that truly make the difference in the value and impact of your coaching.

We promise, no bandwagons.

Instead, by using the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel as a backdrop, we hope to inspire you to grow your (tacit) experience and skills both in and after the class.

Currently, the class runs for 10 consecutive weeks, so it’s not a minor time- and effort-commitment on your part. It involves cohort practice outside of each week’s class in small groups. You’ll practice coaching, modeling, mentoring, and did I say coaching?

You’ll get out of the class what you put into it. Our job is to ensure we accommodate whatever growth rate you wish to achieve. We’ve seen students come out of the class with a completely different understanding of what ‘good’ looks like in their coaching and drastically improve their organizational impact.

Stay agile, my friends,

Bob.

Our next class is scheduled to begin on September 16^th and run for 10 consecutive weeks.

If you want to become Badass in your coaching skills, this is the class for you. Join us!

Share