The other is when we step back, look the other way, or avoid confrontations around clear violations of the Agile rules: Product Owners who don’t engage, stories that are not tested within the iteration, managers who slip work in around the Agile prioritization process (and the Product Owner), stand-ups that go on for an hour. Perhaps we are worried about  job security, or don’t want to rock the boat, or just have a hard time with conflict, either way we say nothing, or we ‘complain’ about the violation but don’t actually take a stand.

The irony? The thing that persuades people most strongly is not what we say (trying to convince them), but rather who we are (taking a stand). Think of the ‘blow hard’ people you know who are always preaching about something. Do you find them persuasive, or annoying?

The trouble is we are coaches, first and foremost, and the ethical guidance for a coach (see ICF Coach Core Competencies) is that she hold the client’s agenda as the driving factor, not her own agenda. So, what would it mean for a coach to take a stand, and how can I hold the client’s agenda while holding the line on the Agile rules?

I have found that when I am able to navigate this dilemma well, it is because I maintain a certain sense of engaged neutrality along with courage. On one hand, I let clients know the Agile ‘rules.’ For instance, I may say, “when playing the Agile game, you can only complete a story when the team finishes all the work that fulfills its acceptance criteria and definition of done, including the testing.” “But we just can’t get to all the testing,” the QA manager may complain. “And my people are feeling devalued because you say their stories are not done so they don’t get credit for them.”

Here, I may take a clarification and educational tack: “I want to understand why they feel they are not getting credit? Perhaps the organization does not understand how Agile teams work?” Or, if this is not the first such conversation on the topic, I may need to balance my expert mentor role with being a coach and consultant: “Perhaps Agile is not right for this team at this point? You and the team will have to decide that, I can’t do that for you. But I do know how to play the Agile game, and that includes finishing everything on a story within an iteration.  How can I help you decide what is best for you to do?” From here I may help the client explore what is frustrating them, what the blocks are, what their own values are, etc. I may also need to invoke multiple levels of ‘client,’ the team as client, the vice president who brought me in as client, etc.

What helps is for me to remember two things. I know what is clearly not Agile, and if I don’t take a stand around it, I am colluding with the client in a kind of lie. I must stand in the courage of my convictions. I must also differentiate things that I think are good practices, but are not really part of the Agile rules. I don’t take a stand here, just offer my advice when appropriate.

The other side is detaching from what the client decides to do for themselves. They may not follow the Agile rules or other guidance. They may decide to do “Cragile’ or “Scrumbut.’ As a good coach, I may even help them decide that this is what makes sense for them, that it is honoring their values or needs as an organization. As a good coach, I maintain my respect for them and manage myself to not bring my own judgement into criticizing them for what they decide.

But, I don’t sell them (or myself) out by calling that Agile.

Michael is excited to be starting a  leadership coaching group for managers & executives engaged in Agile transformations. From the beginning of his Agile career, Michael has worked extensively with management and their unique perspective on the world of self-organized teams and the necessary changes to management assumptions that accompany an Agile transition. Managers making the (at times difficult) transition to Agile is a subject near to his heart.

The group is exclusively for those in management or executive level positions to help us ground fully and focus in the managerial perspective. The group will consist of coaching, peer support, and expert advising from Michael, based on his nine years doing large scale Agile transformations. It  will have elements of group coaching, a mastermind group, and peer supervision. The group will be limited to 4-6 people and will meet on a biweekly basis for 3-6 months.

Potential Topics:

• Organizational transformation & change models
• Leading teams from the boundary
• Leadership agility
• Eight Agile Manager competencies
• Leadership style assessment
• Issues in Agile Leadership

There are currently several slots open, so if you are interested please let us know.

Michael’s purpose is to share two things: his experience in coaching and organizational transformation, and his professional coach training as a relationship systems coach. He believes coaching groups are part of something trying to happen in our world. . .bringing coaching and mentoring to more people and creating community bonds and networks in the process. A colleague, Bachan Anand, recorded a brief interview with Michael about coaching circles. It is available onYouTube. Or see his blog post on the overall topic of Coaching Circles. Coaching circles are also available for Agile Coaches.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
-George Bernard Shaw

Teams, I’ve become fond of saying, are a force of Nature. They allow us to be used for a purpose recognized by ourselves as a mighty one. They get results. More often than not, they are FAR better at getting things done than are individuals, even than collections of individuals who exhibit good teamwork!  If you have been on a real team, you will never forget it. You will always long to be on one again. Real teams simply ‘destroy’ business problems, thereby creating awe in management; they are favored by their leaders, thereby creating envy in other ‘teams.’

Can’t all teams be such forces of Nature, you ask?  Well, yes and no, depending on the business problem on the one hand, and your willingness to let go, on the other.

For many years, I have been a student of Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith’s heavily research-based book, The Wisdom of Teams.  One of the book’s central findings is that teams form only because they have to, more or less. That is, when the performance challenge being faced cannot be solved by individuals–even those exhibiting good ‘teamwork’–a team is the solution.

Wisdom’s specific definition is “a small number of people with complementary skills, committed to a common purpose, with a set of performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” The common purpose and performance goals are critical: they must be substantive and meaningful, both in business and in personal terms to team members. Likewise, the team holds themselves mutually accountable: when team members say (or think) “well, I did what I was supposed to do, but . . .” then you know its not a team. On a team, it can only be that ‘we didn’t get it done.’ Wisdom’s term for this kind of team is a performing team.

I call it a team entity. I use the word ‘entity’ deliberately. Teams are living systems, with their own personality, culture, and self-regulating mechanisms. This entity can be evoked and nurtured and grown. Most importantly for a team, it can simply be revealed, which tends to grow and nurture it. Revealing is most easily done by outsiders like leaders and coaches.

The accountability and the entity observation come together in another: on a real team–a team entity–it is as if the primary identification of the members shift from them as individuals to the team as a whole. When we work on a real team, we do whatever we must do to fulfill the team’s mission; I as an individual come second. Ironically, its not like losing yourself, instead its more like finding yourself, finding your home, belonging.

It’s like finding the true joy in life: becoming a force of Nature.