These aren't the Agile Coaches you are looking for...

Half Star Wars, half Marcelo Lopez, AKT, CST ... and, by the way, there are many more who think and feel the same.

Now that I got your attention, let me enlighten you... or, at least, share my thoughts on the matter.

After years of exacerbated growth and misusage, Agile took a nasty beating for the last couple of years. We all know that and it is a well established fact all the many reasons this has happened - and is still happening in some markets.

With that, many companies have taken a step back in the all "let's go Agile" effort. But, as reality sets in, organisations realize they really need agility. More than ever. Just not "ready-made-turn-key-sold-one-size-fits-all-Agile".

And as an indirect consequence from the tumbles, roles have been changing. The Scrum Master is the new Project Manager. The Product Owner becomes Product Manager as well. And Agile Coaches become anyone. Or, for the sake of this article, everyone can become an Agile Coach all while keeping their respective roles.

Let me clarify. We know that an Agile Coach, by definition, encompasses a teacher, a mentor, a coach, etc. Of course that most people do not have the knowledge nor the training to pursue these functions let alone have the gall to be willingly referred to as an Agile Coach. Also, to be honest, there are many "coaches" out there who shouldn't even be allowed to retain the role either. Which has been a huge part of the problem. And that's why we see many Agile Coaches being laid off.

So, the current situation is:

• "consulting-ready-made-turn-key-sold-one-size-fits-all-Agile" and "coaches" screwed big time and brought down Agile with them;
• companies realised they still need, now more than ever, to be agile (loose the capital A) and agility;
• a shift in roles has happened, more or less organically, to adapt to this new reality;
• companies still need people to unblock and support teams (Scrum Masters), even is they became an hybrid Project Manager;
• companies still need people to create and manage value (Product Owners), even if they became an hybrid Product Manager;
• companies still deal with huge problems outside of dev teams.

What about the whole organisation?

Who's supporting the complete structure?

Who's helping companies align, become more transparent, deal effectively with dependencies and have a clear view of what is being done and, more importantly, what is possible to achieve in realistic time frames?

We need a new breed of Agile professional. Yes, he/she has similar traits of an Agile Coach but the role is more broad than that. We need someone who really isn't worried specifically if a team works in Scrum, Kanban, XP, or even Waterfall. (let's face it, there's room and circumstances that require different approaches)

We need someone who looks objectively to an organisation and creates a thorough assessment of the workflow, the inputs and outputs, the real dependencies, how business units connect, how they communicate, and in the end, creates - with the organisation - a working non linear plan.

These are not your run of the mill Agile Coaches, and this would not be your "ready-made-turn-key-sold-one-size-fits-all-Agile" consulting company.

I do not offer solutions to a problem I don't even understand.

I learn as much as possible about the company and, with the help of the company, bring to light the problems, the hidden assumptions, the bottlenecks and, in the end, I propose some ways to try to solve them. I do not promise a miracle when a company is a living organism, ran by people, existing in an ever changing economic, political, social environment.

The pretension of being capable to solve every issue on my own - being an individual or a company - when it comes to a customer is simply preposterous.

Me, personally, and my company. We offer a service, not miracles.

So if you're looking for a silve bullet then... these aren't the Agile Coaches you are looking for.

This is what I call honest consulting.

#evoluhir