Becoming an Agile Coach

My mother always used to tell me I have a knack for engaging with people and I should one day “do something with it”. One client who ended up hiring me as Agile Coach to support their team for almost two years mentioned something similar: Even when the team might be down or might be in the resistance or chaos phase of change, she was sure I’d get them through it all. And she mentioned that after meeting me once for one hour. At first, I didn’t really understand how this will relate to me working as their Scrum Master and Agile Coach.

Why am I starting my story with this little anecdote? This innate passion of always moving forward and (almost) never losing hope is the one key driver that powered my agile coaching journey and defined me as an agile coach. In this article, I want to share my story with you. And hopefully, you can get some tips and insights for your transformation out of it too. Yes, I’m calling it a transformation because that is what becoming an agile coach in the last 2 1/2 years has been for me — and still is.

From methodology to real-life experiences.

The one thing I learnt rather early when starting off as Agile Coach was that theory and practice are two completely different things. In one of my early assignments as Scrum Master, I was tasked with setting up a newly developed team responsible for digitally innovating the POS. The team was part of a large legacy corporation that recently implemented Agile and Scrum. I arrived loaded with a lot of theoretical know-how and some selective practical experiences with Scrum. But nothing prepared me for the lessons that I quickly learnt once I got into the groove with the team.

The theoretical knowledge was necessary for me to understand where the team is supposed to be when working in an agile context. I urge everyone to experience at least one (legitimate) course. I completed both the Scrum Master and Service Design Thinking certifications. However, I soon discovered the impediments hindering large corporations from excelling in agile.

These impediments were rather obvious and simple: for example, the team had no real co-working spaces and walls that separated them from each other. Hence, they never really talked throughout the day, even though they sat next to or across from each other. Simply walking over to another team to ask them for input or updates was unheard of — e-mail was the preferred way to communicate, although mails sometimes got lost or weren’t answered at all. At first, the team struggled a lot with the definition of “innovation” and the individual team members with finding their roles and purpose in the given task. At first, these impediments seem to be too mundane for me to be relevant. My job was to implement Scrum for and with them.

Implementing theory into practice takes time, so-called “Fingerspitzengefühl” and looking beyond the taught agile practices. I came with the aim to change the whole organisation within a couple of weeks by teaching them Scrum but started with small tweaks and changes that already had a significant impact on their way of working. In the end, we dismantled the walls separating the desks during the winter break, which allowed the team to see and talk to each other. At first, it was like a shock going through the company (“how dare they!”), but now it is one of the use cases advocating for different kind of workspaces at the company — small changes do matter.

It’s not about you; it’s about them.

I often met aspiring Scrum Masters thinking that this is the new big thing to outshine all their colleagues. It is genuinely not. The team and their needs, thoughts, worries and sometimes also anger are your main concern. At first, I struggled a lot with this. Having spent the whole day with my agile squad exhausted me mentally at first. I felt every frustration they had with the company, with their lack of advancement due to the organisational impediments and generally with each other.

I had to learn to separate myself while not losing empathy for the people I’m working with. Your aim is not to outshine them all, but to support your team to excel in their job.

As an agile coach, you have to be able to fulfil different roles: impediment remover, facilitator, coach, teacher, servant leader, manager, change agent and mentor. Be ready to adapt accordingly.

A team doesn’t make the team.

Be agile, do Scrum, innovate: these are probably the most common trend words in the business world at the moment. In most cases, companies hired me to make their team agile and “faster”. Over 2 1/2 years later, I have worked with different groups in various industries: jewellery, aviation, telecommunication, automobile and pharmacy.

The one thing I discovered all of them have in common is that if the team doesn’t have an agreed-upon purpose and actively decides what they want and can contribute to achieving the goal, it isn’t a team and never will be. In most cases, in which the team had no clear purpose, the individual people felt lost in the group. Team members disengaged to work as lone wolves and others started to complain whenever the chance to do so presented itself.

More often than not, the finding process of a team was entirely omitted or brushed over. However, for a long-term business impact, it’s crucial to allow the team to get to know each other, to let them define their purpose, mission, contribution and decide on how they want to work together. Just think about it: even if you just replace one team member in the group, it already changes the dynamic.

Nevertheless, the “making of a team” is not done by completing a one-day workshop — the team has to continually reflect on their way of working together to evolve as a group and to be able to (continue) to solve complex problems. That’s what a retrospective is for — so don’t skip it, even it sometimes feels uncomfortable. It’s supposed to.

It (sometimes) feels like a constant uphill battle.

Change doesn’t come easily to people. Everyone is struggling with change at one point or another. As an agile coach, it sometimes feels as if nothing advances: one step forward, two steps back. And I’m here to tell you it’s OK! The work of an agile coach is never done, which makes it so exciting. People tend to fall back to their old patterns they feel comfortable with when situations get tough.

Even though that might seem frustrating at times, don’t get discouraged. I learnt at early on that for something to change, you have to stick with it. It is your job to accompany your team through these tricky times, to be their partner in crime (so to speak) and to guide them through it with a clear goal in mind. You are responsible for provide them with a long-term perspective. If you’re sure of their end destination, the team will be too.

Change is never linear; it is more like a rollercoaster. So buckle up and enjoy the ride. After completing what feels like the third looping in a row, the success will feel so much sweeter.

It also helps to sometimes look back at the journey you’ve already completed, to celebrate the milestones and to reflect on how far the team has come already.

Mindset is everything.

The last lesson I want to share with you is mindset is everything and needs to be developed, trained and maintained like a muscle. You can provide your team with as much knowledge as you want to, if they are not aligned with the agile way of thinking, it is futile.

In most cases, mindsets change when encountering extreme situations and when we’re being pushed outside of our comfort zone. It’s often difficult for people to adopt new mindsets if they don’t necessarily have to.

That’s why it is also vital to create constant experiences for the team, where they have to re-think their approach and to make them aware of it. Making the experience is one thing, encouraging and assisting the team to reflect on the triggers of change in mindset is the key to long-term impact. Because then they recognize the reason why.

In summary, what I’ve learnt on my journey towards becoming an agile coach is:

• Understanding the interdependence of theory and practice and being able to adapt in accordance with the companies timeline is necessary to thrive alongside the team.
• Small changes can already mean a huge step forward for companies and teams. Agile coaching is not only about practices but also about circumstances and working environment.
• Being an agile coach means the team and their needs are your priority. While it is important to look after oneself, as an agile coach you need to be able to fulfil various roles to support your squad anyway they need.
• A team needs the time to become a team — and that is a constant work in progress. When you prioritize teamwork, the team will excel in their job.
• Process, methodologies and rituals are one thing. Working agile likewise means a shift in mindset, which comes from real-life experiences and needs to be trained on a constant basis.

I, for one, am still working on my mindset. The challenge of changing mindsets within the teams I accompany is the next big challenge I want to tackle for myself.

Together with my coach Robert Bloom at the Design Thinkers Academy, I talked a lot about mindset and what is needed for teams to work together to solve complex problems:

1. Navigating ambiguity — Exploring problems with curiosity (openness) — be comfortable with uncertainty
2. Empathy (user-centred) –Listening to and understanding others’ point of view (perspective taking)
3. Sensemaking — Making sense of complexity through synthesis (connecting holistically)
4. Crafting deliberately — Creating artefacts to share visual understanding (modelling)
5. Iterating rapidly — Testing insights with stakeholders (adapting)
6. Self-awareness — be willing to learn, adapt and listen when working with others

If you’re interested in an exchange or more insights from my experiences, don’t hesitate to connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/felicitaskilga/.

PS: I guess, in the end, my mother was right….