Implementing an Agile Mentoring Program (AMP)

In Comes the Swarm

As an employee of companies and now President of MaxAgility Corporation, I've led Agile Transformations for companies including NASDAQ, Citizens Bank, Wells Fargo, Discover, CapitalOne, Prudential, Disney, Symantec, Cisco and Lowe's. Seeing the approaches that have worked and not worked for transformations including tens of thousands of people, I invariably encounter "the end" of a transformation that often looks like this:

1) Funding gets pulled

2) Leadership says "Agile doesn't work for us"

3) Leadership says "We're Agile enough!"

I wonder how many times you have also come in as part of a "swarm of Agile Coaches" to transform an organization and, before you can make a significant impact, something happens like what I described above?

Stop the Insanity

"The end" often comes above because we're brought in to help a company "do Agile" and not "be Agile." Implementing the mechanics of Agility is easy; changing people's mindsets is where the heavy lifting happens. I've run into this more times than I want to consider, but I'm happy to tell you about a strategy I first used in our Agile Transformation Office at Symantec where we decided to "stop the insanity" by implementing an Agile Mentoring Program (AMP). In the first course of this program entitled "AMP Agile Change Agent," we?use Dr. John Kotter's Accelerate book that features his 8-Step Change Model to focus on the mindset change required to create an environment for Agile to flourish. This program includes a five-part certification process to ensure graduates have the quantitative and qualitative attributes to sustain an Agile Transformation after the "swarm" is gone.

"Our Agile Mentoring Program is the professional 'shot in the arm' that I've needed for years in my career." -- John Gonzales, ScrumMaster

We're Getting AMP'd!

"Mentees" in?our AMP are very excited about the program and consider it a terrific professional development opportunity. There are six "tracks" ranging from Agile Team Facilitator (e.g., ScrumMasters) to Leadership roles.?For the first course in the first track, we use concepts from Dan Pink's Drive book and video, Lyssa Adkins' Coaching Agile Teams book and, again, Kotter's Accelerate book and go through the material in weekly one-hour sessions.?Each of the sessions consists of four parts:

1. Talking Points to emphasize key ideas from the chapter readings and industry
2. Quiz over the weekly reading
3. Lean Coffee Topics to focus on real-world situations our Mentees are facing
4. Next Steps to note when we'll meet again and what chapter to read for the following week

How about You?

Have you implemented something like AMP at your company, too? Or, maybe you would like to implement AMP at your company, but don't know how to start? Either way, I'd love to collaborate with you to show you what we've found that works well and what has not. You can hear about this in person at one of our upcoming conferences or meetups and can see our schedule of those speaking engagements by checking out this article, "Ready to Have your Agile Transformation Rocked?" You can also request a complimentary consultation with us using our scheduling link?here or contacting us at [email protected] or +1 (408) 203.9854.?

In His Service,

Brian

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Are you tired of just checking off the box for "doing Agile" and not "being Agile?" Talk to us.

Brian Wills?is a creative and insightful?leader, focused on helping others build their careers. He is the President of MaxAgility Corporation which has this mission:?"We are uncovering better ways of producing valuable, working Agile Transformations by doing it and helping others do it through the Agile Mentoring Program (AMP), a self-organizing, cell-division?framework."

His experience has spanned from?the High-Tech industry in Silicon Valley to Global Finance in NYC.?He does?interviews?and enjoys speaking on the topics of Agile Transformation as well as Culture Change ranging from an industry conference format to one-on-one mentoring sessions.??

Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from me?in the future.

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