Presented on the 15th July 2018. Addressing: What is an Agile Coach? What does Agile Coaching involve? How to coach Some "tools from the Coaches toolbox" - Active listening - Emotional intelligence Coaching the team And from our 3 day agile coaching course - Constellations - a fun technique to help team members get to know each other - Coaching Dojo - practice your coaching technique

1. The path to become a certified
Agile Coach
Graham Dick graham.dick@flexiblethinking.co +44 7717437478

2. What is an Agile
Coach?
• Models the Agile values and principles
• Supports teams in implementing Agile
• Helps management understand Agile
benefits
• Helps an Agile team become a high-
performance Agile team

3. Agile Coaching – what is it?
• Guides the team member
– Solve their own problems
– Gaining agile knowledge and experience as they do
Coaches
Agile
Knowledge
Agile
Experience
Agile
Thinking
Agile Coach
Context
Agile team member

4. Coaching behaviours
Agile coaching involves different
behaviours at different moments in a
project.
The Agile coach also uses and imparts
skills for collaborative problem-solving
and conflict negotiation.
Coaching
Mentoring
Teaching
Facilitating
Consulting

5. Coach for Action
The conversational arc
Issue
identification
Issue
exploration
Action
commitment

6. Maximise Agile Coach – ROI
- Return on Involvement
• Minimise
– Doing
– Telling / Directing
– Advising
– Pushing (Directing)
• Encourage
– Delegation
– Pulling from the coach
– Self direction
– Experimentation
• To Maximise
– Awareness
– Knowledge
– Desire to change
– Experience
– Thinking
– Ownership
• Activities
– Facilitating
– Teaching
– Coaching
– Mentoring
CoachTeammember

7. Emotional Intelligence
• Self Awareness
– My feelings
– My behavior now
• Social Awareness
– How are others feeling?
– How are others reacting?
– How am I interacting with
and affecting others?
• Relationship
Management
• Self Management
– How are my emotions
affecting my behavior now?
– Should I do something with
my emotions now?
– Should I change my
behavior now?

8. Communication seems simple but is
very complicated
Thinks
ReceiveEncode Transmit
Noise
Interference
channel /
medium
Decode
Think of
response
EncodeTransmitReceiveDecode
Team member Coach

9. Active listening involves self-
management
• Paying attention
• Actively absorbing information
• Showing that you are listening
and interested
• Providing feedback to the speaker
so that he or she knows the
message was received and
understood
Understanding is not necessarily
agreeing!

10. Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
Coach the team
• Agile teams
– Understand characteristics of an
Agile team
– Start a team
– Teach Agile principles
• Perform developmental
diagnosis
– Characterise an Agile team
– Blend coaching behaviors
– Learn when to coach / when to
observe
• Coach distributed + culturally
diverse teams
• Address organisational
impediments
• Recognise and address team
dysfunctions
– Groupthink
– Conflict
The Delivery
Team

11. Constellations
Helping team members
get to know each other
• .. I like surprises
• …I avoid conflict with seniors
• …I am quiet in uncomfortable
situations
• …I am a perfectionist
• …I like to facilitate
• …I feel comfortable providing
direct feedback

12. Agile Coaching Dojo
Practice executing the “coaching conversation” in a safe environment

13. Route to Agile Coach Accreditation
AGILE TEAM FACILITATION
ICAgile Accredited (2-3 days)
Gain an in-depth understanding of how
collaborative workshops can be planned,
organised and run, and how each member can
contribute to the team achieving maximum
effectiveness, while identifying potential pitfalls.
Assists Iteration Managers build capability
across the team.
AGILE COACHING
ICAgile Accredited (3 days)
Developed in conjunction with leading
international experts this course will provide
participants with the skill and knowledge
needed to be a truly effective Agile Coach
helping teams unleash their creativity and
productivity.
ICAgile Certified Expert (ICE)
ICE certifications are extremely prestigious
and are only awarded to individuals who
demonstrate competence in a given track via a
rigorous review process in front of a panel of
industry-recognized experts.

14. Agile Team Coach Training
1st October 2018
• 48 learning objectives
• Delivered through discussion and
many practical exercises
• Multiple group case studies provide
plenty of opportunities to practice in
the role of coach
• 3 very full days
• Full slide pack and detailed notes
“Very knowledgeable and
tons of experience, nice
teaching approach”
“Gave me a clear direction
moving forward in my role and
gave me a lot of techniques to
use”

15. © Flexiblethinking2018
Contact Flexiblethinking
15
Graham Dick
e: graham.dick@flexiblethinking.co
m: +44 7717437478

16. is different
 CROSS-FUNCTIONALITY ICAgile emphasizes discipline-specific Agile learning,
enabling team performance and crafting individual career paths
 ASSEMBLED BY EXPERTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD learning objectives
are collaboratively developed through global collaboration
 ALWAYS RELEVANT method independent certifications, designed for evolution help
Agilists in their professional practice
 HIGH-QUALITY LEARNING EXPERIENCES ICAgile accredits training partners
through rigorous course and instructor accreditation while enabling various teaching
styles, approaches and courseware
 MEANINGFUL CERTIFICATIONS certified experts demonstrate their skills in front of
peers who review work samples to assess competency
 A COMPREHENSIVE PATH FOR LEARNING, DEVELOPMENT &
TRANSFORMATION accredited courses don’t just address the needs of Developers,
they cover the needs of all the Agile stakeholders