A Curious Mindset: basic coaching skills for Managers and others Aliens.

A Curious Mindset
Basic coaching skills for Managers and other Aliens.
Deborah Hartmann Preuss
Steve Holyer

agility = no management ?
Managers become meaning-makers by
modeling & teaching coaching skills
to grow a shared-leadership culture.

Abstract
Scrum highlights organizational dysfunctions and challenges us in uncomfortable ways. This is natural: it’s a paradigm shift, and
Scrum offers software teams a powerful learning approach to support that shift. But the shift also radiates outward, impacting
managers and others with no clear “Scrum role,” who may feel threatened, or unsure how to contribute without disempowering
their newly selforganizing
teams.
This workshop invites Scrum Masters, managers, technical leads, architects and other nondeveloper
roles to practice critical skills
that bring your wisdom back into play when engaging with selforganizing
teams and
really, with anyone.
With little guidance available, you may choose to continue with your traditional practices, feeling ever more outoftune
with the
“embrace change” zeitgeist. Or you may choose to hand full control over to your teams and
then struggle with how to responsibly
ensure their success. The fact is that both options stifle the flow of information and meaning. How, then, do leaders constructively
contribute value within a selforganizing
workplace? In this workshop we’ll introduce an alternate approach that enables leaders
and teams to work together to grow shared leadership and shared success.
All of us have an operating system — a mindset — that drives our behavior, of which we are usually quite unaware. Research
shows that, despite espoused collaboration values, most businesses actually run on a “unilateral control model” an
approach

Abstract
We'll briefly introduce the “mutual learning model” in which the wisdom and guidance of formal leaders is still contributed, while also growing
shared leadership an
approach described in Roger Schwarz’s book “Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams,” which has led to increased performance,
stronger working relationships, and greater wellbeing
in workplaces applying it. Then you’ll participate in two cultureshifting
exercises that
raise awareness of your own leadership style and teach new thinking models exercises
you can take back to your own organisation to build
more successful and satisfying shared leadership.
Changing how you lead begins with changing your own mindset. In this short workshop, we’ll focus on curiosity as a cultureshifter.
We’ll apply
it to ourselves how
do we listen? What happens when we listen and respond differently? And we’ll learn to formulate more powerful, truly
curious questions that invite teams to innovate and take initiative. We’ll do this in pairs and small groups, where participants can work in the
language of their choice, and in wholegroup
discussions in English.
Listening and questioning, powered by true curiosity: cultureshifting
tools you can learn and teach. We bring you an approach that encourages
leaders at every level to claim a critical role as builders of shared meaning, and offer you two skillsets to practice yourself and share with
colleagues in every department, to consciously grow a collaborative culture that supports true agility across organisational boundaries. Of
course, it means letting go of your need to be in control... are you ready? Come and try it in a safe environment, led by trained coaches, and

In this Session
• how do your beliefs and choices impact your group's culture?
• different ways to listen, and how it feels to listen more deeply
• a model for posing better questions, that break the tellmewhattodo
habit
• exercises for shifting to a “mutual learning” mindset to support your success

A Curious Mindset
Basic coaching skills for Managers and other Aliens
Steve Holyer
email: coach@engage-results.com
twitter: @zurcherart
email: deb@debpreuss.com
twitter: @deborahh
.com
@agileambulance

The job of management is not to
select the best ideas; it is to
create a system that allows for
the best ideas to emerge.”
@agileambulance @deborahh @zurcherart
7
“
Jurgen Appelo

The next
© .com @agileambulance @deborahh @zurcherart
8
90 Minutes

Coaching Dojo
9
Roger Schwarz Mutual Learning
Powerful Questions
Listening
Next Steps

Agile-Lean
10
Agile Competency Model
(cc) 2013 Agile Coaching Institute, under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Source: http://agilerichmond.com/attachments/article/82/A_Walk_Down_the_Agile_Coach_Path_Practitioner
Teaching
....................................
Mentoring
Professional
Coaching
Facilitating
....................................
Transformation
Business
Technical
(cc) 2013 Agile Coaching Institute, under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialShareAlike
3.0 Unported License
Source: http://agilerichmond.com/attachments/article/82/A_Walk_Down_the_Agile_Coach_Path_with_Lyssa_Adkins.pdf Text

Profession
11
Agile Competency Model
(cc) 2013 Agile Coaching Institute, under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Source: http://agilerichmond.com/attachments/article/82/A_Walk_Down_the_Agile_Coach_Path_Practitioner
Teaching
....................................
Mentoring
Coaching
Facilitating
....................................
Transformation
Business
Technical
(cc) 2013 Agile Coaching Institute, under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialShareAlike
3.0 Unported License
Source: http://agilerichmond.com/attachments/article/82/A_Walk_Down_the_Agile_Coach_Path_with_Lyssa_Adkins.pdf Text

12
Steve Holyer
email: coach@engage-results.com
twitter: @zurcherart
email: deb@debpreuss.com
twitter: @deborahh
@agileambulance
.com
focus on what matters

Roger Schwarz
13
Mutual Learning

14
Mindset
Win (don’t lose)
Be right
Act Rational
Hide negative feelings
Unilateral
Control
Image Bloomua/Shutterstock

15
Mindset
Mutual
Learning
Transparency
Curiosity
Informed Choice
Accountability
Compassion
Image Shutterstock

Unilateral
Control
16
Give up Control
Win (don’t lose)
Be right
Act Rational
Hide negative feelings
Mindset

Unilateral
Control
17
Give up Control
Mutual
Learning

18
PowerfulQuestions

19

20
In a group of up to 6 people,
sort your question cards.
More Powerful
Less Powerful

21
What influences a question’s power?
More Powerful
Less Powerful
Discuss:

22
Listening

23
Working Agreements

24
Ground Rules
Resource:
Skilled Facilitator Approach
http://rogerschwarzassociates.poweredbyeden.com/files/106/8403.pdf

25
Listening
Level:
1. All about me
2. All about you
3. Listen to everything

Coaching Dojo
26

27
silent observers
seeker coach
5 minutes: Coaching: includes questions, listening, NO FIXING
2 minutes: feedback from seeker (what was that like for you?)
5 minutes: observers first, then everyone: what did you NOTICE?

28
Seeker:
“I’d like to get your help with a problem...” (not more than 2 sentences!)
Coach:
“I’ve been learning some coaching skills, and I think it might help if I ask questions rather than
give advice. Would that be ok for you?” (ok)
Start with: “What is important about this?”
5 minutes: Coaching: includes questions, listening, NO FIXING
2 minutes: feedback from seeker (what was that like for you?)
5 minutes: observers first, then everyone: what did you NOTICE?

Coaching Dojo
29
Roger Schwarz Mutual Learning
Powerful Questions
Listening
Next Steps

30
Instead of (this) I will try (that).

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Links / Resources
Article: “The Art of Powerful Questions” (Juanita Brown et al)
http://bit.ly/aopqenglish
http://bit.ly/aopqfrench
Resource list: “Powerful Questions” (Deborah Preuss)
http://bit.ly/PQresources
Book: Agile Retrospectives: Making good teams great (Davies/Larsen)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0977616649?pc_redir=1410868603&robot_redir=1
Article: “Coaching Dojo” (Rachel Davies)
http://agilecoach.typepad.com/agile-coaching/2010/08/improving-agile-coaching-skills.html
Book: Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams (Roger Schwarz)
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Leaders-Smarter-Teams-Unstuck/dp/0787988731
Article: “What is the Mutual Learning Approach” (Roger Schwarz)
http://www.schwarzassociates.com/what-is-the-mutual-learning-approach/

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Workshops
http://agileambulance.com
Co-active coaching
http://abiggerga.me/blog/coaching-in-the-model/
Open Space
http://abiggerga.me/blog/open-space-resources
Open Space facilitator workshop
http://bit.ly/upcomingosworkshops
AgileCoachCamp
http://AgileCoachCamp.org
Stoos Network
http://abiggerga.me/blog/new-language-for-a-new-mind-tbd/

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Deborah Hartmann Preuss’ passion is bringing joy back to work - primarily by supporting change agents to be happier and have more
impact. She offers workshops with her partner Steve Holyer to help teams (re-) focus on what matters for joy and success. But her
"invisible" contribution, and her favourite, is the one-on-one phone coaching she does with change leaders all over the world.
Deb's practice is deeply influenced by Co-active Coaching and Open Space Technology: In the past 10 years she's hosted, attended and
facilitated many Open Space unfonference events, in three languages, in Canada, the US, and all over Europe. With Naresh Jain, she co-created
the AgileCoachCamp viral unconference format and collaborated on creating the spin-off Play4Agile unconference.
Open Space is another powerful but "invisible" method, often underestimated, so she's recently started running a one-day Open Space
facilitator workshop to encourage more thoughtful facilitation.
The joyful teamwork she's experienced as a software developer and coach inspire her contributions to the Stoos Network, which she
helped launch in 2012 to provoke new conversations and practical action to improve the quality of our work and workplaces worldwide.
deb@deborahpreuss.com @deborahh www.abiggerga.me
Steve Holyer serves as advocate, trainer and mentor for companies looking for a different way of working using Agile
practices in a productive, fulfilling, and fun way. As a Scrum Master he learned his craft with multiple teams and organizations,
so he knows how to change an organization from the inside. Steve has adapted years of project management and
development experience into a passion for trusting and coaching managers and teams to find ways to do software better.
An escaped Texan, Steve is based in Zurich, Switzerland. He has more than a passing obsession with the Eurovision Song
Contest.
When you work with Steve, and his partner Deborah Hartmann Preuss, you and your team discover how to:
1. Consistently deliver results to your customers and stakeholders
2. Deliver your results on time, when your market and your stakeholders demand them
3. Dance with your organisation to make product decisions together to deliver results with joy for you and your end-users
coach@steveholyer.com @zurcherart www.engage-results.com

A Curious Mindset: basic coaching skills for Managers and others Aliens.

A Curious Mindset: basic coaching skills for Managers and others Aliens.

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