What makes a great scrum team coach example with poll results

Presented by Kevin Burns
June 21, 2018
kburns@sagesw.com, @kevinbburns 1
What makes a great
scrum team coach?

Agenda
• Goals and Objective
• Survey
• Westrum Model
• Coaching topics:
• Conway’s Law
• Satir Model
• Context Switching
• Child vs Adult Learning Styles
• Socratic Method
• Scientific Management vs Servant-leadership
• Shu Ha Ri
• Leading Minds
• Exercise: Top Ten Great Coach Attributes
• Exercise: Great Coaching Practices
• Panel Discussion
5kburns@sagesw.com, @kevinbburns

6
What do you want to learn tonight?
Or
What questions do you want answered tonight?
kburns@sagesw.com, @kevinbburns

Goals & Objectives
•Increase our understanding of…
•…what makes a great coach
•…organizational challenges and solutions
•…coaching techniques and tools
•…coaching practices

Let’s do a live poll.
Start a new
text message.
To: 22333
Text message:
kevinburns785
Send

Westrum Model: How orgs process info
Pathological Bureaucratic Generative
Power oriented Rule oriented Performance oriented
Low cooperation Modest cooperation High cooperation
Messengers shot Messengers neglected Messengers trained
Responsibilities shirked Narrow responsibilities Risks are shared
Bridging discouraged Bridging tolerated Bridging encouraged
Failure scapegoating Failure justice Failure inquiry
Novelty crushed Novelty problems Novelty implemented

Coaching, Mentoring, Learning
How do we learn?
What helps us learn?
How psychologically safe is our environment?

Building an ideal work environment
16

Conway’s Law
Organizations which design systems are constrained to
produce designs which are copies of the organizations
communication structure.
— M. Conway (1967)
The law is based on the reasoning that in order for a software module to function,
multiple authors must communicate frequently with each other. Therefore,
the software interface structure of a system will reflect the social boundaries of the
organization(s) that produced it, across which communication is more difficult.

Matrix Org Efficiency Fallacy
BA Group
QA Group
Dev Group
TechnicalTalentDomains
SocialBoundaries
Interface
Interface
Proj 1 Proj 2 Proj 3
It’s more efficient to embed business and technical team members in a business and
technical domain for the long-haul as opposed to renting them for short-term projects
Ops Group
Interface

Conway’s Law
UI service area
Data service area
App service area
TechnicalTalentDomains
SocialBoundaries
Interface
Interface
Proj 1 Proj 2 Proj 3
Ops Group
Interface

PerformingForming Storming Norming
Let’s reduce the impact of ‘the change process’ by creating stable product (service) or domain teams, i.e.,
teams that stay together to deliver incremental service value within their application domain of expertise. 20

In In In In In In
Team A
Team B
Team C
Team D
Progs / Projs 1 Progs / Projs 2 Progs / Projs 3
Product (service) capability delivery teams are challenged with multiple competing support and project priorities
as they iteratively deliver and deploy software. This can cause inefficient context shifting and churn in solutioning
and delivery process. This can also lead to fragility and tech debt within the code-base. Consider more intentional
focus on prog/proj prioritization/ranking, decomposition, and optimal work sequencing across stable platform
service delivery teams. Consider Work-In-Progress agreement limits/targets to support efficient delivery.
Rn Rn Rn
Stories filling
iteration queues
Platform Service Area Release Planning

Cost of Context Shifting
https://www.infoq.com/articles/multitasking-problems
https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-multi-tasking-myth/
Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking, Gerald Weinberg
342
46%
213
31%
134
18%
26
3%
11
0%

Context Shifting References
• “…it takes an average of 23 minutes to get back to the task.”
• “If your product owners don’t have the capacity to deal with requests … it will cost
you a developer, per team, every year.”

How is work assigned & managed?
Traditional Project Model
• PM assigns
• PM Command and Control
• Telephone problem for work
handoff
• Get stuff done
• Wait inefficiency
• Work queuing inefficient
• Context shifting waste
• Late bug fixing cost
• Lack of user understanding
• Tech Debt and Entropy
New Product Model
• Team coordinates, self-organizing
• PM Servant Leadership
• Collaboration on value, definition
of done, and quality
• Get most valuable stuff done
• Wait time reduced
• Optimization of work queue
• Reduced context shifting
• Early bug fixing savings
• Optimize user understanding
• Refactor and Elegancy
How much PM and Mgr capacity would be freed-up if teams were self-organizing?

Control Number of Active Projects
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
Cost of Delay Savings Late Start Advantages
Time to Deliver
Time to Deliver Time to Deliver
Don Reinertsen’s 2GLPD

User
UX, BA, QA, SME
Business
Valuable
Design Usable
Software Engineering
AD, DD, DA
Business Customer
PO, SM, BL
Technically
Feasible
Do you have the right balance to deliver Quality, Value, & Innovation?
Quality
Innovation
Value

Do you have the right balance?

Child vs Adult learning style
Children (Pedagogy) Adults (Andragogy)
Rely on others to decide what is important to be
learned
Decide for themselves what is important to learn
Accept info being presented at face value Need to validate the info based on their beliefs
and experience
Expects what they are learning to be useful in
their long-term future
Expects what they are learning to be immediately
useful
Have little or no experience upon which to draw –
are relatively “clean slates”
Have much experience upon which to draw – may
have fixed viewpoints.
Little ability to serve as a knowledgeable
resource to teacher or fellow classmates
Significant ability to serve as a knowledgeable
resource to trainer and fellow learners.

Four Types of Learners
Learner Tactics
Visual Learners prefer to see info and to
visualize the relationships between ideas
Give them charts and graphics, make your
presentation highly visual and show
relationships between your points
Auditory learners prefer to hear info rather
than reading it or seeing it displayed visually
Give them a chance to repeat your points back
to you by asking questions, calling for audience
participation
Reading/Writing learners prefer to interact
with text more than hearing or seeing it
graphically
Give them written quizzes or a chance to write
what they are learning and give them
handouts to read.
Kinesthetic learners prefer hands-on
experiential learning; they learn best by doing.
Give them exercises that get them out of their
seat and into role play type exercises.

Socratic Method
• Cooperative argumentative dialogue, based on asking and
answering questions to stimulate critical thinking
• Method of hypothesis elimination
• How can we validate what we don’t know?
• How can we turn unknowns into knowns?
• Help team members arrive at their own conclusions based on
Q&A. Don’t give answers away, rather, ask questions that guide
team members to the right answer.

Scientific Management vs Servant Leadership
Fredrick Taylor vs Robert Greenleaf
Scientific Managers Servant Leaders
Study tasks of others Help others complete their tasks
Develop employees Promote teamwork over individual heros
Provides detailed instruction and
supervision
Doers know best how to improve, help find
way forward
Divide work nearly equally between
managers and doers
Remove barriers to improvement/progress
and facilitate teamwork

Shu Ha Ri
• Shu, the student copies techniques without adapting them.
• Learn
• Ha, the student reflects on what’s been learned and breaks free from traditions.
• Practice
• Ri, the student is now a practitioner extending the art.
• Innovate

Teams are motivated by…
1. Distinct vision and mission, a view of future state
OKR = Objectives and Key Results
2. Foster personal growth and career development
Do we foster a learning culture?
3. Recognize performance, celebrate success
Did we achieve our Key Results?
4. Listen to employee comments, complaints, ideas and take action where appropriate
How psychologically safe is your environment?
Are you a Servant Leader or a Scientific Manager (or both)?
5. Encourage and empower employees to be self-directed
Are you encouraging experimentation?
Do you have a generative environment?

Quotes
“Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to
engagement.” Daniel Pink
“Treat them like volunteers” Mary Poppendieck
“Quality tends to fan out like waves” Robert M. Pirsig

Leading Minds

37@kevinbburns, kburns@sagesw.com

What do you see?
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
38

Telephone
Game – Cake
Requirements
39

Mary and Tom Poppendieck

The Zen Master
1. Lead from the inside-out
2. Bench the ego
3. Let each player discover his own destiny
4. The road to freedom is a beautiful system
5. Turn the mundane into the sacred
6. One breath = one mind
7. The key to success is compassion
8. Keep your eye on the spirit, not on the scoreboard
9. Sometimes you have to pull out the big stick
10. When in doubt, do nothing
11. Forget the ring

Edward Deming
Statistical process control and PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act)
1. Appreciate the system
Are you aware of your constraints?
2. Understanding variation
How dynamic is your environment?
3. Psychology
Are you safe?
4. Epistemology
How are you developing knowledge?

44
It’s the unknown unknowns and
epistemic arrogance that kills

45
Can we learn from our experience and
focus on the signal in the noise?
Bad science is 70% behaviorally based
Half of all scientific research is untrustworthy
Lies – Damn Lies - Statistics

Pirsig’s Scientific Method
1. State Problem,
2. Hypothesis cause of problem,
3. Design Experiments to test hypothesis,
4. Predict results,
5. Observed results, and
6. Draw Conclusions.
The real purpose of scientific method is to make sure Nature hasn’t
misled you into thinking you know something you don’t actually know.
46Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance page 93.

Lean Startup
Build Measure
Learn
Value
Use a scientific method to learn

52
It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say,
"Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.
- Robert M. Pirsig

What Skills do you
generalizing in?
Whatskillsdoyou
specializingin?
Where should you grow your skills?
How should you grow your skills?

Exercises to try

Exercise: Top Coaching Attributes
1. Everyone writes their top coaching attributes on individual
posted notes
2. We take turns putting them on the board into themes
3. We rank them in terms of important/value in our work
environment
4. We discuss how to put them into practice

Exercise: Great Coaching Practices
1. Everyone writes their top coaching practices on individual
posted notes
2. We take turns putting them on the board into themes
3. We rank them in terms of important/value in our work
environment
4. We discuss how to put them into practice

57
Fishbowl Discussion

Wrap-up questions
• What did you learn today that you want to try?
• Is there anything blocking you from trying it?
• When will you try it?

?
Kburns@sagesw.com
@kevinbburns

Appendix

Agile Product Ownership in a nutshell video

Great coach references
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1765804/pdf/v013p0ii22.pdf
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/teaching-adults-what-every-trainer-needs-
know-adult-bruce-d-
3. https://www.amazon.com/Eleven-Rings-Success-Phil-
Jackson/dp/1594205116?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari
5. http://martinfowler.com/bliki/ShuHaRi.html
6. http://www.mentalgamecoach.com/articles/CoachingQualities.html
7. http://www.fastcompany.com/3031708/the-future-of-work/5-crucial-
emotional-intelligence-traits-of-highly-effective-leaders
8. http://www.iidmglobal.com/expert_talk/expert-talk-
categories/leadership/coach_mentor/id42522.html
9. https://blog.prezi.com/the-four-different-types-of-learners-and-what-they-
mean-to-your-presentations-infographic/

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