As a coach, I suspect I spend more time facilitating and observing than playing any other sub-role. Chapter 6, titled Coach as Facilitator, provides a number of gems that piqued my interest more during this read than in the first. Like the author, many of us come to coaching from a more activist role. In earlier career incarnations I viewed myself as an action hero. I got things done by adding pushing, prodding and actually doing real work. Jumping up in the middle of the night to help rectify a system crash was who I was. An Agile Coach’s role is different, we exist to help the people we are working with to become more agile and to deliver more value (the two goal conundrum mentioned in Chapter 5). Acting as a whip or doing work doesn’t help the team or organization develop. Action heroes rarely grow teams, they grow themselves – it was a hard lesson for me. Facilitation is the replacement for our individual heroics.   

The team part of agile teams happens because of high-quality communication. People learn and then know what is expected of them, how others will act, and who the right person is to answer a question (if not, someone will point them in the right direction). The communication that enables this kind of knowledge can happen by accident but occurs faster and in a more repeatable manner if it is facilitated. The goal of facilitation is to increase the quality of interactions among the team members. This is often where a coach’s ego can get in the way. I recently had a long chat with a coach I am mentoring after observing them facilitating a lean coffee – lunch and learn (an interesting combination but that is a tale for another day). The coach talked incessantly and when they weren’t they did not ensure all voices were heard. I asked several questions afterward as we debriefed while we walked to lunch. I asked them how they felt after the session. They had been exhilarated, the session had ended up being about them – everyone likes to talk about themselves and their knowledge. I asked them how much of the hour they had talked.  After walking through several sequences they recognized that they may have been talking more than half the time. Facilitation requires interaction (that interaction can be facial and body language as well as talking) often taking the form of questions. In the end, they recognized that they were so passionate about the topics that they put their needs ahead of the team. A facilitator might have an outcome they are navigating toward but guiding with a soft touch using techniques like powerful questions or clean language is preferable to dominating the conversation and then declaring victory. 

The author points out that when facilitating formal events (e.g. Daily Scrum) a coach’s behavior needs to adapt to where the team is in the learning process. Teaching and direct interaction make sense for new teams, but that approach becomes problematic as they reach Ha or Ri (Shu Ha Ri). As a rule, coaches need to observe before they intervene or ask questions. The first skill all coaches must build is the ability to keep their mouth closed and observe.

When I read this book the first time the facilitation advice for each of the Scrum events that Adkins includes was the most useful. I have upped my coaching game between readings; the section on powerful questions had the most impact during this re-read. Powerful questions are open, non-directed questions. One example provided by the author illustrates the difference.

From Table 6.1. Powerful questions for agile teams (adapted from Whitworth et al. 2007)

Powerful questions can be used with the concepts of clean language. Clean language is a  tool to explore the metaphors used during discussions and conversations. Clean language was originally developed by David Grove, a psychotherapist, in his practice working with trauma survivors and now is used by many agile coaches to reduce bias in conversations. Combining the two approaches in the scenario above I might ask the team member, “What happens when …? (fill in the ellipsis with the context). The question is powerful (open-ended) and clean (does not include metaphors). Coaching is hard, I am still practicing both powerful questions and clean language – maybe I will forever. The re-read has been helpful to help me tune my practice. The critical word is practice, in order to become fluent think first then ask questions. You note that we are back to listening and observing first before we react. 

A quick update on last week’s experiment (actually more of an investigation task). This week I spent time reading blog entries on The Arbinger Institute’s website.  The ideas have been useful to help consider how we learn to pierce our own biases and see others as people with their own sets of needs and desires is crucial to helping people and teams grow. I also bought a copy of The Outward Mindset: How to Change Lives and Transform Organizations – this is going to be a longer-term experiment :).

Remember to buy a copy of  Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins (SPaMCAST Amazon affiliate line https://amzn.to/38G0ZD3) and read along!

Previous Installments

Week 1: Logistics and Introduction – https://bit.ly/3A1aNTe 

Week 2: Will I Be A Good Coach – https://bit.ly/3nzDAHg 

Week 3: Expect High Performance – https://bit.ly/3Rl4fFf 

Week 4: Master Yourself – https://bit.ly/3zL8t2n 

Week 5: Let Your Style Change – https://bit.ly/3Q8zHWa 

Week 6: Coach as Coach-Mentor – https://bit.ly/3QLcSIi