We were in my Agile Moose Herd coaching circle and the question came up about a coaching firm that had come into an organization and said something like… 

We want to focus on the future and don’t really want to look backward. It’s all about what’s in front of us. So, everyone, please let’s talk about agile going forward and not about what did (or did not) work in the past.

And the question was—

Was that a fair way to enter an organization as a coach? Basically, to place history off-limits to the discussions?

This made me/us consider the idea of entering an organization (group, tribe, company, system) as a coach or change agent and explore the first few steps you should be taking upon entry?

Here I capture where the discussions landed on an—agile coaching entry strategy with a client embarking on an agile transformation—

Coaching system entry…what does that look like?

  1. Introduction

  2. Establish a working agreement and/or coaching agreement

  3. Explore the past; Listening; Seeking to understand

  4. Assume positive intent; No judgment; Be respectful

  5. Celebrate the past. Celebrate again!

  6. Discovering the current state by—

    1. Interviewing all levels of the organization

    2. Walking around and engaging the teams

    3. Spending time observing the cultural norms

    4. Perhaps executing some sort of agile readiness survey or maturity survey

  7. Asking the organizational leaders for their purpose behind (drivers, why) contemplating agile and exploring their outcomes

  8. Then merging the two—coaching observations and the organizational goal, then coming up with a strategy for them to reach their goal(s) OR opting out of the arrangement because of readiness or other factors.

One of the things we discussed is that often we don’t take this thoughtful and discovery-based approach. Instead, a client simply wants to “be agile” and we then engage with them to “give it to them”. That we ought to avoid this sort of client-driven engagement model and, instead, enter with a standard strategy and flow.

Trauma?

A significant part of the discovery process is uncovering any organizational trauma. For example— 

  • Historical events where folks are still talking about the impact and damage

  • Major projects or initiatives that have failed and left debris

  • Mergers or acquisitions that were done poorly

  • Past leaders or cultural norms that left behind negative ghosts

Not intending to dwell in the trauma and not intending to repair it, as I’m not a psychotherapist. But at the same time, to be aware of it. And, perhaps to make the organization aware of it to their current system.

In our Herd discussion, one of the attendees had a real problem with using the term trauma. I think his issue was the implication that we might be trying to “fix them”. I don’t think we cleared it up enough, but I want to clearly separate the two—awareness of the trauma from fixing the trauma. And if you really don’t like the term, perhaps replace it with “scar tissue”.

I do think the word is highly-charged. But I actually like that fact. It gets everyone’s attention in the entry process and focuses us on meaningful events rather than the minutia. 

And I think it has an aspect in the go-forward plan of focusing on healing. Not that I (the coach) will heal you (the client or organization), but that we will all be focused towards—

  • Learning from the past and healing

  • Continuous improvement

  • Our shared vision, goals, and outcomes

  • The future

Which is a shift or pivot an organization looking to transform needs to begin to make.

Wrapping Up

I think the key themes in this article are two-fold.

First, there needs to be an entry strategy that includes exploration of past trauma AND a celebration/appreciation for past successes.

And second, that you need to be thoughtful in your discovery strategy. Having one that takes the time to really assess the changing landscape and determine what the client needs versus what they think they need.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

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