Interviewing for any role can be challenging, but I think it’s particularly challenging to interview agile coaches.
Why?
Because there’s not a clear definition of what agile coaching is or what agile coaches do. Seriously? Yes! And without a clear definition how do you determine what questions to ask? And what a good agile coach, looks like?
Because everyone nowadays seems to be a “highly experienced, passionate, agile coach”. Because of the lack of standards and definitions, literally, anyone can declare themselves to be a coach. So, discerning credible skills and experience can be challenging. (Note: I just did a search for “Agile Coach” on LinkedIn and received ~300k matches)
And, because the few certifications surrounding agile coaches are still a work-in-progress based on #1, it’s challenging for you to depend on them to fill in the understanding and clarity gap.
So, if the challenge is so great, what’s the best way to find competently skilled coaches?
I was talking with someone the other day and we landed on a metaphor for agile coaching that has really resonated with me since. We explored how becoming a chef or master chef as being seemingly similar to the journey that agile coaches take on to master our own craft.
And the journey is not by personal declaration, for example, I am a Master Chef. Or I am a Master Agile Coach. Not at all.
Instead, the recognition is hard-earned over time. Earned mostly by demonstrating our skills to other coaches, to leading coaching authorities, and ultimately to our clients.
What are some of the activities or things I would think about for agile coaches who are operating with the mindset of a master chef?
Learning
Chefs go to cooking schools as a baseline in their learning. When they exit, they typically start at the bottom and work their way up in their profession. Their progress is not by talking or self-promotion. Instead, it’s by demonstrating their skill and abilities to, well, cook. And cook and cook.
I was reviewing LinkedIn one morning, as I often do, and I noticed a note from Myles Hopkins of Be Agile that he and his firm were celebrating 20 years of service. First, congratulations Myles! But second, it made me think about the longevity of my own firm—RGalen Consulting Group. And it hit me!
In August 2021, I’m going to be celebrating 20-years of consulting service to my clients. Holy Cow!
Happy Anniversary
I thought I’d share a timeline of sorts…
I was in a coaching conversation the other morning with another agile coach. They brought up a scenario at work where one of their key stakeholders (executives) had said something like—
I’m fully on board and bought into what you’re focusing on in the agile transformation…
And I stopped them.
As I thought about it, the thought that kept coming up was this—
Being supportive of;
Fully backing;
Having their buy-in;
Being on board with.
Isn’t good enough for leaders when you’re a coach in an organizational transformation. Sure, those words are nice and appreciated, but I was thinking they are just table stakes. That the coach needed MORE from the stakeholders.
Cliff Berg shared the following article on LinkedIn. It’s a view that to be honest, I’m struggling with. Why? I guess first, because of the privilege that Cliff has as an influential and leading voice in the agile community. And second, because I’m not sure my experience (and opinion) aligns with his…
Here’s a snippet from the article—
Let’s make this very tangible: If I needed to assemble a team to build a product, and I had a choice between ten inexperienced but smart programmers or five very experienced and equally smart programmers, I would pick the team of five, hands down. I would not hesitate one second.
And even if I had a choice between ten inexperienced smart programmers or five highly experienced but slightly less smart programmers, I would still pick the latter.
Let me put it another way: If I had a choice between five inexperienced and smart programmers, or five experienced and smart programmers who cost twice as much, I would pick the latter. In fact, if those experienced programmers cost three times as much, I would still go with them. Five times as much? Yes - I would still go with them.
While Cliff is absolutely entitled and privileged to this perspective, I passionately disagree with it.
I’ve been seeing these surveys and statistics reference around The Chaos Report for nearly two decades. Often, as in this article here, they are used as citations supporting agile ways of working. And since I’m an aglist, you’d think I would be in full support of them. But I have three core problems with the reports themselves and the incessant quoting of them to support some position.
Trust?
First, I’m not sure I trust the data. Where does it originally come from AND are the collections accurate?
For example, I used to fill in project timesheets at the end of each week. I filled them in with the best recollection I had and with my perception of time spent. I realized over time that I was probably only reporting at 50% accuracy. And that was as an individual contributor. Aggregate that data over 100 developers over 1-+ projects every week. Would you trust what that data was telling you?
So, rolled-up statistics collected from a wide variety of companies doesn’t always make me that trustful and confident in the data.
Based on a bit of a lark, I attended Gustavo Razzetti’s Culture Design Masterclass on March 19th. I’ve been wanting to get around to talking about it for quite some time, so here are some reactions…
https://www.fearlessculture.design/
First of all, the attendees were outstanding. It was a very diverse and eclectic mix of folks that were fare wider than my typical “agile coaching” colleague universe. I enjoyed and learned much from the diverse perspectives.
Second, I want to highly recommend the Culture Design Canvas as a very general-purpose tool for exploring, exposing, understanding, and potentially changing your culture. As an agile coach, I saw many applications of it in my Enterprise-level agile coaching activity.
