Coaching: Which Course of Action?

Time to Intervene?

Coaches are more than someone lurking over your shoulder watching your every move.  The goal of coaching is to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in someone’s or some group’s life. To make a difference, coaches need to intervene.  The goal of any intervention is to change behavior to fulfill the coachee’s development plan (this is why agreeing up front to what you want to accomplish is a big deal). Changing behavior requires some combination of:

1. Trying new behaviors and getting feedback,
2. Building and trying new skills,
3. Participating in training,
4. Enhancing relationships with the right people
5. Seeking out mentors to grow the whole person, and
6. Accepting input from stakeholders on goals and behaviors.

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Coaching and Learning Opportunities

Sometimes Trying Something New Is A Learning Experience!

Coaching is a core role for facilitating getting work done that requires a coach to intervene. Intervention requires the permission of the person or team on the receiving end of the intervention. Without permission, as Eli Goldratt stated, “ people will do almost anything before they shift their paradigm.” Agreement on positioning sets coaches on the lookout for learning opportunities. Learning opportunities come in two basic flavors, discovered/harvested or manufactured.

• Manufactured learning opportunities are scenarios in which the coach controls the situation so that that the coachee can learn a specific point. Generally, these types of situations are safe (little chance for physical or career harm) so the coach can allow mistakes, debrief, and then run the scenario again until the coachee begins to build up muscle memory to help guide them in the real world. In a controlled scenario, it is far easier to dispassionately assess performance and outcome so that the feedback can be precise. Manufacturing a learning opportunity requires not only skill but the coach needs to keep several concepts in mind.  They are:

 

SPaMCAST 503 – The Knife’s Edge of Change, Muda and People, Communication

http://www.spamcast.net

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SPaMCAST 503 features our essay “Culture: The Knife’s Edge of Change.”  I have often heard the line, culture eats change for breakfast. Culture, culture, culture – the success of every change that is considered or implemented balances on the knife edge of culture. Aligning cultures so that change is possible requires seeing the differences and then minimizing enough of those differences to allow change to happen.

We also have an installment of the Alpha and Omega of Product Development with Jon M Quigley.  In this installment of Jon’s wonderful column, we discuss the muda of underutilizing people. Muda, waste, is not just generated through process or transforming raw material.  

We conclude with a visit with Gene Hughson.  We discuss an entry from his Form Follows Function Blog titled: “When asked for the time, don’t explain how your watch works”. Communications between the user and technical domains is fraught with difficulties. A problem? As Gene always says,  “exactly!”

Re-Read Saturday News

We will complete our re-read of Turn The Ship Around next week with a few final thoughts.  The next book in the series will be The Checklist Manifesto  (use the link and buy a copy so you can read along) by Atul Gawande. Today we complete re-reading the chapters in  L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around!  Chapter 28, 29 and Afterthoughts complete Marquet’s reflection on the leader-leader model and his journey of discovery.

Current Installment:

Week 18: A New Method of Resupplying and Ripples  – https://bit.ly/2mgVFtI

 

Turn the Ship Around! By L. David Marquet Re-read Saturday Week 18, Chapters 28 and 29, A New Method of Resupplying and Ripples

Turn the Ship Around

We will complete our re-read of Turn The Ship Around next week with a few final thoughts.  The next book in the series will be The Checklist Manifesto  (use the link and buy a copy so you can read along) by  Atul Gawande. Today we complete re-reading the chapters in  L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around!  Chapter 28, 29 and Afterthoughts complete Marquet’s reflection on the leader-leader model and his journey of discovery.

Chapter 28: A New Method of Resupplying

The setup question for this chapter is, “Do you want to empower employees but find that empowerment programs don’t help?”

The story Marquet uses to drive the ideas in the chapter home centers around the Santa Fe’s need for oil to be resupplied due to a leak. If the Sante Fe is not resupplied the boat will not be able to keep its perfect record of meeting all mission goals.  The supply ship Rainier is also transiting the Straits of Hormuz (another one of those busy scary places). Using the normal channels getting supplies from the Rainier would have taken too long. Personnel on both vessels found a way to get the Santa Fe the oil, trade mail and also some fresh fruit.  

 

Coaching: Two Categories For Managing Risk In Coaching

Two sets of rules reduce risk!

Coaching requires intervention. Intervention involves taking a risk, even if the intervention is as passive as ignoring something. Managing the risk of intervention is important for every person involved in a coaching experience so that everyone maximizes the value to the coaching transaction. There are two categories to consider when managing the risk of a coaching.  All coaches must address positioning/contracting and develop a rationale for intervention to reduce risk.

 

Coaching: Six Modes of Operation

Sometimes You Have To Step In

 

Coaching is a core role for facilitating getting work done — all kinds of work.   On the surface, coaching is a fairly simple role. A coach has six basic modes of operation.  But…if you peel back the layers just a little bit you will find that coaching is part art and part science. That’s code for “coaching is complicated”, making those six modes different from easy.  The six modes of operation every coach need to become fluent in are:

1. Positioning
2. Observing
3. Nudging
4. Pushing
5. Shoving
6. Ignoring

Positioning lays the groundwork for every other mode of operation.  Positioning creates an agreement that grants the coach permission to interact with the coachee.  Positioning is a form of contract between the coach and a coachee in which the coach establishes credibility, intention, operating norms and an agreement on the purpose and duration of coaching (coaching transactional). Coaches will shift into and out of positioning mode when the people they are coaching change and when the basic context of the relationship changes. For example, I have had several coaches during my career. As my roles and skills have changed, I have changed coaches.

 

SPaMCAST 502 – Marcus Hammarberg, Salvation: The Bungsu Story – Agile In The Real World

http://www.spamcast.net

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SPaMCAST 502 features our interview Marcus Hammarberg.  Marcus returns to talk about his new book Salvation: The Bungsu Story (https://amzn.to/2u1ndYs).  The story provides a real-life example of how agile can save the world — or at least part of it. This is one of the most important and inspirational interviews I have done.  

Marcus’s bio:

For 15 years Marcus Hammarberg has been doing agile and lean software development and helping others do it. He has worked in many different settings, from big banks and insurance companies to start-ups and within retail. At one big insurance company, the first agile team, started by Marcus, eventually spread to a lean initiative across the business. As a consultant, Marcus helps individuals, teams, and whole organizations improve their value delivery flow.

Marcus is still a keen programmer and continues to practice and teach the concepts that helped him become a good programmer: TDD, Specification by example, functional programming and Node.

Marcus is a keynote speaker and co-author of Kanban In Action, which has been translated into 5 languages across the globe. He has blogged since 2006 at www.marcusoft.net and spends his spare time playing euphonium in the Salvation Army band at Vasakåren, Stockholm.

2014-2015 Marcus moved to Indonesia with his family to work for the Salvation Army. Unexpectedly his previous experience with lean, agile and kanban was soon put to great use there too. This story is retold as it happened in his second book; Salvation: The Bungsu story

FYI Marcus first appeared on SPaMCAST 414 https://bit.ly/2KZoxBN 

Twitter: @marcusoftnet

Blog: http://www.marcusoft.net

Re-Read Saturday News

This week we are full ahead in our re-read of L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around!  Today we tackle two more chapters, 26 and 27, which are titled: Combat Effectiveness and Homecoming.  

The next book in the series will be The Checklist Manifesto  (use the link and buy a copy so you can read along) by  Atul Gawande.

Current Installment:

Week 17: Combat Effectiveness and Homecoming – https://bit.ly/2u3j8TI