March 26, 2023
SPaMCAST 748 features our interview with Bob Galen. Bob and I discuss Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond. With the interview, we wrap up the re-read and then moved on to talk about improving coaching and the agile industrial complex.
(more…)March 25, 2023
Today we complete the re-read of Extraordinary Badass. Tomorrow we will release our interview with Bob Galen, the primary author.
Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching is my new go-to coaching reference. It will be the book I recommend to anyone playing a coaching role in an agile environment. As we know a wide variety of organizational roles such as team leads, Scrum Masters, managers, and of course agile coaches coach. Coaching is dynamic and complex. What would you expect? There are people involved. Bob and his co-authors provide the tools to help a coach go from meh to badass.
(more…)March 18, 2023
Today we re-read Chapter 20 of Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond. Bob notes that Stephen Covey’s seventh habit in his classic, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is sharpening the saw. This is a reminder that who and where we are today can’t be who or where we are tomorrow. This habit is a prescription for balanced self-renewal. This is the last chapter of Extraordinary Badass; next week we will discuss the afterword and final thoughts. It is fitting to end this book with this call to action. When I announced I was going to re-read this book, a friend and colleague said “I am not sure I want to be badass, it is way too much work.” Yes, getting to be a good — not even badass — coach is a lot of work. Continuous sharpening of your saw, while you are using it, is table stakes in this profession. Ask yourself at least one of these questions every day – then act on the answer:
(more…)March 11, 2023
Today we re-read Chapter 19 of Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond. I have strong opinions about Communities of Practice (CoP). They can be a very valuable tool, when done well, for supporting movements within an organization. As Mr. Galen points out, a CoP, is a place for learning and feedback. Done poorly they are invasive and harmful. CoPs will get like-minded people together to learn, support each other, interact, and become a community. If all CoPs fit that definition this chapter would be superfluous. Unfortunately, as with everything else in life, what happens in the real world runs the gamut from wonderful to train wrecks. Chapter 19 Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching tackles Communities of Practice.
(more…)March 4, 2023
The coaching dojo in this chapter of Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching is the payoff for me during this re-read (so far… there are 2 chapters and a wrap-up week left). I have been exposed to dojos in the past, mostly focused on coding and Scrum. All of them were team-based events. They are intense and compelling. The coaching dojo in Chapter 18 has a much smaller footprint and is easily implementable. I ran two this week and have plans for several more.
The concept is an application of facilitated role-playing. As described in the book there are three roles: the coach, the client, and the facilitator. The triad is presented with a scenario, and in my version, a snippet of dialog to help the participants slip into context. Currently, I have a team of 4 that I am working with, in that circumstance I have two people in the facilitator role. In a larger team, I break people up into teams of three. In a set timebox, the coach and the client interact. At the same time, the facilitator observes (the facilitator switches to active mode to prevent people from going over the top or going down non-relaxant rabbit holes). One coaching tip for the facilitator NEVER makes the dojo about you. At the end of the timebox, the facilitator leads the participants through a retrospective in which they explore not only how they acted but I always get people to explore how the event made them feel. As a coach, many conversations that I have are difficult. Both are difficult topics and difficult to have.
Dojos provide several important benefits for coaches (of all stripes). The first, and most important, is that it provides a safe place to actually try out hard conversations before you have them in an environment where they can have repercussions. I gameplan most conversations in my mind, coming at the discussion from multiple angles. It drives my wife crazy when I discuss what I am doing with her. Dojos are a significantly more powerful approach with the same goal. The second benefit is that coaching dojos build mental muscle memory. Add a coaching dojo to every center of excellence (CoP) or team event so that everyone involved builds up a portfolio of experiences with tough issues and conversations. When they run into those or similar scenarios they will have some experience to synthesize an approach.
This was a short and powerful chapter. I would love to hear about your experiences running this type of coaching dojo. I wrote three new scenarios this week and would be happy to share and exchange scenarios.
Final note, we will complete this re-read in three weeks. I am interviewing Bob for the podcast and will run the interview the weekend we complete the re-read. If you have questions for Bob (and it is before 9 March) sent them to me at tcagley@tomcagley.com
Thinking about Christmas presents for your coaching friends? (302 days from today!) Buy a copy and beat the rush – Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond
February 25, 2023
Chapter 17 begins the final part of Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching which focuses on continuous learning. The chapter “The Badass Agile Coach’s Guide to Starting Your Day” provides a structure or ritual for beginning each coaching day. I almost see this as a macro planning arc that Bob has recommended for all coaching sessions.
(more…)February 19, 2023
This week, we take a detour thanks to Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching. Over the past two chapters, the book has drilled us on recognizing and adapting to situational nuances as a crucial skill for effective coaching. I will admit that my first few years of coaching were formulaic. I did not spend the needed time to understand and address nuances of context or differences in individuals’ journeys through life. I do not remember when I learned that roles and situations change the trajectory of coaching, as does the starting point of the person or persons you are coaching. At some point, I got the point. In this chapter, diversity is an omnibus term used to describe inclusiveness across a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, life experiences, and more. Galen-Personick focuses on four specific areas. Rather than recounting the four, what struck me during this read was the impact privilege has on both delivering and being coached. That’s what I discuss in today’s podcast.
Jeremy Berriault brings his QA Corner to the podcast. This week we communicated on the topic of communication.
(more…)February 18, 2023
This chapter is written by Rhiannon Galen-Personick and focuses on diversity awareness. The author uses four areas of diversity to help coaches think through their biases, the biases of the people they are coaching, and the biases of the teams around them. This is in an effort to teach all of us to be better coaches and, dare I say, people.
(more…)February 11, 2023
I am combining the discussion of chapters 14 and 15 of Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond. The two, written by Jennifer Fields, explore role-based and context-based coaching dynamics. Two chapters are intertwined; I view roles as a specialized type of context. Jennifer presents several scenarios in both chapters on how she would approach coaching events for different roles and contexts. As noted last week, the book we are re-reading seems to be useful immediately in the real world. For example, this week I had several conversations with other coaches about coaching managers that were struggling with managing in an agile organization. The scenario in these chapters provided a starting point for developing an approach to these managers.
(more…)February 4, 2023
Chapter 13 of Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond is titled Badass Pair-Coaching. Over the years I have had many opportunities to participate in pair coaching, although fewer over the past few years. I miss pair coaching; it pushes me to expand my horizons and up my game. When I began reading this chapter I expected it to be only esoterically interesting, but then I got to pair coach with Jonathan Lee for a few hours — hopefully, we will do it more often. Pair coaching, like pair programming, offers numerous benefits ranging from a second set of eyes to greater diversity of ideas and experience. My unscientific assessment is that pairing in agile transformations reduces costs and increases the likelihood of ideas sticking with teams and organizations.
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Software Process and Measurement 