Responsive Agile Coaching: How to Accelerate Your Coaching Outcomes with Meaningful Conversations

by Niall McShane

Overview

In Responsive Agile Coaching Niall McShane draws on over a decade of agile coaching experience to document a clear and well-researched model that lifts the lid on how agile coaching actually works. The book starts by defining what the role of agile coach has become in recent times before putting forward a field-tested and theoretically sound model for conducting agile coaching conversations.

Packed full of real life stories from authentic coaching work you'll laugh and cry with the characters as you learn what it takes to be one of the best agile coaches in the current market. Drawing from areas such as neuroscience, mindfulness, behavioral psychology and unlearning theory this book is focused on when and how to have conversations that matter with clients during times of change.

The central point in the book argues that agile coaches are more than the sum of their competencies; they need to execute the right "moves and steps" during coaching conversations. The model Niall outlines is built around one moment that matters in all agile coaching conversations; Niall calls this the responsive moment. Sensing this moment and responding in a way that best serves the needs of the client and the organization is what the book guides you to be able to do (consistently).

The Responsive Agile Coaching model is a dynamic flow-based approach to delivering agile coaching as a service. It dispels the thinking that agile coaching needs to be delivered by a person with the title of agile coach and aims to "open source" it as a skill anyone can develop. This book puts the 'coaching' back into agile coaching by providing a model to balance the agile expert and coaching elements of agile coaching.

Responsive Agile Coaching is part theory, part practical guide book and part story telling. The book has been written to cater for readers from all backgrounds who are looking to change the way they work; managers, leaders, change agents as well as agile coaches will find insights and inspiration in this book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781989737989
Publisher:	Grammar Factory Publishing
Publication date:	08/15/2022
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

NIALL McSHANE is a coach at heart, and throughout his career has applied coaching in many situations; sports, life, leadership and most recently agile and ways to work. There are two consistent themes in all of the coaching Niall has delivered over the years; performance (getting the outcome) and growth (getting better). These two elements are central to his life and work as a coach and come through strongly throughout the book. Niall has built an agile coaching career through hiring, training, and mentoring others to be coaches.On a personal note, Niall considers himself a practicing Buddhist and an amateur neuroscientist; both of these pursuits have been woven into his recent work which focuses on unlearning and behavioural change associated with the adoption of better ways to work. Niall does not claim to know everything about the topic of agile coaching, but what he can guarantee is he's lived and practiced everything he writes about in this book.

Read an Excerpt

FOREWORD:

For more than 25 years, I have been working in this system we call “agile.” In the beginning, I was experimenting because everything was theoretical. Later, I was working on making these approaches solid and reliable and most of all, delivering value to the client. What has always been a big question mark for me is the fact that although the end results are initially successful, clients had always an excuse to step back into their old habits—the old habits that resulted in non-delivery.

Later on, I detected the power of old paradigms deeply embedded in the organizations in areas such as decision making, documentation standards, career paths, bureaucracy, job descriptions, evaluation and reward, and last but not least—habits. Habits, once in position, are difficult to change (“it does not work for us”) and also define a person or company’s reflexes under stress. These deeply rooted habits make it difficult to help people change; it is common for people and organizations to revert back to their old ways. People bump into an issue and instead of fixing it in an agile way “forward,” they regress “backward” by reimplementing old habits. This problem offered a massive opportunity: the professional domain of the agile coach. 

Now there are a lot of people who call themselves agile coaches; however, and I am so sorry to say this, I often meet coaches who don’t know how to coach. Agile knowledge and experience is often already an issue, but the lack of coaching skills strikes me over and over again as a major issue within this professional domain.

The question is: what exactly are those coaching skills? I do not claim I have the one and only answer, but for me it is clear that “supporting people in finding their own way” is not the way. For me, an agile coach is like a sports coach. Sometimes you have to be directive and strict on the dos and don’ts, and sometimes you have to let teams struggle a bit and move forward on their own. Collective change (to achieve collective benefits) and tailor-made team improvements are both part of the support needed, and this is what the book is all about.

I recommend you read this book to learn. Read to see how this book can help you in your career. The help is out there, and a professional agile coach is always interested in the lessons and improvements forward that can be learned from another. Enjoy!

Arie van Bennekum
Co-Author of Agile Manifesto
The Netherlands

Table of Contents

Foreword 1

About the Author 3

Acknowledgements 5

How to Read This Book 7

Part I WHY Responsive Agile Coaching? 9

Introduction 9

Chapter 1 The Agile Industry 11

The Rise of Agile Coaching 11

Outcomes 12

Meaning 13

Chapter 2 The Story Behind This Book 15

The Agile Coaching Expert 15

The Agile Coaching Beginner 18

Expert-Beginner Tension 19

Responsive Coaching 20

Chapter 3 The Agile Coach and Agile Coaching 23

Definitions 23

The "Agile" Part of Agile Coaching 25

The "Coaching" Part of Agile Coaching 27

References and Further Reading 29

Part II WHAT Is the Responsive Agile Coaching Model? 31

Introduction 31

Chapter 4 Two Stories Explain How the Model Originated 33

Sunny-Day Story 34

Sunny-Day Story Debrief 37

Rainy-Day Story 38

Rainy-Day Story Debrief 43

Chapter 5 Two Pathways, Four Moves, One End Point 47

Two Conversation Pathways 47

Overview of the Four Moves 48

Move 1 Sense Then Respond 51

Sense 52

Sensing: Practical Tips and an Experiment 54

The Responsive Moment 55

Respond 57

Respond: Practical Tips and an Experiment 59

Move 2 Tell or Show 60

Tell 61

Tell: Practical Tips and an Experiment 63

Show 64

Show: Practical Tips and an Experiment 66

Move 3: Open and Hold 67

Open 68

Open: Practical Tips and an Experiment 70

Hold 71

Hold: Practical Tips and an Experiment 73

Move 4: Await Then Co-Create 74

Await 75

Await: Practical Tips and an Experiment 77

Co-create 78

Co-create: Practical Tips and an Experiment 80

The End Point: Embed 81

Embed 81

Embed: Practical Tips and an Experiment 83

References and Further Reading 85

Part III HOW to Do Responsive Agile Coaching 87

Introduction 87

Chapter 6 How Conversations Work 89

The Four Levels of Depth to Conversations 90

Flowing Through the Four Levels of Conversation 93

Chapter 7 MOVE 1: Sense THEN Respond 97

Sensing: Scanning the System 98

The Trigger to Start a Coaching Conversation 98

You Are Affected 101

Your First Action: STOP 102

Orient Your Intent to Serve 103

Agile Coaching's Core Question 105

Permission to Coach 106

Question the Question 107

The Responsive Moment - React or Respond 107

A Sense Then Respond Conversation 109

Chapter 8 MOVE 2: Tell or Show 113

Caution: Downloading Risks Repeating Old Patterns 114

Tell Them; Show Them 114

Chapter 9 MOVE 3: Open and Hold 119

Questions to Enable an Open MIND 121

The Neuroscience of Intuition 122

How to HOLD the Space 126

Things NOT to Do as You Hold the Space 129

Questions to Enable an Open HEART 131

Questions to Enable an Open WILL 134

Chapter 10 MOVE 4: Await Then Co-create (and Embed) 139

How to "Await" 139

Co-create Questions 141

Embed Questions 144

Chapter 11 Responsive Agile Coaching - One-on-One 149

Sense and Respond 150

Across Pathway - an Attempt to Tell or Show 150

Down Pathway - Open and Hold 151

Awaiting 152

Co-create 153

Embed 154

Chapter 12 Responsive versus professional coaching 155

Overview of the GROW model 155

Using GROW with Responsive Agile Coaching 156

Goal 158

Reality 158

Options 158

Way Forward 159

Responsive versus Professional Coaching - Key Differences 159

Chapter 13 Responsive Agile Coaching with a Team 161

Accelerating Coaching Outcomes 161

Coaching a Team from Forming to Performing 162

Tuckman's Stages (Modified) for Agile Team Coaching 164

Why "Containers" Are Critical to Coaching Agile Teams 166

An Agile Team Change Management Approach 168

Phase 1 Create the Container 170

Phase 2 Resolve Resistance 171

Phase 3 Embed and Re-provoke 172

Chapter 14 Combinations and Experimentation 175

Provocation in Your First Encounter 175

Cycling Between Tell and Open 176

Other Moves and Combinations to Experiment With 177

Practice the Basics, Experiment, Then Master 178

References and Further Reading 180

Part IV Responsive Agile Coaching Practices 183

Introduction 183

Chapter 15 Key Practice - Listening 185

Level 1 When You Have the Right Answer 187

Level 2 When Facts and Opinions Need to Be Heard 187

Level 3 When Clients Need to Feel Felt 188

Level 4 When Everyone Needs to Reconnect to Purpose 190

How to Use Listening 191

Chapter 16 Key Practice - Mindfulness 195

Mindfulness: What It Is and Why It's Important? 195

Mindfulness Helps You to Make Meaning 198

Mindfulness Exercises 200

Creating Your Mindfulness Practice 204

Chapter 17 Key Practice - Habit Management 207

Agile Coaching Habits 207

The Structure of a Habit 208

Cues 209

Routine 210

Craving 210

Your Personality and Social Style 212

The Reward from Agile Coaching 214

Chapter 18 Key Practice - Unlearning 217

Unlearning Opportunity #1 - "I Am the Expert" Reaction 219

Unlearning Opportunity #2 - Problem-Solving Reaction 220

Unlearning Opportunity #3 - Emotion-Avoiding Reaction 221

An Approach to Unlearning 222

Chapter 19 Key Practice - Evoking Presence 227

What Is Presence, and Why Is It Important? 227

Presencing Reflection 229

Working with Presence 230

References and Further Reading 232

Part V A Responsive Agile Coaching Career 235

Introduction 235

Chapter 20 Responsive Agile Coaching Across a Career 237

What Does It Take to Deliver Responsive Agile Coaching? 238

Agile Coaching Role Types 238

Agile Coaching - the Three Roles in a Career 239

The Start - Working with Yourself 240

Agile Coaching Small 241

Agile Coaching Medium 244

Agile Coaching Large 246

Which Role Is for You? 247

Chapter 21 The Journey to Becoming a Responsive Agile Coach 249

First Day on a New Job 250

So, This Is What "Great" Looks Like 254

Call to Adventure 256

Refusal of the Call 258

Meeting with the Mentor 260

Stepping into the Unknown 262

Approaching the Turning Point 266

Facing Your Fears 267

The Reward 270

The Road Back 272

The Final Test 275

Return as the "Expert" 277

Chapter 22 What We Learned from Steve's Journey 279

You Will Step Across Into the Unknown 279

You Will Face Multiple Nemeses 280

Continuous Learning and Practice 281

Working with Others (Including a Mentor) 282

Soft Skills and Self-management 282

References and Further Reading 283

Part VI Responsive Agile Coaching Capability 285

Introduction 285

Chapter 23 Creating a Learning and Unlearning Plan 287

Overview of the Approach 287

Build Your Community 289

Organizing Your Learning 291

Organizing Your Unlearning 295

Learning/Unlearning Canvas 297

Chapter 24 Responsive Agile Coaching in an Organization 301

(Agile) Coaching as a Culture 302

Agile Coaching as a Skill 303

Coaching Capability for Executives 304

References and Further Reading 306

Conclusion - Final Words 309

Editorial Reviews

"I read an early draft of Niall McShane's Responsive Agile Coaching and immediately began recommending it when asked for a good book on modern coaching techniques. It's always a good sign when I recommend a book that hasn't been published yet and tell people it's worth the wait. In your case, wait no more: the book you're looking at right now is the most helpful book on agile coaching available."

Mike Cohn, Agile coach and Founding member of the Scrum Alliance and Agile Alliance

"Niall has managed to capture an interesting angle on Agile Coaching that is not only useful and practical, but also agnostic of any single method. Niall offers his own unique perspective based on his experience of what works better and helps you avoid what does not - and explains why. Highly recommended for people new to the subject matter and also for those who are more experienced as an augmentation to their existing arsenal of knowledge and tools."

Sam Zawadi, Agile Professional

From the Publisher