Project Manager Turned Agile Coach Essential Deprogramming for the Road Ahead

Transcription

1 Project Manager Turned Coach Essential Deprogramming for the Road Ahead Lyssa Adkins CoachingTeams.com Copyright Cricketwing Consulting

2 Radical thoughts

3 Be detached from outcomes Give the team all the space in the world to come up with the absolute best ideas and build the absolute best product. You are only one voice on the team when it comes to the specifics of what they will create. Don t linger here, you have a bigger role to play. Stay focused on how they are working together so you can help them improve the quality and completeness of their work. Be detached from specific outcomes. If you stay in the how and stay away from the details of the what you can achieve detachment. You being detached allows them to attach and to own their results. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

4 Take it to the team 4 You are not the best person to solve the problem, whether it be a problem with the product the team is creating or a problem with the way the team is working together. Every time you think you need to solve something (a new skill set is needed, someone is leaving, the team is not updating cards, the product owner is absent) STOP and raise the observations to the team. Let them tell you the root cause and what they will do about it (if anything). If you diagnose the problem and implement a solution, you run the risk of being way off base AND you have subtly undermined the team s ability to solve their own problems. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

5 Be a mirror 5 Instead be their mirror. Reflect back to them, without judgment, the behavior or symptoms you see. Let them see themselves through your observation. Simply state what you are witnessing and ask, Hmmm what do you think that means? Then, listen. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

6 Master your face 6 To do this well, practice non-judgment, practice non-violent communication. Not only in your voice but also in your face. If you judge, they will posture around you. You will not get to the core of what is really going on. Instead, you will be told what someone thinks you want to hear. Master your face and open your mind. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

7 Let there be silence 7 Get comfortable with uncomfortable silence. Do not fill it yourself. Let someone else on the team speak. They will. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

8 Model being outrageous 8 It is amazing, the things that hold teams back. Beliefs about what is and is not allowed. They may say, It s just the way things work around here. When you hear these self-limiters, expose them. Ask, Is this an impediment to getting your work done? Ask, If you had no limitations what would you do? Be wild, be big, let them hear bold ideas and wide open spaces from you. Model being unreasonable for the team. Help free them from their assumption that they are limited. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

9 Let the team fail 9 I m not talking about catastrophic failure, here. And I am certainly not advocating letting the team fail so that you can say, See? I told you that would happen. I do know that teams that fail together and recover together are much stronger and faster than ones that are protected. And, the team may surprise you. The thing you thought was going to send the team to rack and ruin may actually work for them. Watch and wait. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

10 Be their biggest fan 10 Don t offer empty praise and don t praise them on the good work they did. Work will flow through the team. It will come and go. The work itself does not define the team and does not make them great. What makes them great is getting better as individuals and healthier as a team. Notice that. Tell them and everyone else you encounter about how much better they are doing as a team. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

11 I hold an alphabet-soup of certifications: Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB). I am also a professionally trained Co-Active Coach which gives me the skills to coach people one-on-one and in coaching circles. Who is Lyssa? Before Scrum 15-year career in project and program management PMO director PMP Six Sigma Green Belt After Scrum All that + Certified Scrum Trainer and a belief that teams really do know what s best a rabid focus on delivering business value Scrum Coach Co-active Coach 11 Copyright Cricketwing Consulting Hello from Lyssa Adkins! I am certified as a Scrum Trainer and I am also an Coach. I came to as a project leader with over 15 years project management expertise. Even with all that experience, nothing prepared me for the power and simplicity of done well. My experience, along with my professional coaching and training abilities, gives me the perspective needed to guide teams and leaders to harness as the competitive advantage weapon it was meant to be. I know the transformation path is rocky. As a former large-scale program manager and director of Project Management Offices, I have lived it myself. This makes me uniquely able to help others translate their existing world to the world. For the last five years, I have been coaching teams in the financial services industry and coaching coaches who represent the gamut of implementations, from small consulting firms to the giants of industry. I believe that is more than an alternate project management methodology and am passionate about deepening the roles in specifically Coach and Manager to help move into its fullest expression.

12 Copyright Cricketwing Consulting Which path is yours? (If you don t see it, draw it in). There are many paths to becoming an agile coach. All are OK. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

13 An agile coach is

14 What is an agile coach, really? 14 Copyright Cricketwing Consulting An agile coach is a Bulldozer. Bulldozing impediments out of the team s way. Shepherd. Guiding the team back to agile practices and principles when they stray. Servant leader. Serving the team rather than the team serving you. Guardian of quality and performance. Examining both what the team produces and how they produced it to make observations and help them tune the human system they are. Source: The coach as bulldozer characteristic came from Mike Cohn s Certified Scrum Master Workshop. The coach as sheepdog - protecting the flock from outside attackers is Ken Schwaber s idea. This was the seed for Lyssa Adkins adaptation of it to shepherd, guiding the team back when they stray. Coach as servant leader was first coined by Mike Cohn and Ken Schwaber in the January 2003 Times Newsletter article, The Need for Project Management. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

15 15 Copyright Cricketwing Consulting The agile coach helps the team navigate unpredictable waters and adapt as things happen to them. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

16 An agile coach Coordinating individual contributions Being a subject matter expert Being invested in specific outcomes Knowing the answer Directing Coaching for collaboration Being a facilitator for the team Being invested in overall performance Asking the team for the answer Letting the team find their own way Driving Guiding 16 This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

17 Deprogram these underlying beliefs x We can plan the work and work the plan. x The triple constraints can be traded off for one another to correct for unknowns. The plan xgets more accurate over time as we flesh out the project through phases of activity: requirements, design, development, testing, etc. Scope can xbe locked down with later discoveries being handled as change requests against the scheduled end date. x Controlling through the project plan is my job. Completing xtasks and delivering deliverables indicate progress and value Delivering x on time, within delivered. budget and on scope equals success. 17 Many beliefs underlying plan-driven project management must be deprogrammed before one can become a successful agile coach. Find a mentor who has been there to help you through the transition. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

18 gravity works Copyright Cricketwing Consulting Generally, the underlying beliefs in plan-driven management are replaced with this simple fact: Gravity works. Rock climbers know that gravity works. They understand it. They accept it. They plan for it. I was made newly aware of this as I hiked past a group of rock climbers in action, all their gear deployed, ropes hanging down, people clinging to the side of a vertical rock face far above me. As I later made my way around their cars in the parking area, I noticed a bumper sticker that said, simply, Gravity Works. Yes, it does. Rock climbers know this and plan for it. So do agile coaches. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

19 Embrace reality Clients needs change. What the team can do is known only to them, and changes over time. The world moves at an unbelievably fast pace and creates situations no one could have foreseen. You cannot make a commitment on anyone else s behalf and expect committed behavior from them. 19 Why can t they tell us what they need up front? Why can t the team plan everything at the beginning? Why is everything so volatile? Why ask why? Instead, embrace reality and start working with gravity. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

20 Adopt these beliefs Planning is essential, plans are useless. [Eisenhower] Time and budget (people) are held constant. Only scope flexes. A plan gets more accurate over time because it is constantly revised and trued-up to the team s actual performance. Clients getting the Only delivered end business value they need is products indicate progress the only measure of and value delivered. success. 20 Scope remains flexible and changes of any kind are welcomed even late in the project. Controlling through a plan is not possible, releasing the team into the safety of agile is my only measure of control. So, I coach the team to use agile well. How ready do you feel to adopt these beliefs (essential to doing agile well)? This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

21 Who do you want to be? Who s more adaptable? Who can roll with the punches? Who is having a better time?

22 An agile coach someone who takes teams beyond getting agile practices up and running, into their deliberate and joyful pursuit of high performance. 22 In a fully-supported framework that allows for (and leverages) gravity, the agile coach becomes free to focus on the team and help them take up their deliberate and joyful pursuit of high performance. Wow - I never even got close to that as a plan-driven project manager. I was always busy calming a client down or making people do things they thought knew (in their hearts) was wasteful. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

23 OK how?

24 Master Yourself Copyright Cricketwing Consulting This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

25 Bring in the allied disciplines This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

26 Bring in the allied disciplines Your Favorite Goes Here write yours in. Your experience is just as valid as mine, so keep in mind that everything I say comes from my personal journey from project manager to agile coach. This is all about one good way to coach my way. Your ways are valid, too. Since we re here together, let s learn what I ve learned. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

27 coaching is As an agile coach you model the key behaviors of a good agilist. You ARE what you re trying to teach them to BE. 27 This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

28 Last words

29 Don t go it alone 29 If I could leave you with one thought, it s this.don t go it alone I know how hard it is to live these radical thoughts I've just shared with you. I have been humbled into remembering this, in fact. I recently coached a couple of teams directly rather than being the coach of coaches. And I remembered, again, what it *feels* like to be the "leader" of the team. The pressure of wanting the team to do well, the pressure of outside forces asking you when? why? How? Lots of emotions in play that can lead one back to their old, non- behaviors. The cure for this is friends. Use your network of like-minded colleagues - as sounding boards, as venting partners, for advice. Don't go it alone. Pairing is good for coaches, too. This material may be included in the forthcoming book by Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Coaches and Project

30 Get your own coach and look for the book. CoachingTeams.com founding father, Jim Highsmith says: I am an enthusiastic champion of this book. It goes on the bookshelf as one of my top ten agile books. Copyright Cricketwing Consulting Please contact me with questions or to talk about coaching or training. I am looking for a few one-on-one coaching clients and a new Coaching Circle starts up soon. Are you my ideal coaching client? I d like to find out. Would you? lyssaadkins@cricketwing.com CoachingTeams.com