Agile Coaching, Consulting and a Lot in Between
The idea for this text has come from Allan Kelly’s recent article Agile Coaches, Agile Guides and Other Family Members, and a subsequent conversation on LinkedIn.
Allan writes about his experience with the title of agile coach and why he prefers to call himself agileGuide. It appears both of us have been struggling with similar questions.
Taking the lead from Allan, I would like to add my perspective on the topic to the conversation.
There are probably (at least) as many interpretations of the term “Agile” as there are agile coaches. But let’s leave that aside for now. The aspect I would like to explore here is the second part — “coach”.
There will be three parts in this article:
- Part one looks into good and bad reasons for coaching and consulting respectively.
- Part two argues that the approach might be less relevant than how one uses it.
- Part three concludes by sharing some ideas I have found helpful in dealing with the messy reality on the ground.
1. There are Good and Bad Reasons for Anything
I would argue it’s fair to state that there are different interpretations of what coaching is and what coaches do. Simplifying massively, there are two main camps:
- (non-directive) Coaching: The clients have the solution in them and the coach is there to help them access it. The coach does not give advice.
- Consulting: The job of the Consultant is to provide subject matter expertise. The Consultant knows the solution and how to get there.
Frictions arise when the involved parties have mismatching ideas about the coaching. A common scenario is that the clients ask for coaching but seek advice and the coach wants to provide non-directive coaching.
As is so often the case, there are good and bad reasons for either position.
Good Reasons for Non-Directive Coaching
The main argument for non-directive coaching is that any solutions the clients (individuals or clients) come up with are more effective. The argument goes that for complex problems, solutions taken from a different context (aka recipes) won’t work. The clients have the ultimate expertise of the situation since they are the only ones who experience it firsthand. So they are in the best position to know and consider all relevant aspects. Also the commitment to self developed solutions seems to be higher.
An important intentional side effect is building a sense of self-efficacy in the clients by learning that they are capable of changing things for the better.
Bad Reasons for Non-Directive Coaching
This is a tricky one. As a coach it’s very easy to come to believe that non-directive coaching is the best thing since sliced bread. After all, it’s supposed to be more effective, it’s non-intrusive and generally based on the proclaimed growth oriented mindset.
And it’s convenient. There is such a thin line between “I am responsible for the process, the clients own the results”, and “I am not responsible if there are results at all”, one might cross it without noticing.
People, who have been on the receiving end of agile coaching, shared with me how they often perceive agile coaches as if they are acting from the top of the metaphorical ivory-tower. The coaches appear well intended, but as if the topics do not really affect them. The behavior comes across as an avoidance of accountability.
I have to confess that I might have been like this occasionally.
Being able to distance oneself from the action is an important capability for a coach because it allows one to assume a birds eye view on what is going on. Offering a bird’s-eye perspective is one of the key values coaches provide. But “street credibility”, or the sense that the coach is in the “thick of it” with the clients, matters too.
Good Reasons for Consulting
In simple terms, consulting is providing expert advice to a specific group of people and on a specific topic.
The underlying assumption of consulting is that there is a (complicated) problem for which a known solution exists and that this solution can be effectively applied in a different context than where it was discovered. And sometimes this might actually be true. Or at least worth a try.
While there are certainly complex problems for which recipes won’t lead to effective improvements, complicated problems also exist. And even for complex problems, starting with a recipe might be a decent way to start doing things differently and learn.
Clients might arguably not have sufficient expertise to determine a good starting point. A coach with some experience in different organizations has probably been in similar situations and thus is in a much better position to come up with ideas that could work.
I’d like to emphasize “could work”. Yes, I see good advice as providing plausible starting points and not a guarantee for success.
Having seen things gets one also in a good position to assess the implementation of solutions. If a client is trying something for the first time, it’s really hard to tell if they are effective, or which seemingly minor details are important to get right. I’ve seen numerous Scrum implementations which appeared decent on first glance but were lacking in some innocent way or the other which in the end defeated the whole purpose without anyone noticing.
Bad Reasons for Consulting
Just as there are good and bad reasons for non-directive coaching, the same is true for giving consulting.
On the side of the person giving advice, a really bad reason for advising is the conviction to know best. Not only is this overconfidence often unjustified, it is also fundamentally wrong for complex problems, because here nobody knows (complexity means among other things a non-linear cause and effect relationship).
The behavior which stems from such a belief often comes across as paternalising which isn’t helping to build self-efficacy in clients. In essence the underlying message is a lack of confidence in the clients’ abilities.
I think there are also bad reasons to request consulting. A rather obvious one is the ability to blame the consultant for their bad advice if the recommended solution does not work. It’s much harder to take this route if you have come up with the solution yourself in a coaching setting.
A related variant is to request advice out of a position of perceived helplessness: “We can’t do it. Maybe we will break something.” If the advice works, it may actually reaffirm this belief: “It only works because of your great advice. We would have never been able to do it.” As a coach it’s really hard to work in such a scenario. On the side of the coach this may play into the desire to help and trigger a latent “I know best” trait. The stage is set for a mutually reaffirming cycle of dysfunctional behaviors.
2. A Fool with a Tool is still a Fool
In the first part I tried to establish that coaching as well as consulting are tools that can make sense. Now, I would like to rise above the tools. Probably more important than any tool is how it is wielded.
Coaching and Consulting with a Beginner’s Mind
When I received my coaching training there was a lot of emphasis on what Buddists may call a Beginner’s Mind. This greatly affected how I approach my work. The Beginner’s Mind is about experiencing situations without prejudice (“I’ve seen this before.”) and from a position of curiosity and “not knowing”.
For a coach this means to know that every client and every situation is unique. There are common patterns, but how they play out is always different. This means accepting that even with all experience in the world we cannot know what will happen with any deterministic accuracy.
The Beginner’s Mind is one of the underlying assumptions behind non-directive coaching. The coach cannot know the answer but assists the client to find it.
I think it is possible to practice consulting with a Beginners’ Mind. It’s totally possible to give advice from the position of not knowing and humility. As long as one meets the clients on eye-level and leaves the ultimate responsibility to act with them, I believe it’s fair to call this setup consulting with a coaching mindset.
Are you Prepared to do Whatever is Needed?
So far I have shared my views on coaching, consulting and why a Beginner’s Mind might be actually more important than the tool used.
But there is more.
You can’t Reach a Goal you don’t Have
Another thing which I came across in the coaching domain is the idea of a coaching goal. The basic idea is to start with helping the clients express very clearly what they want to achieve and why it matters to them.
I have found it tremendously helpful to have such a coaching goal as an anchor for the whole support for a number of reasons:
- I can always come back to the goal and put everything the clients does in relation to the goal, e.g. “What progress did you notice?” or “What effect on your goal do you expect from doing X?”
- I can test how my own actions (or interventions) for their relationship to the goal and thus discover easier if there is something I would like to happen but which is not related to the goal (or even contradictory)
- Assuming that moving towards the goal requires difficult changes (esp. in behavior), I find it very helpful to be able to get back to the clients’ goal and illustrate why the effort is necessary. Without it; I risk coming across like parents trying to convince their children to eat Spinach (“You might find it disgusting but it’s good for your health.)
I have found it quite challenging to convince clients to develop such clear goals. But having it changes the whole dynamic. And, with such a clear goal, it becomes less relevant if the tool used is coaching or consulting as long as a solid connection between action and goal can be made.
Sparring — Mixed Martial Arts for Agile
For a while I was quite adamant to only engage with clients if there is a clear goal. I actually cancelled engagements for the lack of a goal the clients were willing to commit to.
That is until I accepted that there are situations which are not by the book but opportunities to add value. I happened to have regular conversations with clients — usually junior or mid-level leaders. They found it quite valuable to have someone to talk to who was neither their client, a peer or superior but neutral. There was no clear goal but a lot of topics. What I did in these conversations was listening, asking questions, challenging views and providing advice.
We ended up calling these conversations sparring sessions. For me, sparring sessions have become a dirty mix between coaching, consulting and maybe other things — dynamically adjusted to the needs of the clients in the situation.
Recently I have started to use the term sparring as a name for any agile coach support without a proper coaching goal. Doing so helps me to illustrate the difference to coaching and potential limitations of support without a goal, without stopping myself from providing assistance. The term coaching remains free to label “proper” coaching.
What’s on the Coaching Menu?
Having non-directive coaching, consulting and sparring as options, allows me to engage in conversations with the clients about the mode we want to work in:
- “In which role do you see me in this?”
- “We are not having a goal defined. Without it, I cannot build on it to focus our efforts. I can offer Sparring but these are the disadvantages …”
- “I notice you are struggling with X. Would you like me to share what I have found useful in seemingly similar situations?”
These conversations allow us to assume shared responsibility for the working mode and consequently the outcome. I have found that the approach takes a huge burden off my shoulders because it helps to build transparency about the approach and allows the clients to choose so I’m not making the decision for them.
Summary
My line of thought started with the question if agile coaches can only use non-directive coaching, illustrating good and bad reasons for coaching and consulting respectively and making a distinction between coaching as a tool (among others) and acting from a beginner’s mind.
I shared my experience with setting up coaching goals, why I find doing so very important and how it changes the dynamics of the support relationship.
I went on introducing sparring as another option somewhere between coaching and consulting. I ended with the idea to involve the clients into the decision which approach to use.
For the time being I’m quite happy with this approach. I am an agile coach, supporting my clients in reaching their goals by applying agile concepts, with a beginner’s mind and using all the tools in my box transparently and in agreement with my clients.
Happy to hear your thoughts.
