Is coaching getting big in Agile world?
It is really exciting to notice an increased number of people attracted to coaching topics we had been exploring lately in the Psychology of Agile Scrum Meetup Group. Looking back at the past sessions which were connected to aspects of professional coaching, made me think — is coaching becoming big in the world of Agile? I am really interested to hear more about how people incorporate elements of professional coaching when working with Agile teams.
To help you on your coaching journey, I would like to share a few tools from the sessions we have held recently here at Hotels.com.
Solutions Focused Coaching for Psychological Safety — with Roy Marriott — http://www.roymarriott.com/ :-
1. With Google project Aristotle, connecting high performance to Psychological safety, it is very useful to consider ways of how to create a safer environment by shifting the way we ask questions to a more open ended, solution focused coaching approach.
2. For those who are getting tired of the popular GROW model, a different less-known model OSKAR, offers an alternative approach, applicable to almost any complex situation:
Outcome: clarify the Outcome.
Scale: use scaling (often 1–10) to understand relation to the desired Outcome and explore ways of achieving it.
Know-how: look at what is necessary to get to the Outcome. The “know-how” is the skills, knowledge, qualifications, and attributes enabling the move forward.
Action: focus on the Actions necessary to solve the identified problems.
Review: review the Actions taken and decide what has improved, and what else needs to happen to improve even further.
3. Scaling itself, I found to be a very useful tool, which I have added to my personal coaching toolbox and recommend everyone to explore further (see the picture below).
Themes in Our Lives — with Colin Brett —
https://www.coachingdevelopment.com :-
I really enjoyed a working style model presented by Colin which offered an alternative way of understanding ourselves, the themes in our lives, other people and their typical patterns. It suggests why we are good at some things and not others, where our own areas for growth could be and how we could enhance our relationships with other people.
I like the idea that they are only themes; we tend to adopt some of them but they are not permanent and can be improved or changed.
Here they are:
1. Hurry Up — We work quickly and get a lot done, respond well to short deadlines, are motivated to do things quickly, but that can backfire as mistakes can creep up and we can be impatient. In rush, we speak fast and have a habit of interrupting others.
2. Be Perfect — We are on a quest for perfection — no errors, everything must be exactly right, we are well organised, look ahead and are motivated by our reputation for accuracy and attention to detail, but we cannot be relied on to deliver on time, and can include too much information confusing others
3. Please People — We encourage harmony, we are considerate of others’ feelings and aim to please other people without asking, but we can be too nice and may fail to speak out even when others implement ideas that we know are likely to fail.
4. Try Hard — We tackle things enthusiastically, motivated by trying something new and we like to follow up on all possibilities. We are great getting things off the ground, but we may be more committed to trying than to succeeding. Our initial interest wears off before we finish the task.
5. Be Strong — We are calm under pressure and are good at dealing with stress, motivated by duty and we will work steadily even at the unpleasant tasks but we hate admitting weakness — and we regard any failure to cope as a weakness. Therefore we get overloaded rather than asking others for help.
Each working style has a number of benefits and, of course, a number of drawbacks, so it is useful to review our behaviour from time to time to avoid the problems that our particular style brings.
To end, I would like to add a few words about Psychology of Agile Scrum Meetup Group. Hosted by Hotels.com monthly, we are independent friendly group, focused on the real people in Agile world. Please read about us more at https://www.meetup.com/London-Scrum-Meetup/ .
Hope to see you at our next event!
