Should We Hire an Agile Trainer or Just Read the Scrum Guide?

What is the best way to learn agile and Scrum? Can you just read the Scrum Guide or do you need to hire an Agile Trainer to be effective as an agile team?

I taught an Agile Training course recently and felt I did a pretty good job. When I reviewed the participant feedback, not everyone agreed. The feedback was mostly positive, though one comment stung:

This presentation felt like a reiteration of the scrum guide. In order for the course to be of value, I expected it to be tailored to our experience and have meaningful contributions that are not easily and publicly accessible.

— Training Participant

Ouch.

This person thought my training was a restatement of the Scrum Guide.

It wasn’t. But now I am being defensive.

It is easy to feel disappointed or hurt by feedback. And I like to say that feedback is the breakfast of champions.