What is agile coaching. Agile, SCRUM, coaching, turquoise companies... About terms and meanings. Description: A team working to create a mobile phone camera application in an organization that was acquired by a large and diversified Internet company.

You have already become familiar with Scrum, XP, Lean and Kanban, you know what they have in common, and you understand what problems they solve. If you work in software development, you've noticed at least a few things (practices, ideas, changes in attitudes) that can help your team.

Now go and do it. Push your team towards Agile now!

This seems like an almost impossible task, doesn't it? There is a difference between reading about values, principles, worldviews and practices and implementing them.

Some teams, having read books about Scrum or XP, adopt these practices and immediately get excellent results. The previous nine chapters are all about getting you to understand why this is possible: these teams already have a mindset that is compatible with the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto and methodology. They adopt Agile with ease because they don't have to change their mindset. If things are the same on your team, then you have a much better chance of success.

But what if your way of thinking is incompatible with Scrum, XP or other agile methodologies? Is the environment you work in making it difficult to successfully apply agile values? What if the contribution of each individual participant is valued above teamwork, and severe punishment is imposed for mistakes? What if the environment stifles innovation or your team doesn't have access to customers and others who can help you understand the software you produce? All of these are barriers to implementing Agile.

That's when you need it agile coach– a person who helps the team implement Agile. Thanks to it, each team member learns a new attitude, worldview and overcomes psychological, emotional and technical barriers that prevent the implementation of Agile. Coaches work with each team member to help them understand not only “how” to implement a new practice, but also “why” it should be used. They help the team overcome the natural aversion and even fear of change that occurs with those who are asked to try something new at work.

There are many examples in this book where people have gotten better-than-nothing results: a team implements agile practices, but its members experience only minor improvements because they do not truly change their views or attitudes about teamwork to create software. In other words, the team needs an agile mindset to get good results from the Agile methodology. The Agile values and principles described in the manifesto help the team acquire the right mindset, and for the same reason, each methodology offers its own values and principles. A team gets the best results from implementing Agile when each team member's mindset is compatible with the values and principles of agile development and the specific methodology they are implementing.

The goal of an agile coach is enable the team to gain a more flexible outlook. A good coach helps you choose the methodology that best fits the existing mentality and introduces the team to the values, principles and practices of the methodology so that it works for those people. Together with a coach, the team will begin to implement practices and then use them to learn and internalize values and principles, gradually change their attitude and acquire the right worldview, which will help to move beyond the “better-than-nothing” result.

In this chapter, you'll learn about agile coaching: how teams learn, how agile coaches help them change their mindset to make it easier to adopt Agile methodology, and how a coach can make your team more agile.

Description: A team working to create a mobile phone camera application in an organization that was acquired by a large and diversified Internet company.

Katherine - First Developer

Understanding the Role of an Agile Coach
Interaction with teams, managers and stakeholders within the company
Launch of agile directions
Understanding the business
Working with top management and shareholders: metrics and facts
Best cultural, process practices and choice of agile organizational structure
An Agile Coach is still a coach. Upgrade your coach's skills (almost the whole day)
Transformation tracking

After completing the training you:

Understand who an Agile coach is and get an Agile Coach certificate :)
Get the Value Streams launch format
Get an algorithm for creating and working a transformation team
Get better at selling problems to businesses.
Learn how to create a culture of responsibility and focus on results
Understand how to use agile values throughout the organization to solve organizational problems and grow the company
Learn to ask powerful coaching questions and recognize people's metaprograms like a professional coach.

Group discounts:

From 2 to 4 participants - 5% discount
5 or more participants - 10% discount

The training price includes:

Coffee breaks
Obtaining a certificate from the ICAgile consortium - Agile Coaching
Handout

Payment for the training is possible:

According to an invoice from a legal entity (a certificate of provision of services is issued)
By bank card (an electronic cash receipt is issued)

Trainer

Activist for Agile thinking and processes. Has extensive experience in creating a trusting culture and atmosphere in teams.

He began his professional journey in 2009 in a small investment company as a developer. Responsible for the implementation of 5 projects and automation of the entire company, leading a team of up to 7 people. In 2012, he was invited to one of the largest Russian IT companies, SKB Kontur, to help create the company’s internal billing. Worked his way up from Team Lead and Architect to Development Manager, helped manage a team from 5 people at the start to 50 and distributed to 3 offices (Ekaterinburg, Izhevsk, St. Petersburg).

Since 2014, he has devoted himself to corporate Agile coaching: scaling his own team; Scrum Master roles; conducting retrospectives, trainings and audits within the company, as well as making presentations at internal and external conferences.

In 2016, I decided to make the world a better place: I went beyond the boundaries of one corporation and joined the friendly ScrumTrek team. Since then, he has been spending about 1000 hours a year with trainings/workshops and strategic sessions. Participated in the transformation of more than 20 companies, more than 50 pilots, as well as 4 transformations of entire companies. Raised over 50 agile coaches by the end of 2018.

Since 2018, he has taken on the role of CEO of ScrumTrek: focused on business, finance, branding, back office, management and business growth. Still working with people :)

A lot of buzzwords. They come as names for something very new and are fixed in our minds as symbols of breakthrough. Symbols of global change in thinking. But is what lies beneath the terms a real breakthrough? Or do we simply consider the well-forgotten old to be new again?

Coaching

One day I had a conversation with one of my business partners.

I worked with a coach. For a lot of money. In general, I was pleased. But then I went to a good psychologist and didn’t understand the difference. Both of them asked me questions. Both of them talked to me about goals. Only the psychologist did this without pressure. More professional, perhaps.

I wasn't too surprised. After all, coaching is simply one of the technologies for working with people. Just like a psychotherapy session. And the difference between a coach and a psychotherapist is most often that the first one has one method, and the second one has a set of methods and tools. But they have the same basis.

So why was it necessary to introduce a new term?

It's simple. In order for a person to be able to conduct a therapeutic appointment, he must receive appropriate education. Very serious. And then call your services the completely unfashionable word “consultation”. And in order to declare yourself a coach, a short course is enough. And even then, it’s not necessary.

There are no approved and agreed criteria for the quality of a coach’s work. So, there is no responsibility. Essentially, clients simply pay for the conversation. Moreover, quite frank. And often with someone who has no idea how to prevent serious consequences for the client’s psyche. And with someone who cannot figure out whether his client has an everyday problem or a pathology that needs to be treated with drugs. Well, of course, coaches are not available to medical ethics commissions.

So, a fashionable concept in in this case helps amateurs, sectarians and many others promote their name and earn money.

Does the technology work? Of course it works. Just like any other methods when used by professionals. It is not the technology's fault that its name has become fashionable and has appeared on the covers of amateurs.

But here is what many of them arrogantly declare: “Psychologists cannot work normally with people. Now only coaching” - shows that they have no idea about psychology or coaching, like technology.

Agile

This word burst into our reality like a whirlwind. And it has become a symbol of modern business. More precisely, those who believe that they are related to modern business. Moreover, what’s interesting is that everyone has heard about Agile. But quite a few people imagine what it is. So, gentlemen, this is not technology. The Agile manifesto is a set of values and principles that are important for developing technology under conditions of uncertainty. That is, when there is no clear vision of the final result. Principles on which many good tools can be developed.

Does agile work? Of course it works. Like any other values and principles, it guides decisions made within a team along a specific path.

Is there anything revolutionary new in this? Not at all. Special groups were created long before this. And for employees to work in teams and be customer-oriented is the dream of any entrepreneur. For the fact that the developers and methodologists brought these principles into a single document - respect to them. They can help those who understand how a work process is built based on principles. Especially if he works in software development.

But applying these principles to any business is stupid. But fashionable. And profitable. After all, any fashion serves as a reason to introduce an educational product to the market. And if the word is heard, then it is perceived as a new magic wand. And it costs more than the already boring set of conventional tools. The truth is no different from it, but the label is different, which means it sells better.

SCRUM

Simply revolutionary! Revolutionary to the point of nightmare! Coordinating work in progress is new and fresh. Working in short bursts is... well, cool, I guess. And most importantly, no one has ever done this. Neither do architects or designers who present a sketch to the customer many times before making a final decision on the application. Neither do equipment manufacturers. And especially not the software developers themselves.

Well, of course, no one ever held production meetings. And he did not conduct cyclical control. And he did not create interdepartmental commissions.

Is Scrum necessary and does it work? Needed. And working. Because these are the principles of normal work group management. Whatever you call them. And reading or listening about a cool guy - a SCRUM master, we notice that in some ways he is similar to an ordinary professional moderator and administrator working group. But, damn it, SCRUM, and even a master, sounds cooler. This means that for a diploma with such an inscription they will give the teacher more money.

So...does it work? Of course! Is it new? In no case. This is common management practice. And examples of “revolutionary achievements” achieved with the help of Scrum are, for the most part, the practice of rocking over-bureaucratic systems. Which would have been updated in any case, since they had lost their effectiveness.

And by the way, if we leave the banter at our translators and take the original title of the book that has become the bible in this area, then “doing twice as much, spending half as much time” can be done without new technologies. You just need to learn to work normally, and not squabble and not let personal ambitions influence the deliberative and labor process.

Turquoise... turquoise...

“At first we decided to build a turquoise company, and then we decided to make money and hired single mothers with a mortgage.”

Need something updated? Repaint!

Product manufacturers do the same when they offer us “new” colored packs. This is what the producers of countless theories of “supermanagement” do.

They assign color differentiation to long-studied phenomena.

Gref read the book and suddenly “turquoise” filled the front pages of all business publications. And the brains of those who are trying to somehow organize their business. And the thoughts of numerous gurus who extract money from the latter for “super technologies”.

Much has been painted. And typification of personality and emotions. And stages of personality development. And even taste preferences (I once saw color differentiation of coffee tastes). And as soon as the fashion for yellow-red-blue-whatever types of behavior went away, colored types of organizations burst into our lives. At the same time, presenting the next typification as stages of development. Which is fundamentally wrong. But if they want to prove the opposite, let them force a large machine-tool plant with thousands of employees to become “turquoise.”

When I first heard about spiral dynamics, I cursed and said only one thing: “Someone will definitely bring this into business. And it will present itself as another revolution.” Less than a couple of years later this happened.

And again we are offered something “new”. But the concept of a value organization (which is considered the pinnacle of development) has been known since the beginning of civilization. Only then it was called “tribe”, and then “sect”. And they always relied on the presence of powerful ideologists in the system. And by the way, in form, Soviet state fits well into the “turquoise” paradigm. It's funny, but it's true.

And real value-based companies of our time, such as Black Diamond - Patagonia, live in the value paradigm exactly as long as their founder and ideologist is alive and active. Well, or while one family is engaged in ideology, as in Mars (although there are many questions for Mars).

Holacracy and flat structures

Another trendy topic. A company without bosses.

Well, it’s generally cool - everyone works to the limit, no one bosses anyone, everyone is happy and all that.

But this ideology does not fit in with what the companies themselves are proclaiming, promoting this approach. In one “leaderless” gang, the leader announces that there will be no more bosses. And who is he himself? And who did the shareholders entrust their money to?

And we believe. We believe all these beautiful signs.

And we start trying to copy.

And we even find our own positive sides. For example, bosses can now be paid on an equal basis with their subordinates. And live happily and amicably... until all the more or less high-quality organizers leave the company, tired of trying to restore at least some order among (attention, again a fashionable word) “millennials”.

But in reality, creating flat structures does not work. This is against nature, which is based on a fractal. And which always builds a hierarchy.

In reality, in such companies, “curators” begin to appear instead of department heads, and “mentors” instead of department heads. And they differ from their colleagues from the next office only by their burning gaze at first and by their lower salary.

Fashion is a friend, fashion is an enemy

Fashion isn't that bad. Especially when it comes to clothes.

But we must not forget that what avant-garde designers show on the catwalks is often impossible to walk on the streets. Although, there are also useful elements in their works. Which can also be used in the production of mass products. Fashion is even good. After all, after experts have discussed futuristic concepts, they begin to think about today (the key word is “experts”). Of course, there is always a consumer who was convinced at the show that, for example, feathers in the ass are fashionable, modern, expensive and cool. And this consumer walks the streets dressed like this, causing laughter among passers-by. And he is proud that he is not like others.

Methods of flexible management Agile (Agile) where to start implementing

The idea of the flexible development methodology Agile (agile) is that employees and managers are able to very quickly find new solutions and, if necessary, create new products to increase the company’s profits and its overall competitiveness in the market.

But it is impossible to say that the Agile business methodology will work in 100% of cases; there are a number of reasons for this: your employees, their level of education on issues of flexible management and many external factors, ignoring which will lead to hidden risks that are possible when using Agile.

The managers of many Russian companies are interested in new methods of flexible management, and this interest is not without reason, since it is Agile that allows them to find new ideas and solutions in conditions of crisis and high uncertainty in which the managers of many companies have to work.

Creating Agile

Created in February 2001, the “Agile Manifesto” was signed by leading IT companies, and in almost 15 years agile has spread to all business processes and areas of business, which actually emphasizes the flexibility and adaptability of the methodology itself.

Agile creates an atmosphere of effective interaction between employees, which contributes to the rapid search for solutions, the creation of new products and the generation of new ideas. Agile teams are cross-functional teams, reminiscent of players in football or hockey:

On the one hand, the game is general, and on the other there is a defender, a half-back, a forward and a goalkeeper - this is a good analogy that allows you to understand what Agile is in business.

After all, it immediately becomes clear how responsibility is distributed and who can lead the team to success, but on the other hand, each player is an individual and this should be remembered.

Agile teams unite

Agile teams can combine the head of the sales department, a programmer, a marketer, and a service engineer, it all depends on the goals and objectives that you set for your company in terms of the use of flexible management methods.

Sprints: Agile time management

Of course, I would like to say that short sprints, assigned as necessary or according to a set schedule, can compensate for planning meetings and approvals, but this is not true, especially on initial stage. The implementation of Agile is quite a long process and is mainly associated with changes in the thinking of employees, as well as the formation of a different attitude towards responsibility, remember this.

Agile methods allow you to quickly make adjustments to a product or service, from the point of view of a concept or idea, but it is one thing to introduce it and a completely different thing to implement it in practice, because in most cases, adjusting production is a rather lengthy process.

One of the common misconceptions is that Agile is created to adjust a product or business process to the needs of consumers, but this is far from true.

And it is very important to take this into account, and not blindly follow the wishes of your clients. Remember that any change does not require a quick reaction and adjustment of products, but an analysis of the need to make these changes.

Which companies use Agile?

Agile methods are very popular in IT companies: Google, PayPal, Facebook, which is quite logical, since agile came from IT, in Russia the first projects in the field of Agile began to be implemented by Sberbank, there are my articles on this issue:

But now almost any company is interested in Agile management methods, which, in conditions of high uncertainty, one might say crisis, strives to find new ideas and solutions, and agile management methods are literally created to solve such problems.

Agile coach who is this?

Just recently I wrote an article about how to choose an Agile coach, you can read it:

It describes in some detail the issues of choosing an Agile coach, which allows you to see the process of implementing Agile from the outside.

Agile team in Russian business

Small companies have a very big advantage when implementing Agile, since Agile is created for small teams: 7-10 people are the ideal composition for an Agile team.

Of course, most Russian companies that use Agile are related to IT, but according to many experts, and I agree with this, in the near future the situation will change and Agile will be used by almost all companies focused on growth and development. Agile management methods allow you to divide cumbersome project teams into small groups and, in a short time of 4-6 months, transfer the current project from chaos to a manageable stage.

Result: you have many teams, but the number of employees does not increase, while non-material motivation of staff begins to work and a completely different attitude towards responsibility when doing work.

The use of Agile practices allows you to find new ideas, develop new and adjust existing products in a short time, and for the successful implementation of Agile, a new flexible management style is required, which is reflected in the general management style of the company.

Agile changes thinking and worldview by focusing on achieving goals using communication rather than a command-and-control structure.

But in my opinion, this is a rather strong illusion: getting rid of hierarchy is quite difficult, one might say it’s impossible, so the best solution would be to combine agile and your personal management style.

It is also a mistake to believe that Agile can increase the productivity of your company instantly, it all depends on two factors:

from your employees
and your business processes,

and they are unique in each company!

But at the same time, I would like to emphasize that for small companies Agile is perfect solution to achieve results, but in large companies you need to think about how to properly integrate Agile, since hierarchy and bureaucracy play their role quite strongly.

4 prerequisites for implementing Agile

Why implement Agile

Prerequisite 1. If you are looking to change the way you approach manufacturing by focusing on time-sensitive strategy and producing complex solutions.

Premise 2. You strive to release and develop minimum viable products to patch up the holes, so-called MVP products, then we begin to improve as necessary based on the analysis of customer feedback.

By the way, light industry developed in China according to this principle.

Premise 3. Increasing the speed of developing new ideas and implementing new solutions; if you have problems with deadlines, then Agile will provide you with the opportunity to organize corporate time management in a different format.

Of course, to identify problems, you need to conduct an audit, during which you will most likely identify the following typical problems:

low attitude towards the need to satisfy the client, employees work according to the “quickly do it and forget it” model.
lengthy approval process and excessive bureaucratization through correspondence and meetings.

Premise 4. Changing attitude towards work. As you know, attitude determines the result, and therefore, by changing your attitude, you can organize your work differently and implement your planned projects, using the strategy: “quickly make a pilot project, launch and test”, by receiving feedback you can improve your product in the process of work, precisely according to This principle is used to organize the release of information solutions by Microsoft.

Agile center

The typical structure of Agile centers, whose tasks usually include the development of new solutions, as well as the search and adaptation of new ideas, is as follows:

several teams 3-4.
Each team has from 7 to 12 employees.
We separately allocate a coordination department of 3-4 people.
reporting directly to the owner or general director.

What is an Agile Center

Features of an Agile team

One of the distinctive features of an Agile team is responsibility becomes the main key performance indicator.

It should be understood that Agile participants work in the same room and actually observe each other's work, creating an atmosphere of effective working environment or???

It should be understood that Agile rooms are not only the walls of an ordinary office, they are a unique source of ideas, knowledge, projects, and therefore all elements of interior design should predispose to creativity.

The advantage of Agile centers

The undoubted advantage of Agile centers is simplification of the financing procedure, since there is an understanding not only of what the money will be spent on, but also who is responsible for it.

Of course, you should remember that you cannot transfer all employees of the company to Agile; on the contrary, you should focus on pilot projects and gradually extend successful approaches to the entire organization, adapting them to each business process. And here a simple rule applies:

Work on projects associated with high risks and large financial costs should follow the “waterfall” principle.

Agile as a tool in competition

Very often we are faced with an insidious situation:

We cannot compete in the market in the current economic conditions, and therefore we need to act differently, so Agile methods of flexible management make it possible to find the answer to the question how to act?