In this episode, I will start the podcast discussion by providing tips to help you select a good Agile instructor or coach for your organization. It's a tough decision facing all organizations when the begin their journey with Agile. I have also added a transcript of the episode below for your convenience. If you have suggestions for future topics, please send an email to [email protected]. Also, please take a moment to subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the icon provided on the right.

All Things Agile - Episode 001 - Selecting a Good Agile Coach

Transcript:

Welcome to the All Things Agile Podcast – your destinationfor tips and interviews with the leaders in the world of Agile. Don’t forget tosubscribe to this podcast in iTunes and please, check out our sponsor:teamxcelerator.com. And now, here’s your host, Ronnie Andrews Jr.

Hello everyone and welcome to the All Things Agilepodcast, episode one. Today’s topic will be ‘How do you select a goodAgile instructor or coach?’ But before we begin, a quick reminder that thispodcast is for informational purposes only and accepts no legal liability. Solet’s get started – large and even small companies may want to hire a coach orinstructor to help them start their Agile journey.

In my opinion, key aspects to look for are: experience,knowledge and communication skills. So let’s start with experience. You reallyneed to take a good look at someone’s background. It’s more than just thenumber of years. I recommend instructors with experience at different companiesand different types of teams. That provides a more varied and useful backgroundwhich can provide additional insight and experience. Let me elaborate. Say youhave someone who has been at one company for say, 5 years, and that’s the onlycompany that they worked at regarding Agile. In that case, that personrealistically probably just knows how that company does things, okay?Therefore, their experience is a lot more limited. And now compare that with acoach or instructor who’s been at literally dozens of companies. They’ve seenall kinds of things work and not work – and also across different industries;that provides them with additional insight that they can leverage at yourorganization. Please keep that in mind.

Moving on. Experience in larger companies requires scaling.A company with billions in revenue and thousands of employees is a totallydifferent ball game than a start-up. An instructor with only experience inteaching Agile in a young company may have difficulty with a corporate giant.Quite frankly, the larger the company is, the more any mistakes or errors orineffectiveness in their processes or their practices – it only becomesmagnified as the company rose and is larger and larger. So if you had a smallercompany, let’s say 10 people, and the practices you’re putting in place don’twork out as well, it’s probably more recoverable. You know, maybe they lose acouple hundred dollars or thousands of dollars – maybe. But at a largercompany, if there’s things that go awry, it can cost the company billions. And instead of a few people perhaps – if things really went south – theymay lose a few people a few jobs; at a larger corporation, if things really goawry, thousands of people could potentially lose their jobs. That’s a hugeresponsibility! And so, when you’re working at a larger company, it has more integrationpoints and many, many more people and larger scale teams – you really have tobe at the top of your game. And also, in terms of working with those largercompanies, in order to get things done, you really have to automate. You haveto automate as much as you can – things like minute gathering and metrics, etc.It forces you to really take a good look at what you’re spending your time in,time on, and be able to automate that as much as possible. However, those sameprinciples that apply at trying to streamline larger organizations also applyto smaller companies as well. Being able to leverage some of those automationprinciples, even at a smaller company, can certainly produce huge benefits.

But let’s move on. If you have a coach or instructor who isperhaps familiar with younger companies, they can provide additional insightregarding how to achieve Agile with fewer resources. Because if you’re in acompany who doesn’t have a bigger budget, they may not be able to spend as muchfunds on training and other types of programs. So when you’re looking tobringing in a coach or instructor, see if you can find someone who again hasexperience at different companies, different types of teams and also includingexperience at different sizes of companies – that’s how you’re making sure theyhave experience with a company that’s of your nature.

Next up, I’d like to talk about knowledge. The instructor orcoach should definitely be certified. And I’d definitely prefer a strong allianceor similar organization. The effectiveness of an instructor is often based onwho taught them. So the source of the coach’s knowledge is critical. Thequality of an instructor can make or break a training course, or significantlyimpact the success of an Agile adoption. I definitely recommend knowledgeacross implementations such as ‘Scrum’ as well as ‘Kanban’. If you have someonewho only knows one way of doing things, that may or may not translate well toyour organization or your team, based on your company’s industry. So being ableto have someone with background in multiple different Agile implementations,allows them to configure and approach as a better fit for you. Again, that’salso where knowledge and experience combine to help provide a better fit foryou.

Let’s also talk about, again the quality of the trainingthat the instructor, the coach themselves received. I definitely like to knowthat, because we can only impart what we possess. And how the person wastrained or taught is going to be a direct reflection on how they will teach.And so, by finding out the quality of the person’s original trainer, that willhelp you better gauge on how this coaching instructor will work with you oryour organization, or your team.

Let’s move on to communication. Communication is of coursealso very critical and your coach or instructor needs to be a good teacher or agood mentor. The coach should have an open personality and be warm and inviteall questions. Soft skills make the instructor more effective. If you havesomeone who is very unapproachable, then the team members may be intimidated orjust not comfortable asking questions. And that can then lead to bitterness andpassive-aggressive behavior. I’ve certainly seen it in organizations before, soI definitely recommend someone with that open and warm personality, becausethen people will feel comfortable asking questions and what that provides youwith is buy-in. It’s when people are able to ask their questions, they feelgood about it, they have buy-in regarding the adoptions of Agile or maybeyou’re already using Agile but you’re bringing in a coach or instructor to helpyou get to that next level: again, if they’re able to participate, it increasestheir motivation and the likelihood of success for the adoption or for thefurther improvement in Agile.

So those are some quick tips regarding selecting a coach orinstructor. I certainly help you found them useful. Remember, you can check outmy blog using the website: agileinstructor.com. Feel free to contact me using [email protected]. Also,don’t forget to visit our sponsor: teamaccelerator.com which makes this podcastpossible. It’s a cloud-based Agile team software package designed for small andlarge companies alike. Thank you once again for joining me for this podcast.Please join me for Episode 2 where we’ll discuss ‘Ideal Scrum Team Sizes’ –it’s a popular topic. People always ask what’s too small, what’s too large – sowe’ll definitely address that and you don’t want to miss it. Remember – it’stime to accelerate your team, today!

Thank you for listening to All Things Agile. We look forwardto you subscribing to the podcast in iTunes and leaving a kind review. Thanksand God bless!