The Road from Project Manager to Agile Coach
So many things that contributed to my success as a Project Manager are exactly the same things that spell doom for an Agile team. Driving the team to outcomes. Coordinating the work of the team members. Using consensus as a hammer. If these sound remotely familiar to you, come explore what it means to be an Agile Coach. The session starts with a high-energy presentation and moves quickly to practice and activities. You’ll walk away with specific things you can use as well as deep thoughts to chew on.
We will reveal and discuss the essential mindset shifts a Project Manager must undertake to become an effective Agile coach. We will talk about how that leads to changes in actions and changes in conversations and decision-making — both within your team and with the external world. We will look at the latest thinking on highly-collaborative and high-performing teams and consider our own actions relative to fostering such teams. Then, we’ll talk about the world outside your team - the world of managers, stakeholders, customers. They have their own journey of mindset and leadership style changes to take. We’ll explore what those changes should be and how you can help guide the journey.
The format of this session will be part tutorial, part workshop. The latest ideas in collaboration, trust on teams, servant leadership, etc. will be presented. Small group discussion and simulations will be used to drive the concepts home and make them personal to the attendees.
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Opening: A “shake up” to get people thinking in a different way about the role of Agile Coach. See an early version of some of these “radical” thoughts in my video on You Tube (only 4 minutes long): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lDZUHhAqsU
Check-in: What mindset the attendees come from and whether the radical thoughts seem radical to them or not.
Tutorial and Small Group Discussion: Common mindset changes and how those lead to changes in actions and discussions. How those changes foster healthier teams. Material from Kent McDonald, “Agile PM Leadership”, coupled with my own, will be used.
Tutorial and Discussion: Topics are characteristics of highly-collaborative and high-performing teams; Servant leadership - what is it, really? and Trust on teams. Material from Jean Tabaka, Robert Greenleaf and Diana Larsen will be used as the foundation of this brief tutorial. It sets up the ability to discuss what the Agile Coach should and should not “be” for the team. Examples: hub of communication, subject matter expert, professional facilitator, guardian of quality.
Tutorial: The journey leaders, managers, stakeholders are on to undergo their own mindset shift and leadership style changes (along with the resulting shifts in actions).
Simulation: A set of team scenarios and the question, “What should a great Agile Coach do?” These will be thorny situations (much like real life).
Brief Experience Report: What critical skills or competencies I had to tune-up or acquire to achieve my own mindset shift and become a “recovering PM-command-and-control-aholic.”
Reflection: Guided reflection that allows the participant to consider the ideas expressed and make a plan for applying them to their own situation. Allows the participants to consider how this will affect them - both at a conceptual level and at a “what will I do differently at work?” level.
ps. Thanks to all of you who made comments and suggestions. Keep them coming!