Coaches Are Producers
In the recording industry, producers help guide production by balancing creativity with costs, quality, and schedules. The great producers value and nurture the uniqueness of each project. The producer helps the players (and others) complete the project while providing a time and space for improvisation.
Agile coaches face similar challenges while helping communities deliver (produce) software. Sustainable agility often starts with an agile coach helping a community find its unique groove. Like the music producer, the coach needs to help the individuals as well as the community innovate and deliver.
This talk will compare producing music to producing software as a way to start people thinking about their coaching style and what untapped experiences they might have to use in future coaching.
The talk will cover techniques for bonding communities in a way that helps establish sustainable agile eco-systems. From finding a groove (in the first few iterations) to keeping the band together (past the first release), the talk will present a collection of coaching ideas and practices.
Some of the areas that will be covered are:
- Having enough organization to allow for improvisation
- Creating a creative work space
- Helping to create collective ownership of the product
- Getting people talking and collaborating
- Fostering principles and values
- Drawing on existing strengths in the community
- Blending agile styles to meet the needs of the existing culture
- Raising awareness with meaningful metrics and information radiators
- Connecting with the difficult or uninterested players
- Growing coaches within the community
The session will be mostly presentation, but there may be exercises if possible (space and audience size dependent).