Adapting Your Agile Coaching Style

One of the questions we explore in my "Agile Coaching Skills" training course is when to adapt your coaching style. I draw an arrow running from Directive to Non-Directive, like the middle arrow in the sketch below, to represent one important aspect of coaching style. I explain that the coaching style you adopt depends on the experience of the team members (topmost arrow) and your own experience (bottom arrow).

 

A heavily directive approach would be one where people are firmly told to follow a specific set of agile practices, as in Shock Therapy popularised by Jeff Sutherland. There's no choice being made by the team, they rely totally on the expertise of the agile coach to determine an approach suitable for their situation. The reason that they are willing to do this is that they recognise that they are new to agile and don't have the skills to decide what's appropriate. The agile coach acts as their guide and mentor enabling them to enter a new world of agile software development. Many coaches would consider this directive coaching style to be more consulting or teaching than coaching.

A totally non-directive approach would be where a coach relies purely on asking thought-provoking questions and sharing their observations to help a team identify alternative ways of working. In theory, this coach need not have any subject matter expertise in applying agile practices, they leave the choice of where to go upto the team. This approach works in situations where the team has built up enough knowledge in basic agile practices to apply them. However, the team is still struggling to overcome mental blocks about what is allowed within their organisation and see how they might improve. The coach's questions helps this team break through obstacles in their way and reveal choices open to them. A team that is new to agile, and is still grappling with building basic skills, may find this coaching style frustrating because people want definitive answers while they're learning and don't feel confident to experiment yet.

As agile coaches, we work with teams with a variety of experiences and so we need to remember to adapt our coaching style accordingly. Some teams are just embarking on their agile journey, others are already partway down the agile road, teams may also contain a mixture of new and experienced team members. We need to recognise where the team is at and adapt our coaching style to match the needs of the team. So when the team is new, we need to be prepared to act as teacher. As the team gains confidence, we need to recognise that it's time to step back and help them build a sense of autonomy, enabling the team members to choose where to go next rather than supplying all the answers. To take the team on this journey, it helps to have some experience of applying agile to draw on so you can support the team with directive style guidance when they get stuck.

Remember also that a team's agile journey is not usually a straightforward one where they load up with new agile practices at the beginning and simply perfect their application of those initial practices as they go. The road most teams travel has many twists and turns. Depending on the terrain the team encounters, it may be appropriate to learn new practices and drop or unlearn old habits along the way. As agile coaches, we need to see when to step in with guidance and direction to help the team learn a new skill and when to step back into non-directive style coaching. Be prepared to switch in and out of these styles throughout your time with the team.

Comments

[YvesHanoulle]

I agree a good coach should have many coaching styles.
I agree the place where the team is as a whole, defines your coaching strategy.
I no longer agree that a directive style is by definition the best style for a team new to agile. (funny to write this as I have been saying this myself for a few years)
I think this also depends on what is the team's (companies) culture
on trying new things. Although team members might not understand agile, they might be ok with experimenting with new ways of working.

[Rachel Davies]

Yves,
Yes, I agree with your comment about a directive style not always being best for a new agile team. Maybe see my earlier post 'Shu Ha Ri Considered Harmful' http://agilecoach.typepad.com/agile-coaching/2010/02/shuhari-considered-harmful.html

Thanks,

Rachel

[Dave Nicolette]

IMHO the "directive" style can be a useful starting point for an inexperienced team, provided the coach's role includes helping the team learn to see the value proposition and think independently about the "new" ideas rather than just following practices by rote. The Shu metaphor can be taken too far with respect to the notion of muscle memory.

Personally, my goal in working with people new to agile methods is to guide them through enough experience that they can make their own judgments about whether and when to use agile methods. I want them to be able to make an informed professional choice. If they ultimately choose differently than I would do, it's okay as long as they're really making an informed choice and not just having a knee-jerk reaction against unfamiliar ideas.

Regarding the Shu-Ha-Ri thing; there's a saying that all models are wrong but some models are useful. Shu-Ha-Ri can be a useful model.

BTW, martial arts are not just about physical skills. They're about balanced personal development across physical, intellectual, and emotional, and spiritual aspects equally. By the same token, software development isn't just about values and principles. It has a physical aspect, too. Without applying proven practices like continuous integration, test-driven development with incremental refactoring, team collocation, and pair programming, you won't be able to deliver any better than you would with traditional methods, even if you have the "right" mindset. With that in mind, it's possible that the Shu-Ha-Ri metaphor actually has deeper applicability to coaching than meets the eye. Even so, it's only a model. (Camelot!)

[Financialagile]

I do think it's a hard and delicate balance. I was at a code retreat on Saturday and it was really clear to see that design is often an exercise in faith. The design will come when you've prodded it around for a bit, but you can't always see it. So, one type of directive is to ask your team to suspend judgment, to say, 'trust me, and let this one run'. And therefore, underneath the styles should be a dedication to building trust. That's obvious to you, Rachel, but not to everyone.

I liked this post. Good use of a simple model to get people thinking.

Trust is chicken and egg, of course, like finding space. Then, once you have it, your team will help you with your style. My mates always say to me, 'ok! I get it'. That's my queue to be less directive.

Jamie.

[Wildfalcon]

I find this a very useful model. Personally I find it too easy to slip into the mindset of "this is how xxx should be done", and the best defence about this is to have a model in mind that lets me adapt within that model.

Definitely something to keep in mind. How do you tell when to change styles though. As a team develops they will need to change coaching styles, Do you do a retrospective with the team about how the coaching is going?

[Pawel Brodzinski]

I completely agree with the model. This is something I learned the hard way - I was surprised that people expect definitive answers while, having some experience in the area, you can only say that there's no single good way of doing things.

The thing I didn't take into consideration is how familiar the group is with the topic. A simple question at the beginning "who knows that?" doesn't really help as you will see hands of both people who are experts and those who have just started learning.

The tricky part is when the group is mixed and you can't use single approach. I believe in this situations telling stories is a good choice. Beginners can treat story as a guidebook and experts would use it as a starting point for the discussion.

[Yves Hanoulle]

@Pawel: another way to ask the question is to ask people to spread out across a line to see how familiar they are. It has the extra advantage that people get up and move their body (always good to have blood stimultated)

[Rachel Davies]

Yves, I've found that this line-up exercise can reinforce existing hierachy and make people who are less experienced with agile feel exposed.

[Fabrice Aimetti]

Hello Rachel,

Your post is great. I've translated it into french :
http://www.fabrice-aimetti.fr/dotclear/index.php?post/2011/01/29/Adaptez-votre-style-de-coaching-agile

Regards, Fabrice

[Rachel Davies]

Hello Fabrice,

Thanks for translating my blog post.

Best regards,

Rachel