v3.1 Agile Coaching Growth Wheel

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The Agile Coaching Growth Wheel

Version 3.1 - June 2022

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Introduction
Agile coaching is an evolving profession encompassing many disciplines,
including individual, team, and systemic coaching, facilitating, teaching, and
mentoring, all applied with an open and deliberate bias towards using agile
approaches to help address the client’s needs.

- Agile Alliance Coaching Code of Ethics

Agile coaching helps people who work in rapidly evolving situations become more
effective and successful.

When we use the term “Agile” in this document, we are referring to philosophies,
frameworks, processes, and techniques that help improve outcomes in evolving
contexts, so “Agile” includes Lean Manufacturing, Lean Startup, Scrum, Extreme
Programming, etc.

What is the Agile Coaching Growth


Wheel?
The Growth Wheel

The Agile Coaching Growth Wheel is a tool for Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Leaders,
and anyone who desires to increase their ability to help and grow teams and
organizations using Agile principles and practices. The wheel allows you to reflect and
grow on your Agile journey. This tool is also best used with another coach to help
support them.

The wheel has eight segments or spokes, representing eight competency skills areas
built around a hub of self-mastery. The tread around the outside of the wheel represents
your domain knowledge. These are knowledge areas that in turn support the skills of the
main competency areas.

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Why create this wheel?
At the 2018 Agile Coaching Retreat in London, a collection of coaches came together in
an effort to tackle the question “what are the skills needed to successfully coach teams
and organizations in Agile?”.

As the use of Agile has become more and more mainstream the foundational definition
of good Agile coaching skills has remained loosely defined and this lack of definition has
resulted in unqualified people presenting themselves as Agile Coaches with little
experience and low competence. This creates something of a lottery for organizations
choosing the right people with the right skills for their needs.

The London retreat created the first generation of the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel, as
an effort to address these questions and challenges.

In 2020 Bob Galen wrote Agile Coaches Need More Than Coaching Skills, which
sparked a renewed conversation around what skills are essential to the craft of Agile
Coaching. His blog was an implicit challenge to everyone in the Agile Coaching
community to think about how we were presenting ourselves, growing ourselves, and
helping the next generation of Agilist to be the best they could be.

Partly in response to Bob’s article, in the Spring of 2021 the Scrum Alliance hosted an
Open Space with the question of “what competencies are needed for a successful Agile
Coach.” The outcome of the Open Space was the formation of a working group whose
goal was to “Professionalize the world of Agile Coaching.”

Using the 2018 Agile Coaching Growth Wheel as a start they refined it to what you see
today. Our goal is that the Agile Coaching growth wheel lays down the core
competencies that allow practitioners to go from good to great through a reflective
process with clear guidance to assess their progress.

Where We Came From, On the Shoulders of Giants


In 2011 Lyssa Atkins and Michael Spayd created a competency framework for Agile
Coaches. Intentionally this was not a competency model, as it did not define specific
behaviors, skills, knowledge, or proficiency levels. The “X-Wing” model, as it is
commonly known, is built around the idea of Mastery Areas and a personal coaching
stance to act as a guiding star when choosing which of four skills to use: coaching
mentoring facilitating and teaching.

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For over a decade the Adkins/Spayd model has been the gold standard for defining the
skills and competencies of Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches. It was the logical place
to start from when the 2018 London coaches sought to take it to the next level.

We can’t thank Lyssa or Michael enough for the work they have done to professionalize
the world of Agile Coaching. They have been a constant source of inspiration to all of
the volunteers that have worked on this project.

Recognizing this solid foundation, the contributors of this work believe that more
definition is required to further professionalize the world of Agile Coaching and the result
is the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel initiative.

Where are we going?


Defining the Agile Coaching journey will allow educators, coaches, and leaders to better
support the growth of Agile Coaching competencies in individuals by developing
learning and development programs and aligning competencies to the formal Agile

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Coaching certifications that already exist. It will also build confidence in the industry
around the future profession of any job roles that involve the use of Agile Coaching
skills. We are making it easier for an Agile organization to select the right person for the
right job with confidence.

The next step is to complete the Agile Growth Wheel with all nine competencies fully
defined and aligned to the skill progression path. Once this is complete the intent is to
build out resources that will guide a learner to developing specific competencies to the
level they need or desire.

The Scrum Alliance has committed to using the final Growth Wheel as a foundation for
updating its coaching certifications and it is hoped that other Agile and Scrum bodies
will recognize the Wheel as a new standard in Agile Coaching and the entire community
can step towards professionalizing the world of Agile Coaching.

How to use the wheel and guidance?


The purpose of this wheel is to help you self-reflect or reflect with a coach, mentor, or
colleague. The objective here is to help you understand where you are so that you can
explore and develop further.

Step 1: Identify an area of improvement


Walk through each of the competency areas (the 8 spokes and the self-mastery hub),
use the guidance below to make sure you have a high-level understanding of each
area. You can’t improve everything at once, so select an initial area of focus to work on.

Step 2: Reflect on a competency area


For each competency within the competency area, go through the guidance and assess
your competence against the 5 levels of assessment. Use the definitions and challenge
yourself on your competence levels. The goal is not to get to level 5, the goal is to know
where you are and where you want to go next in your journey.

Step 3: Brainstorm options and generate actions.


Use the insight generated in the reflection to brainstorm options for growth and then
formulate a plan of action. This part works best working with a coach, mentor, or
colleague.

Step 4: Inspect, Adapt, Repeat


The rest of the guidance is just that: guidance. The detail against each level for a
specific competence is meant as reflection, not as a checklist. There may be guidance

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at the practitioner level that you cannot fulfill 100%, perhaps they are not vital to you or
your context. As you explore the guidance, you might find a better fit for yourself.

Introduction the Nine Core Competency Areas

Self Mastery: At the heart of great agile coaching is the need to invest in yourself
through learning and reflection and take care of your wellbeing. Self-mastery starts with
a focus on yourself, having the emotional, social, and relationship intelligence to choose
how you show up in any given context.

Agile/Lean Practitioner: an Agile/Lean practitioner has a deep and tacit understanding


of the principles behind Agile and Lean and has experience in working with frameworks
and practices of Agile and Lean.

Serving: serving is about being concerned with the needs of the team or business over
your own agenda. They do this from the stance of Servant Leadership which focuses
primarily on the growth and well-being of the team or business and the communities to
which they belong.

Coaching: coaching is partnering with a person, team, or organization (client) in a


creative process to help the client to reach their goals by unlocking their own potential
and understanding. A coach is able to accept the client as a whole and capable, and
serve their agenda ethically.

Facilitating: facilitating increases the effectiveness of a group of people to align in a


collaborative way, to interpret their context, and mutually identify the most valuable
outcomes desired. A facilitator has the skills to create a neutral environment of
openness, safety, and innovation in a group setting.

Guide Learning: guide learning is about effectively growing an individual, a group, or a


team’s skills and enabling them to be competent and resourceful. With this competency,
you choose the most effective learning method to help the learner achieve their learning
objectives and inspire future learning.

Advising: advising is the ability to bring your experience, insights, and observations to
guide the client towards a shared understanding of the value that can help them to
achieve sustainable success, even after you have moved on. As a trusted adviser, you
are invested in the success of the client, creating a long-term and sustaining
relationship with the client.

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Leading: leading is about being the change you want to see to make the world a better
place. As a leader, you are capable of catalyzing growth and inspiring others to realize
the shared vision.

Transforming: transforming is guiding sustainable change that will allow the individual
teams and the organization to be more effective and learn how to change for
themselves through leading, facilitation, coaching, facilitating learning, and advising.

Measuring Your Competency


Skill in a competency area is not a simple binary. Skill mastery is a progression from no
knowledge to unconscious mastery. The Agile Coaching Growth Wheel has five growth
levels based on the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition.

Competency Level Definitions


Stage Description
Beginner A beginner in the use of Agile Coaching practices has only textbook
knowledge with no practical experience. The beginner will typically adhere
closely to defined rules or plans and work closely with a more experienced
individual. An individual who focuses on learning and is given a chance to
practice will generally advance to higher levels of competency in a short
period of time.
A beginner typically begins to develop the competency by working with a
single team and with the support of a more experienced coach or mentor
(especially if the single team is part of a larger whole). A beginner with
Agile Coaching practices moves to the Advanced Beginner level by showing
comprehension of the competencies in the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel,
trying to work on their own, taking on a larger task, repeating results, and
showing the desire to learn more context.
Advanced Beginner An advanced beginner, in Agile Coaching practices, has practical experience
in the application of the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel competencies. At
this level, an individual will be able to interpret and apply straightforward
techniques with minimal support from a more experienced coach or
mentor and be able to pair to undertake more complex tasks.
While an advanced beginner will be capable of identifying complex issues,
they will generally only have a limited ability to resolve them. At this level,
someone using Agile Coaching practice will typically have difficulty

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determining which aspects are of greatest importance in a particular
situation.
Practitioner A practitioner can demonstrate working knowledge of all aspects of the
Agile Coaching Growth Wheel. An Agile Coaching practitioner will be able
to analyze and differentiate various solutions to apply in their work without
close supervision and possess the planning skills required to enable them
to deal with complex issues or resolve conflicting priorities. At this level,
the practitioner should be capable of using repeatable procedures to
produce acceptable results and be able to plan towards longer-term goals.
Guide At the guide level, the individual has in-depth knowledge of the Agile
Coaching Growth Wheel competencies. They will be able to synthesize
coaching solutions from the existing bodies of knowledge within Agile/Lean
and beyond, and tailor them to specific instances in all save the most
complex or exceptional of situations and can effectively guide the work of
others.
An Agile Coaching Guide will usually be able to intuitively assess the best
course of action to take in a given situation and understand how and when
to apply guidelines.
Catalyst A Catalyst has a deep tacit understanding of the Agile Growth Wheel
competencies. This individual will be able to modify or alter standards and
develop new and innovative approaches to deal with unusual situations. A
Catalyst will be able to easily produce high-quality results and be able to
develop a vision of what is possible.

The Competency Areas


As Agile Coaching professionals we start with a core of self-mastery and then draw on
each of the eight competency areas to enhance our practices. It should be noted that
none of these competency areas exist in a vacuum and they are expected to all work in
conjunction. It is also expected that learning is continuous and ongoing. While there are
only five levels of competency progression, there is no upper boundary to the learning
possible.

“I only know that I know nothing. Every time you think you have learned
something, you can let go of it to continue learning.” Socrates

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Start with Ethics
As an agile coaching practitioner ethics are central to your practice when using any of
the core skills. This is important for your own personal growth, the good of our clients
and the integrity of the profession. You may base your ethical approach on such
sources as:
● Agile Alliance: Code of Ethical Conduct for Agile Coaching
https://www.agilealliance.org/agilecoachingethics/
● ICF: code of ethics https://coachingfederation.org/ethics/code-of-ethics
● IAF: code of ethics
https://www.iaf-world.org/site/pages/statement-values-code-ethics

Self-mastery and ethics intermingle, the more Self-mastery you have the more you will
be in touch with your abilities to uphold your ethical code of conduct, to understand
when you have transgressed and to be able to repair the harm.

Self Mastery
Self-mastery practices are the need to invest in yourself through reflection, learning, and
taking care of your wellbeing. Self-mastery starts with you having your own emotionally
intelligent relationship with yourself and others. You understand how Emotional
Intelligence supports Relationship Intelligence, Social Intelligence, and the systems that
you interact with.

A core of Self-Mastery creates the platform for effective use of all the other
competencies of the Agile Coaching Growth wheel. The level of your self-mastery will
influence your potential in the other competencies. To achieve self-mastery you must
focus on:

Emotional Intelligence
When we grow our Emotional Intelligence we have access to improved mental health,
greater job performance and more effective leadership skills.
● Self-Awareness - Know yourself; know your impact. Gaining a fundamental
understanding of yourself, your personal cultural beliefs and biases, your
strengths and weaknesses, your skills and knowledge, and your values. These
are a prerequisite for knowing the impact you have in any situation.
● Self-Regulation - You are able to regulate your emotions and your energetic
field in a conscious way. This gives you the ability to choose how you show up,
and shift in the moment when necessary and to hold appropriate boundaries.

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● Systems impact - You have the ability to understand your impact, determine if it
differs from your intention, and fluidly change the way you show up in order to
achieve the desired impact. The ability to understand when you have
transgressed a boundary, and the skill to repair the relationship.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Self-Awareness
Beginner ● Identify major emotions, such as happy, sad, angry in
self and others.
● Aware that people have their own values and a belief
systems.
Self-Regulation
● Able to regulate some emotional states or behaviors.
● Understand that you can attain self-regulation.
Systems Impact
● Aware of the concept of systems, and that you as an
individual, are part of a system and that teams exist in
a larger system.

2 Self-Awareness
Advanced ● Recognize a larger set of more nuanced emotional
Beginner states.
● Aware of some of your own values and beliefs.
Self-Regulation
● Demonstrate an understanding when self-regulation is
not happening.
● Control your emotions and behavior to achieve a
specific impact.
● Describe some self-regulation techniques that can
lead to more successful outcomes.
Systems Impact
● Understand common systems that exist in
organizational structures.
● Identify positive and negative impacts that may occur
when the systems interact.

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● Recognize when a system is out of alignment, and
know that the system may need assistance in
resolution.

3 Self-Awareness
Practitioner ● Recognize and name your own emotional state at any
given time.
● Recognize that you have blind spots, and begin to
identify them.
● Identify most of your own values and beliefs.
Self-Regulation
● Choose your own response in most situations.
● Able to match your emotional state to the energetic
field in some cases.
● Plan in advance for some complex scenarios.
Systems Impact
● Understand systemic values and the impact of your
values on the system.
● Recognize complex issues within single systems, and
work to resolve some
● Recognize the impact of systems within systems (i.e.
teams within a department), and is able to work to
align those in a healthy way.

4 Self-Awareness
Guide ● Understand and anticipate your own triggers.
● Understand your own values system and be aware
that it is at choice about whether to live by them or not.
Self-Regulation
● Regulate your emotions and energetic field in a
conscious way in most situations.
● Choose how you show up, shift in the moment when
necessary, and hold appropriate boundaries.
Systems Impact
● Assess systems intuitively and know what the best
course of action is to take in any given situation.
● Understand clearly the difference between your own
intention and impact, and know when they differ.

5 Self-Awareness

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Catalyst ● Know yourself deeply and are aware of your emotional
state at any given moment.
● Choose intentionally whether or not to live your values
and beliefs.
Self-Regulation
● Shift your emotional state at will.
● Choose how to respond in any given situation.
Systems Impact
● Understand the breadth of ways to lead, and choose
the appropriate stance in the moment.
● Work with systems to help them evolve.

Balance
Taking time for yourself and seeking balance, learning how to integrate all parts of your
life in a healthful way. It's also important to be aware when you are out of balance and
be able to re-balance when needed. Balance encompasses understanding your
physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It also incorporates the intersection of work
and play, and the cultivation of supportive structures, communities, and interests in your
life.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 ● Recognize the various aspects of your life that require


Beginner energy and attention.
● Understand that at times you may be out of balance,
but may not know how to achieve balance.
● Contrast dysfunctional behaviors versus healthy
behaviors.

2 ● Creates some healthy boundaries.


Advanced ● Build close personal supportive structures.
Beginner

3 ● Understand the intersection between work and play,


Practitioner and how to move between them.
● Recognize when you are out of balance quickly and
regain balance.

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● Build a wider support system, which may include
professionals or organizations in addition to personal
support.
● Understand when you have transgressed a boundary
and are able to make the repair with the other party.

4 ● Balance all areas of life consistently, including work,


Guide play, family and community, physical health, and
spiritual or emotional work.
● Recognize immediately when you are out of balance,
and are able to recover on their own or with the help of
support systems.
● Hold professional and personal boundaries
appropriately, and is in congruence with all
professional ethical guidelines.

5 ● Live in balance with grace.


Catalyst ● Impact others through their presence.

Personal Transformation
Be the change you want to see by modeling the transformation you want others to
experience. Valuing and investing in your own personal growth through reflection,
seeking, learning, and the integration of all you have learned. You also work with peers,
mentors, or coaching supervisors to accelerate your skills and mastery. You understand
that your transformational journey is never complete.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 ● Recognize that you may benefit from learning new


Beginner skills and growing your competencies.
● Create a clear understanding of where you have
growth opportunities, and may seek help from others.

2 ● Learn from others who have skills or abilities that you


Advanced desire for yourself.
Beginner ● Invest in personal growth, through education,
mentorship, introspection, etc.

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3 ● Recognize that personal transformation is an ongoing
Practitioner activity that has no end.
● Engage a mentor, and may mentor others.
● Aware of your growth opportunities.
● Aware that transformation impacts not just what you
know, but also who you are.

4 ● Weave personal growth and transformation into your


Guide daily life.
● Integrate being and doing.
● Assist others on their own transformation journeys,
through mentoring and coaching.

5 ● Live the change you want to see in the world.


Catalyst ● Impact others through your presence.

Agile and Lean Practitioner


An Agile/Lean practitioner has a deep and tacit understanding of the principles behind
Agile and Lean and has experience in working with frameworks and practices of Agile
and Lean.

The term Agile was originally coined as part of the Manifesto for Agile Software
Development and defined by 4 values and 12 guiding principles. The idea of agility has
transcended the Manifesto and evolved beyond software to meet a wider organizational
context, but it retains a philosophy that can be seen clearly in that Manifesto.

The term Lean originates from Lean Manufacturing and Lean Product Development,
although the word Lean has also been subsequently used in many contexts. Many of
the ideas that are aligned with Agile and Lean concepts can be seen in many Agile
Frameworks, Methods and Practices.

Agile and Lean Mindset


Being an Agile and Lean practitioner, you start with a deep understanding of its values,
and principles. This allows us to apply frameworks, methods and practices in the way
they were intended, and then to experiment with empirical evidence, to meet an
ever-changing world. Remaining true to the underlying paradigm allows us to create a
belief system where agility can flourish.

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The Agile values and principles guide our thinking and actions when approaching new
situations. They can be traced back to the Manifesto for Agile Software Development
and before that Lean Manufacturing and Lean Product Development, and cover
concepts such as (but not limited to):
● Trusting and supporting people to work together in small self-managing teams.
● High-quality simple products that improve the lives of the customer.
● Delighting customers by collaborating to regularly deliver tangible value.
● Build products that can adapt to the needs of the customer.
● Continuously improve the way we work.
● Optimizing our organizations for flow by eliminating waste through leveraging
small batches within the shortest possible lead time.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 ● Summarize the Agile values.


Beginner ● Describe the Agile Manifesto and its principles.
● Aware of Lean Thinking.

2 ● Discuss how your behaviors relate to Agile principles.


Advanced ● Explain how the values and principles of the Agile
Beginner Manifesto are present in how your team works.
● Recognize when decisions help or hinder the adoption
of agile principles.
● Describe the origins of Lean Thinking.
● Explain the core concepts of Lean Thinking and how
they can be applied.

3 ● Contrast two examples where you applied an open


Practitioner experimental mindset.
● Analyze your personal fulfillment of the Agile mindset
and identify how you can improve.
● Illustrate at least two examples of how you actively
applied Agile value(s) in your work.
● Contrast Lean Process and Lean Thinking.
● Associate Lean principles and Agile approaches.
● Apply lean principles in your work.

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4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future
Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Frameworks and Practices


Being an Agile and Lean Practitioner you will have a deep understanding of a large
number of frameworks, methods and practices that support teams and the wider
organization in being agile. Using these creates agile habits that lead to changes in
behavior and eventually to a change in mindset and culture.

● Frameworks, Methods and Approaches - Provide a minimal set of boundaries


that allow a team and/or organization to learn to be Agile and deliver tangible
value. Below is an example list of frameworks and methods, this is not a
definitive list and as you gain experience you will experiment with many others
and even adapt approaches outside of the agile family.
● Scrum, Kanban, Feature Driven Development, DevOps, eXtreme
Programming, Lean Start-up, Lean Product Development, Theory of
Constraints, Systems and Complexity thinking, provide some of the core
frameworks.
● LeSS, Nexus, SAFe and Scrum@Scale are examples of scaling/descaling
frameworks.
● Holacracy, Humanocracy, Sociocracy 3.0 and many others, are helping
organizations experiment with patterns that help with wider business
agility.

● Practices - Provide techniques and tools that enhance the use of Frameworks
and Methods. There are lots of practices that support Agile / Lean ways of
working and depending on context and team maturity, the practices used will
change over time. Some examples of common practices are:
○ User Stories, User Story Mapping, Impact Mapping, Product Vision
○ Estimation, Agile Metrics, Information radiators
○ Value stream mapping, Causal Loop Diagrams
○ Test-Driven Development, Pairing, Refactoring, Automation
○ Communities of Practice, Learning Dojo’s

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Your challenge is to discover or create new Practices and to have fun experimenting
with them.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Frameworks/Methods and Approaches


Beginner ● Describe at least one Agile approach and how it relates
to the Agile Manifesto.
● Outline the historical development of Agile.
Practices
● Explain at least three Agile practices commonly used
by Agile teams.

2 Frameworks/Methods and Approaches


Advanced ● Identify the knowledge and skills to maintain the
Beginner distinctions between agile and "alternative" ways of
working.
● Apply a prescribed framework or method, using all of
its elements in at least one situation.
● Describe at least three Lean/Agile development
frameworks/methods and explain their value.
Practices
● Explain how at least three practices are aligned (or not)
with the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.
● Support teams to apply existing practices in a more
Agile way.
● Explain how you have helped a team increase the
quality of delivery through continually improving its
practices.

3 Frameworks/Methods
Practitioner ● Demonstrate how you have moved a team to an agile
way of working.
● Apply at least two frameworks or methods in multiple
situations.
● Aware of changing Agile trends and newer methods in
the industry.

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Practices
● Analyze the benefits of a wide range of Agile practices
and can help the team adopt them as appropriate.
● Integrate at least three Agile development practices
with Lean practices.
● Apply Agile practices beyond the team.
● Explain at least three benefits of supporting strong
technical practices when working with multiple teams.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future


Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

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Serving
While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was
coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first
published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:

“The servant-leader is a servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one
wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.
That person is sharply different from one who is a leader first, perhaps because
of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material
possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.
Between them, there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety
of human nature.

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant first to make sure
that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and
difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being
served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves
to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society?
Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“.

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the
communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the
accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant
leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power and puts the needs of others
first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Being a servant-leader is the very essence of agile coaching.

Serving the Business


The business we serve here includes users, customers, internal stakeholders, and
anybody else who cares about what is being delivered.

You help businesses delight their customers, through focusing on customer needs and
using agile to accelerate learning and value delivery. They have the knowledge and
skills, that serves the business in several ways, including their ability to facilitate, teach,
advise and support:

● Understanding Customers - Customer Research and Product Discovery.

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● Purpose & Strategy - developing practical product strategies, product planning,
and forecasting, and product economics.
● Managing the Backlog - differentiating outcome and output, defining value,
ordering items, and product backlog refinement.
● Supporting Business Stakeholders - supports the learning and growth of the
Product Owner and other business stakeholders.

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Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Understanding Customers
Beginner ● Describe at least one technique to prioritize between
conflicting customer (or user) needs.
● Describe at least three aspects of product discovery
and identify how each contributes to successful
product outcomes.
● List at least three approaches to connect the team
directly to customers and users.
Purpose & Strategy
● Outline an approach for the creation of a product
vision.
● List an approach to communicating progress with
stakeholders.
● Describe the relationship between outcome and
output.
Managing the Backlog
● Explain at least two approaches to identify small,
valuable slices of work to maximize outcomes.
● Describe at least one approach to making sure work is
refined enough for the team.
● Describe at least 4 properties of a well-structured
Product Backlog.
Supporting Business Stakeholders
● Describe at least two stakeholder behaviors that
support the team’s success and at least two behaviors
that do not support the team’s success.

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2 Understanding Customers
Advanced ● Practice at least one technique to support teams
Beginner learning by connecting them directly to customers and
users.
● Examine the impact of product work on customers,
stakeholders, and/or the organization.
● Compare at least two approaches to validating
assumptions in order to inspect and adapt.
Purpose & Strategy
● Discuss a real-world example of how product strategy
is operationalized and evolves over time in an Agile
organization.
● Practice at least one technique to visualize and
communicate product strategy, product ideas, features,
and/or assumptions.
● Facilitate the creation (or refinement) of the product
vision between stakeholders, the Product Owner, and
the team.
Managing the Backlog
● Apply at least one technique to assist the Product
Owner in creating a smooth flow of work, ensuring that
enough Product Backlog items of the right type are
“ready” for the upcoming period of work.
● Facilitate at least two techniques for moving from a
product vision to a Product Backlog. Show how these
can be organized, ordered, and filtered within a
Product Backlog to link to product goals or strategies.
● Apply at least two techniques to model value and at
least two techniques to measure value.
Supporting Business Stakeholders
● Explain agile to business stakeholders.
● Build a coaching relationship with at least one
business stakeholder and help them become more
effective.
● Teach business stakeholders different practices for
making decisions aligned to product strategy.

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3 Understanding Customers
Practitioner ● Mentor business stakeholders in the integration of
product discovery into development.
● Facilitate at least three techniques for customer
research or product discovery.
● Facilitate the selection of an appropriate experiment to
test a hypothesis and evaluate the results.
Purpose & Strategy
● Facilitate the development of a business model and
competitive analysis for a product idea.
● Apply at least two methods to calculate the expected
outcome or economic results of a product.
● Explain an iterative and incremental investment model
for product development.
Managing the Backlog
● Assess and recommend improvements for how
teams and/or organizations emphasize outcomes over
output, and how this is reflected in a Product Backlog.
● Support the Product Owner in the selection of an
appropriate value creation strategy, using product data
to make an informed decision on what to build next.
● Apply techniques to structure and order single team
and multi-team product backlog to create transparency
and understanding.
Supporting Business Stakeholders
● Facilitate Lean experiments.
● Build a coaching relationship with multiple Product
Owners and business stakeholders in order to help
them become more effective.

4 Understanding Customers
Guide ● Advise the business on market segmentation.
● Guide the business to identify market opportunities.
● Assess at least two different approaches for validating
assumptions and guide the client in the appropriate
use of them.
Purpose & Strategy
● Facilitate product kickoffs in almost any situation
engaging multiple customers, stakeholders, leadership,
and team members.

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● Advise an organization on developing a business
vision and strategy.
● Guide the business to decide which initiatives to invest
in, to create a shared understanding of value creation
across the organization.
Managing the Backlog
● Advise the organization on how to prioritize demand
across the business.
● Facilitate an initiative from concept through to value
recognition.
● Change the focus on initial success to be
outcome-focused (economic, social, and
environmental value).
Supporting Business Stakeholders
● Respect any previous coaching done with business
stakeholders and use this to continually improve how
to serve others.
● Guide a product community in their growth.
● Teach business stakeholders Agile and Lean concepts
so they can bring the right products to the market at
the right time.

5 ● Seen as a Leader in the community on topics such as


Catalyst ○ Understanding Customers
○ Purpose & Strategy
○ Managing the Backlog
○ Coaching Business Stakeholders
● Speaks at conferences and other community events on
product and business-related topics.
● Contributes new thinking to the community relating to
product and business matters.
● Inspiring others on the need for organizations to exist
beyond traditional economic value.

Serving the Team


A team is more than a collection of individuals, it is a human system with its own
characteristics, needs and growth potential. Moments of conflict or collaboration
difficulty should be seen as human systems dynamics, rather than solely personal to the
individuals involved.

24
You help teams become the best they can be using the core competencies you have
already covered. This section covers a more focused view of specifically serving the
team through a journey to high performance. This is done with knowledge and skills,
that serves the team including things such as:

● Team effectiveness - Is the capacity of a team to accomplish its shared outcome


based goals and objectives.
● Team dynamics - The behavioral relationships of both the conscious and
unconscious forces that influence the direction of a team. This includes how the
team communicates, their capacity for self-management, accountability,
transparency, conflict navigation, emotions and how they embrace diversity.
● Launching a Team - Studies show (Hackman, 2011) that 90% of variation in
team effectiveness is due to team design (60%) and team launch (30%), so the
start is really important. This should include elements such as helping the team
get to know one another, create a culture, align on a vision, setting up their work
environment and establishing team agreements and/or ground rules.

Competency Level Definitions:


Level Reflection

1 Team Effectiveness
Beginner ● List at least three attributes of effective teams
● Describe at least three different challenges facing a
self-managing team.
● Describe the importance of creating a continuous
learning culture in a team.
Team Dynamics
● Identify the advantages of diversity within the team (i.e.
different perspectives, experiences, and viewpoints).
● Understand the importance of conflict in a team.
Launching Teams
● Understand how starting an agile team is different from
kicking off a traditional project.
● Identify characteristics of a successful team launch.

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2 Team Effectiveness
Advanced ● Discuss three different ways the organization (culture,
Beginner leadership, policies, structures etc.) can impact team
effectiveness.
● Describe at least three characteristics of a
high-performing team and how those characteristics
relate to an agile mindset.
● Discuss at least three typical impediments for a team
and describe at least one way to address them.
Team Dynamics
● Describe when a constructive interaction moves to
destructive conflict.
● Apply at least two techniques to foster greater
self-management within teams.
● Explain at least one multi-stage model for team
formation and development. Illustrates what is important
for a new team.
Launch a Team
● Facilitate creation of team purpose, roles, agreements
and alignment during the start-up of a team.

3 Team Effectiveness
Practitioner ● Describe how you can help a team overcome at least
three challenges to be more effective.
● Analyze at least two ways in which you have evolved
the culture of a team.
● Appraise at least two models or techniques for team
development and improving team effectiveness.
Team Dynamics
● Surface conflict in a positive manner to improve the
team’s competency in dealing with conflict.
● Apply at least three techniques for addressing team
dysfunctions in different teams.
● Describe how teams are unique and will require
different approaches to how they work and will need to
be coached differently.
Launching a Team
● Assess and then address missing skills or capabilities
within a team that will take it towards high performance
and business agility.

26
● Integrate learnings from other teams and take a whole
system approach to the launch of a new Agile team,
starting with - good enough for now.
● Facilitate the launch of a new Agile team and explain
the learnings from the experience.

4 Team Effectiveness
Guide ● Integrate different team models and demonstrate how
you have used these to increase the team’s outcomes.
● Contrast different techniques used to increase team
effectiveness across multiple teams with who you have
worked and evaluate the effects on team results.
● Teach teams how to self-adapt, without the need for a
coach.
Team Dynamics
● Contrast the different relationships across teams with
who you have worked, and integrate learning into your
coaching interventions.
Launching a Team
● Apply a coaching approach to the formation and
development of teams and the challenges commonly
encountered while introducing Agile.
● Guide an organization in changing the environment in
order to provide the best possible start to a team.
● Support an organization in articulating a clear vision
and goals that can support teams.

5 ● Seen as a Leader in the community on topics such as


Catalyst ○ Team Effectiveness
○ Team Dynamics
○ Launching Teams
● Speaks at conferences and other community events on
team related topics.
● Contributes new thinking to the community relating to
teams.

27
Coaching
Coaching is partnering with a person, team, or organization (client) in a creative process
to help the client to reach their goals by unlocking their own potential and
understanding. A coach is able to accept the client as a whole, creative, and competent
person, and serve their agenda ethically.

There are many different definitions of coaching, for example Whitmore, J. (1992),
simply states: “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own
performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” When working with
an individual or system we are helping them move forward in some way, helping them
grow. Coaching people and systems are professions in their own right, and we
encourage you to dig deeper into coaching, as a profession, using the links provided in
the resource section. There are professional bodies, such as the International Coaching
Federation (ICF) and European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), which
support the overall principles of professional coaching.

Someone using Agile Coaching practices needs a strong foundation in coaching as the
client often needs someone to create a constructive space in which they can broaden
and deepen their thinking to where they need to go. An important aspect of using
coaching practices is to understand when/when not to use a coaching approach.

Coaching Mindset
Being a Coach, you will have the beliefs, values and attitudes that allow you to take a
coaching stance and work effectively with both individuals and systems. It can be
difficult for beginners to enter a coaching stance as you must often let go of skills and
behaviors that have made you an expert. Below is a list of some attitudes and beliefs
that a great coach will hold when taking a coaching stance:

● Coachee Focus - Develop and maintain a mindset that is authentic, open,


curious, flexible and honoring the clients agenda.
○ Authenticity - You behave in an ethical way and have a strong belief and
values system that holds the client in a non-judgemental and safe space.
○ Learning - You recognise that learning is an important part of the
development process as a coach.
○ Enabling - You develop their own skills to enable the client to learn and
gain insight.

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● Belief in the Client - the client is capable and whole and growth is possible.
Clients are capable of achieving their own goals, and not in need of “fixing”.
○ Neutrality - You respect the client's perspective and their needs without
judgment. You do not influence, and instead hold the clients agenda. You
reduce client dependence, work to enable the client to move forward
independently.
○ Adaptability - You are willing to let go of judgment and adapt to what the
client needs in the moment.
○ Learning - You believe that others learn best for themselves. People are
naturally resourceful and whole with unlimited potential. They come to
work to do the best they can and do not need rescuing from the decisions
they make.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Coachee Focus
Beginner ● Define what coaching ethics means to them.
● Explain what Physiological safety is and why it is
important.
● Recognize the power of coaching and the impact of
coaching for themselves.
Belief in the Client
● Recognize that growth is possible and people are
naturally creative, resourceful, whole and have
unlimited potential.
● Recognize that a coaching conversation is for the
purpose of helping a client deepen/broaden their
thinking and to enable growth.
● Understand the importance of the client leading the
direction of the conversation.

2 Coachee Focus
Advanced ● Apply coaching ethics when coaching.
Beginner ● Demonstrate the power of coaching by having regular
coaching yourself.
● Able to let the client set the agenda.
Belief in the Client

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● Able to focus on the clients agenda, believe that your
clients are naturally creative, resourceful, whole and
have unlimited potential. Therefore, they have the
means to solve their own challenges.
● Able to help the client create opportunities for learning
and for taking new actions. Helps them explore
alternatives, promotes experimentation and
self-discovery, celebrates successes and capabilities,
helps “do it now”.

3 Coachee Focus
Practitioner ● Apply coaching ethics as part of their everyday life.
● Demonstrate the power of coaching by having regular
coaching supervision or peer support.
● Able to suspend judgment in regards to the clients
perspective and their needs.
Belief in the Client
● Model unconditional positive regard, assume positive
intent, people are always doing the best they can.
● Demonstrate the ability to help clients to believe in
their potential and ability to change.
● Able to enable the client to move forward
independently.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future


Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Coaching Skills
To be a successful coach is more than just adopting the right mindset. Coaching models
leverage specific skills and capabilities that allow the coach to help the client deepen
their thinking to where they need to go. Coaching skills are foundational techniques that
you as a Coach can apply regardless of if you are working with an individual, a team, or
an organization.

30
There are a number of different approaches to one on one coaching, each of which may
contain different models, practices, and tools that can help a coach given different
contexts. Whichever tools a coach uses, they must co-create an effective relationship
with the client and leverage their communication skills to cultivate learning and growth.

Coaching Systems looks at skills associated with coaching beyond individuals working
with groups and relationships. There are a number of different approaches to coaching
systems, each of which may contain different models, practices, and tools that can help
a coach in the context of a system.

Both are included in the following areas:

● Co-creates the Relationship


○ Cultivates Trust and Safety - You partner with the client (individual or
system) to create a safe, supportive and confidential environment that
allows the client to share freely. You maintain a relationship of mutual
respect and trust.
○ Maintains Presence - You are fully conscious and present with the client,
employing a style that is open, flexible, grounded and confident.
○ Promote psychological safety - You create and maintain an environment of
trust where people can share thoughts openly and thinking can be
challenged.
● Communication Skills
○ Listens actively - You focus on what the client/system is and is not saying
to fully understand what is being communicated.
○ Evokes awareness - You facilitate client insight and learning by using tools
and techniques such as powerful questioning, silence, or metaphor.
● Tools, Techniques and Approaches - You are aware of a number of Tools,
Techniques and Approaches and know when to apply them in service of the
client.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Co-creates the Relationship


Beginner ● Understand the importance of a coaching contract, and
what it should contain. (e.g. role of the coach, duration,
expectations, feedback, responsibilities).

31
● Recognize confidentiality as a basis for the coaching
conversation.
Communication Skills
● Understand the importance that listening plays in good
communication.
Tools, Techniques and Approaches
● Explain at least one coaching tool/technique and be
aware of the benefits.
● Understand the importance of using powerful questions
and silence to create space for client thinking and
expression.

2 Co-creates the Relationship


Advanced ● Practice partnering with individuals and (the) systems to
Beginner develop, maintain, and reflect on agreements and goals.
● Explain how you can encourage individuals and system
members to pause and reflect on how they are
interacting and behaving in the coaching sessions.
● Able to formulate a basic coaching agreement and
contract.
Communication Skills
● Explain how to challenge the individuals' and systems'
assumptions, behaviors, and mindset, to enhance their
collective awareness and insight.
● Recognize a situation in which you would intervene to
reorient the conversation and your reasoning to
intervene.
● Able to actively listen, without trying to solve the clients
problem some of the time.
Tools, Techniques and Approaches
● Apply at least three coaching techniques and describe
how the coaching technique impacted each interaction.
● Ask powerful questions for maximum impact, that evoke
discovery and insight, challenge assumptions, are
open-ended, forward-looking and pre-supposing
success.
● Apply two or more tools or techniques to support
psychological safety in a one on one coaching session

32
3 Co-creates the Relationship
Practitioner ● Contrast at least 2 methods to develop, maintain, and
reflect on agreements and goals with individuals and
(the) system(s).
● Practice intervening in the conversation to reorient it
and reflect on which interventions were appropriate.
● Practice encouraging individuals and system members
to pause and reflect on how they are interacting and
behaving in the coaching sessions.
Communication Skills
● Practice at least 3 ways to encourage individuals and
the system to own the dialogue.
● Demonstrate a situation where you intervened to
reorient the conversation and your reasoning.
● Able to actively listen, reflect and mirror body language,
words, tone and energy.
Tools, Techniques and Approaches
● Compare coaching approaches and how they best
serve the client.
● Analyze three coaching tools and how they can be used
to help a team grow, explain how you have used one of
the tools in the past.
● Apply two or more tools or techniques to support
psychological safety in a systemic coaching session.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future update.


Guide

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Facilitating
Facilitating a group increases the effectiveness of people to align in a collaborative way,
to interpret their context, and mutually identify the most valuable outcomes desired. A

33
facilitator has the skills to create a neutral environment of openness, safety, and
innovation in a group setting.

“Facilitation is the practical neutral craft (an informed blend of techniques and insights)
of creating environments of openness, safety and innovation” (Turner, 2012).

“A facilitator is an individual who uses self-awareness, self-management, group


awareness, and group process to enable teams to access their collective intelligence in
order to achieve their desired outcomes” (Acker, 2020). In other words self-mastery is
as important if not more so than the tools and techniques.

Someone using Agile Coaching practices needs a strong foundation in Facilitation as


the client often needs someone to create a constructive space in which they can
broaden and deepen their thinking to where they need to go.

Facilitation Mindset
Being a Facilitator you maintain neutrality of the content being discussed, create a
collaborative space, and encourage full participation of all members of the group.

● Group Focus - Develop and maintain a mindset that is open, curious, flexible,
and honors the group's agenda. Demonstrate collaborative values and remain
present for the group. The processes you create in
○ Authenticity - You behave in an ethical way and have a strong belief and
values system that holds the group in a non-judgemental and safe space.
○ Learning - You recognise that learning is an important part of becoming a
better facilitator
○ Enabling - You develop your own skills to enable the group to learn and
gain insight.

● Believe in the group -The group is creative, resourceful and whole and, with the
right focus, has the answers to meet the outcome for themselves without external
support.
○ Neutrality - You respect the perspective of each person in the group and
their needs without judgment.
○ Adaptability - You hold the outcome and are able to adapt to what the
group needs in the moment in order to meet the agreed outcome
○ Learning - You believe that others learn best for themselves. The group is
naturally resourceful and whole with unlimited potential. The group learns
from its mistakes and becomes stronger. No rescuing is required.

34
Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Group Focus
Beginner ● Discuss how a Facilitator maintains psychological
safety, trust, transparency, and clarity throughout the
engagement with the group.
● Identify when a Facilitation stance is appropriate.
Believe in the Group
● Describe the importance of maintaining respect for
people's opinions.
● Welcome diverse opinions.
● Explain why Facilitation is for the benefit of the group.

2 Group Focus
Advanced ● Describe your Facilitation stance and how it impacted
Beginner the group.
● Reflect as a facilitator and describe your impact on the
group.
● Describe how you remain ethical when facilitating.
Believe in the Group
● Describe why we don’t set the outcome of a session
we are facilitating.
● Explain why remaining neutral is important.
● Articulate the importance of the statement “The group
is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole, and
therefore, they have the means to solve their own
challenges and do not need to be fixed in any way.”

3 Group Focus
Practitioner ● Analyze how you plan to improve your facilitation skills
over the near future.
● Analyze a session you facilitated and reflect on what
went well and what would have worked better.
● Guide the process for the group without leading their
path and solutions.
Believe in the Group
● Model unconditional positive regard and always
assume positive intent.

35
● Demonstrate the ability to help groups believe in their
potential and ability to change.
● Demonstrate how you helped the group learn for
themselves.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future


Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Facilitation Skills
Being a Facilitator you hold attention to what is important for the group, and leave
responsibility with them for action. You help the group be accountable to what they say
they will do and their plan. You will be skilled in working through a number of different
group challenges.

Multi-stakeholder contracting & relationship management


● Develop Working Partnerships - You partner with the client to agree on mutual
commitment and develop consensus on tasks, deliverables, roles and
responsibilities.
● Design and Customize Sessions - You co-create with the client to discover
needs, establish roles, and create designs that will achieve intended outcomes.

Participation & Outcomes


● Support Group Process - You create an appropriate environment, atmosphere
and logistics to support the purpose of the session(s).
● Deepen Group Awareness - You set the stage to achieve outcomes. You evoke
insights from the group, explore underlying issues and assist in reflection. You
manage conflict by explaining its value; bring awareness and explore
assumptions.
● Focus on Outcomes - You achieve group consensus with the ability to adapt
according to the group’s needs to meet the agreed outcome within the timebox.

Tools & Techniques

36
● Establish an Approach - You use a variety of techniques that foster open
participation considering client culture, diversity and participants who have
different approaches to learning and ways of processing information.
● Inspire Group Creativity - You draw out participants with various approaches to
learning and ways of processing information. Encourage creative thinking and
stimulate group energy.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Multi-stakeholder contracting & relationship management


Beginner ● Identify that managing multi-stakeholders relationships
are more complicated than one to one interactions.
● Understand the need to design and customize the
facilitation sessions for each group.
Participation & Outcomes
● List attributes of a group environment that will enable
active participation.
● Explain the need to achieve group consensus and the
necessity to adapt according to the group’s needs.
● Identify the outcome of a session.
Tools & Techniques
● Describe a basic facilitation arc.
● List a variety of tools and techniques that foster open
participation.
● List a variety of tools and techniques that encourage
creative thinking and stimulate group energy.

37
2 Multi-stakeholder contracting & relationship management
Advanced ● Apply a facilitation agreement with a stakeholder.
Beginner ● Design a basic facilitation plan that ensures
engagement for all participants.
Participation & Outcomes
● Demonstrate the ability to facilitate a session, that has
active yet balanced participation for all group
members.
● Demonstrate facilitating a group to consensus.
● Able to facilitate a group to an agreed outcome.
Tools & Techniques
● Demonstrate the ability to follow a basic facilitation
arc.
● Demonstrate the use of a variety of tools and
techniques that foster open participation.
● Demonstrate the use of a variety of tools and
techniques that encourage creative thinking and
stimulate group energy.

3 Multi-stakeholder contracting & relationship management


Practitioner ● Apply a facilitation agreement within a
multi-stakeholder environment.
● Design multiple linked sessions to meet an outcome.
● Design sessions that consider group energy,
participation and the agreed outcome.
Participation & Outcomes
● Demonstrate the ability to facilitate conflict.
● Demonstrate competency in adapting in the moment
to challenges and opportunities that arise.
● Bring clarity to a group’s agenda and outcome, and
ensures that everyone understands the resulting
outcome and responsibilities.
Tools & Techniques
● Demonstrate the ability to use multiple facilitation
frameworks depending on the context of the session.
● Analyze why you used a certain tool in any session
and the impact it had on the group.
● Integrate multiple tools and techniques in a way that
encourages creative thinking and stimulates group
energy.

38
4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future
Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Guiding Learning
Guiding learning is about effectively growing an individual, a group, or a team’s skills
and enabling them to be competent and resourceful. With this competency, you choose
the most effective learning method to help the learner achieve their learning outcomes
and inspire future learning.

Agile is all about learning, you will need to guide the learning of other people around
you, helping them learn new skills and gain knowledge.

Learning Mindset
Being a guide, you believe in the power of continuous learning and people's unbounded
potential to change and grow as a result. There are certain attitudes and beliefs that
you hold that underpin both your mentoring and training approach.

● Growth
○ Believe that all people can learn and grow, and that learning is a lifelong
journey.
○ See the learner as creative, resourceful and whole; not needing to be fixed
in any way.
○ Express curiosity: Be open to feedback and focus on continuous learning.
● Environment
○ Identifie culture and adapt to meet the individuals and the organization
where they are.
○ Cultivate an environment of trust, respect and safety - partner with the
learners to create a psychologically safe and supportive environment that
enables learning and encourages collaboration.
○ Create a learning environment that allows for experimentation and
supports the learner's reflection.

39
● Guiding
○ Share experiences and knowledge with the intent of helping learners be
the best they can be.
○ Maintain awareness of self, and listen to the learners needs.
○ Develop learner-driven content that is interactive and engaging, enabling a
concrete connection to the concepts.
○ Validate learners' understanding of concepts and skills.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Growth
Beginner ● Explain how learning is a lifelong journey
● Discuss the importance of feedback
Environment
● Describe how to cultivate an environment of trust
respect and safety
Guiding
● Discuss how you can validate a learner's
understanding of concepts and skills.

2 Growth
Advanced ● Show how feedback given well can be transformative.
Beginner ● Apply feedback received to improve your guiding
skills.
Environment
● Assess the impact you are having on the learners.
● Create a supporting environment for your learner(s).
Guiding
● Develop a workshop based on learner-driven content.

3 Growth
Practitioner ● Design an activity to help your learner distill their
learning, so they know what they have learned.
● Analyze three ways to help your learners grow
professionally.
● Demonstrate at least 3 methods to give and receive
feedback with curiosity to drive continuous learning.
Environment

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● Create a partnership with learners to create a
psychologically safe environment to enable learning
and encourage collaboration.
● Integrate experimentation and reflection into your
learning environment
● Modify the environment based on organizational
culture to meet your learners where they are
Guiding
● Believe in a learner's potential unconditionally.
● Create and foster a learner-and-guide relationship
based on mutual trust, respect and commitment.
● Explain why entering a learning relationship requires
compatibility with the learner to be successful.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future


Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Mentoring
Mentoring the creation of a “learning relationship between two (or more) individuals who
share mutual responsibility and accountability for helping a mentee towards a clear and
mutually defined learning goal. Learning is the fundamental process, purpose and
product of mentoring”. (Zachary, 2005).

In a mentoring relationship, the mentor has experience in the area of growth, although
both the mentor and mentee may learn from the interaction. Mentoring involves sharing
with the mentee different approaches and acting as a guide down pathways commonly
taken.

● Mentee Focus - Mentoring is a two-way relationship, where those involved make


agreements to learn together.
○ Balancing between coaching and advising.
○ Exercises neutrality.
○ Holds the mentee's agenda.

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● Sharing Expertise - Mentoring is generative and not directive. The mentee
remains at choice as to whether to adopt a mentor's suggestions in any of the
experiences the mentor shares. The Mentor…
○ Shares subject matter expertise in the areas of need to the mentee
○ Understands the boundaries of own expertise and when to seek other
experts for the mentee
○ Shares experience by showing examples, storytelling, roleplay, giving
feedback, and sharing resources/connections.
○ Checks resonance with the mentee.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Mentee Focus
Beginner ● Describe the opportunity for learning for both you the
mentor and the mentee.
● Describe the impact of clear goals on a mentoring
relationship.
Sharing Expertise
● Identify if you are compatible with a mentor or mentee.

2 Mentee Focus
Advanced ● Describe three techniques to help an individual
Beginner recognize areas of weakness and create positive
change for themselves.
● Demonstrate giving feedback in a way that
encourages growth.
● Create a mentee relationship that connects your
experience to the needs of the mentee.
Sharing Expertise
● Demonstrate your ability to mentor a person or team.
● Support your recommendation to the mentee using
your expertise.
● Explain how the scenario(s) you share relate to the
problem for which the mentee is seeking guidance.

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Level Reflection

3 Mentee Focus
Practitioner ● Identify the mentee's needs and adapt your approach
appropriately.
● Evaluate at least 3 factors that may contribute to your
decision to stop mentoring
● Co-create goals and create a shared purpose to guide
your relationship.
Sharing Expertise
● Illustrate - through storytelling, examples and roleplay
- the means to tackle similar problems.
● Appraise the mentee’s desire to make use of such
information. If so, expound on any scenarios deemed
valuable by the mentee.
● Modify your approach to mentoring based on
feedback and changes in the needs of the mentee.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future


Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Training
Being a Trainer, you will engage with learners to catalyze their understanding and
application of knowledge, competence and skills. It could include logistics, design,
content selection, delivery, assessment and reflection.

● Learning Design
○ Understands different learning styles and creates experiences so that the
knowledge, competence and skills can be applied by all.
○ Designs a meaningful learning experience.
○ Develops learning journeys that are focused on the learner.

● Delivery
○ Adapts in the moment and fluidly shifts learning frames toward the needs
of the learner.
○ Shares expertise and experiences through examples, storytelling, roleplay,
giving feedback, and sharing resources/connections.

43
○ Validate learning of concepts and application of skills beyond the course.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Learning Design
Beginner ● Describe training and approaches to adult learning.
● Evaluate the learning needs of an individual or team.
Delivery
● Explain two or more ways that you can share
knowledge with a group of people.

2 Learning Design
Advanced ● Design a learning experience using an appropriate
Beginner training style.
● Develop clear learning objectives, to create and
execute training.
Delivery
● Demonstrate proficiency in delivering a half day training
workshop on any Agile topic.
● Integrate learning materials, to meet the needs and
objectives of at least one training event.

3 Learning Design
Practitioner ● Create a suitable learning environment by using the
physical space.
● Modify learning design based on cultural context
● Design a safe learning environment where students can
engage and learn from each other.
● Develop learning opportunities that engage participants
who have different approaches to learning and ways of
processing information
Delivery
● Demonstrate proficiency in delivering training using at
least one of the teaching philosophies Alchemy, TBR
(Training from the Back of the Room), Deep Learning,
etc.
● Revise your approach to training based on feedback.
● Integrate effective storytelling into training to convey
key concepts.

44
● Plan for disruptive situations in training workshops.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future update.


Guide

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Advising
As a trusted advisor you are invested in your client's success. By fostering a long-term,
collaborative relationship with the client you can offer your experience, insights and
observations to help them succeed with their goals.

As an advisor or consultant to a team, an individual, or within the wider organization,


you are responsible for listening to what the client wants, providing reflection and
challenge where necessary, then creating an environment that makes what they want
achievable.

Partnering
Setting up an engagement for success by creating shared responsibility as the client
moves towards their goals. Fostering a collaborative relationship by making agreements
with leaders, teams and individuals.

● Align on Goals - A common area of frustration and failure is when there are no
goals agreed upon for the work to be undertaken. Consider, what is the purpose
of the engagement? What will success look like and how will you know?
Establishing clear goals builds focus and trust, allowing you to work
collaboratively with others in support of those goals.
● Create the Environment for Success - Partner with the client and relevant
stakeholders to create clear agreements about the nature of the relationship,
including roles, processes, plans and reporting. Establishes agreements for the
overall engagement. Organizations are complex systems. Any work should be
carried out with appropriate inspection and adaptation points that allow the
partners to adapt the work.

45
Competency Level Definitions:
Competency levels for Partnering will be included in a future update of the Coaching
Wheel.

Giving Advice
As a trusted advisor sometimes what the client needs is for you to give advice. Your
knowledge and experience is valuable to the client because the client may not be aware
of what they don’t know.

● Storytelling - Based on your own experience and that of others you humbly
share stories of the people, the places and the conditions that led to new
awarenesses and benefits. You do this in service to the client to inspire new
thinking, to challenge inertia, and to unlock their potential.
● Knowledge Sharing - Referring to industry case studies, research and
established bodies of knowledge.

Competency Level Definitions:


Competency levels for Partnering will be included in a future update of the Coaching
Wheel.

Leading
Leading is about being the change you want to see to make the world a better place. As
a leader, you are capable of catalyzing growth and inspiring others to realize the shared
vision.

Leading recognizes that you need leadership skills in order to help grow teams and
organizations using Agile principles and practices. It is built around a central notion of
shared responsibility in leading. Partnering with other leaders, while taking shared
responsibility on the journey towards the goal.

As a successful leader, you must move between a number of stances in the support of
these concepts. You may be asked lead from the front as a visionary leader or to let
your inner purpose serve as inspiration for others. At other times you will be asked to
subsume yourself to the betterment of others, adopting a strong servant leadership
stance. A successful leader is able to “dance in the moment”, knowing when and how to
move between these various stances.

46
Leading and Self-Mastery
There are strong connections between the Leading and the Self-mastery. This is the
concept that you model behavior, principles, values, and practices in your daily
interactions. This extends into solid leadership behaviors when there is nobody around
to observe them. That is, modeling them from the inside out is part of the essence of
who you are as a Leader.

Visionary
A visionary leader is co-creating a vision of the future that acts as a positive attractor or
catalyst for incremental change. Change that is aligned to business agility, innovation,
team health, and customer value delivery. You do this largely by assisting other leaders
and organizations to dream of inspiring future states and helping them hone, share, and
instantiate those dreams organizationally.

Beyond that, a visionary is also an evangelist and champion of agility within


organizations (system) and in helping to guide their journey. Storytelling is an inherently
important part of being a visionary, helping to connect the dots for everyone across the
organization.

● Purpose - Aligning and connecting is creating an aligned organizational


leadership team. This begins with aligning goals (OKR’s, objectives, etc.) and
then extends to more broadly affect behaviors and culture.
● Inspiring - Having the ability to personally weave powerful stories to illuminate
an organization’s vision. While also serving as a mentor and coach to
organizational leaders to improve their abilities in communicating a compelling
vision of the future. This also includes the creation of vision and mission
statements that are co-created with the overall organization.
● Empirical - Nothing is fixed and everything emerges. Systems thinking on the
part of the leader is an important part of it. As is, guiding yourself and
organizational experiments, understanding, and emergence into new ways of
thinking, leading, and working.

Competency Level Definitions:


Competency levels for Partnering will be included in a future update of the Coaching
Wheel.

Role Modeling
Think of role modeling, in the simplest terms, as a leader walking their talk each day.
For example, that means modeling their agile principles and values on a day-to-day
basis, both personally and professionally.

47
There are two modes to role modeling. Modeling when the going is easy and modeling
when the going is tough. Being resilient means that you aspire to be a consistent role
model no matter what is going on around you.

Role modeling is also an extension of mentoring or showing what excellence looks


like—showing instead of telling. This can be passively and actively showing what agile
ways of leading look like.

There are four skills that come become crucial to master:

● Personal (inside-out) Modeling – This is the Self-Mastery aspect of role


modeling . You are asking the question “Am I showing up as myself?” What does
that look like? Ethics are also represented here, that is, are you showing up
ethically according to common ethical standards for Agile Coaching? Are you
continuously learning and growing as a leader?
● Client (coaching presence) Modeling – This is where the language you use as
a coach really matters. For example, are you becoming more “Clean” in your use
of language? Are you working hard to reduce your ego and biases? Are you
aware of and are you refining your coaching presence? This skill is also closely
connected to Self-Mastery and Coaching Mindset.
● Community (visible persona) Modeling – You are representing yourself in the
wider agile community.You are modeling on a broader or more global scale via
event participation, public speaking, writing, videos, or other avenues to model
your experience to others.
● Model Resilience – this is where your ethics, values, and principles show up
under pressure. The pressure here could be political, business, financial, or even
internally-driven. Building your resilience over time is an important aspect of role
modeling. Consider it the fitness test for your model.

Competency Level Definitions:


Competency levels for Partnering will be included in a future update of the Coaching
Wheel.

Leading for Growth


Agile coaching skills are often used to help organizations grow. On the surface, this
appears to be growing as an agile organization and encompasses standard frameworks
(Scrum, Kanban, scaling, etc.). And to that end, there is a connection to the Agile/Lean
Practitioner competency area. That is not the most challenging part of leading for
growth.

The challenges are more cultural and organizational in nature. And this is where your
organization or clients often struggle the most, because they have to:

48
1. Grow personally and internally
2. Grow and evolve their leadership teams
3. Grow and evolve their organizations

This involves successfully navigating their VUCA contexts while navigating and
negotiating large-scale change. Given that, there is a strong connection between this
competency area and the Transforming competency area.

There are skills that come become crucial to deepen your knowledge:

● Building Team and Organizational Resilience – Acknowledging and


communicating that growth doesn’t make any sense if it’s not sticky or resilient
for the long term. You need to work with your leadership clients to ensure that
they’re building team and organizational resilience. Self-care factors into that, as
does mentoring and coaching their teams. Succession planning is something to
focus our clients toward as an imperative.
● Culture-Shaping (Building, Shifting, Micro-steps) – You understand that culture
isn’t built in a big, mechanistic way. Instead, it’s built (or shaped) by every
behavior that leaders exhibit and reward/amplify or penalize or tolerate.
● Diversity & Inclusion: The ability to help your clients to create a safe culture
where all voices are embraced and welcomed. Psychological Safety, coaching to
develop more generational awareness, deep diversity awareness (including
neurodiversity), and cultural awareness.
● Learning Organization – think of Peter Senge’s The 5th Discipline – The
Learning Organization here as the coach partners with your clients to establish a
culture of continuous learning and growth. Practices here include Communities of
Practice, Guilds, and Coaches of Coaches. Included with this is developing your
coaching abilities at a systems level, systems thinking, and organizational system
awareness.

Competency Level Definitions:


Competency levels for Partnering will be included in a future update of the Coaching
Wheel.

Transforming
Transformation is a continuous activity that allows organizations to adapt and thrive in
an ever-changing world, transforming is not just going from a current state to a new
state. As a transformation agent you guide sustainable change that allows people to be
more effective and learn how to change for themselves.

49
You will be familiar with organizational design concepts that will help client organizations
achieve greater business agility.

Organizational Change
Organizations are complex and changing them is an even more complex proposition.
An empirical and informed approach to the change process improves the chances of
success of a transformation. This approach may sometimes be talked about as a
continuous journey or a process of organizational evolution.

Successfully helping an organization with change needs a certain level of emotional


intelligence (see Self-Mastery) and skills in areas such as:

● Introducing Change
○ Context for change - Taking the current context & future possible context
of Organizational Design and explaining the reasons we need/want to
change or not change (for example if there is no appetite).
○ Complexity conscious - helping your client understand that organizations
are complex in nature, so change should be empirical and people-driven
rather than plan-driven.
○ Culture awareness - helping your client understand the culture of the
organization so that they can introduce appropriate change.
● Navigating Change
○ Empirical change: establishing methods for transparency, inspection and
adaptation
○ Facilitate change events & activities - from launching a single team to
guiding a full organization redesign.
○ Ownership - Involving people impacted by the change in designing and
implementing change.
○ Safe to fail experiments - establish a safe environment where the
expectation is that some experiments will fail.
○ Working with organizational tensions to navigate change.
● Sustaining Change
○ Create sustainable change: aid the organization to learn how to create
and navigate change on their own
○ Build internal capacity: Grow agile coaching capability in others
○ Help change go viral: help create an environment where positive change
can spread
○ Learning culture: seek ways to help people build learning into to the way
they work

50
○ Deprecating ways of working and process: Remove those that no longer
serve the people.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Introducing Change
Beginner ● List at least three emerging global challenges and how
each makes our world more complex, unpredictable
and/or volatile.
● Illustrate how a healthy agile approach supports the
complexity and uncertainty of work.
● Describe the nature of complex systems.
Navigating Change
● Discuss at least two ways to help the team with
responding to impediments.
● Identify at least three common organizational
impediments outside the scope of a team that impacts
effectiveness.
● Describe how transparency, inspection and adaptation
can support change.
Sustaining Change
● Describe the role continuous learning plays in
sustaining change.
● Discuss how introducing change will require
organizations to stop or adapt existing ways of working.

2 Introducing Change
Advanced ● Explain the importance of discovering an organizational
Beginner culture that supports shared accountability with teams.
● Explore at least one tool or technique to identify,
understand and influence the culture within an
organization.
● Explain how to approach an organizational change in a
complex system.
Navigating Change
● Explain the importance of taking a systemic view,
helping stakeholders understand the whole system.

51
● Demonstrate how an effective approach to change
should be flexible and adaptive to different situations.
● Apply at least two techniques to effect change outside
of the team in order to help them be more productive.
● Experiment with at least one large-scale, participatory
meeting format to facilitate/kick-off people-driven
change.
Sustaining Change
● Explain the role building capability in people has on
transformation sustainability.
● Discuss how to foster the courage in leaders on all
levels to continue change.
● Describe a learning culture.

3 Introducing Change
Practitioner ● Analyze how change might be approached differently
based on existing organizational culture, and the
influence that culture has on speed, risk, and
receptiveness to change.
● Analyze how change might be approached differently
based on the system's complexity.
● Facilitate a clear understanding of an organization's
unique and compelling reasons for being agile.
Navigating Change
● Describe how organizational change impacts people
and list three benefits of involving them in the change
process.
● Compare at least two systematic methods for helping
organizations improve.
● Analyze your approach to a complex intervention that
addresses the root cause(s) of an organizational
dysfunction.
● Demonstrate at least two tangible examples of how
you changed the culture of your team or organization.
● Coached multiple groups to design/conduct
people-driven change using large-scale, participatory
meeting formats.
Sustaining Change

52
● Discuss transformation sustainability and give two
approaches to developing organizational agile
capabilities.
● Evaluate an experience with supporting the work of
multiple teams in an organization and make
improvements.
● Grow agile coaching capabilities in others, including
transformation, some core skills and self-mastery.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future


Guide update.

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Organizational Design
As a transformation agent you grow knowledge that will support an organization's
transformation to become a more adaptable, resilient, outcome-focused and
people-centric organization. We do this by taking a system view, helping clients design
experiments introducing them to new organizational principles and patterns. This affords
your business the freedom and flexibility to achieve its purpose. No matter what the
future brings.

53
● Organizational Operating System - knowledge of approaches that could help
organizations better achieve their goals and support the culture you want to
create:
○ Decision making - how power is shared and how decisions get made.
○ Structures, policies and metrics - how we organize ourselves and work
together in a way resilience, adaptability, focusing on outcomes.
○ Innovation - how we learn and discover new ideas.
○ Roles and teams - how we take responsibility for getting work done.
● Organize Around the Delivery of Value: How an organization is designed for
the delivery of value that is aligned with healthy decision making no matter the
complexity of the organization.
● People Advocacy - organizations are made up of people and they are the center
of everything we do.
○ Create policies that include all people and allow for diversity of thinking.
○ Advocate for people's growth, wellbeing, and create space for peoples self
care.
○ Purpose - what's the change we want to see in the world, even beyond
making money.
○ Motivation - ensuring that extrinsic and intrinsic factors of motivation are in
balance and aligned to the organization's goals.

Competency Level Definitions:

Level Reflection

1 Organizational Operating System


Beginner ● Identify at least three challenges an organization might
face when undertaking an agile approach beyond a
single team.
● Describe the characteristics organizations need to
develop to be able to face today’s world and market
challenges.
Organize Around the Delivery of Value
● Describe how the agile principles change an
organization's approach to delivering value.
● Describe what is valuable, recognizing that there are
different types.
People Advocacy
● List at least three ways that traditional management
changes in the Agile workplace.

54
● Describe the value of having a clear and compelling
vision.
● Describe intrinsic motivation and why it is important.

2 Organizational Operating System


Advanced ● Explain how culture and the way value is interpreted
Beginner are related, and how that relationship will affect
organizational outcomes.
● Guide understanding of at least three benefits and
drawbacks of feature teams and component teams.
● Explain how an organization's structures, policies and
measures impact its culture.
Organize Around the Delivery of Value
● Facilitate at least three techniques for visualizing,
managing, or reducing dependencies between teams.
● Describe at least three challenges to creating value
flow when applying agile approaches across an
organizational system.
● Teach three ways to help a team align their goals with
those of the organization.
People Advocacy
● Apply at least two patterns for increasing trust and
collaboration between multiple teams.
● Identify at least three organizational practices that
increase people's autonomy.
● Teach the value of investing in people's growth over just
training them to do a job.

55
3 Organizational Operating System
Practitioner ● Experiment with at least three techniques to improve
inter-team collaboration.
● Apply scaling practices and methods that can be
helpful without adding the overhead of an entire scaling
framework when necessary.
● Assess organizational structures, policies and metrics,
describe how they impact organization culture and
create value.
Organize Around the Delivery of Value
● Describe an organizational design that enables multiple
teams to work on the same product.
● Contrast at least two patterns for applying Product
Ownership across multiple teams.
● Facilitate growth of understanding as to what is value
and what are products.
People Advocacy
● Facilitate and nurture the growth of people.
● Apply practices that give agency to people and teams.
● Facilitate the movement of decision making away from
management towards the people involved in the work.

4 ● Guide level guidance will be provided in a future update.


Guide

5 ● Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future


Catalyst update.

Domain Knowledge (the outside ring)


The domain knowledge areas around the outside of the Wheel represent supporting
expertise that may better help you serve the client and build trust with the team or
organization. However, there is a risk: the more domain experience you have, the
harder it will be to remain objective in your coaching. Therefore, it may be valid for a
coach to allow a reduction of expertise in some areas (i.e., choosing not to stay
up-to-date with the latest changes in technology) while seeking to increase knowledge
in other areas.

56
While crafting the Wheel, we debated for a long time whether things like engineering
practices and technical excellence should be represented under Knowing the Team. We
specifically chose not to write about these things—e. However, knowledge of your
team's technical practices conceptually live here on the wheel.

Similarly, you can consider things like Lean UX and Business Modeling part of Knowing
the Business, and scaling frameworks and organizational change practices may be part
of Knowing the Organization as you serve the organization.

Domain knowledge encompasses expertise in the work of the team, the business and
the organization Including (but not limited to):

Knowing the Team


● Understanding current technical practices, and identifying practices that could be
improved or adapted to increase agility.
● Technical understanding of the product a team is delivering or products across
the organization.
● Growing relationships with the people in yor team.

Knowing the Business


● Understanding the marketplace in which business is being conducted.
● Understanding the needs and concerns of users, customers, and other business
stakeholders.

Knowing the Organization


● Knowledge of structures, policies, and operating models.
● Understanding relationships between people, teams, and departments.
● Understanding the organizational culture.

Acknowledgments
London Scrum Coaching Retreat in 2018 Team:
● Shannon Carter ● Andre Rubin
● Martin Lambert ● Kubair Shirazee
● Rohit Ratan ● Mark Summers
● Stacey Louie ● Rickard Jones
● Tom Reynolds

57
Additional Contributors to the 2019 Version 2.0 Update
● John Barratt
● Zia Malik
● Helen Meek

2021 Core Working Group Version 3.x:


● Mark Summers ● Kseniya Kreyman
● Joel Bancroft-Connors ● Martin Lambert
● John Barratt ● Miloš Zeković
● Joshua Tasker ● Samantha Sieverling
● Maria Thompson ● Emilia Breton-Lake
● Mark Spitzer ● Elise Shapiro
● Mauricio Robles ● Jeff Hayes
● Miloš Zeković ● Patty Aluskewicz
● Rickard Jones ● Mick Lavin

Additional Contributors:
Thanks to other reviewers who are numerous, some anonymous. Contributors who we
know and can thank explicitly include:

● Bob Galen ● Lyssa Atkins


● Dean Bryan ● Elena Arminova
● Tim Robinson ● Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse
● Andy Spence ● Ilja Preuß
● Christian Malik ● Ivo Peksens
● Simon Lawrence ● Kamal Tejnani
● Angel Diaz-Marato ● Karen Britten
● Anu Smalley ● Kyle Yeo
● Brock Argue ● Marcelo Lopez
● Chris Willis ● Stefano Leli
● Andy Dam ● Teddy Carroll
● Daniel Greening ● Zeshan ilyas
● Bojan Smudja

If you are not listed here but have given feedback, a big thanks, let us know and we will add you to
the acknowledgments.

58
References
Developing Great Agile Coaches, by Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd:
https://www.agil8.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Agile-Coaching-Competencies-white
paper-part-one.pdf

Self-Mastery
● Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present
Moment—And Your Life, (2012).
● Barry O’Reilly. Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary
Results, (2018).
● BJ Fogg. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything, (2019).
● James Clear. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits *
Break Bad Ones, (2018).
● Kim Scott. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity,
(Revised edition: 2019).
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Well-being, (2011).
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● Brene Brown. Atlas of the Heart, (2021).
● Cedar Barstow. Right Use of Power: the Heart of Ethics, (2006).

Agile and Lean Practitioner


Agile and Lean Mindset
● The Agile Manifesto for Software Development - https://agilemanifesto.org/.
● Mary & Tom Poppendieck. Lean Software Development – An Agile Toolkit,
(2003).
● Mary & Tom Poppendieck. Implementing Lean Software Development – From
Concept to Cash, (2006).
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● Mary & Tom Poppendieck. The Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions, (2013).
● Gene Kim. The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your
Business Win, (2018).

59
● Gene Kim. The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption,
and Thriving in the Age of Data (2019).
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Agile and Lean Thinking in an Age of Complexity, (2020)
● Taiichi Ohno. Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production,
(1999).

Frameworks, Methods + Practices


● Kent Beck. Extreme Programming Explained – Embrace Change (2’nd edition,
2004).
● David Thomas, Andrew Hunt. The Pragmatic Programmer: your journey to
mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition (2019).
● Read the Scrum Guide. Better yet, contrast the pre-2017, 2017, and 2020 Scrum
Guide editions to see how it has evolved over time. https://scrumguides.org/
● Henrik Kniberg. Scrum and XP from the Trenches – How we do Scrum (2007,
2015)
● Jim Coplien. Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development, (2004)
● David J Anderson. Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology
Business, (2013).

Serving
● Robert Greenleaf. Servant Leadership 25th Anniversary Edition: A journey into
the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness, (2002).

Serving the Team


● Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory. Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile
Teams (2009).
● Diana Larsen, Ainsley Nies. Liftoff – Start and Sustain Successful Agile Teams,
(2016).
● Jurgen Appelo. Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile
Leaders, (2010).
● Esther Derby, Diana Larsen. Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great,
(2006).
● Heidi Helfand. Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams,
(2nd edition, 2020).
● Richard Hackman. Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances,
(2002).
● Richard Hackman. Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard
Problems, (2011).
● Glenda Eoyang. Conditions for Self-organizing in Human Systems, (2002).

60
● Daniel Pink. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, (2009).
● Patrick Lencioni. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, (2002).

Serving The Business


● Robert Galen. Scrum Product Ownership: Navigating the Forest AND the Trees,
(2019)
● Eric Ries. The Lean Startup – How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous
Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, (2011).
● Eric Ries. The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial
Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth, (2017).
● Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden. Lean UX: Designing Great Product with Agile Teams,
(2016).
● Marty Cagan. INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, (2017).
● Marty Cagan. EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products, (2020)
● Roman Pichler. Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for
the Digital Age, (2016).
● Melissa Perri. Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management
Creates Real Value, (2018).
● Jeff Patton. User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right
Product, (2014).
● Geoff Watts. Product Mastery: From Good to Great Product Mastery, (2017).
● Roman Pichler. Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products That
Customers Love, (2010).
● Mik Kersten. Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in The Agile of Digital
Disruption with the Flow Framework, (2018).
● Chris Lukassen. The Product Samurai: A Product Manager's Guide to
Continuous Innovation, (2019).

Coaching
● Henry Kimsey-House and Karen Kimsey-House. Co-Active Coaching: The
proven framework for transformative conversations at work and life, (4th edition,
2018).
● John Whitmore. Coaching for performance: GROWing human potential and
purpose: the principles and practice of coaching and leadership, 4th Edition
(2009).
● Doug Silsbee. Presence-Based Coaching – Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders
Through Mind, Body, and Heart, (2008).
● Doug Silsbee. The Mindful Coach: Seven Roles for Facilitating Leader
Development, (2010) Coaching Attitude.
● The International Coaching Federation, ICF Core Competencies and the Ethics.

61
○ Definition: https://coachingfederation.org/about
○ Core competencies: https://coachingfederation.org/core-competencies
○ Team competencies:
https://coachfederation.org/team-coaching-competencies
○ Ethics: https://coachingfederation.org/ethics/code-of-ethics
● Megan Jo Wilson. Who The F*ck Am I To Be a Coach?!: A Warrior’s Guide to
Building a Wildly Successful Coaching Business from the Inside Out, (2017).
● Sara Orem, Jacqueline Binkert, and Ann Clancy. Appreciative Coaching: A
Positive Process for Change, (2007).
● Martin Seligman. Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to
realize your potential for deep fulfillment, (2003).
● Robert Biswas-Diener. Practicing Positive Psychology Coaching: Assessment,
Activities and Strategies for Success, (2010).
● Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein. Humble Inquiry – The Gentle Art of Asking
Instead of Telling (2’nd edition, 2021).
● Lyssa Adkins’. Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile
Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition, (2010).
● Nancy Kline. Time to Think (1999).
● Kim Morgan, Geoff Watts. The Coaches Casebook: Mastering the Twelve Traits
That Trap Us (2015).
● Damon Poole, Gillian Lee. Professional Coaching for Agilists – Accelerating Agile
Adoption, (2021).
● Douglas Squirrel, Jeffrey Fredrick. Agile Conversations – Transform Your
Conversations, Transform Your Culture, (2020).
● Niall McShane. Responsive Agile Coaching – How to Accelerate Your Coaching
Outcomes with Meaningful Conversations, (2020).
● John Leary-Joyce, Hilary Lines. Systemic Team Coaching (2018)
● John Wittington. Systemic Coaching and Constellations: The Principles,
Practices, and Application for Individuals, Teams, and Groups, (3’rd edition,
2020).
● Peter Hawkins, Eve Turner. Systemic Coaching: Delivering Value Beyond the
Individual, (2019).

Facilitating
● Marsha Acker. The Art & Science of Facilitation: How to Lead Effective
Collaboration with Agile Teams, (2021).
● Sam Kaner. Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, (3’rd Edition,
2014).

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● Jean Tabaka. Collaboration Explained – Facilitation Skills for Software Project
Leaders, (2006).
● Dee Kelsey, Pam Plumb. Great Meetings!: Great Results. (2’nd Edition, 2004)
● Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo. Gamestorming – A Playbook for
Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, (2010).
● Christopher Avery. The Responsibility Process – Unlocking Your Natural Ability to
Live and Lead with Power, (2016).
● Amy C. Edmondson. The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety
in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, (2018).
● Dr. Mark Smutny. Thrive: The Facilitators Guide to Radically Inclusive Meetings,
(2019).
● Cara Turner. “What is Agile Facilitation?” - source:
https://facilitatingagility.com/2012/03/05/what-is-agile-facilitation/, (2012).

Guiding Learning
● Peter Senge. The Dance of Change: The challenges to sustaining momentum in
a learning organization, (2014).
● Emily Webber. Building Successful Communities of Practice – Discover How
Connecting People Makes Better Organizations, (2016).
● Dion Stewart, Joel Tosi. Creating Your Dojo: Upskill Your Organization for Digital
Evolution, (2019).
● Brandy Agerbeck. The Idea Shapers – The power of putting your thinking into
your own hands, (2016).
● David Sibbet. Visual Meetings – How Graphics, Sticky Notes, & Idea Mapping
can Transform Group Productivity, (2010).
● Andy Hunt. Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor your Wetware, (2008).
● Henri Lipmanowicz, Keith McCandless, The Surprising Power of Liberating
Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash a Culture of Innovation, (2014).
● Lois Zachery. Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide, (2011).
● Lois Zachary, Lory Fischler. Starting Strong – A Mentoring Fable, (2014).
● Lois Zachery. The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships.
(2’nd edition, 2011).
● Sharon Bowman. Training from the Back of the Room!: 65 Ways to Step Aside
and Let Them Learn, (2008).
● Sharon Bowman. Using Brain Science to Make Training Stick, (2010).
● Jacqueline Lloyd Smith, Denise Meyerson. Strategic Play – The Creative
Facilitator’s Guide, (2015).
● Jacqueline Lloyd Smith, Denise Meyerson. Strategic Play – What the Duck!,
(2017).

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● Sean Blair. SeriousWork – How to Facilitate Meetings & Workshops Using the
Lego Serious Play Method, (2016).
● Sean Blair. SeriousWork – the Lego Serious Play Methods – 44 Facilitation
Techniques, (2020)
● Sean Blair. How to Facilitate the Lego Serious Play Method Online, (2020)

Advising
● Gerald Weinberg. The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting
Advice Successfully, (1986).
● Gerald Weinberg. More Secrets of Consulting: The Consultants Tool kit, (2001).
● Peter Block. Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, (3’rd
edition. 2011)
● Edgar H. Schein’s. Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster, (2016).
● Jason Little. Lean Change Management: Innovative practices for managing
organizational change, (2014).
● Jason Little. Change Agility: A guide to help you think about change
management differently, (2020).
● Kim Scott. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity,
(Revised edition: 2019).
● Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, et al. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking
When Stakes are High, (Third Edition: 2021).
● Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, et al. Crucial Confrontations: Tools for
Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior, (2004).

​Leading
● Co-Active Leadership Model: https://learn.coactive.com/your-leadership-approach.
● Brené Brown. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the
Courage to Stand Alone, (2017).
● Brené Brown. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.,
(2018).
● Karen & Henry Kimsey-House. Co-Active Leadership, Second Edition: Five Ways
to Lead, (2021).
● Steve Denning.The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the
Way Work Gets Done, (2018).
● Peter Senge. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning
Organization, (2010).
● David Marquette. Turn This Ship Around: A True Story of Turning Followers into
Leaders, (2013).

64
● David Marquette. Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You
Say—and What You Don’t, (2020).
● Gerald Weinberg. Becoming a Change Artist – Quality Software Book #7, (2011)
● Robert R. Shallenberger, Steve Shallenberger. Start with the Vision: Six Steps to
Effectively Plan, Create Solutions, and Take Action, (2020).
● Robert R. Shallenberger, Steve Shallenberger. Do What Matters Most: Lead with
a Vision, Manage with a Plan, and Prioritize Your Time, (2021).
● Patrick Lencioni. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, (2002).
● Stephen A. Josephs, William B. Joiner. Leadership Agility: 5 Levels of Mastery
for Anticipating and Initiating Change, (2007).
● Robert J. Anderson, William A. Adams, et al. Mastering Leadership - An
Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary
Business Results, (2015)
● Tim Clark. The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion
and Innovation, (2020).
● Anjali Leon. Principles of Agile Leaderships:
https://www.ppl-coach.com/post/principles-of-agile-leadership. 2020.
● Esther Derby. 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro
Results. 2019

Transforming
● The Business Agility Institute https://businessagility.institute/
● Frederic Laloux. Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations
Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness, (2014).
● Aaron Dignan. Brave New Work (2019).
● Michael Spayd and Michelle Madore. Agile Transformation: Using the Integral
Agile Transformation Framework to Think and Lead Differently, (2020).
● Matthew Skelton, Manual Pais. Team Topologies – Organizing Business and
Technology Teams for Fast Flow, (2019).
● Stephanie Johnson Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build
Innovative Teams, (2020)
● Daniel Mezick. The Culture Game – Tools for the Agile Manager, (2012)
● Daniel Mezick. The Open Space Agility Handbook, (2015)
● Daniel Mezick, Mark Sheffield. Inviting Leadership: Invitation-Based Change in
the New World of Work, (2018).
● Dave Logan, John King, and Haley Fischer-Wright. Tribal Leadership: Leveraging
Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, (2012).
● Em Campbell-Pretty. Tribal Unity: Getting from Teams to Tribes by Creating a
One Team Culture, (2016).

65
● Pamela Meyer. Agility Shift: Creating Agile and Effective Leaders, Teams, and
Organizations, (2016).
● Patrick Lencioni. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything
Else in Business, (2012).
● Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez. Doing Agile Right: Transformation
Without Chaos, (2020).
● Mike Burrows. Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile, (2019).
● Richard Sheridan. Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love, (2013).
● Richard Sheridan. Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy
and Eliminate Fear, (2018).

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