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December 17, 2018 · 2 min read timeWhat kind of abilities does a lean-agile coach need? Learning and growth play a key role. Nitor offers training on agile coaching so that you don’t have to learn everything the hard way.
Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd have done a great job in crystallizing the role of an agile coach by using the Framework of Agile Coaching Competency -model. I had the opportunity to learn directly from them in 2012. I have experimented with this framework since and found that it very accurately describes the abstract role of an agile coach.
An agile coach has internalized the lean-agile values and principles through insights gained from practise. This may be the most challenging area because there is so much one needs to unlearn to create space for a new mindset. Watch The Backwards Brain Bicycle video, and you’ll understand what I mean. Another challenge is that there are only a handful of agile environments to experience real epiphanies around agile.
At best, an agile coach is a professional coach who can challenge the individual, the team, and the organization to think and solve problems each day a little bit better.
An agile coach possesses a broad toolkit for facilitation. The toolkit allows you to support larger groups to reach a consensus on issues at hand. A good example is Yle Lean Culture Toolkit, which is freely available for anyone to use.
Teaching lean-agile methods is crucial, as an agile coach is almost always facing situations, where new knowledge is valued.
A coach is often needed to introduce a new mindset to an environment that is yet to embrace this new way of thinking. Such situations call for a mentoring approach where the coach can set an example of how, for example, an agile product owner can support the team to grow and become self-directed. To be a mentor, one needs personal excellence in one of these three areas: technology, business, or transformation.
Based on everything I’ve learned, I’ve developed Nitor’s Agile Coaching -course, where you will learn professional methods that support your role as an agile coach. In addition, I introduce several means for facilitation and give you tools to build and strengthen the agile mindset in your organisation.
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Kirsi Mikkonen is a versatile Lean-Agile coach. She is also an international sailing champion who switches her sailing shoes to telemark skis when the waves turn to ice.
