At a recent Agile Meetup, we talked about exit criteria for Agile coaching. Participants wanted to know how to determine when an Agile Coach is no longer needed.
I flippantly responded with “when the budget runs out” because that seems to be when most organizations stop coaching. One Meetup participant (who I previously coached) responded that the need for coaches is ongoing.
As he put it, professional sports teams don’t outgrow their coaches, in fact, the higher the level the more coaching they get. It made me consider my own approach to coaching.
Agile Coaches Work Their Way Out of a Job
I see coaching as a short-term intervention used to help people adopt new ways of thinking and behaving. My job is to empower people to be able to perform well on their own. As a result, I treat every agile coaching engagement as if I am working my way out of the job.
I am there to help the organization transform, and to invest in the internal coaches or champions. I don’t want to be the key person to the transformation, or have the transformation collapse or fail if I am not there.
Perhaps I take this view because I am an outside consultant, and not an internal agile coach. Is this shortsighted? In addition to the challenge of always having to find new coaching engagements, the downside of this approach is that it can be less effective for a deep change of longstanding patterns of thinking or habits.
Is Agile Coaching a Permanent Role?
What about the idea of coaches acting like the coach for a sports team? They are not temporary, they have a permanent role on the team. Should agile coaching be more like that?
I can certainly see some advantages to a long-term approach for agile coaching. Lasting organizational change can be quite slow and frequently people and organizations backslide.
A coach that has been there for the long haul can help to remind and hold individuals accountable for their longer-term goals and commitments.
What do you think? When is the job of agile coach done? Is coaching an ongoing activity like it is for professional sports teams?
Hi Anthony,
Hi Anthony,
I believe your approach is correct … “to work your way out” as done as you see the first growing on the “seed”. However, the need for a coach continues at different levels…ideally agile will catch up, the organization starts embracing it, how to you scale it? that is another coaching opportunity to the next level. Thank you…catching up with your articles now.
Carlos