Team Coaching 101
Notes from my time as a Scrum Master
I recently took the opportunity to jump back in to team coaching, and I thought I’d share how I like to get started with a brand new team. My hope is that this takes some of the fear out of jumping in and coaching a team you don’t know yet.
The very first action I took was to pull up with someone from the team, in this case the Product Owner, and understand what value they were looking for from my engagement. If you’re not working in a Scrum or Kanban world, you can still use your coaching skills to help any team improve. In that scenario, just work with whichever leader understands the need and make it your mission to collaborate with that person. I created a weekly sync for just such a purpose. Not a status update. It’s a relationship-building and learning opportunity.
Marilyn, the Product Owner, told me she needed two things:
Coach me in how I should be interacting with the team.
Help me by facilitating a Daily Huddle and a few other collaborative meetings, like a regular Retrospective.
Music to my ears. Most people hate meetings. But most people don’t have meetings with THood. One of the first things I normally focus on with any team is energizing the daily huddle, so that’s where I went to work.
In the very first Daily Huddle, I started the virtual meeting five minutes early and played music. LowFi Hip Hop Jamz. No words. Just background music. It helps calme me down and fill the awkward void. The meeting was scheduled for 9 AM, so I kicked off the work talk huddle promptly at 9 AM.
Only two of the eight team members were there. Nobody was on camera. They all wanted to give status updates. The Product Owner mentioned two or three times, “Tristan, I should have explained that. We do it a bit differently.”
The next day I did the same thing. Joined the meeting five minutes early. Played music. This time, almost all of the team showed up at 9 AM. One guy on the call mentioned, “Wow, dude, you’re really excited to join this meeting.” I mean, why wouldn’t I be?
Instead of status updates, I just asked them what I like to call flow questions. Basically, questions about the work that are meant to create movement. No status or justifications needed. Just looking for cards that need some action.
We found a few blocked cards. An expedited card. There was even a card with a “due date” that was three months past. When I cheekily asked, “Do we think we will still have it done by then,” the team laughed. Even the manager chuckled. I closed by asking if there was any conversation we needed to have. I could tell the team was a bit uncomfortable, but nobody complained.
The third day, I didn’t start the meeting five minutes early. One of the team members did. And he was on camera. (Side note, his home office was actually pretty sweet. Star Wars paraphernalia. Swords mounted on the wall. I was impressed.) It was the first time I had seen this person’s face, so I was jazzed. Everyone showed up on time. The Product Owner said, out loud and at the beginning, “Hey guys, this new format is great because I can see there is some work that has fallen through the cracks. Can we make sure to focus on that?”
SUCCESS.
I didn’t so much try to change the team. I just acted Nimble. In doing so, they started seeing the value of what I was doing. Without shame or judgment, they started showing up on time and on camera.
That’s really the point I’m trying to make here. When I join a new team, I don’t start by forcing “Agile” rules or mechanics. I start by building trust, creating a little energy, asking questions that move work, and treating people like they matter. That is what coaching looks like at the start.
Remember, you are the thing that is agile. I wrote about this recently, but it bears repeating. Teams are there to provide services or products, and to do so in ways that work for their business. Your role as a coach is to embody Spider-Man-like agility and help them see their own God-given potential to do the same.
Even knowing that, I have to say I get a healthy dose of imposter syndrome almost immediately, mostly because I don’t always know the domain of the team with which I am working. That’s not paramount immediately, but it becomes a differentiator later. More on that part of my journey in future posts.
Here’s my final thought. First and foremost, you have to love people. Not to get them to do what you want, but because you genuinely love people. You can’t fake it. These people are the reason I have a job. They build products and services that delight our customers, and that creates a business I can be a part of. But more than what they can do for me, they are human beings, created in the image of God. Not perfect. Just people, like me. And they have vast potential. As a coach, I love helping them uncork that potential.
This tidbit is not so much a prescription list of what to do for you and your team. My hope is that my journey will help you become the kind of coach the world needs.
Until Next Time,
Go Forth, and Conquer!