Do We Really Need An Agile Coach ?
To be honest, I think there are way too many coaches in the world. For years, while walking around the IT industry in the Netherlands, I saw the market getting flooded with agile coaches. At meetups, 50% of the people were agile coaches. People left their jobs to become agile coaches. And I always thought: why do we need them?
Based on my experience of doing a lot of agile training and consulting over the past few years, I do see why they are required. Scrum masters get caught in the politics of their companies. Product owners struggle to understand their role and say no to stakeholders (who are often superiors). Team members have very practical questions on how to plan and estimate, how to prioritize, etc.
The Agile Coaching Paradox
But I see a big paradox. Agile preaches self organization. So we want our team members to figure out how to do their work, effectively and efficiently. Put a coach in front of the team and chances are big that the coach will start giving directions (the team will rely on the coach’s instructions). And that’s exactly what we don’t want.
During agile training programs I often hear “Am I allowed to do ABC?”. My neck-hairs raise when I hear this question and I always need to breathe to find my balance there. OF COURSE YOU CAN! Just do what you think is right given your context. Now the issue with people asking this question is: they have a mindset of “tell me what to do and I will do it”. In many cases this is based on culture, on habits, on power structures. If we want to deepen our agile practice, we need to change this mindset.
What Makes a Good Coach?
First of all, I believe that it’s important WHO the coach is. This framework from the Agile Coaching Institute gives a good overview of the different coaching competencies.
