COACHING
When Ivo landed, we realized that we were working our Agile initiative using all the cadence-based events, but still 'thinking' waterfall. He paradigm shifted our way of working, explaining how scaled Agile was supposed to work. He guided us with understanding, great patience and interesting, easy-to-comprehend techniques, that made sense to even the ones with 'zero to hero' knowledge.
A great coach with an outwardly easy, pleasant personality and an inner, tough, mentoring Agile mindset.
/Natasha Roach/
Ivo has the capacity to bring multiple teams together while propagating the values of Agile. He is a professional who maintains discipline while at the same time he brings about a smile on everyone's faces.
/Anonymous leader/
In what industries can you help with
Agile & Team Coaching?
While Agile initially was applied and comes from computer software (IT) world, it has been successfully applied in many other fields (organizational development, marketing, HR, product development) in many industries. I can help you with Agile & Teams in nearly any industry.
What is your experience with Agile & Team Coaching?
I have been working as a Scrum Master since 2013, then as an Agile Coach since 2017 in a single and multiple team setups in different industries.
Check About for more information.
What is your qualification regarding Agile & Team Coaching?
I am a Certified Agile and Team Coach (CTC) from Scrum Alliance. This is past working experience & Agile and Team knoweldge validation kind of certificate that took me several years to obtain. It happened in June 2021
What is Agile & Team Coaching, afterall?
Agile Coaching in simple words is a way or process how to get Agile work. Not just doing Agile, but also being Agile.
Agile Coaching is a partnership process between an Agile Coach and usually quite many other people (client) like Professional Coaching just that in addition to client's world there is another one - an Agile world or Agile context described and bounded by 4 Agile values and 12 Agile principles. Therefore an Agile Coach has to use more than one hat (Coaching) to help a client understand that world (educating, mentoring, etc.) before client can set goals in it and getting Agile lived and done right.
Above is in simple words and there is more behind. Please follow this link to learn more about Agile Coaching.
The "official" definition of Agile Coaching can be read here, but for me Agile Coaching is first of all a trust based relationship where we have a mutual belief that we can uncover better ways of collaborating and satisfying customers together.
Then it is a partnering kind of working where we each play our roles transparently and responsibly. We are always aware who we are and why we do what we do as we go through this Agile Coaching journey together.
What is Agile, afterall?
Agile in simple words is an approach to work or doing business where the number one priority is continuously uncovering better ways of increasing trust among ourselves and then customers. If an organization shares a high level of trust both internally and externally, then most likely it is already there. There is no need for more Agile with Agile Coaching and Agile Coach(es).
However, trust like many other human traits can be stated and real. Stated is what people think, say. Real is what they do and how they actually behave. For example, saying 'I trust you' and then asking every day how you are doing is not trusting, it's a form of control also known as micromanagement. Or if a customer says that she likes a product or service, but then leaves one star rating means that there is a mistrust somewhere. And the same is true in teams - if team members think they trust each other, but when a problem appears, no one really cares - well, there is a problem with trust. So, in a way, there is always a room for improvement of Agility.
The reason to move to Agile is to decrease the difference of stated vs real by working with everyone - management, employees, customers. And by working with everyone means paying attention to the trust thing at all levels in all directions at all times. In a way, do it continuously, in an Agile way.
The simplest way to do it is in hands of everyone, is free and does not require special knowledge. It is an act of inclusion. What does it mean? Inclusion means actually doing things together from the very start. For example, when a team needs to create a new product or service improvement, it would be wise to include a customer or a user into the work as early as possible. This way, the trust has a much higher chance to be real than just stay stated.
When trust starts increasing, many things become easier to do and achieve. The first thing that becomes easier is how we feel. We feel safer and it starts opening up a space for learning and learning is the key in Agile - it is at its core - uncovering better ways of doing what we are doing. So the chain is: inclusion → increases trust → makes us feel safer → makes learning more possible → makes us challenge things easier → produces more ideas → leads to better results & well-being!
Agile is not primarily about practices, it is about thinking differently about how we do things. This Agile thinking like any other thinking is rooted in values. Learning these values and reflecting on them is a foundation.
As said, above is in simple words, there's more behind and therefore Agile Coach's first job is to make sure Agile world (context) is understood.
When Agile & Team Coaching services are not appropriate?
If...
you are not fond of uncovering better ways of what you are doing
you are not ready to take responsibility for your own growth
you are not ready to invest time in reflecting, learning, challenging yourself & others
you are not ready to try new things, experiment
...