How does the X Agility coaching engagement model work?
We start with a process of discovery.
Discovery
We want the agility chefs and agile coaches to truly understand:
- What is happening inside the organization?
- What the appetite for change is?
- What the appetite for agility is?
- What are the challenges you are attempting to overcome?
- What are the goals and business objectives that matter to executives?
We would also explore what you have tried in the past and understand the reasons why those attempts have failed.
Most organizations have smart, skilled and committed employees who are great at what they do. Our coaching aims to learn from these individuals and teams, and to identify what has worked and led to notable achievements, and what prevented the team from achieving their goals.
Identify a pocket for excellence
Once we’ve worked through the discovery phase, our agile coaches and agility chefs will work with executives to identify a pocket of opportunity within the organization where we can go deep and attempt something powerful and compelling.
Something that demonstrates what future capability looks like and serves as a beacon of inspiration to other executives, teams, and departments in the organization.
The metaphor I use for this process is:
- Crawl
- Walk
- Jog
- Run
- Marathon
So, we start in that small pocket of the organization and our primary goal is to get agility crawling within that environment. We’ll get the ball rolling and seek to move the needle on metrics and goals that we have identified as highest priority.
That may be an improved time to market, or it may mean an increase in customer satisfaction with the product/feature/service being delivered. The goal is to demonstrate capability and build the necessary momentum for increased agility and more meaningful interventions and achievements.
Design and measure metrics that matter
We’ll do some measurements on:
- Agility
- Executive Agility
- Organizational Agility
- Team Agility
And so forth.
On a 30 day to 90-day cycle, we will measure results and recontract with you for more advanced coaching, consulting, and training to achieve the next level of agility.
So, for example, after we have achieved the ‘crawl’ status of agility, we would recontract to tackle the ‘walk’ stage of agility and work through the same process on higher level goals, objectives, and practices.
We will also review performance and work through what was attempted in that pocket of agility, what we learned through the process, and recalibrate our goals and objectives for the next stage of agility.
All recommendations on what should be attempted at the next level of agility are informed by the data and evidence gathered through the initial phase of discovery, implementation, and iteration.
Expanding the agility footprint
We might find that an initial phase, such as the crawl phase, proved incredibly successful and delivered valuable outcomes for the department and organization.
Executives may decide that expanding the footprint of that first level of agility is more valuable than escalating to the next level of agility. The leadership team may decide to expand that ‘crawl’ phase to additional teams, departments, or business functions before attempting to level up.
Our agility chefs and agile coaches are guided by organizational objectives and the elements that most matter to the executive teams we serve. It isn’t based on a formula or attempting to roll-out a framework.
Our efforts and coaching/consulting interventions are designed to extract and capture maximum value for the individuals, teams, and organization we serve.
Expanding Agile Capabilities
As we extend the footprint and work with an increasing number of people, teams and executives, our goal is to escalate agile capabilities and help remove impediments to agility in each department.
Our goal will be to progress through each stage
- Crawl
- Walk
- Jog
- Run
- Marathon
In essence, it is a ‘rinse and repeat’ process of identifying compelling problems and opportunities and designing the behaviours and practices necessary to achieve that level of agility.
Each new phase will tackle more compelling problems or address increasingly valuable opportunities which are identified in partnership with executive and leadership teams. Business outcomes, rather than implementing a framework, are what guide those decisions and determine whether we have succeeded or not.
We don’t need uniformity across the organization, instead we look to identify and implement what works best for that department and how well that integrates with the work other teams across the organization are doing.
If team A are doing Scrum but team B are using Kanban, that’s great, we are looking for the best solution for each pocket of excellence throughout the organization and we are looking to establish sustainable practices that lead to continuous improvement.
Exit Strategy
The goal of our coaching engagement model is to cultivate, nurture and grow Agile capabilities within the organization and reduce dependencies on X Agility agile coaches and agility chefs.
In some cases, we are teaching, in others we are actively coaching, and in others there is a blend of consulting and mentoring. All these stances are designed to help cultivate the mindset and culture of agility within that pocket of excellence, and we are also trying to instil the practices and processes that will allow the team to continuously improve and evolve.
The ultimate measure of success for an X Agility coaching engagement is the moment we are able to exit the environment and witness individuals, teams and executives leading agility and continuously improving.
About John Coleman
John Coleman has deep experience and expertise working with executives, #leadership teams and product development teams to achieve increased #organizationalagility and create environments where creativity and collaboration produce high-performance teams.
https://linktr.ee/johncolemanxagility – social and podcast links
https://linkpop.com/orderlydisruption – order training from right here
If you are interested in helping your team or organization achieve greater agility and want to explore agile training options, visit our training page.
If you value coaching and would like to work with a deeply experienced agile and executive coaching specialist, visit our coaching page.
If you are looking for an agile consultant that can help your leadership team identify an appropriate roadmap to organizational agility and take the most effective course of action in your agile transformation, visit our consulting page.
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