• Agile Coach

‘Wannabe’ Agile organizations really transforming. The great assignment for the Agile Coach

Gert-Jan applies Agile & Scrum & Lean to the growth and development of the Scrum Academy. He likes to put his finger on the strong spot. Gert-Jan ensures that Agile & Scrum will work within organizations. Originally, Gert-Jan is Lean & Scrum expert and Agile coach with change expertise.

“You win some and learn some.

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“Agile Coaching? Surely that’s not necessary?”. Scrum is lightweight simple to understand, so how hard can it be? In itself a good and logical thought. Scrum is not complex and Agile makes perfect sense to me and many others. But to get Agile and Scrum working well in any organization is hard work. Holy houses often have to be knocked down. Inflated egos to the trash can and hidden agendas open on the table.

Many times I hear within organizations that the objective is to become Agile, but also that the explicit intention is not to change the existing organization – too much already. And that’s when things start to fray. Winning Olympic games without training hard and dropping out occasionally is impossible. Similarly, becoming Agile requires real change.

What do you really want to achieve?

Agile and Scrum are never an end in themselves. They are means to an end. An Agile mindset helps you respond quickly to change. It’s also going to help you improve alignment with your customer and in your teams. That often also immediately increases job satisfaction. It helps you see what risks are and gives you the opportunity “to kill the monster when it’s still small. So if you want to achieve the above benefits, Agile working and Scrum as a tool is definitely a godsend, if done right. In any case, it always starts with a vision, a crystal clear dot on the horizon. And therefore not with the means as the end.

Recognizing ‘Wannabe’ Agile organizations.

Organizations that say they are agile, but don’t actually work that way, are easily recognized by the Agile Manifesto.
Existing systems, structures, time sheets, imposed schedules are much more important in these organizations than interaction with team members, collaboration with customers and the self-organizing ability of teams. Meters, thick plans and contracts are much more important to management than making something concrete together and rolling up your sleeves. In these organizations, customers are often still a black box whose opinion we would rather not hear. And changing course, especially at the initiative of the shop floor (professionals) is impossible because it does not fit into the prevailing frameworks of the organization. Recognize that? Absolutely not Agile.

From air castle to agile foundation

So if you really want to be Agile and apply Scrum you will have to adapt your organization. Agile you cannot fake. Yet Agile and Scrum is much less scary than it seems to organizations. Of course it does require a paradigm shift and an organizational make over. But you really do get something in return! Take a look:

• FROM the customer as blackbox, TO the customer on board your team.
• FROM working on 100 projects at once and agonizingly long lead times, TO working on a small number of projects and delivering quickly and often.
• FROM meetings where “I haven’t gotten around to it yet” is the mantra, TO being very transparent about who is working on what, working in parallel with each other and holding each other accountable and helping with deadlines.
• FROM always making the same mistakes because teams don’t work together, TO regularly looking back with teams so they can improve.

The Agile Coach as Change Agent

The Agile Coach ‘s job is to ensure that this innovative culture starts to emerge. The Agile Coach is the change agent. He inspires, confronts, suggests and lets everyone do it themselves. He drives and encourages, explains and is sometimes the crowbar to management. The Agile Coach sees the progress of his work reflected in the constantly improving game of Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team. Which pays off in ever faster and better product and service delivery. Not an easy task, but a great one that makes organizations and their innovation power ready for the future.

“Do you want to become the best Agile Coach in the world? Then take our four-day training course. Predecessors are all raving about it”

Need help?

During our Agile Coach Training you will learn how to put agile principles into practice. You will develop a toolbox that guides teams to an ultimate agile mindset and ownership, so that with agile working their talents are used to make the best for the customer and end user. Read more on the Agile Coach Training page.