Course Descriptions
The following briefly summarize our classes. Detailed course descriptions can be found in the links below.
Coaching Agile Teams: The Mindset & Skills of Great Agile Coaching is an intermediate class that transitions the practitioner past conventional agile coaching models into advanced coaching, facilitating and mentoring frameworks that form the platform for coaching high performance teams. Beyond the typical agile curriculum, Coaching Agile Teams frequently catalyzes a transformational process in attendees to advance them to the next level in their coaching.
The Coaching Stance: Up-shifting Your Agile Coaching is the first class in ACI’s advanced curriculum. It covers the same ground as foundational courses in professional coaching using ICF accredited competencies, then goes on to apply these skills specifically within the agile coaching context. The course relies heavily on skills-based practice and innovative group learning formats. Following completion, the participant will be ready to begin a coaching practice, as well as to take more advanced ACI classes.
Coaching Agile Teams class
The Coaching Stance class
Coaching Agile Teams: The Mindset & Skills of Great Agile Coaching – course description
Coaching Agile Teams is a training experience that covers both the being and the doing of agile coaching. There’s a lot to learn, experience and practice! At the end of the course, you will be capable of applying many new tools and techniques, as well as your own mindset changes, to coach agile teams to high performance. As practical as it is provocative, the Coaching Agile Teams course challenges agile coaches to rise to the fullest expression of their role and offer simple, practical ways to get there.
Outcome
You’ll walk away from the course with your personal coaching improvement backlog – a tangible plan you can use to thoughtfully improve your coaching when you’re back in your daily circumstances. We use your real world situations and scenarios throughout the class allowing you to craft powerful ways to address the challenges you face. You’ll also have many new things to try with your teams and you will probably depart with a few provocative ideas to chew on (in fact, maybe wrangle with for a while). All of these outcomes add up to your ability to become the excellent agile coach your teams need.
Audience
The Coaching Agile Teams course is meant for ScrumMasters, agile coaches and project managers in transition – people who are ready to take the next step beyond practices and principles and move into activating teams to achieve the full promise of agile.
This course is tailor-made for you if:
- You’ve had a few experiences as an agile coach and it just doesn’t seem to be working for you.
- Your job has become routine and you notice the teams seem to be going through the motions, too.
- Your teams get the practices and are doing well, but not getting the fabulous results you were supposed to get.
- Your are an awesome agile coach and you want the skills that will help you earn the Certified Scrum Coach designation.
- You are spread across many agile teams because your managers think agile coaching is not a full-time job.
- You are not sure if the agile coach role is really right for you.
Course Content
- What is Agile Coaching? :: Why is it Important?
- The Being and the Doing of Agile Coaching
- Interlocking Roles: Agile Coach, Product Owner, Agile Manager
- When to Coach the Team, When to Coach Individuals
- Skills for Coaching Teams, Team Members, Product Owners, Managers, Stakeholders
- Coaching Styles and When to Use Them
- Setting the Environment for High Performance Teams
- Detecting and Solving Problems
- Starting up Great Teams :: Repairing Existing Teams
- Agile Coach Failure, Recovery and Success Modes
Prerequisites
You must be a practicing agile coach with at least 6 months of hands-on experience. Ideally, you will also have Certified ScrumMaster or equivalent agile training. This is not an Introduction-level course and we will not be covering the basics of agile or Scrum. In addition, you will be asked to use what you know about your real teams throughout the class so that you can leave with ideas for helping them as soon as you get back.
The Coaching Stance: Up-shifting Your Agile Coaching – course description
Come learn and experience what the world of professional coaching has to offer the agile coach. In this course, you will be steeped in the skills and mind-sets of professional coaching while being firmly grounded in our agile context. Everything is 100% applicable to your real-world situation of coaching agile teams and organizations and you will both learn and practice, practice, practice throughout the course.
Outcome
Just like with the Coaching Agile Teams course, by the end of this course you’ll walk away with your personal coaching improvement backlog – a tangible plan you can use to thoughtfully improve your coaching when you’re back in your daily circumstances. We use agile scenarios throughout the class allowing you to craft powerful ways to address the real world challenges you face. You’ll also have many new things to try and you will probably depart with a few provocative ideas to chew on (in fact, maybe wrangle with for a while). All of this adds up to your ability to become the excellent agile coach your teams and organizations need.
Audience
The Coaching Stance is meant for ScrumMasters, agile coaches, project managers in transition to agile and managers of agile teams.
This course is tailor-made for you if:
- You sense you can have a bigger impact on the people and teams you coach but don’t know how to make it real.
- You notice that the agile transition seems to take a step backwards as soon as your turn your back.
- People, teams, and organizations continue to serve up challenging circumstances that your well-honed skills of mentoring, teaching and consulting don’t completely address.
- Organizations want the great results of agile but don’t know how to change themselves to truly get them, and you wonder what skills you can bring to “help them see it” and then, help them get it.
- You face resistance about agile from people and teams and have learned that the strategies of ignoring it, muscling through it or compelling people to “just do it” fall short.
Prerequisites
You must be a practicing agile coach with at least 6 months of hands-on experience. Ideally, you will also have Certified ScrumMaster or equivalent agile training.
This is not an introduction-level course and we will not be covering the basics of agile or Scrum. In addition, you will be asked to use what you know about your real teams throughout the class so that you can leave with ideas for helping them as soon as you get back.
You do not have to complete the Coaching Agile Teams course before taking this course, although it is highly recommended.
Course Content
- Deep dive on core professional coaching skills such as Levels of Listening, Powerful Questions, Articulating What’s Going On, Acknowledgement, Clearing, Self-Management, Finding Values, Curiosity and more
- Designing the coaching alliance with sponsors, managers, teams and team members
- The anatomy of a coaching session (and a lot of practice!)
- Making clear requests and achieving accountability
- Agile coach competencies framework and the coaching stance
- Dealing with complaints
- Working with resistance and strong emotions
- Perspective coaching: reframing circumstances to move from being stuck into a world of useful possibilities