Responsive Agile Coaching
Arie van Bennekum is one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto and an agile thought leader. He is a pragmatic who embeds his pragmatism in structure, discipline and common sense. This eventually led to becoming one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto and an expert in the area of Agile Project Management, team facilitation, agile techniques and user involvement. Believing in his team, facilitating them to reach their best combined with end user involvement, have his focus when he speaks, presents, demonstrates and lectures about agility.
"I recommend you read this book to learn. Read to see how this book can help you in your career. The help is out there, and a professional agile coach is always interested in the lessons and improvements forward that can be learned from another. Enjoy!"
Foreword by Arie van Bennekum
Review by Mike Cohn
"I was one of two coaches initiating an agile transformation at one of the internet’s largest dot-com businesses. After a meeting, the CEO turned to me and asked, “Is the other coach any good? He doesn’t say much in meetings.”
I told the CEO the other coach was indeed very good. I pointed out that although he didn’t say much, when he did say something, it was usually insightful, helpful, and just what the team needed at that moment.
Ever since that meeting years ago, I’ve looked for ways to help agile coaches—both new and experienced ones—do what that coach did: know when and what to say as well as when to be silent.
In Niall McShane’s Responsive Agile Coaching I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for. In this book, Niall presents a framework for deciding how to coach. The model is simple enough it can be learned and applied in the moment as coaching opportunities arise.
I am confident the advice in Responsive Agile Coaching can help any agile coach improve."
Hear from the author
In Responsive Agile Coaching Niall McShane draws on over a decade of agile coaching experience to document a clear and well-researched model that lifts the lid on how agile coaching actually works.
The book starts by defining what the role of agile coach has become in recent times before putting forward a field-tested and theoretically sound model for conducting agile coaching conversations.
Packed full of real life stories from authentic coaching work you'll laugh and cry with the characters as you learn what it takes to be one of the best agile coaches in the current market. Drawing from areas such as neuroscience, mindfulness, behavioral psychology and unlearning theory this book is focused on when and how to have conversations that matter with clients during times of change.
The central point in the book argues that agile coaches are more than the sum of their competencies; they need to execute the right "moves and steps" during coaching conversations.
The Responsive Agile Coaching model is a dynamic flow-based approach to delivering agile coaching as a service. It dispels the thinking that agile coaching needs to be delivered by a person with the title of agile coach and aims to "open source" it as a skill anyone can develop. This book puts the 'coaching' back into agile coaching by providing a model to balance the agile expert and coaching elements of agile coaching.
Responsive Agile Coaching is part theory, part practical guide book and part story telling. The book has been written to cater for readers from all backgrounds who are looking to change the way they work; managers, leaders, change agents as well as agile coaches will find insights and inspiration in this book.
