Navigating the Jungle: Coaching Long-Lived Agile Teams

Onboarding as a new Lean/Agile coach to a troubled, existing team or program often feels like being airdropped in the middle of the jungle without a map. Potential pitfalls abound as you’re surrounded by delicate situations and surprisingly flammable contexts, many of which are invisible until it’s too late. Each ginger, well-meaning step forward feels like it could inadvertently trigger conflict. 

In these scenarios, the coach is frequently the last one arriving at the party. The system already exists fully-baked, with its smorgasbord of personalities, foibles, eccentricities, understandings, assumptions, successes, and failures – all of which you must learn to be truly effective.

In spite of these issues, coaches are meant to do exactly that which feels most challenging – move the ball forward. Without the ability to confidently progress, a coach’s purpose is forfeit. How, then, to proceed? Is it better to come in hot, triggering emotions and long-held assumptions so that they are exposed to daylight? Is it preferable to softly, cautiously advance, preserving tranquility and maintaining peaceful relations? 

Options are endless. Each coach’s style is decidedly their own, and different contexts call for as many different approaches. After joining a series of existing teams and programs as an Agile Coach, often after they had been working together for more than a year, I’ve had the opportunity to observe recurring patterns, concerns, and even a few successes. This post is an attempt to pull together these thoughts onto a single page: what should you consider when you join an existing team as a coach? What are some techniques to start on the right foot, and move the ball forward together?

The Past is Present

How many of us have found ourselves in hot water after asking what we believed to be a simple question? You’ll know you’ve stumbled into this thicket when you’ve achieved the most awkward of silences; the tangible anxiety and discomfort can be plucked from the air.

All too often, it’s these ulcer-inducing moments that lead to the most helpful insights around team and organizational culture, context, and history. Troubled teams tend to hold onto the past, with previous pain points heavily influencing current behavior. Tempers flare up more quickly, team members make negative assumptions, and conversations trend to defensiveness with (seemingly) little provocation. 

As a coach, you will never be able to avoid the past – but you can be aware of it, and learn from it. As you have conversations with team members and observe day-to-day patterns, try to pick up on where history may be playing an outsized role in interactions between people. Ask questions with the knowledge that your inquiries may not always be welcome, and be willing to accept where they lead... or don’t, for that matter. By developing sincere relationships with team members, in time a fuller picture of the team and its past will come into place. 

Listen Before You Leap... to Judgement, That Is

The first time you listen to a team event or observe program members interacting with each other, you may experience an overpowering urge to jump in and “course correct.” It’s an expression of the savior complex – “This is terribly wrong, what I’m seeing, and I can fix it! It’s just a simple re-application of the rules of Scrum – let me fix it!” Before you leap into action, though, pause for a moment.

When joining a long-lived team, there’s usually a reason for the way things are done. It may not always be a reason that you would choose for yourself, but it’s important to recognize nonetheless. It may link to organizational policy or culture of which you might not be aware; it may come from history or team experience; or it may stem from the specific nature of the work the team is performing. No matter which, listening before diving in will ensure you have more information to decide how, or even whether, to react.

Lower That Bar!

Do yourself a favor, and lower the bar that you’ve set so high. You know the one – the idea that as a coach, every word should convey wisdom; every glance awaken insight; and every decision be based on eons of experience.

Reality says otherwise. Reality says that people are unfailingly fallible; that most folks are making it up as they go; that the person who expects the most from you is... you.

Most Agile coaches become coaches because they have worked on, in some form or fashion, their emotional intelligence. They learn to form and value meaningful connections with the people they coach, continuously seek knowledge and improvement, and are thoughtful in the way they go about their work. Oftentimes, this serves them well. But there are instances where this natural caution over-expresses itself and leads to self-doubt, uncertainty, and hesitation. Working with teams who have shared histories and experiences can bring out these tendencies in us. Try to be aware of these trends within yourself, and admit that you are not a savior, nor do you have all the answers – and sometimes, someone without all the answers is exactly who the team needs you to be.

Trust: It’s Not Just for Teams

As with most things in life, it all comes down to a judgement call. If you’ve been brought on to help coach a team or a program, chances are your judgement has served you well to date. Do you feel a need to have a conversation with someone? Trust that instinct! Will it better serve the team to step back rather than jump in at this juncture? Keep to the back of the room, by all means. Whatever your approach, don’t be afraid to express yourself and your style of servant leadership in a way that plays to your strengths. 

I’ll help remind you of this, if you’ll do the same for me.

Cheers,

Sarah

Are you ready to work with your team to create the culture that you want? Join us for one of our group coaching programs on teamwork and collaboration where we cover this and many other topics.

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About the Author:

SARAH FRIEDMAN-CINTRON

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