Today I want to talk to you about books on Agility and Coaching. Some time ago I became certified as an Agile Coach and Scrum Master, understanding that this complementary training will help me to better accompany my clients in the transformation processes of their companies.
Nowadays we hear a lot about Agility in companies, but what does it consist of?
Agility Books: What is Agility?
In organizations, we could say that agility consists of the ability to adapt quickly or even anticipate the context and lead a change. It means you’re adaptable to the outside environment and flexible as a team.
An Agile Coach is the professional who is in charge of creating and improving processes in an agile environment. This Agile Coach function can be performed internally, as an employee of the company, or you can perform it by working as an external advisor.
Within this approach, Scrum is a process in which a set of best practices are applied to work collaboratively, as a team, separating complex projects into smaller milestones, thus allowing the team to deliver value on an ongoing basis. It’s a more flexible and collaborative approach, where you can respond to your client’s needs and market changes.
Functions of the Scrum Master
In this sense, the Scrum Master has two main functions: on the one hand, to manage the Scrum process and to help eliminate the Scrum process. Impediments On the other hand, it is responsible for mentoring and training, coaching and facilitating meetings and events if necessary.
I wanted to share with you some of the books on agility and coaching that inspired me the most in my beginnings as an agile coach.
You will see that they are books with clear and easy-to-understand messages for people who are looking for a first approach to the world of Agile coaching . On the other hand, many of his ideas are applicable to those who want to use these tools or techniques in their teams.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON AGILITY AND COACHING
These are the 5 books on agility and coaching that I invite you to get to know:
Books on Agility: “Scrum,” by Jeff Sutherland
I think this book by Jeff Sutherland, (one of the promoters of the Agile Manifesto and part of the founding team of the Scrum platform) is highly recommended to understand the fundamentals and purpose of this Scrum method.
It is not only useful to understand the process itself and the practical way to carry it out, but also to understand where its success lies and what are the benefits of this system for organizations and the people who work in them, and, of course, also for customers.
I’d like to highlight some of the key ideas that Sutherland conveys in his book on Agility:
- Great teams often have a purpose that is above the individual.
- It is important to give teams autonomy, that is, the freedom to make decisions, recognising that they are the experts in their area.
- Don’t look to blame someone for a mistake, but look for bad systems, which are the ones that incentivize misbehavior or reward poor performance.
- OODA: Observe, orient, decide and act. Make decisions and take action!
- Learn from the environment
- Plan what you’re going to do, do it, and then check if it worked the way you wanted. Act accordingly and change the ways of doing things. Repeat this process on a regular basis and you will achieve continuous improvement.
- Change or die: Clinging to the old idea of command ends in failure.
- Fail early (and as cheaply as possible) so you can fix it as soon as possible. The ideal is to generate operational versions of the product in short cycles and have early feedback from the user/customer.
Agility Books: “Professional Agile Coach”, by Martin Alaimo
I found this book by M. Alaimo very interesting in which he reviews the fundamentals of executive coaching applied to organizations that want to develop agility as an organizational philosophy and culture. In an understandable and entertaining language, the author reviews key aspects in the accompaniment of the agile coach, such as listening, presence or emotional management, while dealing with how to manage conversations and powerful questions with the team to guide them, for example, to discover their insights, or to carry out a retrospective.
I find it interesting to highlight the practical examples of reflections and questions that the author raises about how the Agile Coach can accompany the team in its different stages. To this end, the author discusses the Tuckman model of team development:
- Formation phase: stage of team building, there is still no mutual trust, the members are still recognizing each other.
- Storming phase: A stage of turmoil, where different ideas and points of view appear and compete with each other.
- Standardization phase: Once the previous phase has been overcome, a common and clear purpose for the team and a way of working shared by its members is recognized.
- Performing phase: stage in which the team works harmoniously and well coordinated, it is a high-performance team.
- Adjourning phase: The final moment when the team dissolves and involves the termination of work behaviors and separation from relationships.
Agility Books: “How to Change the World” by Jürgen Appelo
The author in this book begins by sharing his basic ideas to understand the 4 aspects of change management:
1.Dancing with the system:
We must adapt to the complex and flexible network that is the social network. Changes do not follow a “straight line.” To do this, follow the PDCA model (Plan/Do/Check/Act).
- Plan – have a goal, (a clear vision and destination).
When the vision is genuine (as opposed to the all-too-familiar “vision statement”), people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to.
Peter Senge, “The Fifth Discipline”
- Do– Have established what are the decisive steps to reach the goal.
- Verify– know in a clear and concrete way how the results that are being achieved can be measured.
- Act– how to establish short cycles of measuring results to be able to react and change, (reduce the risk of making mistakes and more room to experiment).
2. Focus on people:
People play a decisive role and each individual is different, therefore, you must be willing to apply a wide variety of methods to facilitate change in organizations.
Use the ADKAR model (Awareness/ Desire/ Knowing/ Ability/Reinforcement).
3. Stimulate the network:
Behaviors spread on social networks like viruses, so stimulating social networks and interactions among members can help weaken that resistance to initial change and transform the organization.
To do this, take into account the adoption curve of innovation, (Iniators/ Innovators/ Early adopters/ Early majority/ Late majority/ Laggards).
4. Change the environment:
People’s behaviors depend on their environment, so if we change the environment, we change people. To do this, use the model of “self-organization with limits” (Information/ Identity/ Incentives/ Infrastructure/ Institutions).
Books on Agility: “Agile Methods: Scrum, Kanban, Lean” by Carmen Lasa, Alonso Álvarez and Rafael de las Heras
Since 2001, the year of the publication of the Agile Manifesto , the application of agile methods, which began in software development, has not stopped growing in all types of business activities. This book details in a simple and practical way the basics of the Scrum, Kanban and Lean method.
These methods are based on principles of flexibility, communication, collaboration, simplicity and focus on the people involved in the project, which allows the construction of higher quality products that continuously incorporate what is necessary to cover what the client demands from the MVP (minimum viable product).
I especially recommend it to delve deeper into the Scrum methodology, as it deals in detail with key aspects such as values, roles, (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team, Stakeholders, Agile Coach), process and phases and meetings, (Sprint Planning, Sprint Development, Sprint Review, Retrospective), rules and criteria, etc.
Agility Books: “Holacracy” by Brian Robertson
In this book, the author shares the main ideas about how this revolutionary management system in modern organizations redistributes decision-making power based on the roles for each project, not on the hierarchy or authority of a given title.
This differentiating aspect, which seems simple and logical to understand, has a very relevant impact on organizations both at the level of more efficient communication, more focused meetings, fewer blockages and the need for permissions and total clarity regarding the assignment of responsibilities.
In order to establish holacratic management, the author talks about five fundamental steps:
- Adopt the constitution of holacracy: the people in the organization who are going to make that “transfer of power” must agree and align on that cession, which must be formally regulated in the constitution of these new rules of the game and how to proceed in this new stage.
- Create a shared system to record the relevant information that is generated, the expectations and functions of each role, the authorities of each function. These records should be accessible and easy to refer to frequently by everyone in the organization.
- Define the initial structure that will serve as a starting point, even considering that it will be flexible and that it will evolve over time. Initially, it may consist of representing the different teams with circles and defining the roles and compiling the work that is already being done.
- Hold the first governance meetings and elections, with a secretary or counselor who will moderate the meetings.
- Schedule the usual tactical and governance meetings. To get into the habit, it is interesting to plan these meetings periodically and regularly at the beginning.
“If we agree that the economic problem of society is basically that of the speed of adaptation to changes in specific circumstances of time and place, it would seem to be agreed that the final decisions should be left to the people who are related to these circumstances and who are directly aware of the relevant changes and the resources immediately available to comply with them,” F.A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”
If we agree that the economic problem of society is basically that of the rapidity of adaptation to changes in specific circumstances of time and place, it would seem to be agreed that the final decisions should be left to the people who are connected with these circumstances and who are directly aware of the relevant changes and the resources immediately available to comply with them.
F.A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”
Of course, this selection could be completed with many other excellent books on agile coaching.
I would love for you to send me your suggestions on which books on Agility and Coaching have inspired you: Which ones would you recommend?
