Yin of Teaching, Yang of Coaching
I want to introduce you all to the:
Half-And-Half Sit-In-Your-Own-Lap Perfectly-Slow Agile Transition
But I can’t, at least, not in a single blog post. So instead, I’m thinking we’ll approach the HAHSIYOLPSAT (okay, sure the HSP transition) one element at a time.
Today, we focus on the Half-And-Half part.
When planning a transition for a new team, most coaches prefer teaching to the rough-and-tumble of just joining the team.
Courses Help
Starting things off with a class is a very common approach for coaches. This approach has many positive features:
- Technical Learning: That’s the obvious one. There’s a lot of technique to learn.
- Safe Practice Space: It is far easier to learn something when you’re not under shipping pressure.
- Teacher As Leader: Unlike consultants, a teacher is granted a presumed competency in both the subject and leadership.
- Excitement: Classes well taught usually get their attendees all fired up.
- Assessment: It’s far easier to assess a team when it’s solving problems the coach has prepared in advance.
Even Good Classes Have Faults
There are some drawbacks to classes as well:
- Work Stoppage: If we’re in class all day, we aren’t shipping code. Many teams have to leave class at 5 and then go do their day jobs.
- Missed Focus: Course materials are written for a generic situation, not the specific one the team is in.
- Teacher Time: Teachers have little opportunity to explore the actual challenges that confront the team.
- Too Much: Classes usually pack way more content than the students can handle, because they don’t have ways to integrate the new skills into their normal job.
So?
Morning Class, Afternoon Work
During the first three weeks of an agile transition, we divide the team’s day in two. In the morning we have class. In the afternoon the coach either 1) pairs on daily work, or 2) pairs on transition prep, or 3) pairs on course materials.
With this approach, we still have all of the benefits of a class, but we also fix or at least ameliorate the disadvantages:
- Work Stoppage: Yes, I know it has the same actual effect. But it doesn’t have the same psychological effect at all.
- Missed Focus: Course materials improve dramatically, as the coach now has time and permission to tighten their content.
- Teacher Time: About the same in time, but much more effective and interesting and productive.
- Too Much: Every afternoon, the students are using the new ideas they’ve just learned. This means much better absorption.
The half-and-half approach comprises seven whole days of instruction, but in a way that management can accept, the team can use, and a coach can drive to create maximum effect for the transition.
