Planning for the Unpredictable

Horia Balog

Balog Consulting Ltd.

PLANNING FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE

– AGILE COACHING PLANNING FRAMEWORKS

Toronto Agile Conference

Nov. 17, 2017

COACHING ENGAGEMENT CONSTRAINTS

• Specific requirements, e.g.:

• Deliver project

• Increase velocity

• “Make us AGILE

please”

• Time-bound

• Reset expectations

• Benchmark current state

• Define realistic target state

• Clarify coaching stance

PLANNING A COACHING ENGAGEMENT?

WHY BOTHER?!?!?

Relate back to the Coaching Stance:

• Maintain neutrality

• Serve the coachee(s) agenda

• Reduce coachee(s) dependence

• Don’t collude

• Always act in their long

term interest

PLANNING FRAMEWORKS

• Balancing the need to act in the moment with

the need to keep the larger context in mind

• Clear, Explicit, Consistent Scope & Objectives of

Coaching Engagement

• Current state of the coachee(s) and the

organizational context

• Drive towards a Vision of High Performance

HYPOTHESIS:

Specific planning frameworks are not only

desirable but arguably required for

professional level, consistent, structured

coaching.

PLANNING FRAMEWORK 1 - THE COACHING CARD

Origin - Agile42 -

http://www.agile42.com/en/coaching/coaching-structure/

APPROACH- assembled and maintained throughout the

coaching engagement cycle by the coach independently

and in private.

COACHING CARD EXAMPLE

• Can be low-tech – on

a board or paper

• Or high-tech, online

• Depending on coach’s

preference &

environment/context –

sometimes the

workspace does not

allow for a private area

to post and manage a

private item like this!

ANOTHER COACHING CARD EXAMPLE

• Of course the level of

detail is relative, and is

something the coach

will experiment with to

get to an optimal level

depending on style,

context, personality,

etc.

LATEST VERSION IN USE

• Currently there is no space to keep physical cards private –

so switching to online

• Everyone’s got some favorite tools – e.g. trello

COACHING CARD STRUCTURE

• DESCRIPTION or CONTEXT - details about the context

and the organization in which the coaching engagement is

to take place.

• HYPOTHESIS - defined very early in the coaching cycle

by the Coach and used as the central pivot for the entire

exercise.

• GOAL – specific & explicit target of the coaching

engagement

• LEADING & LAGGING INDICATORS –

to track progress

• COACHING TOOLS – coach’s “toolkit”

• NOTES, COMMENTS & UPDATES

1. Initial interview –

description/context

2. Define hypothesis

3. Identify associated

leading & lagging

indicators

4. Assemble coaching tools

5. Tracking during coaching

cycle:

1. Tools used

2. Details collected

3. Progress tracked

through indicators

6. If leading indicators fail to

trigger the coach could

change/update details on

the card

7. If all tools are used, the

coach could replenish the

tools section

8. When coaching is

wrapped up – for various

reasons – DEBRIEF

9. Outcome – new coaching

cycle or engagement is

completely wrapped up!

COACHING CARD “USER MANUAL“

COACHING CARD - CONCLUSION

• Quite effective and valuable in the hands of a coach with

adequate experience & the drive to stay focused & stick

with the discipline required to follow this structure

throughout the coaching cycle.

PLANNING FRAMEWORK 2

- THE PERSONAL CHANGE CANVAS

Origin – Jeff Anderson, AgileByDesign

- https://leanpub.com/leanchangemethod

APPROACH- thorough & extensive visual planning

mechanism for the coaching engagement in the shape of a

LEAN change/transformation.

PERSONAL CHANGE CANVAS EXAMPLE

• Can be low-tech (on a board or paper) or high-tech, online

• Central implicit concept – MINIMUM VIABLE CHANGE

1. CONTEXT – coachee(s) roles & responsibilities, size of

org, skillset, products & services

2. OBJECTIVES/ URGENCY – goals of the coachee(s),

product backlog(s), “why agile?”

3. OBSTACLES – barriers, constraints, problems

4. DEPTH OF CHANGE – “how far do we go?”, “where to

focus?”, minimize disruption vs. accelerate change!

5. CHANGE LEADERS – who is involved in this

engagement?

6. PLAN & COMMITMENTS – setup plan for change,

commitments, expectations for support, cadence of

reviews/checkpoints

NOTE: the structure has evolved and been refined from the initial

stages to better suite various scenarios of use!

PERSONAL CHANGE CANVAS STRUCTURE

1. Initial interview – to

document context

2. Series of working

sessions to assemble the

initial state canvas

3. Initiate the action items &

controlled experiments

4. The canvas can be used

standalone or in

combination with an

action/experiment Kanban

board

5. Setup regular cadences

to review, update, capture

details/progress,

measurements!

6. If the actions &

experiments are not

successful overall the

coach could

change/update details on

the card

7. Wrap-up - DEBRIEF -

summarize engagement

with coachee(s) & identify

next steps.

PERSONAL CHANGE CANVAS “USER MANUAL“

PERSONAL CHANGE CANVAS - CONCLUSION

• More sophisticated framework

• Requires more effort to plan and track

• Allows for higher accuracy execution of coaching.

PLANNING FRAMEWORK 3 – THE IMPACT MAP

Origin – UNKNOWN, …well, not 100% sure!

- references - https://www.impactmapping.org/

- the book - https://www.impactmapping.org/book.html

APPROACH

– specialization of

mind map to visualize

ways to coach with

highest impact possible.

IMPACT MAP EXAMPLE

• Can be low-tech (on a board or paper) or high-tech, online

• Central implicit concept – MINIMUM VIABLE CHANGE

1. GOAL– objective of the coachee(s), “why do this?”,

“what’s in it for me?”

2. ACTORS– who’s part of this engagements, who

can/needs to help?

3. IMPACT ITEMS – what behaviors need to change?,

how can actors help achieve the goal?

4. DELIVERABLES – actions, activities, work items to

focus on to create/achieve corresponding impact items.

NOTE: some coaches have tailored the use or meaning of some of

these levels or even entirely changed/replaced/skipped them! Feel

free to be creative in the use of it!

IMPACT MAP STRUCTURE

1. Initial interview – to

document context and

identify goal

2. Series of working sessions

to assemble the initial state

impact map

3. Initiate the action items &

controlled experiments

4. The impact map can be

used standalone or in

combination with an

action/experiment Kanban

board

5. Setup regular cadences

to review, update, capture

details/progress,

measurements!

6. If the actions &

experiments are not

successful overall,

change/update details on

the card

7. Wrap-up - DEBRIEF -

summarize engagement

with coachee(s) & identify

next steps.

IMPACT MAPPING “USER MANUAL“

IMPACT MAP - CONCLUSION

• Average complexity of use

• Highly customizable

• Requires more experience with Impact Mapping

processes.

SIDE BY SIDE

• These are 3 frameworks brought forward based on

experience

• For specific scenarios some would be more adequate than

others

• Some scenarios might require OTHER ways to work

• So PLEASE bring forward any other ideas!

THANK YOU!