Developing an Internal Agile Coaching Capability

Most companies that transition to Agile do so because they want the speed and innovation that Agile promises. However, to realize that promise takes more than just standing up and training some teams. Even with training, self-­organized teams don’t just magically appear and hit their full stride. Great Agile teams need solid Agile Coaches. But perhaps just as important, organizations need solid Agile Coaches to help establish the deep, institutional capability required to become a truly agile organization. Team agility is a first step, but ultimately withers without organizational agility. Organizational agility requires an agile coaching capability to establish self-­organized teams (a new organization innovation), as well as a new form of agile leadership amongst management, and a re-­thinking of organizational structures, policies and culture.

Most ScrumMasters and Agile Coaches inside organizations are assigned to the role by default, quite often without the requisite skill to foster team agility, much less organizational agility. Yet, this is precisely what organizations need of them. To answer the need, an internal agile coaching capability must be built. In our years developing agile coaches, we see that the creating internal agile coaching capability is not only possible, it is quite straightforward.

In this white paper Lyssa Adkins answers these key questions:

Why do Organizations Need an Agile Coaching Capability?
What Business Benefits would an Internal Agile Coaching Capability Make Available?
What are the Broad Functions for an Agile Coaching Capability?
What are the Developmental Levels of an Agile Coaching Capability?
How Do Organizations Build an Agile Coaching Capability?