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7 Agile Coach Don’ts

At this year’s Path to Agility conference, agile coach Dustin Potts, gave a talk titled Seven Deadly Sins of Agile Coaching. What was it about? Well, if the title didn’t give it away, it was about seven bad practices or false beliefs any good agile coach would want to avoid. Here are a few “sins” an agile coach could make… ready?

  1. Agile coach = boss
  2. One size fits all
  3. Won’t compromise
  4. Blow it up! (change everything)
  5. Forget about improving
  6. Everyone wants to change
  7. Think you can beat the culture

Dustin had lots of good things to say about each listed item above. For example, #5: Forget about improving. “Agile transformation is not a landing spot.” Even the best agile teams have more waste to eliminate or improvements to make. Agile coaches should focus on cultivating a lean culture. A practical way to do this is to create action plans for continuous improvement at your retrospectives. To hear about the other six agile coaching don’ts, see Dusting Potts’ presentation on Seven Deadly Sins of Agile Coaching.