Declan Whelan

A short while back I invited Mishkin Berteig to come to Waterloo to talk about agility. I was looking for something that would have a broad appeal to developers, testers and so on but would also have depth. Mishkin drew a full house and gave a great presentation on delivering successful agile projects. He covered the agile bases with a good overview of agile values and practices. Things got deeper and more interesting when he talked about truth. I know he is sincere about this because of the Scrum Master training I received from him. Mishkin’s email signature is:

“Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues” - Baha’u'llah

Mishkin pointed out that agile methods rely on people speaking the truth and acting with integrity. I thought this was very insightful since most agilists focus on either technical aspects of agility such as TDD, refactoring or they focus on team and leadership issues. But what Mishkin is talking about is a deep personal honesty to see things how they really are and to act accordingly.

You see, I have from time to time in my career told little white lies to my peers and managers. And I almost always got away with it. For example, once when I was developing a financial application I made what I thought was a good design decision but really struggled to get it to work. I did not want to appear as if I had made a mistake. I basically lead everyone to believe all was well and meanwhile I worked insane hours to get it all working. I was letting pride get in my way and was lying to cover up a bad technical decision. And this lack of truthfulness prevented me from seeking help. I resented the long hours I had to put in and I was unhappy. It was unfair of me to hide the reality from my peers and managers. I suspect I am not alone.

Now, I think it should be obvious that on an agile team you simply could not get away with such behavior for any length of time. There is collective code ownership, daily stand-ups, task and story tracking, sustainable pace; all of which make the whole process much more transparent. So, on the one hand I agree with Mishkin that agile methods rely on people speaking and acting truthfully. But in practice agile methods make it hard to say anything but the truth!

But we are devious creatures and so I would like to leave you with some questions to ponder:

• Are you honestly expressing your doubts and concerns in retrospectives?
• If something is bothering you with another member of the team do you act in a direct but respectful way to resolve it?
• Are you able to freely admit when someone has a better idea or design than yours?
• Are you willing to admit when you make a mistake?
• Do you say the same things about someone when you are face-to-face with them to do you say something different behind their back?

If you can’t honestly answer yes to the above questions then maybe you’re not as honest as you should be. Start by being honest with yourself. Pick one apsect of your behavior that that is not as truthful as you would like and strive to be more truthful.

Truthfulness really is the foundation of all human virtues … and agile teams.

The need for a more enlightened leadership style was drilled home to me at one client’s site. I was continually frustrated when brainstorm sessions and meeting that I planned were complete failures. I had a hard time getting the team to come out of their cubicles let alone participate in retrospectives. At the peak of my frustration the team was profiled using Myers-Briggs personality typing. I was typed as an extrovert and every other person on the team was typed as an introvert. Well no wonder I was getting nowhere, I was trying to get the team to work like I did, as an extrovert rather than adapting to how they wanted to work. So, I made a real effort to prepare information ahead of meetings so the team had time to reflect, used more democratic techniques for retrospectives and so on. The result was a much improved team interaction. I realized then that effective agile teams require enlightened coaching and leadership to steer the team through challenges like this.

When I ran into Deb Hartman at AgileCoachCamp it was clear that her focus is very much on coaching and leadership for agile teams. I find this refreshing because there is a lot of focus on the technical aspects of agile such as TDD, refactoring, continuous integration and so on. I sometimes feel this “software” side of agility gets short shrift. She ran some great workshops on effective listening, powerful questions and agile games.

Now Deb has put together an agile coaching and leadership retreat with Michael Spayd and Lyssa Adkins:

Co-Active Coaching Fundamentals for Agile Leaders is designed to provide Agile Coaches with fundamental professional coaching skills. Based on the “Co-Active Coaching Fundamentals” course of The Coaches Training Institute, it is taught through participation, using practical skills you can apply right away,and offers extensive opportunities to coach and to receive feedback on your own coaching.

In particular, you will learn to:
   •   Use the four cornerstones of Co-Active Coaching
   •   Communicate with clients using the 5 contexts of Co-Active Coaching
   •   Use the Professional Wheel of Life assessment tool with clients
   •   Distinguish and use the three levels of listening
   •   Demonstrate the most often used coaching skills

The retreat is planned for August 1-3, 2008 in Toronto to accommodate agile coaches and leaders planning to attend Agile2008. Learn more at www.agilecoachtraining.com.