Agile Coaching

Why Leadership is a Craft that Requires Investment and Growth

How are you doing? And how are you feeling about how you are doing? Are you not just adjusting to a “new normal” but thriving? We sure hope you are.

We are now halfway through 2021 and the changes we saw happening in our work environment back in 2020 are still evolving: we are at a critical juncture in our organizations.

A global pandemic has shifted much of our teamwork online, but this change has only compounded the challenges already facing organizations that rely on constant innovation. In order to survive in a rapidly changing environment, agility is table stakes.

A comprehensive cultural shift is needed for organizations to create sustainable change. The key to keeping up in a rapidly changing work environment and global marketplace is to scale leadership – and scale in new ways!

Growing Leadership Competency is a Game Changer

Growing leadership competency is a cornerstone of creating organizational change

At TeamCatapult, we call this “leadership range.” It refers to the ability of individuals to lead from the front and set a clear direction. It also refers to their ability to lead from behind, empowering others to make the move and understanding how to support ideas and create space for all voices to be heard.

Competency Development — How It Actually Works

Competency development means recognizing that becoming an agile team coach requires people to examine and challenge their existing beliefs so that they can experience new, more productive ones.

What we have found and implemented through the Coaching Agility from Within™ program is that there are specific competencies essential to effective leadership.

Collectively, these competencies signal that a collective leadership culture begins with how individual leaders show up. It’s about how they engage with and impact their teams, and it’s about the self-awareness that it takes to know our impact and make choices that align with our intentions.

Awareness Precedes Choice, Precedes Change — The Road to Leadership

Anyone can call themselves an agile coach. What sets a truly agile leader apart, however, is someone who has a demonstrated proficiency in agile team coaching. After all, adaptive challenges do not come with roadmaps, they require new ways of engaging and leading through the process of dialogue.

At TeamCatapult, we have adopted and refined The Agile Team Coaching Competency Model, originally created by Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd. This competency model is aligned with the ICAgile Agile Coaching Competencies and serves as a metric and guide for the learning journey that we provide as part of our longtime alignment with the mission of ICAgile.

Leadership Competency Development is a Winding Road Best Navigated in a Cohort.

In every learning process, the journey from “getting started” to “proficiency” is neither quick nor straightforward. As our case study highlights, we have found that a program designed for an 8 to 12-month period is most successful.

How to Increase Leadership Effectiveness and Team Performance

TeamCatupult’s Coaching Agility from Within™ program is a cohort-based leadership development initiative. Its design encompasses two models. The first is an 8-month program that brings leaders together from different organizations to deepen and expand their ability to lead effective teams.

This program is designed to guide agile coaches along the pathway to proficiency in each leadership competency, providing key solutions for teams needing sustainable, systemic change.

It offers insight into best practices for how to move leadership forward by:

Growing your own, internal leadership
Growing leadership at all levels
Developing a team coaching capability
Turning theory into action

Force Multipliers – a Case Study

We have seen the results of this program create significant, longterm change for participants and their teams. It supports their awareness of how they, as leaders, can best support a team’s ability to perform more effectively.

To read the “Cohort Learning Within an Organization to Boost Performance from Product Development to Delivery” case study, click here.

Achieving Competency in Agile Team Coaching

If you are searching for a way to achieve Agile team Coaching competency, if you are ready to become a leader among leaders, if you are craving significant change….

…look no further!

We invite you to “team up” with us!

Congrats, your first step (awareness) towards competency has been completed.

Next step? Let’s have a conversation!

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

How To Grow as a Leader: Developing Leadership Competency

Growing as a leader means recognizing that there is work to be done, then taking action to make those changes.

As we say at TeamCatapult: Awareness precedes choice, precedes change.

Agile Team Coaching Competency Model

At TeamCatapult, we have adopted and refined The Agile Team Coaching Competency Model, originally created by Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd.

It is agile-framework agnostic and available to individuals and organizations under creative commons to further the journey of individuals becoming agile. It is also the backbone of our work developing leadership competency through the Coaching Agility from Within™ program.

A team coach’s main focus is on partnering with their teams in order to accelerate their performance and achieve their desired outcomes. They do this through maximising the team’s collective intelligence and through developing the team and its members. Team coaches also support the team’s external stakeholders, including Product Owners, in figuring out what is the right product to build and in growing stakeholders’ agility.

These outcomes are accomplished by the ability to fluidly and intentionally move between all of the competencies based on what is needed in the moment.

☆ Agile-Lean Practitioner

A deep understanding of the agile mindset, values, and principles, and the application of them in a variety of agile frameworks that are tailored to the team and its current needs.

☆ Facilitation

A neutral guide who supports a group to achieve their purpose and desired outcomes in a collaborative manner.

☆ Professional Coaching

Ability to engage a person in a creative process to discover their own insights and take inspired action without being attached to a specific outcome.

☆ Professional Team Coaching

Ability to use an understanding of group dynamics and team development to help a team maximize their collective intelligence to achieve their desired results.

☆ Transformation Mastery

Ability to apply organization development, behavioral sciences, and change theory to lead sustainable organization transformation.

☆ Business Mastery

Ability to apply the values and principles of agility to the application of business strategy, management, product ownership, and process improvement.

☆ Technical Mastery

Ability to effectively bring expertise in the technical craft of developing software.

☆ Mentoring

Ability to offer expertise and experience in service of fostering the growth of others.

☆ Training

Ability to develop new skills, mindsets, and behaviors through practice, instruction, or supervision over a period of time.

Leadership Transformation is a Journey!

Of course, in every learning process, the journey from “getting started” to “proficiency” is neither quick nor straightforward. We have found that a program designed for an 8 to 12-month period is most successful.

Team coaches need time to…

Experience a new way of leading
See new behaviors and different ways of working (and see them modeled)
Try these new behaviors out in a safe space for learning
Notice different impacts and learn how to make the decision to try something different

What Happens When You Do Not Invest In Leadership?

By contrast, we have found the cost to organizations that don’t invest in leadership to be quite high:

Teams remain dependent upon leaders to make all the choices, which perpetuates a model of organizational rigidity and individual burnout
An organization lacks program sustainability when an agile coach moves on to another company
The organizational culture remains one of vague dependence rather than defined self-management
Teams feel confused and demonstrate decision avoidance
The status quo within the organization continues to be a barrier for growth within the industry
There is a persistent lack of productivity
There is a pattern of lost timelines and missed deadlines
Team members’ morale diminishes, which directly affects productivity

Coaching Agility From Within™

TeamCatupult’s Coaching Agility from Within™ program is a cohort-based leadership development initiative. Its design encompasses two models.

The first is an 9-month program that brings leaders together from different organizations to deepen and expand their ability to lead effective teams.

The second model brings the program into a single organization over the course of 12 months, transforming team leadership culture across the board to create systemic change.

With the 9-month model, we have seen the program significantly and substantively develop the leadership competency of agile team coaches from a broad range of organizations. Cohort members work in their own organizational environments with their teams, and throughout the program; they receive 360-degree feedback from their leaders, peers, and teams, in addition to their cohort members and instructors. They meet weekly via Zoom and spend an average of six hours a week working on the program.

The unique format of this program combines the act of learning together with the required hours of practice it takes for leaders to be able to turn the theories into action. The degree, purpose, and amount of feedback is combined with specific, tailored, and actionable strategies for leaders to make small microchanges in their presence, language, and behavior.

Over time, these microchanges create impactful results for individuals and teams.

Best Practises For How to Move Leadership Forward

Leaders with range are far more likely to discover a clearer path and lead more sustainable change.

And our experience with this program shows that the best way to grow leadership range is to focus on competency development around mindset—identifying and examining values and beliefs about how change happens and the role of leaders in team settings.

From this foundation, focus can expand to include skill building, learning retention, experiential learning, and reflective practices. At TeamCatapult, we have seen the results of this program create significant, long term change for participants and their teams. It supports their awareness of how they, as leaders, can best support a team’s ability to perform more effectively.

The Value of a Cohort-Based Program

“If you believe that training is expensive, it is because you do not know what ignorance costs. Companies that have the loyalty of their employees invest heavily in permanent training programs and promotion systems.”

~ Michael Leboeuf, The Great Principle of Management

We’ve seen the uniquely transformative effects of cohort-based leadership development. With immersive cohort learning, individuals have the ability to practice their new competencies in the workplace, get feedback, work with a supervisor, and build skills together in such a way that leadership development becomes a force multiplier.

Unlike teaching that focuses on mechanical processes to “become more agile,” the focus on cultural change and leadership competency bridges the gap between learning new skills and actually developing the real-world capacity to use them effectively, pivot when needed, and apply the optimal leadership competency for any given challenge.

We invite you to learn more about our program by clicking the button below.

If you prefer, you may also schedule a call with our team today!

The Five Cornerstones of the Agile Team Facilitation Stance Explained

The Art & Science of Facilitation Book Tour

On March 9, 2021 I was the guest speaker at Agile Austin to talk about my book ‘The Art & Science of Facilitation’.

I enjoyed this conversation so very much that I am sharing a condensed version of some of the things we discussed, as well as the full recording of this lively conversation about facilitation.

Join me for this Virtual Book Tour event, won’t you?

What Does Facilitation Mean to You?

We started the evening by answering the following question.

’What does facilitation mean to you?’

Several people eagerly shared what facilitation means to them.

Here are their definitions!

Facilitation is ‘keeping the conversation going’. The conversation needs to move, not get stuck.
Facilitation is helping guide people to a common end.
Facilitation is creating and holding the container for all the magic to happen inside. Magic means the space where the folks inside can solve problems, be creative, innovate. The connection between human beings.
Good facilitation encourages participation. Everyone should have a voice, not be scared to speak. Flow, safety.
Facilitation means feeling psychologically safe, a healthy discourse!
Facilitation is about the feelings and understanding of the team, each team member. Empathizing with the team.
Facilitation is making things easier. Make it easier on the team.

Facilitation Is Both Art and Science

The dictionary defines ‘facilitating’ as
“make (an action or process) easy or easier.”

There is science that sits behind what we do, and art as well! Hence the name of my book.

A facilitated session includes all of the following:

All Voices
Process
Desired outcome
Flow
Discourse
Harmony
Bring Inquiry

‘What’s happening when all of things are taking place in a meeting? What is the facilitator doing, or not doing when all these things are taking place?’

It’s how you show up as a facilitator.

The Agile Team Facilitation Stance

What do you need to believe about yourself and your group as you facilitate?

Here are the guiding principles I reference in my book.

The cornerstones of the Agile Team Facilitation Stance include:

Honoring the wisdom of the group
Maintaining Neutrality
Upholding the Agile Mindset and Practices
Standing in the Storm
Holding the Group’s Agenda.

Next, the Zoom participants broke into Zoom rooms. They were asked to create a definition about one of these five cornerstones during a 10 minute group discussion before coming back and sharing their insights.

The Full Agile Austin Conversation

If you missed this Agile Austin conversation with us and you couldn’t participate, please know we’d love for you to watch the evening’s discussion right here.

Join Me For Additional Facilitation Conversations!

The first part of my Virtual Book Tour in January and February of 2021 consisted of a self-hosted series of live conversations with facilitation experts.

Starting this month, March 2021, I am ‘making the rounds’ and bringing ‘The Art & Science of Facilitation’ to groups all over the country.

You can check out my upcoming Virtual Book Tour schedule here.

For TeamCatapult workshops, check the schedule below.

Here are several opportunities for you to learn more.:

Agile Team Facilitation Workshop March 22-26, 2021
Advanced Facilitation Workshop April 28-May 5, 2021

Join us for one, or all, Virtual Workshops. TeamCatapult workshops are a great stepping stone to our cohort.

Learn more about our Coaching Agility from Within ‘A Cohort Journey to Masterful Agile Team Coaching’ and apply to join in May 2021.

What You Need to Know about Leadership, Agile Coaching and Competency

How do we become agile? There is no one path, right way, or best practice.

At TeamCatapult, however, years of research, experience, and data collection have convinced us that investing in leadership mindset is the best way to change an organizational culture so that it can become more agile, innovative, and sustainable.

Leadership is a Craft that Requires Investment and Growth

Our Coaching Agility from Within™ program offers a usable case study to show how building a culture of leadership inspires and compels team productivity and individual accomplishment, both of which are crucial components of product development and organizational growth.

Investing in leadership mindset is one of the most effective and sustainable choices organizations can make—especially as we confront a “new normal” in the global marketplace. Becoming agile is a complex, adaptable problem. Simply investing in agile tools, scalable methodologies, or process improvement tips and tricks results in minimal gains for service and product development. Building a culture that inspires and nurtures team growth and development, however, goes to the very heart of creating a sustainable organization that can navigate change.

Competency Defined

Going beyond Agile Team Coaching certification, means acquiring competency.

Competency:

“The combination of observable and measurable knowledge, skills, abilities and personal attributes that contribute to enhanced employee performance and ultimately result in organizational success.”

Acquiring Competency

Increased performance outcomes are the direct result of the fact that the competencies of individual coaching, team coaching, mentoring, training, and facilitation help leaders build their range of leadership. At TeamCatapult, we call this “leadership range.” It refers to the ability of individuals to lead from the front and set a clear direction. It also refers to their ability to lead from behind, empowering others to make the move and understanding how to support ideas and create space for all voices to be heard.

Growing Leadership Competency

Physical manifestations of culture can be seen across an organization, in nearly every aspect of how people work, interact, and produce. Culture is socially constructed by the words we use and the behaviors we enact, and although it is emergent (often developing organically), it is surprisingly stable.

For all these reasons, behavior change takes time and requires a fundamental mindset shift. Altering an organization’s culture requires each of us to look at the stories and beliefs that we tell ourselves—the ones that we hold onto that get in our way of learning new ways of thinking, acting, and leading. It also requires us to work together to change the collective narrative. Culture change happens through conversations and the structure of the way we speak and behave together—and it happens from the top down. Growing leadership competency is a cornerstone of creating organizational change.

Cultural Shifts for Change

Is your organization ready for change?
Start here!

Why We hold Check-in and Check-out as a Sacred Space

The Practice of Check-In: How Voicing and Listening Create Opportunities for Deeper Engagement

by Kari McLeod and Marsha Acker

Check-In Time!

What did you learn yesterday?

What is something you’re committing to the team today?

What do you need from the team today?

These are versions of the questions we ask during the Check-in for the second day of our TeamCatapult Agile Facilitation class and our Agile Facilitation and Coaching Intensive.

We asked it this Tuesday at the start of a Virtual Intensive we are leading for an organization. We met on Zoom and we used a virtual circle to visually connect our participants, our learners.

It was the most moving Check-in I have ever witnessed.

The first participant who checked in bottom-lined her key take-away from the day before. She then committed to being as present as possible for the day. She told us that the events of the previous evening were weighing heavily on her. She said that it was difficult to imagine being at her computer, in training for most of the day. She is concerned for the nation. She then asked for grace and patience from the rest of the class because she was bound to be distracted.

Her openness, her rawness set the tone for the Check-in.

Making Space

How do we as facilitators, coaches, and trainers make space for what is happening in our world while helping participants get as present as possible?

We at TeamCatapult hold the Check-in and Check-out as a sacred space.

It is the way we invite our learners to be present.
It is one of the ways that we create a strong container for our participants to connect and build trust.
It is one of the ways we create safety for them to learn, share, fail, and learn more.

We have been holding these opening spaces at every meeting and for every class since we started our work. And we have felt that these spaces have been even more important in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Considering the protests, riots, and the resulting law enforcement and political reactions and responses following George Floyd’s death, it’s clearly even more critical to be attuned to the need for that space.

Opportunities for Deeper Engagement

Going back to the Check-in on Tuesday, our participants held our opening circle, our Check-in, as a sacred space. They were vulnerable. They were as present as they could be. I had tears in my eyes. After everyone had checked in, one of my colleagues paused and acknowledged all of the emotion that was in the space. And then we introduced the agenda.

Bringing Our Whole Selves To Work

In the remote, working environment, we are breaking through the old narratives that there is a “work self” and a “home self.” We now bring our whole selves to work.

Everything that we are watching in our society today, and the personal impact it has on us, comes with us into the workplace. Pretending that it doesn’t or creating artificial barriers prohibits collective intelligence and authentic engagement. It drains people rather than engaging them.

Facilitating a Check-In

Purpose: The concept of Check-In comes from dialogue. Its purpose is to allow everyone a chance to speak. It’s also an opportunity to listen deeply to what others are saying and it allows everyone a period of transition from what they were doing before to connecting to one another and getting present to the work ahead.

The prompt:

Have a question or a prompt for Check-in like:

What’s your state of mind?
How are you feeling?
What do you want to say to become more present?
What do you want to let go of?

You can also make the Check-in about the topic of the meeting:

What are you hoping to take away from today?
What are your thoughts about ____.

The process:

People share, but in no particular order and no need to call on each other.
Speak when you are ready.
Really listen to what’s said and not said.
Allow for uninterrupted Check-ins. (Ask the group to allow everyone to speak without comments or cross talk until you’ve heard from everyone.)

When you’ve heard from everyone then open up the conversation to questions and comments.

This process that we hold as a sacred space is a practice that you can implement right now, at your next meeting. By doing so, you’ll find that the practice of Check-In honors everyone’s voice and develops the skill of listening…both create opportunities for deeper engagement.