Willem Wijnia on LinkedIn: Most organisations work en think hierarchical and use agile as “more work… (2024)

I have been skeptical for a long time of the idea that the accountabilities of a manager and a scrum master must not be embraced by the same person. Authority (like most other things) can be used for good or bad. When authority is used well, people and teams will flourish. A great scrum master is already living the values/practices that would make a great manager. And vice versa: a great manager is already living the values/practices that would make a great scrum master. No need to diminish these types of leaders by splitting them into separate roles and making everything harder!Thanks Cliff Berg for your post.#leadership #agile #scrummaster

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New Knowledge about the organization "... is needed to change things in an organization". A naked "authority" will only create even more problems.Authority without Knowledge is tyranny.You need to understand:How is the Organization organized?What Objective Laws apply in it?Why did the old Management System no longer meet the requirements of modernity?Why did Managers start to be replaced with Leaders and Coaches?Then you will understand that the invention of Leaders and Coaches is an attempt to change without changing anything.The problems are several floors deeper than the "Manager/Leader/Coach" dilemmaFirst of all, this is the problem of the lack of Management Infrastructure in the Organization.Until you solve this problem, all other problems cannot be solved.

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Super interesting, thanks Barry Overeem! Here are my views…In ”forced transformations” we can go fast and have the mandate from senior leadership. Agile is a must have, and we need to get there fast. We can do this in a humane fashion, cocreating and bringing people along the journey.If the transformation is organic, as long as I as an agile coach have no mandated power, I think about Agile coaching as influencing and tactical positive manipulation of people’s thinking patterns to create a pull. Agile solves a lot of people’s trouble, but they have to see it does that, first. It’s the long game of influence, politics, and negotiation.I know I’m lucky, because when a company hires me, I have access to senior stakeholders.I’m planting seeds. Seeing them grow over time.It’s slow, but also effective.(Realising that last year no one was talking about ”releases” or ”portfolio” or ”validation”, but now it’s in the everyday language of people.) And what’s best, people start owning the gradual change themselves. They don’t even REALISE it was me that started planting seeds, all over the organisation! Then offering support where they pull support. Stretching the maturity as much as possible, and ”selling” where I can, but never forcing.It’s ok. I realise these organisations aren’t getting the speed and the impact that would be possible, but that’s corporate life and we go as fast as the people system allows (without repelling agile).

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I see burnout among disempowered and ignored Agile/Enterprise Coaches. But most who quit or give up are drawing unnecessary harsh conclusions. Here’s why:They are quitting - or staying feeling powerless and useless - because they have adopted the values and perspectives of the very culture that they are (or should be) trying to evolve: they believe that in order to change things, they need power, position and/or permission. And they go about making change by starting projects; pitching ideas to managers, getting funding, planning activities, making Gantt charts and so on. What they need to do is use the tools and perspectives belonging to the NEW culture and value system that they want to move TOWARDS, (which they probably at least have gotten a glimpse of); inspiring people to work differently, building bridges between old mindsets and new ones, looking for allies, and doing change experiments to take small steps forward and learn about the landscape in the process. #peacefultransformation

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I have experienced that a certain amount of frustration is part of the job as an Agile Coach/Scrum Master; like a gardener who, despite his best efforts, has a poor planting season. 👩🌾 It always helps me not only to embrace "servant leadership", but also to demand "host leadership"; this works particularly well as a Scrum Master: setting the framework for what is Scrum-Ok and what is acceptable and, if necessary, changing teams and enforcing changes. Of course, this is only possible with a strong mandate from the management - if there is no such mandate, substantial frustration is unfortunately the rule.#scrum #agilecoach #agile #frustration #leadership

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Amazing topic (bunrout amongst agile coaches / SM) and rich thread of replies 💚 Love the community around The Liberators!What it conjured up in me:Compared to the other corporates I was part of (with content roles), the mere fact that there is strucutural investment in SM/RTE/AgileCoaches/[...] is amazing to me. Proces&People perspectives&skills get so much more time, space and place. I'm so grateful to be able to coach, and receive lessons from my 'coachees'. Our process is intertwined.To me, as coach (who on paper is hired as a SM) it doesn't matter if I'm on the payroll or a consultant/advisor/external. I need to explicitly find who wants my help. Who cares if I'm valuable or not. What the root problem is (what is the SM a solution for?). Who's urgency I'm acting on. I'm 'contracting' and 're-contracting' regularly. I don't do much of the teaching & advisor stances, who am I to know what they need (exactly)?It's up to each of us to take this gift of these times & uncover what the system's next step is. Be valuable by helping leaders and teams get flowy or evolvy.And if you are the one that gets stuck: introspect and commit to your personal journey. Does your consultancy support you? who is your teacher? do you have a coach / intervision-group / supervision?

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Burned-out Agile Coaches 🔥I recently joined a conversation with Agile Coaches from various organizations. What started with lightweight chitchat ended with a depressing conclusion: many felt close to burning out. 😔They all joined their organization with the ambition to make an impact. Let's support teams, management, and the wider organization in improving. This proved to be quite difficult. Reasons that were shared are:❌ "We don't have any mandate to make decisions."❌ "We're not heard, seen, and respected by management AND the teams."❌ "We're mostly seen as facilitators for 'fun' workshops."❌ "We're stuck in the organization's quicksand. Doing nothing seems the best option; each time we propose a change, we sink deeper into the quicksand."❌ "Some days, I feel more like a politician instead of an Agile Coach."It's totally recognizable, which is precisely why I stopped being an Agile Coach years ago and moved back to being part of the team as a Scrum Master. Interestingly, some Agile Coaches considered switching roles: - One also preferred becoming a Scrum Master. Mostly because it gives him the feeling of having 'skin in the game' again; - Someone else is considering to refresh her Developer skills- The third person aims to fulfill a leadership position because it gives her the mandate to make decisions and have a positive impact (as a servant leader)An interesting pattern was that they all had permanent positions at the organization. Nobody was hired as an external. I applaud this, but it strengthens their feeling of being stuck. PS: 👉 I do not intend to bash Agile Coaches. I recognize their struggle and find it sad that many are unhappy in their roles. 👉 The term 'leadership position' is debatable. Anyone can show leadership. Her ambition was primarily born from the frustration that Agile Coaches don't have any decision power (in her organization). What do you think about this? Do you recognize the burned-out feeling? Do you have any recommendations to prevent this from happening or to resolve it?

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Coaches are disempowered leaders - not a fun place to be. This is why authority is needed to change things in an organization. And that's why it is _managers_ who need to be the coaches. It is _managers_ who need to learn how to create agility. It is _managers_ who need to learn how to be better leaders.(BTW, that's why our leadership training is targeted at managers - not coaches.)#agile #agility #scrum #leadership

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Agile coaches, whether they are FTE's or not, are consultants. All would do well to study up on consulting and what it means to be one. Weinberg, Schein, and Block are great places to discover how it works to try to bring change.

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For Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches, what if?- you knew how to talk to managers and Product Owners so that they worked with you and your team because they understood what was needed and what would be harmful- your teams could estimate in 1/4 to 1/10 the time it takes with Planning Poker – and get better estimates as well- team members were engaged and respected you- you could see what practice would be best for your team and didn’t need to run “fail fast” experiments to figure it out- you did not need to reinvent the wheel when you ran into problems- you guided your teams to get feedback quickly so that they created less waste- you only had useful meetings- you had several collaborative tools to work with and educate your team- you had a competitive edge in the marketplace, and it only cost you $595 for a 6-month program of live training and supportFor Managers, what if?- teams respected you and wanted to work with you- you understood how to keep the initial improvements you got from Scrum or SAFe going without stagnating- you could count on your teams to be well-led- you could need fewer Scrum Masters and Agile coaches to get your teams working better than they are now- you could put your problem-solving capabilities to good useFor those responsible for internal training, what if?- you didn’t need to have people take days off to be trained?- people were trained in methods designed for your organization- you could significantly drop your training cost----------This is possible.It’s not a new framework but learning the collection of theories that underly knowledge work.Without an understanding of the cause and effect of our work, we can’t effectively work together with each role having different needs.While we know that the product itself must emerge and that the exact timing of it can’t be predicted, the practices to achieve it are well-known and well-behaved.Unfortunately, most people are pursuing frameworks and not this knowledge.The prevailing belief that we can’t see what to do has vastly increased our costs.The real question is “What if we knew how to do our work so that we could all work together?”It’s possible. Don’t believe those who are denying it is.

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