Jekyll2022-07-04T15:21:39+00:00https://richardfreeman.me.uk/feed.xmlRichard FreemanAgile Coach, Cornwall, South West, UKHow tomato soup taught me to Quarterly Plan with Agile…or PI Planning In A Can2022-07-04T00:00:00+00:002022-07-04T00:00:00+00:00https://richardfreeman.me.uk/learn-pi-planning-in-a-week-not-a-quarter<p><img src="https://richardfreeman.me.uk/images/pi-planning-soup.png" alt="A bowl of tomato soup, which taught me how to plan better in SAFe" /></p>
<p><em>(Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@zoltantasi?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Zoltan Tasi</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>)</em></p>
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong><br />
When I worked as a teacher, I often had to teach a lesson more than one, to different classes. Often in the same week. A great chance to learn quickly, make changes and go again. I was following Agile about 10 years early! When I then worked as an Agile Coach in a new portfolio, trying to adopt and develop quarterly planning, I realised that waiting three months to learn could be improved by doing it quicker and shorter, after chatting with Coach Brian. Everyone needs a Coach Brian.</p>
<p><strong>Your takeaway</strong>: It’s not a question of how long a sprint cycle should be, it’s a question of …HOW QUICKLY YOU WANT TO LEARN!</p>
<h2 id="teacher-teacher-whats-todays-lesson-ermwhy-cycle-time-exactly">Teacher, teacher, what’s today’s lesson? Erm…why cycle time, exactly?</h2>
<p>I started my working life as a teacher, in secondary schools in the UK, trying to convince 11 to 16 year olds that tectonic plates were cool. Yep, a pretty tall order for the dawn of our current millennium, especially with my choice of <em>ironic ties</em>.</p>
<p>What I did enjoy, strangely, was the chances I had to improve my teaching. Every week. I often taught two of the same year groups, two lots of 11 year old classes, but a few days apart. That was great as you could run the first lesson on volcanoes, see how things went, then overnight tweak it for the next group to see whether your improvements worked. Heck, I had figured out the benefits of short cycle times about 10 years before I first found Agile! <strong>#earlyadopterwithoutknowingit</strong></p>
<p>The problem was, apart from pay, conditions and dodging thrown tables, was that after that <em>sprint</em> of sorts, I had to wait another <strong>year</strong> to do the same lesson again. By that time, I could barely remember my own name, let alone what Charlie thought about my use of soup and croutons to explain convection currents in the magma (tomato soup, obvs, in case you were wondering…). More importantly, I had forgotten how useful short cycle times and quick feedback were.</p>
<p>Go forward about <em>ahemn</em> a few years and I was working as a Product Owner for an established team, providing some sickness cover. I slotted in reasonably quickly as the engineers powered through stories in a two week sprint. I had to:</p>
<ul>
<li>keep 10 different stakeholder groups happy</li>
<li>bring to life and nurture an extensive roadmap</li>
<li>create and refine stories, working dual track</li>
<li>prioritise, refine further, trim and polish the backlog</li>
<li>b-r-e-a-t-h-e</li>
<li>drink coffee</li>
</ul>
<p>Phew, it was hectic.</p>
<p>Every two weeks, going into sprint planning, burning the midnight oil to make sure we had enough pre-prioritised work was a nightmare for me. The team were used to that time length, but I was struggling to cram all that work into a fortnight. There had to be another way, right?</p>
<h2 id="pausing-for-breath-on-a-retro-deep-dive">Pausing for breath on a retro deep-dive</h2>
<p>During a retrospective, I sat there during a bit of estimation and a thought arrived through the ether:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Rich, listen to me, I am the <strong>Voice of The Manifesto</strong>….why don’t you push this sprint out to four weeks…more time, more stories, more quality, more YOU! It’s a win-win baby :-)”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It sounded perfect! We cracked on with a four week sprint cycle. The work seemed to increase, everything seemed to get bigger, including the size of stress ball I had to use to keep calm when stakeholders moaned at me their story hadn’t arrived yet. Things didn’t seem much better at all but I couldn’t understand why. Surely more time = more work = more happiness? No, it seemed the opposite was true :-(</p>
<p>Roll forward a few <strong>ahemn</strong> more years and I was on another coaching assignment in the corporate world. A large portfolio, Scaled Agile FTW, working with Quarterly Planning, across multiple teams. Some new to the approach, some old hands. Two weeks in to the gig, I ran their first Quarterly Planning cycle and we were off and sprinting. After three months, with my coaching colleagues, we carried out a retrospective, reviewed the feedback and then tried to go again, for QP2, the sequel. It’ll be better, we thought. We will get better, we all thought. It’s the only way to learn, we thought. Hmnnn, maybe there is another way, that Charlie and his tomato soup might have taught us, if he were able to.</p>
<h2 id="coach-brian-comes-to-the-rescue">Coach Brian comes to the rescue!</h2>
<p>What I love about being an Agile Coach is having friends who are, <strong>surprise surprise</strong>, Agile Coaches. Like every psychologist has a psychologist and most parts of healthcare for example have professional supervision, every coach really needs a coach. If you don’t have one, <em>go out there and get one!</em></p>
<p>I am lucky enough to call Brian one of my coaching friends. We were kicking back one day, chatting about how important it was to have consistent cadence across a large set of Agile teams, trying to work together in a portfolio. Was it two weeks, four weeks, one week, three months, what did he think was best?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Well Rich…I guess the way I see it….is it’s a bit like this. How quickly do you think the teams want to learn?”</p>
</blockquote>
<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/2sddCIZRYfiPlNeLZn" width="620" frameborder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/reaction-mood-2sddCIZRYfiPlNeLZn">via GIPHY</a></p>
<p>Mic drop. Followed by an explosion. Possibly with glitter, but definitely with a lightbulb. I had been looking at this in completely the wrong way and Brian, was the spark that made me completely re-think this.</p>
<h2 id="tell-me-oh-wise-padowan-what-is-the-third-way">Tell me, oh wise Padowan, what is The Third Way?</h2>
<p>If you are only planning once a quarter, you only review that process once a quarter. That means, although you might figure a few things out during that time, you possibly won’t <strong>learn</strong> until that retrospective at the end. One bit of learning every three months.</p>
<p>Think back to that lesson above. The soup. The croutons. The stains on the ceiling <em>(sorry school cleaning team!).</em> Teaching the same lesson twice in one week was great as I could learn quickly and repeat it again. Having to wait another year to do the same lesson again was not.</p>
<p>The key here is short learning loops, not long ones. What does that mean for PI / Quarterly Planning then?</p>
<p>Well, for teams starting to work in a Scaled Way, you could just crack on with start your first quarter plan and see how you get on.</p>
<p>OR….how does this sound?</p>
<ol>
<li>Plan one week of work. Hold a retro. Learn.</li>
<li>Repeat next week.</li>
<li>Repeat the week after.</li>
<li>Repeat the wee after that.</li>
</ol>
<p>In month one, rather than being only a <strong>third</strong> of the way through a quarter, you have learned, hopefully, <strong>four different things.</strong> Four times to review and change the way you do things. <em>4 vs 1/3</em>. Looks better to me!</p>
<p>Even better, let’s work our way up to a quarter.</p>
<ul>
<li>Month 1 = 4 * weekly sprints</li>
<li>Month 2 = 2 * fortnightly sprints</li>
<li>Month 3 = 1 monthly sprint
- Month 4 = 1 monthly sprint
- Month 5 and 6 = 2 monthly sprint</li>
</ul>
<p>In 6 months, you have then have <strong>9 times</strong> to learn vs <strong>just 2</strong> if you were following a quarterly pattern. Not just that, but you are gradually increasing your sprint cycle and learning how to better estimate and form your stories to make sure you can deliver your commitments to your Product Owners and Portfolio Team. You get to practice that 9 times over just 6 months, instead of just 2.</p>
<p>If that still doesn’t grab you, just think of going to a fairground and trying to get that dart in the target to win the cuddly, fluffy bear. Do you want only 2 goes? The first dart bounces off and you have all that pressure with just one dart, the big crowd behind you thinking you are idiot who can’t aim?</p>
<h2 id="so-what-do-i-do-now-coachy">So, what do I do now Coachy?</h2>
<p>2 darts only? Nope, not for me. Do want to set up with the sub-machine gun version, 9 whole darts to hit that target? Course you do. Heck, you won’t just hit the target, you will ANNNIHILATE it! You’ll have to come back with a van to pick up all the toys you’ll win so much. Either that, or hand them out to the crowd and be carried out a hero, on everyone’s shoulders.</p>
<p>Charlie, and his tomato soup, would be proud. If you don’t do it for me, do it for Charlie. Also, he is 32 now, 6 foot 2 and bench presses more than I can tow with my car so please don’t annoy him. And just work up to Quarterly Planning, don’t just dive in. Charlie says so.</p>
<p>Until next time…hope your next planning session goes well and let me know your thoughts on this one when you have a moment. Thanks for reading!</p>
<h4 id="this-post-was">This post was:</h4>
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<p>hosted superbly by the lovely team at <a href="https://pages.github.com/">GitHub Pages</a></p>
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<p>stimulated by a range of lovingly roasted, Cornish, single estate coffee beans from <a href="https://sabinscoffee.co.uk//" title="Check out the amazing small batch roast that Emma and family roll out, available by local delivery or post for those sad to be outside of Bude, in Cornwall">Sabins</a>.</p>
<p>powered by love and cake from <a href="https://www.gembaadvantage.com" title="the lovely people who bravely employ me as an Agile Coach working with Public Sector customers across the UK">Gemba Advantage</a></p>
<p>and finally, polished with insightful editing support from our social media and marketing wizard <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/euan-whitbourn-117332170/" title="our amazing social media and marketing whizz kid">Euan Whitbourn</a>.</p>
</blockquote>It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you don’t… that’s what values are!2021-04-16T00:00:00+00:002021-04-16T00:00:00+00:00https://richardfreeman.me.uk/aint-what-you-do-its-what-you-dont<p><img src="https://richardfreeman.me.uk/images/not-what-you-do-what-you-dont.png" alt="When it comes to your goal, it might be what you don't do instead of what you do that is important" /><br />
<em>(Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@untitledphoto?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Untitled Photo</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/stop-sign?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>)</em></p>
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong><br />
I joined a new company in 2020, one which flew the flag of values right from the outset which was amazing. I was then given an amazing opportunity in my second week to explore an outreach engagement instead of starting directly on project work. Reflecting afterwards, it made me realise that sometimes you can demonstrate your values by what you don’t do instead of what you do. What did you stop doing to start something else that was a higher priority and chimed with your organisation’s values? **Your takeaway: ** If you haven’t recently, do it now…STOP DOING SOMETHING!</p>
<h1 id="does-your-company-really-value-values">Does your company really value values?</h1>
<p>Has your company got a values statement? Of course it has! Even the mobile Dog Grooming Van that overtakes you seems to have that emblazoned on it’s side. The teams you work with are probably no different. Values statement on the wall? TICK Coat of arms with latin motto to back that up HALF TICK Company tattoos of team name on body? NOT TICK Okay, maybe a step too far, but you get my drift. Values are good.</p>
<p>Every day when I sit down at my desk, I have an array of things around me as a coach. One of the most value are set of coaching cards. There are loads of these, from those designed to help initiate conversations such as <a href="https://www.crisp.se/bocker-och-produkter/jimmy-cards," title="Jimmy Cards are good for coaching teams and individuals. Get some now!">these wonderful ones</a>. The most powerful I have though, don’t have words on at all. Cards like <a href="https://www.innerspiration.co.uk/cards," title="Some great picture cards designed by my friend Kathryn">these</a> get pulled out when I want to work with a team to help them document what their values are and tease out how we can capture those in a working agreement.</p>
<p>I haven’t had a chance yet to use it, but at a recent Agile in the City in Bristol, I really loved Lee’s session on a <a href="https://agileinthecity.net/2018/bristol/sessions/index.php?session=4," title="Find out more about Lee's great workshop here">Guerilla Values workshop</a> taking this to the next level. It just shows how important these are to talk about and capture when working with a team. Although, possibly not in a song ( thank you <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFsi1JYvRc," title="Yep, Dominos actually have a song">Dominos</a> )or a stone pillar ( sorry <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/dec/22/the-ed-stone-ed-milibands-monumental-folly-labour-election-limestone," title="Where did that Labour stone pillar go?">Ed</a> .</p>
<p>One day, opening my calendar at work, clutching the Post-it notes I had scrawled on from home, I realised that I had a refinement session booked right over the middle of my son’s school Christmas performance. How could I make both? Well, I just couldn’t. Which would I chose? I mean, my employer always used to bang on about how they valued the work - life balance…was this a chance for me to test out and display that? What about that refinement session though, that was the only chance I had of working with the Product Owner…if I missed that when on earth would we do that before our next sprint planning?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Don’t do it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sorry, what did my brain just say?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The refinement session. Just don’t do it. Re-schedule it.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="what-would-you-do-keep-it-or-bin-it">What would you do? Keep it or bin it?</h2>
<p>I decided not to do it. In the middle of a teeth-grindingly out of tune rendition of Silent Night (and that was the staff doing it, not the children), I realised I had definitely made the right decision to come along, as I saw the smile on my son’s face as he picked me out of the crowd. I had prioritised this about the refinement session. I had embodied the company value by focussing on what I hadn’t done rather than what I had.</p>
<p>Because of this experience, with the last note of Silent Night etched into my brain, I explained in our next team retrospective, I wanted to focus on what we weren’t doing, to highlight our team values. What were we de-prioritising, pushing lower down the queue to do something else that did represent our values. If we weren’t doing that, were we really living those values? Following the concept of a waste snake, we then drafted up a Values Bin.</p>
<p>After this experience and a few others, in my own personal retrospective at home, I realised I needed to make a change and challenge myself in a new role. I moved to a new company, still working roughly in the same sort of sector. Day one arrived. A big team Google Meet with the other 5 people that had joined at the same time as me. Up front and centre was the company vision and values, again great to see and something the company celebrated. When would I get a chance to not do something, to help celebrate those I wondered?</p>
<h3 id="the-answer-came-in-week-2">The answer came in Week 2.</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>“Hi Rich, would you like to get involved in an outreach project, to help students find out more about software engineering?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, I thought, I would love to! Thanks for thinking of me.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Great! We need to upload a tutorial video in a <strong>weeks time.</strong>”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Crikey. Gulp. Okay, so you don’t want me to do any billing work on projects with our customers at the moment?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Nope, that’s fine, this is equally as important, just crack on and shout if you need any help!”</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="crikey-has-that-ever-happened-to-you">Crikey. Has that ever happened to you?</h3>
<p>Because of that one decision by the director, I started down a very different path. With a clear goal in mind, but control over how to reach it, I started arranging calls with people around the company I hadn’t met before. It was lovely. I was welcomed with open Zoom arms and met some amazing people with a really wide range of stories of how they got into tech and what they enjoyed. Not once did I worry about not doing direct commercial work. Every time I chatted to somebody new in the company they completely understood what I was doing and why, wished me well and offered help and support. I was blown away.</p>
<p>Not only did I get to know people around the company more, but I got to know what was possible filming and editing at home. I learned about how we got stuff ordered at work. Very important. I also spent time working with one of our industry partners who was sponsoring the whole week which was great. I explored with them their plans for the future and how we could be a part of this, both locally when Covid allows, as well as virtually. Now and in the future.</p>
<h3 id="ta-daaaaa-its-live-phew">Ta daaaaa! It’s live. Phew.</h3>
<p>Pressing the send button to submit the video off to the organisers was a wonderful feeling. I had learned so much in the last week and that was only my second week in the company! I guess you could have expected that. What surprised me was how my new colleagues reacted to this. Most of them were really interested in what I was doing and not annoyed that I was on project work. I was representing the company values by not doing as well as doing at the same time and they were on board with that. It started conversations I need to follow up on, to help take this particular strand of work forward for us, but I am excited about the future prospects.</p>
<p>The next time I am put in this situation, of deciding which path to take, I think I will be much bolder. Taking a lead from our current title in the Agile Book Club I help faciliate at work, I will be more up front about the work I am not doing, to focus on what I believe is of higher value for either the company or our customers. If I don’t do this first, then I simply won’t be living the values in the way that this project has proved so successful.</p>
<p>What’s my challenge to you, reading this? Well, what are you not going to do today? As Agile records in its manifesto, maximise the art of work not done.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is<br />
essential. http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Give it a go and let me know how you get on with that and yes, you can see the video I made…its on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQA5SNjPVOc," title="Watch how you can use Google AI and their vision kit to help you travel the world">YouTube here</a> - enjoy! :-)</p>
<hr />
<h4 id="this-post-was">This post was:</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>hosted superbly by the lovely team at <a href="https://pages.github.com/">GitHub Pages</a></p>
<p>created by a fabulously easy to use set of Jekyll templates from <a href="https://www.jekyllnow.com/" title="Check out the live demo of the Jekyll now theme from Barry here with examples of text to use">Barry Clarke</a>.</p>
<p>powered by Coffee & Cake from <a href="https://www.gembaadvantage.com" title="the lovely people who bravely employ me as an Agile Coach working with Public Sector customers across the UK">Gemba Advantage</a></p>
<p>and finally, polished with insightful editing support from our social media and marketing wizard <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/euan-whitbourn-117332170/" title="our amazing social media and marketing whizz kid">Euan Whitbourn</a>.
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</blockquote>(Photo by Untitled Photo on Unsplash)I’ve FAILED! Here’s why you should too2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:002021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00https://richardfreeman.me.uk/ive-failed-heres-why-you-should-do-too<p><img src="https://richardfreeman.me.uk/images/fail-blog-failing-title.png" alt="A young man, casually dressed, failling through the sky" />
<em>(Image credit: Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@sandishelvigs?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Sandis Helvigs</a> on <a href="/s/photos/acrobatic?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></em>)</p>
<h3 id="tldr">TLDR;</h3>
<p>I did something recently, after lots of planning. Although lots went really well, some bits didn’t. Whereas that might usually make you sad, I am trying to turn that around. De-sensitive failure and use it as a positive force. Heck, I even set up a Failure Club to celebrate it! <strong>Your takeaway</strong>: don’t worry about failure, expect it, embrace it and use it to drive you forward.</p>
<h2 id="what-went-wrong-then-richard">What went wrong then Richard?</h2>
<p>Do you know what the <strong>failure bow</strong> is? No, not bow as in arrow, but bow as in bough. Like the tree. That bends over and stands back up again. If you have ever flicked on the television during the Olympics when the gymnastics is on, you will have seen it. As a young, fit, blur of a person sprints across your screen, bearing down on a pommel horse and launches themselves into the air, you can’t help feeling impressed by the sheer skill involved. It’s certainly more than I can do.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do you feel as exhausted as I do just watching it? Yes.</p>
<p>Does it work every time? No.</p>
<p>Do they slink off when it fails? No.</p>
<p>Every time. Without fail. They take a bow.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Matt Smith called it the Failure Bow and talked about it his TED talk ( <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXuD2zHVeB0">!The Failure Bow: Matt Smith at TEDxBellevue</a> ).A friend of mine explained that it’s not confined to the land of chalk and small clothing, other sports have it too. He was a coach in his spare time and reported that new recruits to the world of rugby were trained to as well, by repeating the phrase…</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Next job. Next job. Next job. Next job”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>after anything that didn’t go well. If you tune into rugby games where they have microphones on the touchline, you can apparently hear many players repeat this mantra like a kind of ingrained routine they roll out any time a scrum collapses prematurely or a line out fails. Whatever those actually are.</p>
<h3 id="thats-great-coach-but-i-hate-sport">That’s great coach, but I hate sport!</h3>
<p>I was curious. How come two sports, working independently, created this way of addressing failure head-on, removing its power and moving forward? Does <strong>software engineering</strong> have the same concept and do I? Roll on a week and I got an opportunity to experience this first hand. I failed and it was great. I want to do it again and you should too.</p>
<p>As a company, we work on creating software teams and integrate these into public and private sector organisations, looking to deliver value and innovation to their customers and users. We also have an internal <strong>kickstarter program</strong>, for our colleagues to recommend products we can delve into further, either for us or our customers.</p>
<p>Last week, as an experiment, we spent the whole week working through the first five ideas. and also attending We attended various workshops, guest interviews with people outside of our company and watch-a-long video sessions all on a strong innovation teams. It’s the first of our innovation hack-a-thons that we want to repeat all the way through the year. It fosters great conversations and bonds between our colleagues, and also introduces some wonderful new ideas that allows everyone to learn and reflect on their day job.</p>
<h3 id="sounds-greaterm-how-did-it-go-then">Sounds great…erm, how did it go then?</h3>
<p>Well, that was the plan. Mostly. Some of it was great. Some was not. Parts failed and I felt I had failed.</p>
<p>With the <strong>Failure Bow</strong> in mind as I scrolled through the retrospective notes, I thought about how best to approach this for the next event, whether it would even happen. As an Agile Coach, the <strong>retrospective</strong> is the one part I would fight tooth and nail to keep if somebody forced you me to get rid of everything else. However, that is only really half the battle, you then have to action those action points collected. In more traditional project management methodologies, recording <em>‘lessons learned’</em> is a major activity, some even moving to calling call them ‘lesson identified’ instead. If you haven’t tried again and done something different, have you actually learned to do something differently?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Well, the first one isn’t ever going to be perfect is it, you won’t get everything right first time!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Who ever does, I wondered to myself, when a colleague was chatting to me about how the week had gone. Rather than the oft-repeated mantra of ‘fail fast, fail often’, we had collectively taken the whole company a whole week to fail. How was I going to respond to that?</p>
<p>Luckily, as an Agile Coach, we have a framework for everything. When you get to the end of anything, always keep in mind:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What did you learn from doing that?</p>
<p>What will you do differently next time?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>I try to see every work experience as a learning opportunity. Paraphrasing Jeff Patton:</em></p>
<p><strong>“What can you build to learn instead of building to earn?”</strong></p>
<p>I organised and ran the whole innovation week knowing we were going to do another one later on in the year. The only way to find out what would work and what wouldn’t was to try it, experiment and see how that went.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to to shy away from the failures, I wanted to highlight them, call them out in the retrospective and celebrate the fact that they actually happened. Not everyone has that as a default behaviour though:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Oh, it’s such a shame that session didn’t work, you must be really disappointed with the way that went.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>True, in my heart of hearts, I would want everything to work 100% of the time, but my brain knows that’s not going to happen. I am expecting failure, I just don’t know where it will come from, but I need to capture it and work on fixing it. How can I get others to do the same? Celebrate it. Reward it. Enter, the Fail Club.</p>
<p>Soon, I am going to be holding the inaugural first <strong>Company Fail Club.</strong> Anyone can come along, with the best psychological safety handrails, it’s a safe space for my colleagues to talk about something they tried, how it went, what they learnt and what they could do differently. The best example of learning wins. Turns out, a few other people have done the same, even the World Bank → <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/failfaire-internal" title="https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/failfaire-internal">https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/failfaire-internal</a></p>
<p>Together we are harnessing the power of hindsight to prove to everyone in our company and to all of our customers that we embrace this as part of our culture and can help you to do the same. Heck, if it goes well, I might even set up a public anonymous session for anyone to come along to.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Show the culture you want, celebrate the culture the want, grow the culture you want.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>The only way to learn is to fail first of all all. Freeman’s Law</strong>. Quote it and let me know how you get on, what you learned and more importantly, how you are going to do it differently next time.</p>
<p>Now, hand me my lycra and point me towards the pommel horse. I feel a failure coming on and I LOVE IT!</p>
<hr />
<h4 id="this-post-was">This post was:</h4>
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</blockquote>(Image credit: Photo by Sandis Helvigs on Unsplash)What should you cover in your first coaching session with a coachee?2020-04-22T00:00:00+00:002020-04-22T00:00:00+00:00https://richardfreeman.me.uk/what-to-cover-in-a-first-coaching-session<p><img src="https://richardfreeman.me.uk/images/buzz-colour-2.jpg" alt="Buzz Aldrin. The man. The Legend" /><em>(Image credit: Buzz Aldrin/NASA via AP)</em></p>
<h2 id="whats-in-whats-out-and-whats-weird">What’s in, what’s out and what’s weird!</h2>
<p>They’ve agreed a time. The appointment is in your calendar. You have your Sharpies and PostIt notes prepped. The webcam is polished and the microphone dusted #corona. Arrrrghhhhhh! What do I do next?</p>
<p>Doing something for the first time is always scary. Ask Buzz. He was so worried about what to say when he stepped on the moon, he subbed the work out. To an expert. <del>His wife.</del> His brother. Possibly. <a href="https://www.space.com/19119-neil-armstrong-quote-moon-controversy.html," title="read more about the preparation that Buzz made for the moon surface walk and for what he was going to say">Possibly not</a>.</p>
<p>Starting a coaching engagement sometimes feels a bit like stepping onto a dusty surface. Without gravity. Or a whiteboard. If that feels scary to a coach, have you ever wondered what a coachee is thinking and how best to help them?</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://richardfreeman.me.uk/about/" title="read more about my agile coaching work I carry out in Cornwall">Agile Coach in Cornwall</a>. Yep, we do exist :-). I tend to find what helps both coach and coachee is to run through a quick checklist (thanks <a href="http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/" title="read more about what the checklist manifesto is all about and why Atul thinks they are so useful">Atul Gawande</a>) to make sure you have all of the bases covered in the first session.</p>
<p>Here’s what I tend to cover, my top 10. It has changed and developed over the last few years and I would love to know what you include, exclude and call this first session so do let me know; my contact details are at the end. Okay, here goes with my top 10:</p>
<ol>
<li>We aren’t coaching today - <strong>phew</strong>!</li>
<li>Fancy a <strong>sandwich</strong>? Coaching vs mentoring vs training</li>
<li>Push me, pull me, <strong>not anyway</strong> way you want me</li>
<li>Coaching = <strong>advancement</strong>. Coaching != remediation.</li>
<li><strong>Confidentiality</strong> and scorched ground, with feedback (on me)</li>
<li><strong>Agreements</strong> are important. Sign here please.</li>
<li>I won’t be your <strong>counsel</strong>, you will be your guide</li>
<li>When you want, how you want, <strong>cancel anytime</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check-in</strong> - how are you feeling about coaching now?</li>
<li><strong>Next steps</strong> - what do you want to do, when and how?</li>
</ol>
<p>Right, let’s dive into some detail on all of these.</p>
<h2 id="1-we-arent-coaching-today---phew">1. We aren’t coaching today - phew!</h2>
<p>As a <em>typically introverted</em> British individual, the thought of sitting in a room with one other person to discuss something in my work life I wanted to make better, is <strong>terrifying</strong>. Well, it was terrifying before I started coaching some four or so years ago. It’s not now but I always try to keep this in mind before doing a first coaching session with somebody as it could be how they are feeling at the other end of the desk. Of course these days, <strong>#corona</strong>, it’s going to be looking down a camera rather than a table, but that could well be from their bedroom or front room to yours, which could be as panic-inducing as the <em>knarled table</em> in the small, grey meeting room at the end of the corridor. <strong>Shudder</strong>.</p>
<p>I <strong>never coach</strong> on the first meeting. <del>Never</del>. Well, I try not to as it’s really meant to be a chat, to put them at ease, answer any questions and also set down some ground rules for us both to agree too. It’s a kind of <em>try-before-you-buy</em> session as well because it’s up to the <strong>coachee</strong> to decide at the end whether they want to start being coached afterwards and to make the arrangements. I also try to keep it to 30 minutes so it doesn’t feel too onerous, on either side.</p>
<h2 id="2-fancy-a-sandwich-coaching-vs-mentoring-vs-training">2. Fancy a sandwich? Coaching vs mentoring vs training</h2>
<p>Even if somebody has been coached before, at work in a formal setting or maybe in the world of sport, I always make sure that the coachee understands the difference between <strong>coaching, mentoring and training</strong>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Here’s Bob. He is going to teach you how to make a sandwich from scratch in his Bob’s Fiery Sandwich Course. It’s available online or at the local diner, after work, for two hours with a certificate. If you see anything like that, then I call that <strong>training</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Want to make the hottest sandwich in the world? You need to hang out with Bob. He’s the best short order sandwich chef in this diner! Go and hang out with him and pick up some tips and tricks while he gets orders ready. I call this <strong>mentoring</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>What kind of sandwich do you want to make? Can you visualise what kind of ingredients you want to include and how you want to serve it or to who? Have you ever made hot sandwiches before? If you wanted to find out about sandwich cuising, where would you go? In my mind, these are all <strong>coaching</strong> questions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You can easily have all three of those in the same conversation or just focus on one. They could be separate sessions, with colleagues if training a whole team, or just you on your own but it’s important to make the distinction between them. I believe a great coach can train, mentor and coach, choosing the right approach for the right situation, depending on what is in front of them.</p>
<h2 id="3-push-me-pull-me-anyway-way-you-want-me">3. Push me, pull me, anyway way you want me</h2>
<p>When you start talking to more and more coaches, you found out how they tend to <em>handle engagements</em>. They often stand back, wait to be contacted, rather than diving in and hassling people like a sort of annoying broadband sales person chasing a monthly target two days before the end of the month. Why? Because coaching only works when it’s a <strong>pull</strong> not a <strong>push</strong>. You can send all of the coaches in the world into an organisation but unless somebody chooses independently to seek out coaching, it just won’t work.</p>
<h2 id="4-coaching--advancement-coaching--remediation">4. Coaching = advancement. Coaching != remediation.</h2>
<p>If your coachee understood you waffling on about sandwiches and the differences between coaching, mentoring and training, hopefully they understand <strong>what</strong> it is, but they do understand <strong>why</strong> they are doing it? I always try to make sure that the person sitting in front of me understands that coaching is not about remediation, it’s positive and helps the coachee improve something that they want to work on. If they have been told they need to get something fixed and I can help, then we shouldn’t be talking, <em>I should be talking to their boss / lead / manager / other person who pointed them in my direction</em>.</p>
<h2 id="5-confidentiality-and-scorched-ground">5. Confidentiality and scorched ground</h2>
<p>I remember my first coaching session like it was yesterday. It was four years ago, but what stuck in my mind was something that seems so obvious now. About ten minutes in, I became pretty sure, that every word spilling out of my mouth was <strong>gospel</strong>. Surely the coach sitting the other side of the table would want to be jotting this down…you know, for posterity, to quote later on to friends and co-workers, maybe even put on a range of t-shirts to sell online? Surely???</p>
<p><strong>Of course he didn’t. He wasn’t take any notes at all.</strong> This reinforced two very clear concepts for me and ones I like to remind a coachee. Firstly, nothing that is said in our meetings is recorded at all. It’s completely confidential and is only for our purposes, it’s not for anyone else. <em>Not your line manager, your colleagues or anyone else.</em> The only caveat is illegality. If something appears to be illegal, I am duty bound to report as a fine upstanding member of society! Well, member of the public anyway. Everything else including your choice of socks and penchance for hot chilli in breakfast cereals is <strong>just for us to discuss and us alone</strong>.</p>
<p>Secondly, it’s for you as the coachee to jot anything down for themselves, actions, thoughts or ideas, not the coach. It puts the emphasis on them to record, not you.</p>
<h2 id="6-agreements-are-important-sign-here-please">6. Agreements are important. Sign here please.</h2>
<p>Despite the fact I have these 10 things in a list, despite the fact that I spend a <strong>good 15 minutes</strong> or so explaining them to the coachee in my lovely, relaxing, lilting tones, I am sure five minutes after they leave the room / exit the call, they won’t be able to remember more than one. I don’t take it personally. What I do do, is make sure they have a formal agreement where these 10 and more are listed. They get a copy and have to sign it. I like people to print it and actually <del>find a quill</del> borrow a pen and sign it. There’s a reason artists sign their work. They are proud of their achievement and want to show it. I want to celebrate the fact that a <strong>coachee has committed</strong> to working with me to improve something and doing it on paper is a great way to do that. It also helps to remind them of these 10 things and morel</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Download sample coaching agreement</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="7-i-wont-be-your-counsel-you-will-be-your-guide">7. I won’t be your counsel, you will be your guide</h2>
<p>One of the most important elements of the coaching agreement that I like to pick out is about counselling. Working with somebody 1-2-1, is a very <strong>private and intimate experience</strong>. Whether somebody has had experience of it previously or not, there could easily be a tendency for it to develop into a counselling not a coaching session. While we all like to blow off steam in whichever way we want, and I certainly like a good moan as well as the next man, I always make sure that coachees know that we are <strong>coaching and not counselling</strong>.</p>
<p>If I feel that somebody during coaching is moving a conversation into that area, I will stop, flag the situation up and make it clear that we cannot proceed. That’s not to say I stop there. Often as a coach, I have signposted coachees to other resources, sources of help inside an organisation or from the rest of the healthcare sector, it’s just not coaching. I want them to be as <strong>healthy as possible</strong> so we can tackle things together when they are well. <em>If there are other personal issues that are getting in they way, I want to make sure I can do everything I can to help them help themselves, so we can resume coaching</em>.</p>
<h2 id="8-when-you-want-how-you-want-cancel-anytime">8. When you want, how you want, cancel anytime</h2>
<p>The coachee takes the notes. They <strong>sign the contract</strong>. They want to turn up. Hopefully it won’t surprise anyone reading this, that I also make sure they know that I want them to book all of the coaching sessions. They can decide when, where and how these take place and put them in my calendar, rather than the other way around. It’s another great, transparent example of that push vs pull mentality that has to exist for coaching to work well.</p>
<p>Of course, if you as a coach have dedicated slots in your own week’s calendar that you are making available to coachees, they can certainly grab one of those. The fine details though, are down to them. Skype vs Zoom vs real room. Morning vs afternoon. 30 minutes vs an hour. All their choice. 1 session, 10 sessions, 5 sessions. Weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Or not at all. If they want to stop any future sessions, then they can. <em>It’s entirely under their control</em>.</p>
<h2 id="9-check-in---how-are-you-feeling-about-coaching-now">9. Check-in - how are you feeling about coaching now?</h2>
<p>After overloading a coachee with the 8 bits above for a few minutes, I like to build in a bit of a pause for some <strong>initial reflection</strong>. At this point, I turn the session over the coachee and do a little check-in. Do they have any questions on anything I covered? Did anything scare them, interest them or need a bit more explanation? If all is good, we can get to the 10th and final step. If not, then that is fine too. We can part company here and hopefully the <em>not-coachee</em> at least knows what coaching is, even if they have decided it is <strong>not</strong> for them.</p>
<h2 id="10-next-steps---what-do-you-want-to-do-when-and-how">10. Next steps - what do you want to do, when and how?</h2>
<p>If you’ve made it this well, <strong>well done</strong> and thanks for staying with me! If the coachee has done the same, it’s now over to them. They have decided that they want to take this further and start an engagement. That’s great! As I have tried to explain above, now it’s up to them to decide when and how we do this and get that first session booked in when it works best for them. <strong>That’s it, all 10 done</strong> :-)</p>
<h2 id="over-to-you">Over to you…</h2>
<p>That’s my whistle-stop through through all of the things I tend to cover in a first coaching session. It’s now over to you, as I would <strong>LOVE</strong> to know the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>What did I miss</strong>…is there anything you always mention that I didn’t?</li>
<li><strong>What should I have left out</strong>…what out of the 10 shouldn’t be here?</li>
<li><strong>What do you call this</strong>…is this a discovery session, something else?</li>
</ul>
<p>HMU on the usual social media in the footer below and let me know what you think, I would love to see your thoughts and comments on this. You can also read more about me and my experience as an <a href="https://richardfreeman.me.uk/about/" title="read more about my agile coaching work I carry out in Cornwall">Agile Coach</a> in the UK Civil Service. If you want to ;-) BFN, R</p>
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-->(Image credit: Buzz Aldrin/NASA via AP)Welcome!2014-03-03T00:00:00+00:002014-03-03T00:00:00+00:00https://richardfreeman.me.uk/Hello-World<p>Thanks for dropping by.</p>
<p>This is my WIP website, where I gather my thoughts on all things Agile and Coaching. Please read a bit more <a href="/about" title="read more about me here">about me</a> or <a href="/blog" title="browse my latest blog posts">check out my blog</a> for my latest thoughts. Give me a shout on any of the networks below if you have any questions or want to chat. I am based in Bude, Cornwall in the lovely South West of the UK. It’s lovely here, drop in and say hi when you get a moment :-)</p>
<p>Yours, Richard</p>
<p>#keepitkernow</p>Thanks for dropping by.