Agile Coaching

Change Management and Agile Transition within an Organization

by Krishna Chodipilli | May 16, 2023 | Agile Coaching

Agile Change Management

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If a business wants to succeed, it can’t afford to stand still. New challenges need to be met, and improvements can always be made. Recent turbulent times caused by local and global challenges such as the Covid pandemic, economic recession and Brexit, for example, have been catalysts for change. The ways in which organisations implement change can have a massive impact on their team members, culture and business processes.

Why implement organizational change?

Organizational change comes down to three things – crisis, opportunity or threat.

Crisis – Covid was a good example of this. It forced many organisations to do things differently, try new approaches and pivot their business. External factors can force organizational change in order for that business to adapt and survive.

Opportunity – new products/ services, diversification or digital transformation can open up additional or alternative revenue streams for a business for example.

Threat – competitors could be encroaching on your market; there could be supply chain issues; legislative changes could impact your business model – there are myriad potential threats to your business that can be addressed by organizational change.

Organizations implement initiatives to boost performance, grab opportunities or address concerns. Often, change is a result of this – process changes, new or different job roles, structural or digital transformation.

Effective change management will prepare, equip and guide your team members to accept and embrace organizational change.

What is the difference between agile change management and change management?

Whilst initially developed for software development teams, agile methodology applies well across an organisation. In particular, organisations undertaking change management activities.

Agile change management is a logical progression from Agile development processes. It facilitates an agile team’s need to adapt and address potential or upcoming change. Agile projects and teams evolve, question and improve continuously. These agile project management techniques work well for change management. Put simply, it’s a marriage of change management techniques with Agile processes like sprints, daily stand-ups and iterative approaches to delivery and a product lifecycle.

Traditional change management processes can seem cumbersome and slow in today’s fast-past and evolving times. That’s where more flexible, adaptive and newer change initiatives hold appeal. Step forward with agile change management processes.

What are the benefits of Agile change management?

Agile approaches are particularly suited to times of change. Being open to real-time adaptability and continuous improvement. Being aware of the end user or customer’s changing requirements and feedback. Being collaborative with your project team members. All of these provide the agility and flexibility that are beneficial for effective change implementation.

Agile change management approaches

It’s said that change is a constant. Businesses need to evolve to stay relevant and successful. But organisational change is often not the most difficult aspect. The people side of change can be the hardest to implement and to ensure employee engagement and buy-in to the new approaches and the future state of the organisation. Cultural change needs thought and diligent planning.

The change models are used to help to develop a tailored approach in order to engage your organization system in a change. Here are 2 popular change management approaches.

ADKAR Model outlines the 5 outcomes an individual or team needs to achieve for changes to be successful. This model was initially devised by Prosci.

Awareness – establish an awareness of the need for change. Ensure your team members are on board with the change roadmap and reasons why it’s needed and the expected positive impact.

Desire – ensure you have employee engagement with the changes and a desire to make the change project effective

Knowledge – provide training and information to empower teams with the required knowledge to facilitate change

Reinforcement – determine ways to reinforce the change, such as change practitioners or champions to keep reiterating the benefits and pushing the change forward.

Kubler-Ross is used to understand the journeys that humans go through as they experience some change. These are the phases identified:

1. Denial – if I avoid it, it won’t happen to me. This is the human nature response to it.
2. Anger – this high energy phase may include blaming people or factors, and non-acceptance of the situation.
3. Bargaining – people may try to negotiate and make pleas to see if they can alter the situation.
4. Depression – unable to change what’s happening, people can feel dejected and sad.
5. Acceptance – this enables the person to move forward.

Agile Manifesto & Values

When we talk about Agile Values, what are we talking about?

• individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• working software over a comprehensive documentation
• customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• responding to change over following a plan.

Essentially, this emphasises the need to value human beings. This is especially important at times of change. Human beings in this case include team members, stakeholders and customers. Encouraging collaboration amongst teams. Aligning stakeholders with the workflow priorities for the sprint and plans to address the backlog. Plus, considering user stories and feedback.

Agile Methods and Cross-Functional Teams

Within the Agile Mindset, we have 4 pillars. Self-awareness, Global listening, Non-violent communication, and Servant leadership.

Self-awareness is about understanding ourselves, understanding how we behave, understanding the way we react to certain things, and understanding our strengths, weaknesses, our values, principles and all these kind of things.

Listening is probably the most important tool, for any team member, product owner, managers, leaders. That is listening intently, not just hearing with a distracted mind. This is essential in Agile self-organizing teams.

Nonviolent communication is about stating facts without apportioning blame or guilt or using aggression.

Servant leadership is about being there, supporting people, uplifting them, and helping them to be at their best in an Agile environment. Agile coaching, mentoring, and teaching are fundamental aspects of this.

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Corporate Development Vs. Corporate Strategy

by Agile Blogger | Apr 17, 2023 | Agile Coaching

Employing corporate development strategies alongside corporate strategy is essential for the successful operation of a business. Still, each profession comes with its unique set of challenges. As Business Leaders and decision-makers, it’s essential to understand how corporate development and strategy work together to ensure that your business reaches its optimal performance level as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible. In this blog post, we’ll explore the nuances between these two functions, provide an overview of their respective roles in your organization, discuss why they need to work in concert with one another, and share tips on how you can maximize the impact of both by leveraging them strategically.

Corporate development performs initiatives like new product development, business model innovation, and strategic partnerships to gain a competitive advantage and achieve business growth. It helps businesses increase the value they can provide to the target audience.

On the other hand, the corporate strategy function advises senior leadership on various strategic initiatives and things like financial modeling, resource allocation, and competitive positioning. Like an internal consulting group, it adds value by identifying barriers and developing an approach that allows you to achieve desired objectives.

Corporate development and corporate strategy serve different purposes. But in essence, they are complementary concepts that work together to help companies achieve their long-term goals and create value for their stakeholders. So, here is an article highlighting their core differences and how they can work together for maximum success.

What is corporate development?

Corporate development is a field within the giant umbrella of corporate strategy. It is concerned with the financial modeling of a company and the creation of synergies between different departments within an organization. Capital markets are also a key focus as corporate developers strive to gain a competitive advantage for their firms.

Typically, corporate development guides a company’s overall direction and business decisions through specific initiatives like mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, and investments.

It involves internal restructuring and leveraging external opportunities.

An example of internal restructuring could be combining two departments that can work together into one. Through this corporate restructuring, organizations foster a harmonious environment in the corporate entity, leading to more efficient use of resources and ultimately boosting revenues or lowering long-term costs.

An example of leveraging external opportunity could be an investment banking organization acquiring a smaller corporate finance organization or a start-up company.

Thus, corporate development is the how of a company’s business decisions. Corporate developers focus not only on the operational details of achieving the company goals but also on the sales aspect and ROI.>

What is a corporate strategy?

A corporate strategy is a long-term plan for the growth and development of a company. It sets out the company’s overall objectives and how they will be achieved. Corporate strategy has an internal strategy team that encompasses the company’s organizational structure, financial policy, and approach to risk management. The team is concerned with how individual business units thrive in delivering value to their customers in product/service/market segments.

The corporate strategy looks at the big picture and defines where the company wants to be. It should include short-term and long-term initiatives, each supporting the other. An excellent corporate strategist creates strategic plans, helps organizations achieve their business goals and targets, and improves financial viability.

“Corporate strategy portrays a general strategy in a company and focuses on its business portfolio to add more value. Its planning involves focusing on the organization’s structure and identifying the problems in different business areas. The responsibility for appropriate strategy formulation lies with the top-level managers of the company. They discuss, analyze and finalize strategies to move forward in the market.”

– Source – https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/corporate-strategy/#h-corporate-strategy-explained.

Most large companies have a vice president of corporate strategy, who is responsible for developing and overseeing the execution of the company’s strategy. Part of the corporate strategy process is due diligence when a company researches another company before acquiring or investing. Growth strategies are also crucial in corporate strategy, as companies must determine how to grow their business to remain competitive.

What does corporate development do?

Corporate development is the group within a company responsible for strategic decisions and executing transactions through sourcing, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financings, and partnerships. The corporate development team works closely with the CEO and other members of the executive team to identify and explore new markets and pursue opportunities to create shareholder value.

Corporate development is focused on executing transactions that will improve the company’s competitive position and create shareholder value. That means identifying potential acquisition targets, negotiating deals, and managing post-acquisition integration. It also includes raising capital to finance these transactions and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders such as shareholders, lenders, and partners.

Excellent communication skills in corp dev are essential as you will interact with individuals across varied functions, all experts in their domain. The skill to effectively receive and interpret information or data will help you as a business strategist. You will work with different business units as a corp dev team. 

In short, corporate development is responsible for making deals to help a company achieve its strategic objectives.

Difference between corporate development and corporate strategy

Corporate development and strategy are two terms often used interchangeably, but there is a big difference between the two. Corporate strategy is the overall game plan for the company, including the goals and objectives that guide decision-making. On the other hand, corporate development is responsible for executing that strategy through mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and partnerships.

While corporate strategy provides the overall direction for the company, corporate development ensures that this direction is translated into tangible actions that create shareholder value. One significant difference between the two functions is thus valuation: corporate strategy determines which businesses or products are worth pursuing. In contrast, corporate development uses valuation techniques to execute transactions at optimal prices.

One of the most important considerations for corporate strategists is understanding the business model and how it creates value. This means they need to have a strong understanding of the competitive landscape and what drives customer behavior. They also need to be able to identify new growth opportunities and develop a plan to seize them. Skills set for corporate strategists typically include financial analysis, forecasting, and market research.

In other words, corporate strategy is about setting the direction for the company, while corporate development is about achieving that vision through specific actions. 

The relationship between corporate strategy and development can be summarized like this: corporate strategy defines where the company wants to go, and corporate development figures out how to get it there.

While both roles are essential for driving growth within a company, they require different skill sets and focus on various aspects of the business. Corporate strategists need to be able to see the big picture and identify growth opportunities. In contrast, corporate developers must be experts in valuation and negotiation to get the best deals for their companies.

How do corporate development and corporate strategy work together?

Corporate development and strategy functions work together to ensure a company can achieve its long-term goals. The corporate strategy sets the direction for the company. It outlines the overall plan for how the company will achieve its goals. Corporate development then works to implement the system, ensuring that the company has the resources and capabilities to execute the plan.

The two functions are closely linked, as the high-level decision made by the corporate strategy team is usually a relatively seamless handoff to corporate development. For example, suppose a company decides to enter a new market. In that case, it will be up to the corporate development team to find an acquisition target or joint venture partner. Similarly, suppose a company decides to divest itself of a business unit. In that case, it will be up to corporate development to find a buyer and negotiate the sale.

For both functions to be successful, there must be alignment between them. This means that the management team needs to have a shared understanding of the company’s overall strategy and how each function contributes to it. Additionally, metrics need to be in place so that progress toward strategic objectives can be tracked and monitored. By working together, corporate strategy and development can create shareholder value and help take the company forward.

The corporate strategy function is often housed within the larger company’s investment banking or private equity group. This is because these groups often have expertise in deal structuring and execution and access to capital. The corporate strategy team works with the management team to identify attractive opportunities and then with the investment bankers or private equity investors to execute those opportunities.

The two teams need to be closely aligned to ensure that the company is moving in the right direction and progressing toward its goals. Corporate strategy should be regularly revisited and updated to keep corporate development on track. Suppose there are changes in the market or within the company. In that case, the corporate strategy may need to be adjusted for corporate development to continue working towards achieving the company’s goals.

Conclusion

Corporate development and corporate strategy are two distinct but related management areas. Corporate development is focused on the activities that create value for the company over time, while corporate strategy outlines how to achieve those goals. Understanding their differences will enable you to manage your organization’s resources best, develop efficient processes and practices, and ensure long-term success.

With a deep understanding of both areas, businesses can reap the most benefit from each activity and create an environment where employees work together towards a common goal.

This article is a great resource for anyone looking to understand the nuances between corporate development and corporate strategy. With the help of Leadership Tribe’s agile training services, businesses can ensure their teams are well-equipped to maximize the impact of both roles and create an environment where employees work together towards a common goal. Leadership Tribe’s agile transformation provides interactive, hands-on workshops that equip teams with the skills and techniques needed to stay ahead of the competition.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Leadership Tribe’s agile training services can help your business thrive, please visit our contact us page to get in touch with our team. We look forward to hearing from you!

Coaching Mindset for Leaders

by Agile Blogger | Feb 13, 2023 | Agile Coaching

Rapport Building

by Krishna Chodipilli | Feb 8, 2023 | Agile Coaching, Leadership And Management

Why do we end some calls in a few seconds but continue other conversations for over 10 minutes?

It is not about the product or service they’re selling but how the caller initiates the conversation. It’s all about whether they’re building rapport with you.

Rapport is the fundamental prerequisite for all effective communication. We can all remember situations where we had an excellent rapport with a client or colleague versus those that didn’t work so well.

How to build rapport at work

The working relationships that we develop are integral to what we accomplish professionally. Building trust and positive relationships with our team members are some of the most important things contributing to professional success.

A strong rapport between colleagues is good for team building, effective teamwork, employee engagement, productivity, and business success. But it requires effort and attention daily.

How to build rapport with colleagues

Find common ground – don’t fake an interest in something you don’t care about, but strong relationships build on some commonality of mindset, approach, or experience.

Have a genuine interest in what they’re talking and saying. That doesn’t mean agreeing with everything they say but finding a topic in which you have a shared interest.

Hone your listening skills. Good relationships involve two-way conversations. It’s natural to contribute your thoughts or experiences, but ensure you make space for your colleague to speak while actively listening.

Be prepared to share. If you want to learn something from someone or even initiate a professional relationship, you need to give something of yourself. Be ready to share some previous experiences to build trust and that all-important rapport with new colleagues. It is particularly appropriate when you need to break the ice with a new team.

How to build employee relationships

Take time to establish trust – to be trusted; you need to learn to trust your employee. Empower your employees and see how they grow, and respect them for it.

Schedule time to develop good working relationships – block that one-to-one meeting with direct reports, make time for talking, and, importantly, active listening.

Open up – people are encouraged to bring their ‘whole self’ to work, which means taking an interest in their personal life and sharing some of your own.

Start as you mean to go on – set the template for your working relationship from day one with new employees. Establish a routine of talking to them, making eye contact, and listening to what they say from the first time they work with you in their new job.

How to build rapport with a remote team

The work environment is changing, and this can mean colleagues work as a fully remote team or a hybrid model, with some days in the office and others at home or elsewhere. Talking over video retains connection, but it can affect communication skills. It’s harder to pick up on signs of body language when you’re not face-to-face, for example.

Working remotely can be harder to feel part of a team (especially as a new employee). Daily video calls help with this, as do regular check-in calls. Whether sitting next to each other in the office or speaking over a video call, good rapport comes from establishing one-to-one working relationships, building trust, and spending time together.

Establish some of the rituals that you’d have in the physical workspace. Say hello and goodbye at the start and end of the day. Enquire about their well-being. Have a coffee together and engage in a conversation. Acts like this will help with staff retention and employee engagement.

Ways to achieve rapport

The most effective communication that professionals gain rapport is by matching non-verbal behavior.

Body language: mirroring and matching

When you’re meeting a client, try to match their posture. If they move their head to one side, you can follow the same but in a way that doesn’t appear like you’re mocking them. Adjust your body to match your posture.

The tone and tempo of their voice or facial expression are some other mannerisms you can try to match.

In most conversations, we sit on the opposite side of the table. However, sitting next to each other will improve verbal expressions, positively impacting the conversation.

We’re all playing the role of a salesperson wanting to engage with the other person. We must be consciously aware of this and make it part of our muscle memory.

Contact our knowledgeable team to find out more about rapport building.

REFERENCE: CHARLES FAULKNER & STEVE ANDREAS – NLP THE NEW TECHNOLOGY OF ACHIEVEMENT

What Is Agile Coaching?

by Agile Blogger | Jan 31, 2023 | Agile Coaching

Agile coaching is a relatively new role that has emerged in response to the popularity of Agile ways of working. Agile coaches help teams transition to and operate within an agile framework such as Scrum or Kanban, providing support and guidance at every step. In this post, we’ll explore what agile coaching is, what the benefits are, and how you can become an Agile coach.

What is agile coaching?

Agile coaching is a people-centric approach that focuses on developing and strengthening teams’ capabilities to improve performance. Agile coaches are trained in 5 skill areas:

• Agile & Lean Practices
• Mentoring
• Professional Coaching
• Facilitation
• Teaching

As Agile coaches, they facilitate team learning, provide support and guidance, help teams adjust to changes in the environment, and serve as a bridge between team members and in-between teams. They are guides who help individuals and groups navigate their transition to Agile and leverage continuous improvement in their Agile practices. In this way, they foster collaboration and focus on achieving optimal results.

The agile coach competency framework can help Team Coaches, Scrum Masters, Agile coaches assess their skills and strengths, identify areas of improvement, and focus on the most critical aspects of coaching to fulfill the needs of their clients. A good understanding of this framework can help Agile coaches build trust with teams, understand team dynamics, create a better learning environment, and, ultimately, help teams reach their goals.

What are the benefits of agile coaching?

Having an agile coach can be incredibly beneficial for agile teams. An agile coach is knowledgeable in agile principles and processes, making them a valuable asset that can help hold agile teams, product owners, and stakeholders accountable while leveraging their knowledge to support the team’s needs. By analyzing situations from a creative perspective and offering new ways of thinking, agile coaches can bring visibility to problems, help formulate solutions, and provide guidance on improving individual performances and that of the entire team or organization. Furthermore, agile coaches can recognize patterns of success that can tailor to different groups with various goals and objectives. Ultimately, coaching agile teams through their journey yields strengthened relationships, heightened morale, improved efficiency and effectiveness of processes, better strategies for collaboration, and streamlined decision-making.

Agile coaching is different from project management in that it emphasizes the team dynamics and collaboration of the group. Agile coaches focus on helping the development team to become more effective by understanding its current state, identifying areas of improvement, and providing guidance to maximize efficiency. A project manager usually focuses on completing tasks or goals within a given timeline. At the same time, an agile coach helps the team progress and improve by teaching processes and coaching individuals. Agile coaches must be experienced in communication, collaboration, and leadership and bring the Agile mindset to change initiatives. With proper coaching from an agile coach, teams can benefit from agile project management by implementing agile processes into their project management frameworks.

How do you learn agile coaching?

To become an Agile coach and develop the skills and values necessary to guide teams through their Agile adoption successfully, one should consider taking a course from an accredited institution such as ICAgile. ICAgile is an international credentialing body that provides agile coach certifications such as the ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC) and the ICAgile Certified Coaching Agile Transformations (ICP-CAT). These courses cover various topics such as effective team facilitation, coaching for high performance, working with leadership, creating learning environments, and organizational and cultural awareness. With the proper training, any aspiring Agile coach can become a successful guide to their team’s journey towards Agile success.

Scrum Masters can become Agile Coaches by taking additional training such as Agile Team Coach or Enterprise Coach certifications. These certifications provide Professional Scrum Masters with the knowledge they need to understand the principles of Agile methodology and how to best implement these practices in their teams. With this additional knowledge and certification, Scrum Masters have all the skills to become effective Agile Coaches. Moreover, with continuous learning and development, they will be able to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices (such as DevOps), learn how to facilitate conversations between teams and stakeholders better, and ultimately provide the best guidance possible to their teams.

Becoming an agile coach also requires practice and dedication. A great agile coach listens to the team, understands their needs, and helps them reach their goals in the most efficient way possible. Agile coaches must be comfortable providing feedback and helping teams improve by giving meaningful advice while also being supportive of team members. Agile coaches need to be agile coaches to recognize patterns of success and failures and tailor their coaching approach to the team’s needs. Additionally, agile coaches should have a wide range of tools and techniques to adjust as needed for each unique situation. With practice and dedication, anyone can become an effective agile coach and help teams achieve great results.

Levels of agile coaching

There are three different levels of Agile coaching:

Team Facilitator

A Team Facilitator is an Agile coach who works directly on the team level to help them become successful in their journey toward agility. The role of a team facilitator is to ensure that everyone understands the goals, vision, and values of the agile program, as well as help teams by providing clarity on roles and responsibilities within each project. They also play a crucial role in helping identify and address any challenges or behaviors they may encounter during their process and conducting retrospectives with the team. A team facilitator should have technical and soft skills, as they must be able to explain technical concepts while listening and understanding the team’s needs. Through facilitation, a team facilitator helps teams become more cohesive and efficient.

Agile Team Coach

Agile Team Coaching requires working with teams to help them achieve agility through implementing Lean-Agile practices and agile methods. It involves assisting groups in understanding the principles behind Agile methodology, including self-organizing and high-performing teams, collaboration, and adaptation to change. An agile team coach needs to identify areas that need improvement in process, communication, and engagement of team members so that the team can maximize its efficiency. Additionally, they should be able to provide guidance, feedback, and support to the team to help them identify and reach their goals.

Enterprise Coach

An Enterprise Agile Coach is a change agent who works with organizations to help them achieve agility and guide successful transformations. They navigate by assessing the current organization and its culture, understanding agile leadership engagement, and providing strategies for implementing Agile methodologies. One pathway to becoming an Enterprise Coach is ICAgile’s Certified Professional in Enterprise Coaching (ICP-ENT), which goes beyond software development and focuses on business agility as the goal. Enterprise coaches must be knowledgeable in organizational assessments, cultural awareness, and leadership engagement. To successfully help organizations, they must focus on developing and implementing systems thinking approach that meets the needs of the organization and its team members.

By understanding the different levels of Agile Coaching, teams can ensure they are working with experienced coaches and understand their specific needs.

Why Do You Need Agile Coaching?

Agile coaching is integral to any organization that wants to stay up-to-date with the changes in their field and consistently produce superior products. With an agile coach, organizations can take advantage of opportunities to streamline processes, optimize efficiency, and discover bottom-line improvements. Not having an agile coach can have serious consequences, including a lack of focus on essential details, failure to recognize gaps in productivity or operations, and laying down plans without considering the consequences of making certain decisions. Utilizing the services of an agile coach will provide valuable guidance while uncovering essential insights within an organization. An agile coach can help ensure your team has the right tools and mindset to make good decisions quickly and strategically turn consequences into opportunities.

Conclusion

Agile coaching is a process that helps organizations and individuals learn and implement the Agile methodology. Agile coaching has many benefits, including improved communication, faster delivery of value, increased transparency, and more. Leadership Tribe will help prepare you for the Scrum Alliance Certified Team Coach and Certified Enterprise Agile Coach certifications. If you’re interested in learning more about agile coaching or becoming an agile coach, check out our latest courses at Agile Coach Bootcamp or read more about agile topics on our blog.

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