Agile Team Coach Module 06 Agile team coach as Facilitator

Welcome to Module 6, Agile Team Coach as facilitator. This

module focuses on an Agile Team Coach fulfilling the role
as a facilitator.

In this module, we'll talk about what is a facilitator,

what is facilitation, when you would use facilitation
techniques; and finally, how do you facilitate a session.
A facilitator, first and foremost, is a person that helps
groups and organizations work more effectively. I
affectionately call it herding cats in a thunderstorm.

As a facilitator, you are there as a nonparticipating guide

that does not have a stake in the outcome of the meeting
other than to ensure that the objectives were achieved.

Sometimes it may be difficult to facilitate meetings for a

team that you have a very close relationship with because
of the objectives. This is when you may consider calling
in another Agile Team Coach that can be impartial and
neutral.

Think of a facilitator as a ringmaster, keeping everything

moving but carefully watching and listening to the
interaction of the group.

A facilitator also needs to be aware of the different

dysfunctional personality types that will show up and

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Agile Team Coach Module 06 Agile team coach as Facilitator

understand how to work through the dysfunction without

interrupting the rest of the group.

Facilitation is a structured process that is flexible

enough to change depending upon the needs of the group.
There are a variety of facilitation techniques and
frameworks that you can and should learn to use.

The act of facilitation produces group buy-in, increased

group participation and helps improve productivity. It
also teaches teams how to self-manage and feel empowered as
they are an active part of the solution gathering and
decision making process.

Agile teams may ask the Agile Team Coach to facilitate any
or all of the following events. Release, project and
iteration planning, project startup or project resets,
retrospectives, persona identification, hill and story
identification, empathy mapping and any meeting where
collaboration and decision making needs to take place.

In order to start facilitator sessions, you should really

find a specific facilitation process or framework to help
guide you in a logical sequence until you're experienced at

facilitation and create one to suit your specific style.

There are three basic parts of a meeting. The pre-meeting

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Agile Team Coach Module 06 Agile team coach as Facilitator

preparation work, the work you do during the meeting and

the work you do after the meeting. The next set of slides
will focus on each of these three parts.

Room setup is vital. You want to ensure that tables are

arranged in groups of five to ten, depending on the number
of attendees. Classroom or lecture style setup is
counterproductive to a collaborative meeting.

Ensure you have everything in advance from electronics to

office supplies. Always make a point of having backups for
your electronic needs. Things happen and it usually
involves something that needs connectors, plug-ins,
batteries, et cetera.

A favorite neuroscience technique is to provide toys such

as Play-Doh, Slinkies, Smurf balls, and Legos. Providing
these toys will help bring the level of individual
participation to a new height for you and the attendees.

Have questions prepared in advance, such as what's the

purpose of the meeting? Who is attending the meeting? Who
are the stakeholders? What is their participation in the
meeting? When and where is the meeting? Will food,

snacks, or water be made available? Will people be

traveling to attend the meeting? What types of activities
should you, as a facilitator, consider using?

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Agile Team Coach Module 06 Agile team coach as Facilitator

If an agenda does not exist, create one yourself and put it

in your facilitation guide template.

Building a safe space or container is a professional

coaching technique that you should learn how to do. This
will help the team feel more at ease, comfortable, and help
them open up once the conversations begin.

Allow everyone to settle in and get present. This is a

great time to introduce the group to a concept known as
checking in. For checking in, have each person say one
word which describes how they're feeling at this exact
moment.

Explain the concept. Tell them your check-in word and give
them 30 seconds to think about it. Then go around the room
and ask each person for their one-word check-in.

Another technique to consider is an exercise called who are

you. Consider using this if the attendees do not know each
other. A working agreement, sometimes known as a social
contract, should also be created and agreed to by all the
attendees.

Now it's time for the power start. After all that, get the
meeting work under way by incorporating collaboration

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Agile Team Coach Module 06 Agile team coach as Facilitator

techniques such as listing, grouping and brainstorming.

As a facilitator, you listen to the conversations and help

guide them through each activity without influencing any
decision making.

After all the objectives have been discussed and the

meeting is coming to the end, it's time to review the
completed work. What was actually done compared to the
agreed-upon objectives?

What are the deliverables? What are the remaining issues

in the parking lot and who has the action items for each of
them?

The next part is to discuss and agree on the action items.

What is each action item? Who's been assigned or
volunteered for each item? Who's needed to help complete
the work? When is the item expected to be completed and
what's the acceptance criteria and how will you know the
work is done? Finally, who is the approver or accepter of
this work?

The meeting is over. Now it's time to formally close it.

Conduct a retrospective specifically about the meeting

itself. What was good about the meeting? What could have
been done better? What questions came up during the

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meeting that still need to be addressed? Who's going to

address them and when's the plan to get them addressed?

Then create an action plan to address ways in which you can

get better as a team.

After the retrospective, you as a facilitator should ask

someone in the meeting to conduct a retrospective on your
performance as the facilitator. You will then use this as
a way to improve your next facilitation.

Include some time for the meeting host or a key stakeholder

to say any departing words as needed. Lastly, provide time
to discuss information regarding future meeting dates,
times and locations.

This concludes Agile Team Coach as facilitator. In the

next module, we'll discuss Agile Team Coach fulfilling the
role of a trainer. Be safe and be Agile.
[END OF SEGMENT]

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