I attended the first Rachel Davies’ Agile Coaching Skills course at SkillsMatter and found it full of useful stuff that I can put straight into practice.
The course did not seek to explain Agile techniques or methodologies, instead focusing on the people skills an effective coach needs. For me this was a real plus of the course, the group were all seasoned practitioners with a good understanding and we didn’t have to stop and make sure everyone knew what we were talking about – on the rare occasion that someone didn’t know they just asked for a quick explanation. I have taken many new ideas and skills from the course, some being:
ORID questions
- Objective – the facts about the experience or event.
- Reflective – how you felt about the experience.
- Interpretive – consider the meaning and value of the experience to the team.
- Decisional – decide on an action or response to the experience.
While I’ve not consciously used this questioning technique yet, I feel that it provides a good place to fall back to. If I’m ever unsure of how to carry on with a conversation I can fall back to working through the stages and end up with a useful, and relevant, decision.
Hackman model of coaching interventions
- Motivational – addressing effort.
- Consultative – addressing performance.
- Educational – addressing knowledge and skill.
This model raised my awareness of the decisions I make. During the course I pretty much always thought of a consultative approach to any problem first, but, using the Hackman model, when I stopped and thought further I found I could normally come up with at least three options, one in each group. These three options mean that I can make sure I not only have more than one way of approaching an issue, but each action is going to try to tackle the problem from a different angle.
Would I do this course again? Yes, and I’ll probably be looking for a more advanced version in the future to take my coaching skills to the next level.
John McFadyen 
Posted on March 25, 2010
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