Abstract: How is "facilitation" a surprising tool in an Agile transformation? Good facilitation wins the hearts and minds of the people. Without people, you have no transformation. If you want to create a "pull", rather than a "push", then grab onto facilitation as your entry point. Vastly different groups of people within this Fortune 100 Company, all had immediate boulders blocking their view to transformation. I decided to be a people's coach, rolling up my sleeves, working right there beside them, moving those immediate boulders. Once they could experience a different way of thinking through good facilitation, then they were more open to thinking differently about larger Agile transformation topics. Forget about processes and practices if their heads are full of other more immediate pain points. Help to push those boulders out of the way and you have cleared a path to Agile transformation. Give energy towards facilitating fast outcomes to current gaps, and you've built a bridge. Facilitation was a quick win and quick wins make stronger bridges.
In this experience report you will see behind the curtain as I share with you how customized facilitation opens doors within the organization to Agile mindset shifts that weren't being opened through our usual coaching approaches. You'll leave with my facilitation guides for reference and opportunities to talk to me more about how you could use facilitation as an Agile transformation tool.
Lessons Learned from Your Experience: - As a coach, active facilitation released the resistance of the boulders blocking transformation
- As an Agile transformation agent, this challenged small paradigms that weren't as emotionally charged, in order to challenge larger paradigms in the future
- As a coach, built trust by being in it with them, not above them talking theory
- As a coach, these facilitated exercises opened up conversations that were not safe in normal settings, resulting in stronger high performing teams
- Accelerate time to market. Let’s face it….meetings happen. Making them streamlined and value based using active facilitation brought the vision of Agile transformation closer.
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