Agile in the Ether

What I particularly like about Lean Coffee are the timeboxes. At Agile in the Ether yesterday it was an hour for the whole event and just eight minutes per topic. At that level, the investment is low and the potential returns are high: some ideas for right-now problems and background for those that will surely come later. On top of that, the possibility that I can share something that will be a win for someone else.

Here's my notes aggregated from the conversations.

Ideas for agile coaching teams when you're in there on a very ad hoc basis. How to not disturb but still bring a value. Is it possible?

The teams are typically overconstrained which makes change difficult.
It's common for the coach to suggest an approach but not return for a couple of iterations.
They don't know whether it landed.
Can you build a relationship with someone in the team and have close communication with them to get the feedback?
Ideally this would be with someone who cares about improvements and would be very regular.
Find other people in the team who can evangelise and teach them to coach.
Remember that you can't do everything.
Find a way to priortise, e.g. just coach retros across all teams.
Try and get a coaching agreement with leadership to decide on a focus.
Find some leading indicators that teams need your help and focus on those teams.
Can you focus on a particular team for a longer period?
Let a successful team tell the stories of their success to others.
Remember that practices should be contextual and you can give different advice to teams at different stages. If these teams need it, perhaps be very directive.
See also Dreyful model of skills acquisition.

How to combat "rabbit holing" being used to strong-arm or shut down conversations.

You might accuse someone of rabbit-holing if you feel they are going way deeper into a topic than the context merits.
The phrase is being used to shut down conversations. Not in meetings, though, but outside of them.
"I've been told I'm rabbit-holing"
Can conversations around the topics be (more) facilitated to help get around this?
It sounds like "this is just semantics" or bike-shedding.
Different people have different perspectives and exposing that might help.
Can there be shared understanding of positions or a common goal?
Perhaps those who want high-level conversation can give context on why it should stay general.
Perhaps those who want low-level can explain why it's relevant and important.
Teach people to communicate well e.g. the pyramid principle.
A coaching trick to decide what level to speak at is to ask "Do you want a straight answer?"
Find ways to let people talk about the risks they perceive and then acknowledge them.
Use some kind of tool to surface concerns as a group: discovery template, Six Thinking Hats, Riskstorming.
Talk about the feelings around rabbit-holing separate from the meetings.
Find consensus-building techniques and increase psychological safety.
Ask "is anyone thinking about something they're not saying?"

The one best training, conference or qualification you've done, and why

Any tips on getting a team that has been so focused on delivering what's in front of them to start thinking about longer term vison & goals

The team don't seem to be able to break out of the low-level builder mindset.
Right now we need to be thinking at a higher, longer-term level.
Have you tried a different location? A change in environment might help to change the thinking patterns.
Throw the old backlog away. Reset the context!
Some teams love to be reactive!
Take a look at the Good Strategy, Bad Strategy.
Pick a small thing and focus on it.
Try OKRs. (That don't suck.)
Take a look at Continuous Discovery Habits.
Pre-mortems (or futurespective), puts them in a mindset of having done it.
The switch from detail to wide view can be hard. Ask what is blocking them from doing it.
Connect their work to the company's vision.

Image: https://flic.kr/p/boCumi

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