Let me introduce you to 6 different personalities that I almost always meet in my work as an external agile coach

In my work as an agile coach, I meet many different people. That is one of the things that make my work interesting, but it sometimes also makes it difficult.

As an agile coach, you must of course have in-depth knowledge of various agile methods and frameworks, but you also need to be able to produce results while cooperating with many different types of people and getting them on the same wave-length.

Each personality is driven by different things. They show different behaviors and you need to be able to deal with them all and avoid potential conflicts between clashing behaviors.

For some reason agile implementations often become emotional. There seem to be many feelings involved. This may be because many interpret a new way of working as a criticism of the way things are currently done.

I see this as a personality thing. Do you see change as something dangerous that pinpoints something you have done wrong, or do you see it as an opportunity to improve and learn new things?

Now let me introduce you to the personalities that I most often meet

Below I will introduce you to an imaginary team of people. Members of this team include the personalities that I have met often enough for this to look like a pattern.

The names of the team members are merely the result of my imagination and have no resemblance to any specific, living persons.

Meet one of my favorites, “Conscious Connie”

Connie is ambitious, and she is easy to work with because she is fully aware that she and her team should increase their agility so they can produce more value faster. She believes that with the help from an external coach they will probably reach that goal quicker. She is open to learning about agile practices and ways of working and is more than willing to try new things.

Then meet “Connie’s” contrast, “Unconscious Ursula”

Ursula likes her work, and she is working away. She is not aware that there are any improvement opportunities or problems with the team’s performance or ways of working. Since she is unaware of any team problems, she is not looking for any solutions. Neither agile nor anything else. She is happy enough about how things are going and would prefer to be left alone so she can concentrate on her work. But if change comes her way, she will most likely go with the flow.

Now let me introduce you to “Negative Nick”

Nick has been with the company for many years, and the mere thought of anyone external to the company was to come and tell him what to do or even suggest that there might be a need for change makes him angry. Nick has heard about “agile”, but he has seen so many fads, and he is sure that this is just one of them. Nick believes that as a principle the best he can do is to work against any change coming his way. Even if it is initiated by his managers. He does, after all, know how to do his job! Besides, he is certain that he and his team are so different that “agile” would never work for them.

The next team member is “Technical Tina”

Tina knows that she and her team could probably work more efficiently. She is OK with trying to become more agile, but she is not very keen on all the talk about values, mindset, behavior, and such. Instead, she is convinced that if only the team had the right piece of software, they would improve immediately. She is not interested in learning a new method — agile or not. She thinks it is irrelevant as long as the team can get access to “the right system”. She believes that introducing such a system to the team will automatically result in higher productivity.

Now to “Problem Peter”

Peter does know that the team is not as efficient as it could be. He is aware that they have quite a few bad habits and believes that if only they could find the right agile path, they could work to change those habits accordingly and increase their agility. Peter knows that there are several agile methods and frameworks to choose between, but don’t think that they should pick any of them before they have thoroughly investigated all possible alternatives. He does not want to run the risk of choosing the wrong solution. He has investigated a bit but thinks that so far there is not a single agile method or framework that will not introduce new problems. He thinks that an answer to those should be found before they go any further.

The last team member is “Enthusiastic Elsa”

For a long time, she has been hoping for an opportunity for her and the rest of the team to introduce more agile ways of working. She is a big fan of agile methods and has been part of several agile teams in her previous job. Elsa has experienced how much you can achieve as a team when you start to share knowledge, be transparent about who is doing what, and focusing on what is blocking progress. She cannot wait to get started!

High-performing teams are few and far between.

Many are talking about high-performing teams as if it is a construction that you can just decide to make. It is easy to understand why businesses want their teams to be high-performing, and I have had the pleasure of working with a few during my +30 years working with IT projects, but only rarely.

On those rare occasions, I was lucky enough to work with teams that were put together by exceptionally skilled and motivated people. They were structured, disciplined, and results-oriented. These characteristics have to do with mindset, behavior, values, culture, etc., shared by the members of those teams. However, such characteristics are impossible to transfer to other people or teams.

You cannot order teams to be high-performing, but you can facilitate a mindset change.

I almost always work with teams that include a mix of the personas mentioned above. When there are “Connies” or “Elsas” on those teams, my work is much easier than when there is an overweight of “Nicks” and “Peters”. However, you cannot choose what teams you get to work with, and as an agile coach, you need to be able to work with them all and have a strategy for how to do it.

There is no doubt that you will be able to get to a higher level of agility quicker when you work with positive, even enthusiastic, people. They are pulling in the same direction as you, and are ready to change.

When you work with less positive people there is a risk that you will get almost nowhere. You may be able to move in mouse steps, but you would be fooling yourself if you think that you can achieve a high level of agility in a team that cannot see any benefits in changing.

Whether you will be able to achieve team or even organizational agility is depending on the people you have on board, and their willingness to change. But it’s so rewarding every time you succeed.