Solution Focused Agile Coaching

The first session of the day was Pierluigi Pugliese talking about solution focused Agile coaching. He ran the session as a workshop, which made it much more interactive.

We are typically used to looking at a problem from a point of view of solving a problem. Solution focused is the opposite. Rather than focusing on solving the problem, we describe what the solution is like and how it feels. Rather than analyzing the problem, we ask questions that focus on designing the solution.

Why use this approach? It’s all about psychology. If we only look back at the past and perform root cause analysis, more than likely, someone is going to get blamed, causing as Pierluigi told us resistance and conflict to occur. Collaboration will then fail, and solutions cannot be reached. So rather, we coalesce as a group around creating a solution, working toward a common goal.

Sounds hokie? Quite the opposite.

Have you been in meetings that turn into blame games? Have you ever been the person to get blamed? How did that work out? People will usually shut down and entrench once they go into a defensive mode. When we shut down we don’t look for solutions.

The role of the coach here is to open up options by asking questions, and specifically asking the right questions.

All of the facts belong only to the problem, not to its solution. – Ludwig Wittgenstein

So how do we do this?

1. Move the client to the solution state
2. Experience the difference (remove the problem and look at the difference)
3. Find the path to the solution, backwards

How does this fit into Agile?

In retrospectives, we can use the following process:

• Set the stage
• Envision a solution
• Find the differences
• Define the steps needed (and action items)
• Close the retrospective

So if we are having quality issues, we envision that we are delivering good quality. What are we doing differently to deliver that quality? Have we added more tests? Did we have more QA? Once we know what we’ve “done” we can take the steps to make that a reality.

This does assume that you know what the problem is. For instance an issue of quality, or that we are not delivering on time, or something else. The difference is that rather than find a solution by looking into the past at what caused the issue (thus assigning blame and putting people on the defensive), we look at the solution and work back to the problem, and then take the steps to achieve the solution.

It is a very subtle difference, but one with great impact. Sounds easy, however when running through an exercise it was shown not to be.

Coaching solution focused means:

• Define the goal
• Ask, don’t suggest
• Avoid negative judgement
• Appreciate the positive
• Elicit new options and past resources
• Focus on possible solutions
• Wait as much as needed

Pierluigi will have the slides of his presentation on his blog, along with a handout with techniques you can use. I suggest you check it out. Pure awesome.

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3. Rachel Davies Keynote At Agile Central Europe