Agile

An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling — Bob Galen at the 53. Hands-on Agile

TL; DR: Hands-on Agile #53: An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling with Bob Galen

On September 5, 2023, we had the opportunity to listen to Bob Galen on “An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling.” In this session, Bob shared his experience coaching an agile coach struggling to connect with a development manager. He underscored the transformative impact of incorporating personal narratives, lessons learned, teaching stories, and purpose or vision stories into coaching conversations. Moreover, Bob demonstrated the compelling power of storytelling in agile coaching by using stories to share knowledge and wisdom while fostering dialogue.

📺 Watch the video now: An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling — Bob Galen at the 53. Hands-on Agile.

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Abstract

“I’m going to tell you a story.”

“I was coaching an agile coach who lamented that they weren’t connecting with their coaching client, in this case, a development manager. I asked them to share a typical coaching conversation, and they spoke about a series of questions they asked that essentially went unanswered—leaving them and the client quite frustrated. I asked them what other coaching techniques they had tried, and it boiled down to only coaching stances and only open-ended questions.”

“I suggested they experiment with weaving some stories into their coaching conversations. Personal stories, lesson-learned stories, teaching stories, purpose or vision stories, and relationship or connection-building stories. I spoke to them about sharing their knowledge and wisdom with the client via story, not dominating the conversation but augmenting it, and using the story as a backdrop to their questions and explorations with the client.”

“They later told me that this small change significantly impacted their coaching after a bit of practice. This talk is about bringing the power of Storytelling INTO your agile coaching and discovering the magic of the Story. Now, please share this story with others, and I hope to see you in the talk…”

During the Q&A, Bob answered the following questions:

  • How can you utilize stories in agile coaching without being prescriptive?
  • Any tips to get over the feeling of “people don’t want to hear about me and my stories; they just want facts”?
  • When you are an introverted Scrum Master struggling with ad-hoc verbal creativity, how can you improve storytelling?

Watch the recording of Bob’s session now:

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Meet Bob Galen

Bob Galen is an Agile Practitioner, Trainer & Coach based in Cary, NC. In this role he helps guide companies and teams in their pragmatic adoption and organizational shift towards agile methods of working.

Bob has been doing that since the late 1990s, so he’s deeply experienced. He is the Director of Agile Practice at Zenergy Technologies, a leading business agility transformation company. Bob is also President and Head Coach at RGCG a boutique agile coaching firm.

Bob regularly speaks at international conferences and professional groups on topics related to agile software development, testing, scaling, and organizational leadership. He is a Certified Enterprise Coach (CEC), Scrum Alliance CAL trainer, and an active member of the Agile & Scrum Alliances.

He’s published four agile-centric books: The Three Pillars of Agile Quality and Testing in 2015, Scrum Product Ownership, 3’rd Edition in 2019, and Agile Reflections in 2012, and Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching in 2022.

Connect with Bob Galen

Bob Galen on Agile Moose and RGalen Consulting

Bob Galen’s Podcast

Bob Galen on LinkedIn

📺 Watch the video now: An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling — Bob Galen at the 53. Hands-on Agile.

📅 Scrum Training Classes, Workshops, and Events

Learn more about Bob Galen’s idea of storytelling with our Scrum training classes, workshops, and events. You can secure your seat directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:

Date Class and Language City Price
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 23-24, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Master (Advanced) Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #61: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations with Fortune Buchholtz (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 May 14-15, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 May 28-29, 2024 Professional Scrum Master (Advanced) Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 6, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #62: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager: From Outputs to Outcomes w/ David Pereira (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 13-July 11, 2024 GUARANTEED: Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (PBM; English; Live Virtual Cohort) Live Virtual Class €399 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 July 9-10, 2024 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.299 incl. 19% VAT

See all upcoming classes here.

You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.

Stefan Wolpers

Stefan ist Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) bei Scrum.org und arbeitet seit über 17 Jahren als Scrum Master, Agile Coach und Product Owner. Stefan kuratiert den größten Newsletter der agilen Community — Food for Agile Thought — mit über 47.000 Abonnenten und ist der Admin der Hands-on Agile Slack-Community mit über 12.000 Mitgliedern.

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