Lyssa Adkins' 'Coaching Agile Teams' serves as a comprehensive guide for agile coaches, covering various aspects of team development and performance. It emphasizes the importance of building self-organizing teams and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. The book delves into the coach's role in facilitating team collaboration, conflict resolution, and decision-making. Adkins provides practical techniques and tools for coaches to help teams reach their full potential. It also addresses the challenges of scaling agile and the coach's role in supporting organizational transformation. 'Coaching Agile Teams' is a valuable resource for both new and experienced agile coaches seeking to enhance their skills and impact.
In 'Start with Why', Simon Sinek introduces the concept of 'The Golden Circle', which consists of 'Why', 'How', and 'What'. He argues that successful leaders and organizations start with their purpose or 'Why', which inspires loyalty and trust. Sinek uses examples such as Apple, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Wright Brothers to illustrate how this approach can lead to significant influence and success. The book emphasizes the importance of leadership and purpose in inspiring others and achieving long-term success.
Joel Bancroft-Connors: How Performance Reviews Killed a Great Agile Team
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Joel tells the story of a team caught in the crossfire of a poorly executed large-scale agile transformation. While the CTO championed going agile, they quickly checked out, leaving the organization without clear direction or understanding of why they were adopting agile practices. The company measured success through output metrics like "number of teams trained" rather than meaningful outcomes. Joel worked with an exceptional team that had built their own collaborative workspace and was performing well, but external forces kept pulling them out of flow. Performance reviews created internal conflict, leading team members to focus on individual success rather than collective achievement. The team ultimately fell into their own traps, with everyone "focusing on themselves and throwing others under the bus." Joel recommends balancing performance evaluations with 50% team-based and 50% individual metrics to prevent this destructive pattern.
Self-reflection Question: Does your team truly understand why they are using Scrum, or are they just going through the motions of the framework?
Featured Book of the Week: Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Joel credits Simon Sinek's "Start with Why" as a transformational influence on his coaching approach. The book's central principle that "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it" fundamentally changed how Joel teaches Scrum. He realized he had been teaching Scrum incorrectly by focusing on the mechanics rather than the purpose. Now Joel listens to this book annually and has shifted his focus to helping teams and organizations understand why Scrum matters and why it's important. This shift from teaching the "what" to emphasizing the "why" has made his coaching significantly more effective and meaningful.
Joel also mentions the book Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins.
[Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
🚀 Global Agile Summit 2025
Join us in Tallinn, Estonia, from May 18th – 20th, 2025, for an event that will inspire, challenge, and equip you with real-world Agile success stories.
🌍 Connect with global Agile leaders.
💡 Learn practical strategies for impact.
🔥 Break free from Agile fatigue and become a Pragmatic Innovator
Check Full Program
[Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
About Joel Bancroft-Connors
Joel Bancroft-Connors is The Gorilla Coach — a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile disruptor focused on sustainable value and effectiveness. With a background in product, project, and coaching, Joel blends sharp insights with practical tools to help teams thrive. He is a Miro power user and rocks curated classroom playlists.
You can link with Joel Bancroft-Connors on LinkedIn.
Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches 