Book Notes #19: Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

Title: Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition
Author: Lyssa Adkins
Year: 2010
Pages: 352

Coaching isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about creating space for the right ones to emerge.

That’s what Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins is really about. It’s not just a guide for ScrumMasters or agile professionals; it’s a thoughtful, honest, and deeply human book about what it means to support teams, grow people, and become the kind of leader who leads quietly but powerfully.

If you’ve ever wondered how to truly help a team without taking over, or how to be present without being the center, this book offers answers—rooted in experience, humility, and real-world stories that feel incredibly relatable.

As a result, I gave this book a rating of 7.5/10.

For me, a book with a note 10 is one I consider reading again every year. Among the books I rank with 10, for example, are How to Win Friends and Influence People and Factfulness.

3 Reasons to Read Coaching Agile Teams

Book Overview

Have you ever watched a team that just clicks—no micromanaging, no chaos, just clear collaboration and real results? That kind of magic doesn’t happen by accident. It’s cultivated. And that’s exactly what Lyssa Adkins explores in Coaching Agile Teams, a book that’s less about agile frameworks and more about the people who bring them to life.

At first glance, you might think this book is a how-to for ScrumMasters or Agile Coaches. But it goes deeper than ceremonies and roles. It’s about how to show up. Lyssa invites you into a completely different mindset—one where coaching is 60% about who you are and only 40% about what you do. It’s not enough to know agile; you have to live it. And that means working on yourself first: your presence, your emotional reactions, your ability to listen, and your willingness to let go of control.

One of the most eye-opening ideas in the book is how agile coaches wear many hats. Some days you’re a teacher, helping teams understand the basics. Other days, you’re a facilitator, quietly holding the space while the team runs with it. Then you might shift into the role of a mentor, drawing on experience to guide someone through a challenge. And sometimes, you’re simply a mirror—reflecting back what the team already knows deep down. What matters is knowing when to switch roles and when to step aside. The coach isn’t the center of the team—the team is.

But even with all that clarity, it’s easy to fall into traps. Lyssa doesn’t shy away from the common failure modes coaches face. There’s the “Seagull,” who swoops in with advice and disappears. Or the “Nag,” who reminds everyone of their tasks instead of helping them self-manage. These roles are painfully familiar, and yet they’re shared with so much compassion that you can’t help but laugh and nod. And the book doesn’t stop at pointing out the problem—it offers a way forward. Recovery isn’t about perfection; it’s about presence, trust, and small course corrections every day.

Where the book really shines is in its heart. Lyssa doesn’t treat coaching as a performance—it’s a relationship. A quiet, powerful one built on respect, deep listening, and a belief that people and teams can do amazing things when given the right environment. Whether it’s teaching a team how to hold a productive stand-up, helping a product owner see their real role, or navigating a messy conflict with grace, every part of the coach’s journey is centered on enabling others to grow.

And perhaps the most comforting part? There’s no final destination. There’s no gold badge that says, “You’ve made it.” Instead, Lyssa encourages you to notice the trail markers—the moments when you acted with integrity, helped a team find its rhythm, or coached someone into seeing their own strength. Those are the wins. Quiet, often invisible, but real.

Coaching Agile Teams is not just a book—it’s a companion for anyone who believes that work can be more human, that leadership can be shared, and that teams, when supported the right way, can surprise even themselves. Whether you’re just starting your coaching journey or deep into it, this book reminds you why the work matters—and how to keep growing, one conversation at a time.

Chapter by Chapter

Chapter 2 – Expect High Performance

Agile is easy to start, but hard to master—that’s the foundation of this chapter. In the early sprints, teams usually get the mechanics right. The meetings happen, the boards are updated, the goals are met. But soon enough, the rhythm becomes a routine, and the spark begins to fade. Lyssa Adkins calls this the “hamster wheel” effect—teams going through the motions without a clear sense of purpose or excitement. To shift that, coaches must help teams set their sights higher, aiming not just for functionality, but for high performance. That shift requires belief—both from the coach and the team—that greatness is possible and, in fact, expected.

Setting the expectation doesn’t mean pushing teams aggressively. It’s more about holding space for what they can become—firmly and compassionately. Instead of offering a rigid definition of high performance, Lyssa encourages coaches to guide teams in building their own vision. She introduces metaphor as a powerful coaching tool, particularly the High Performance Tree. In this metaphor, the tree grows from strong roots (values like commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage) and produces fruitful results like faster delivery, better value, and personal growth. The leaves represent team behaviors like trust, consensus, and self-organization. Teams can use the tree not just as an ideal, but as a mirror—reflecting on weak roots or missed fruits to decide their next step forward.

The chapter also offers an alternative metaphor: building a foundation, inspired by Tobias Mayer. This simpler model focuses on five principles—empiricism, self-organization, collaboration, prioritization, and rhythm—as the groundwork for greatness. No matter which metaphor is used, the message is the same: high performance isn’t a final destination, it’s a continuous journey. There will be setbacks—team members will leave, leadership may shift—but the real measure of maturity is the ability to recover and keep striving. A big takeaway here is that agile coaching is less about enforcing structure and more about lighting a path. With belief, curiosity, and well-placed challenges, a coach helps the team become something they never imagined possible.

Chapter 2 – Expect High Performance

The Hamster Wheel and the Need for More

Agile teams often get the basic mechanics going quickly—stand-ups, sprints, retrospectives. But once the rhythm sets in, it can start to feel repetitive. Lyssa Adkins calls this the “hamster wheel,” where teams are constantly moving but not necessarily progressing toward something meaningful. The real shift happens when teams aim not just to do agile, but to be high-performing. That’s where coaching makes all the difference. Instead of allowing the team to settle into routine delivery, the agile coach introduces a bigger vision—one that inspires mastery, purpose, and autonomy.

Setting the Expectation for Greatness

Expecting high performance doesn’t mean pushing teams harder or demanding results. It’s about holding a quiet, firm belief that the team can become great—and treating that as normal. The coach’s belief becomes contagious. Over time, teams begin to internalize it, gradually reaching for something better with each sprint. High performance isn’t a destination—it’s a mindset, a direction. It’s not about achieving perfection but about constantly improving and even surprising themselves. Coaches fuel this by guiding the team to define what high performance means to them, not by offering a one-size-fits-all definition.

Using Metaphors to Spark Growth

Metaphors are powerful tools in coaching, and Lyssa introduces one that’s especially resonant: the High Performance Tree. This tree grows from roots based on values—like commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage. Its leaves represent the behaviors of high-performing teams: trust, self-organization, constructive disagreement, and shared commitment. The fruits? Real business value, astonishing results, and personal growth. This metaphor gives teams a living model they can reflect on. Where are our roots weak? Which leaves need attention? What fruits do we want to grow?

Letting Teams Create Their Own Path

What makes this approach work is that it’s not prescriptive. Each team interprets the metaphor in its own way. One might focus on strengthening consensus; another might double down on commitment. As they reflect, teams begin to make their own plans for growth—choosing a next step that feels right and meaningful. Sometimes they’ll stumble, other times they’ll leap forward. What matters is that they own their journey. Lyssa encourages coaches to guide with lightness and curiosity, not with guilt or pressure.

Alternative Imagery: Building the Foundation

If the tree metaphor doesn’t resonate, there’s another option: Tobias Mayer’s foundation metaphor. It emphasizes five principles: empiricism, self-organization, collaboration, prioritization, and rhythm. These are the building blocks of agile, and teams can use them to explore what’s working and what’s missing. Whether they see themselves as a growing tree or a structure in progress, the idea is the same—teams build their own pathway toward something greater.

High Performance is a Journey, Not a Finish Line

No team ever arrives at high performance and stays there forever. Life happens—people leave, roles change, organizations shift. What sets great teams apart is their ability to recover and move forward. That’s the true measure of maturity. Coaches play a crucial role in nurturing this resilience by believing in the team, guiding them through tough times, and reminding them of the potential they carry. The destination may never come, but the journey itself transforms the team—and that’s where the real value lies.

Chapter 3 – Master Yourself

The journey begins with you
Lyssa opens this chapter with a personal confession: she’s a recovering “command-and-control-aholic.” It’s a lighthearted way to introduce a serious truth—agile coaching is as much about who you are as what you do. To coach well, you need to bring your full, grounded presence to the team, not your baggage, agendas, or emotional clutter. Mastering yourself isn’t a one-time achievement; it’s a daily practice of awareness, reflection, and conscious choice. Agile teams thrive when the coach shows up with clarity and calm. And that requires inner work first.

Start with self-awareness
This chapter challenges you to look inward. How do you naturally react to conflict? What kind of language do you use without realizing the impact? Are you truly serving the team or subtly steering them to your comfort zone? Lyssa introduces the concept of your “growing edge”—the place where discomfort signals an opportunity to grow. Whether it’s your conflict style (like competing, avoiding, or accommodating) or a tendency to speak before listening, these patterns shape how effective you are as a coach. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s noticing, pausing, and choosing a better way forward.

Violent communication and emotional wake
Most of us don’t think of ourselves as using violent language, but Lyssa explains that harm can happen even in well-meaning words. Through a powerful list of reflection questions, she invites you to examine whether your communication is compassionate or unintentionally wounding. A key insight here is the idea of taking responsibility for your emotional wake—how your words and presence affect others, regardless of your intent. Agile coaching requires emotional maturity, where your focus is not on being right but on being helpful and clear.

Servant leadership in action
The idea of the coach as a servant is central in agile, but Lyssa goes deeper than the surface-level definition. She draws from Robert Greenleaf’s work to highlight the coach’s role in growing others—not just serving them but helping them become wiser, freer, and more capable. Servant leadership means listening first, making space for others to speak, and accepting people where they are. It also means letting go of ego and urgency, and resisting the urge to fix everything. This is tough work, especially for those used to control and results.

Recovering from command-and-control
For many coaches, unlearning the habits of control is a long process. Lyssa offers a set of practical shifts to help with this recovery: detach from outcomes, reflect like a mirror, let silence speak, and even let the team fail. These aren’t easy habits to adopt, but they create space for teams to grow. One of the most transformative ideas here is “control by release”—trusting the agile process and allowing the team to own their path, knowing that the framework itself provides the boundaries for learning.

Daily practice to prepare
To support this inner shift, Lyssa encourages a daily grounding practice. Whether it’s journaling, meditation, nature walks, or small rituals of service (like making breakfast for a loved one), these practices clear your mind so you can show up present and calm. She shares personal examples and encourages coaches to find what works for them. The point isn’t perfection—it’s intentional preparation, so you can meet the day without being hijacked by stress or distraction.

Stay connected to what you care about
When you’re clear on what truly matters to you—like helping teams find their voice—it becomes easier to act with purpose in the moment. Instead of reacting to everything, you respond from your core values. This clarity acts as a filter, helping you decide what to say and when to step back. Lyssa suggests identifying one thing you care deeply about before entering a conversation or coaching session, and letting that guide your behavior throughout the day.

Practice in the moment
Being present in a quiet moment is one thing; staying grounded in the heat of a meeting is another. Lyssa gives tools to help you notice your reactions as they arise and choose how to act. She also invites you to reflect on how you regard the people you coach—are they obstacles or humans? Shifting your lens changes everything. She introduces a playful but powerful trick: imagine a letter on everyone’s forehead—“O” for object, “P” for person. If you see an O, it’s time to pause and get curious.

Are you listening, speaking, and being with them?
Deep listening is one of the coach’s greatest tools. Lyssa explains the three levels of listening—from internal (focused on yourself) to global (aware of everything, including tone, energy, and emotion). She also challenges coaches to speak only when it’s truly in service of the team. That means waiting, observing, and letting others step up first. Sometimes the most powerful contribution is simply holding space. And when you do speak, make it sharp, clear, and catalytic.

Presence and regrounding
True presence means being here—not lost in thoughts of the past or future. Lyssa’s examples show how easy it is to get distracted, and how powerful it is to tune in fully. She shares her own mindfulness practices, from flipping open favorite books to catching herself when emotions start to cloud her judgment. When a coaching intervention doesn’t land, she suggests regrounding—naming the moment, releasing it, and refocusing on what the team needs.

Be a model, not just a guide
At the end of the day, teams grow by watching you. Your presence, your compassion, your self-management—they mirror it. That’s why this work on yourself isn’t optional. You’re showing them how to handle conflict, how to be present, and how to keep growing. It’s not about being perfect; it’s about practicing visibly and authentically.

Mastering yourself takes time. Lyssa closes the chapter by reminding you to be kind to yourself. Use simple tools—reminder notes, personal symbols, daily reflections—to stay focused on what you’re working on. Keep learning. Keep trying. And most importantly, don’t stop working on yourself. Your growth makes the team’s growth possible.

Chapter 4 – Let Your Style Change

Practicing like tai chi
Lyssa opens the chapter with an analogy drawn from tai chi and martial arts. The practice of slow, repeated movement over time mirrors how both agile teams and coaches grow. Whether it’s preschoolers learning tae kwon do or elders performing tai chi in the park, the idea is the same: keep practicing the same forms again and again. Mastery doesn’t come from rushing—it comes from repetition, reflection, and eventually, fluency. Lyssa recalls asking her tai chi instructor how long it takes to master the art. His answer? “I don’t know yet. I’m still practicing.” She later gave the same answer to an apprentice asking about becoming a master coach.

Shu Ha Ri: The stages of mastery
The core of the chapter is the powerful martial arts model Shu Ha Ri. It represents the stages of skill development—Shu (follow the rule), Ha (break the rule), and Ri (be the rule). In Shu, the team sticks to the rules without variation, building muscle memory and a strong foundation. In Ha, the team begins to understand the deeper reasons behind the practices and experiments thoughtfully. In Ri, the team internalizes the principles so completely that their actions become natural and deeply aligned with agile values—even if they no longer follow the original practices exactly. These stages don’t happen in a straight line; they spiral. Teams may be in Shu with one practice and Ri with another at the same time.

Matching your style to the team’s stage
Agile coaches must adapt their coaching style to match the team’s stage. In Shu, the style is Teaching—clear, confident, and rule-focused. The coach lays down the framework and guides the team to follow it strictly. This helps the team build competence and early success. In Ha, the coach shifts to Coaching—posing thoughtful questions, encouraging experimentation, and helping the team uncover the principles behind their actions. In Ri, the coach moves into Advising—stepping back, trusting the team’s judgment, and offering insights only when asked. The coach becomes a supportive peer rather than a teacher.

Modeling and reaching
No matter which coaching style is in play, the coach must always be Modeling and Reaching. Modeling means demonstrating behaviors that lead to success: active listening, simplicity, collaboration, courage. Reaching means connecting with each individual on the team to help them grow into the best version of themselves as agilists. These two dimensions—Modeling and Reaching—add depth and humanity to the coach’s presence and help transfer both mindset and skill.

Let your style be fluid
Coaches must be willing to shift styles as teams evolve. If the team is still in Shu but wants to jump to Ha, the coach may need to pull them back to the basics. If the team is on the edge of Ri, the coach can gently test that readiness by stepping into the Advising style and seeing how the team responds. A coach might use all three styles in one day depending on the topic or situation. What matters is being responsive to the team’s current reality, not stuck in a fixed identity.

You are also on this journey
Just as teams move through Shu Ha Ri, so do coaches. You might be at Ri with agile theory but still in Shu when it comes to coaching skills. Lyssa encourages humility and awareness—know where you are, and stay long enough to grow. Don’t rush to Advising just because it feels good to be needed. Don’t linger in Teaching out of fear. Instead, keep practicing, keep reflecting, and keep adjusting your style to serve the team’s growth.

The art of agile coaching is not static. It shifts and grows, just like the teams you coach. By understanding the Shu Ha Ri model and matching your style—Teaching, Coaching, Advising—to where the team is, you help unlock their potential. And as they grow, so do you. The student becomes the teacher, and the teacher remains a lifelong student.

Chapter 5 – Coach as Coach-Mentor

A turning point in coaching
Lyssa starts this chapter with a personal story. A colleague once told her, “There’s a whole world of professional coaching out there. Maybe you should check it out.” That moment shifted her perspective. Up until then, she had been using management techniques from her project manager days, helping teams launch but not helping individuals or teams grow to their full potential. After going to coaching school, she discovered how deeply professional coaching techniques could strengthen agile coaching. The key insight? Agile coaching isn’t just about frameworks—it’s about people. And to truly serve people, you need to blend both mentoring and coaching.

Coaching and mentoring: a powerful duo
In the agile world, “coaching” often includes both mentoring (sharing expertise and guiding) and professional coaching (facilitating self-discovery and growth). Lyssa explains that while each is valuable alone, combining the two is where the real power lies. Mentoring helps transfer agile knowledge, while coaching supports deep personal growth. The aim is to help people become stronger agilists, better teammates, and more fulfilled professionals. But here’s the nuance: unlike traditional professional coaches who follow the coachee’s agenda exclusively, agile coaches carry their own agenda too—helping people use agile well.

Coaching at two levels
Agile coaches work on two tracks simultaneously: the individual level and the whole-team level. Knowing when to switch between these levels is key. Coaching has the biggest impact at the beginning and end of a sprint or release, but it doesn’t stop in the middle. Instead, it changes form. During mid-sprint, it becomes quieter, often more one-on-one. This is when individuals bring problems, and the coach can support without disrupting team focus. At the start and end of sprints, coaching becomes more educational and team-focused, helping teams plan better or reflect deeply during retrospectives.

The right tone: loving, compassionate, and uncompromising
This part is particularly powerful. Lyssa urges coaches to adopt a tone that combines love, compassion, and a firm, uncompromising belief in the team’s potential. That might sound like a strange trio, but it works. You care about people as humans, support them through their growth, but never lower the bar for what agile excellence looks like. This balance is tough but essential. A coach doesn’t settle for “agile enough”—they hold out the vision of agile done well, even if the team isn’t ready to fully embrace it yet.

One-on-one coaching: groundwork and presence
When coaching individuals, four foundations matter: meet them a half-step ahead (not ten steps), guarantee psychological safety, partner with their managers (without breaking confidentiality), and always hold a positive regard for the person. If you see someone as a problem, coaching won’t work. Instead, see them as a human doing the best they can, with potential to grow. One-on-one coaching isn’t about chit-chat—it’s about real, sometimes fierce conversations that help people shift perspectives and take meaningful action.

The arc of the conversation
Lyssa introduces a simple but profound structure for coaching conversations. It starts with venting and deep listening. Then, it moves into the core issue and a search for insights. Through powerful questions—not solutions—the coach helps the person envision possibilities. The conversation ends with the coachee identifying actions and the coach setting up light or strong accountability. Most importantly, the coach acknowledges the person—not just what they did, but who they were being.

Coaching isn’t about knowing everything
Even if you don’t know a team member’s specific domain, you can still coach them well. In fact, that can be an advantage. You’re not there to solve their problems—you’re there to help them solve their own. The same goes for remote coaching. If you’re coaching from a distance, focus more on the individual than the full team dynamic.

Know your limits
Sometimes people will open up about difficult life experiences. If it feels like too much, refer them to a professional coach. And always remember: the coachee is the expert on their own life. Don’t cross into advice or life coaching territory unless you’re qualified. Your job is to support their agile growth while honoring their personal journey.

Coaching product owners
This section is a standout. Product owners need coaching too, both in their role and in how they show up for the team. Lyssa breaks down the product owner’s core responsibilities—like being a vision keeper and business value driver—and shows how to coach them to align with agile values. A helpful metaphor from Rich Sheridan illustrates the risks of steering agile teams recklessly and the importance of responsibility. The coach must hold product owners accountable without stepping into their role or rescuing them. Teach the role, coach the role, then let it succeed—or fail—so learning can happen.

Don’t cover for dysfunction. Whether it’s a product owner who isn’t doing their job or a team member struggling with feedback, the coach’s job is not to fix it but to shine a light on it, hold space, and support growth. By blending coaching and mentoring, and bringing a human, grounded presence, the agile coach becomes a catalyst for transformation—one person and one team at a time.

Chapter 6 – Coach as Facilitator

From subject-matter expert to space-holder
Lyssa begins this chapter with a vulnerable realization: the skills that once made her successful as a project manager—like domain expertise and tightly managing communication—became liabilities in an agile context. Agile teams don’t need someone to carry the big picture in their head or orchestrate conversations on their behalf. What they need is a coach who helps them get better and better at working together. That’s where facilitation comes in—not as control, but as container-building. The coach creates space where great things can emerge.

Facilitating with a light touch
In both formal meetings and informal conversations, the coach’s intention is the same: help the team self-organize and deliver value consistently. A “light touch” means resisting the urge to run the meeting or fill every gap. It means remembering that this is their meeting, not yours. Over time, the goal is for the team to lead their own stand-ups, plan their sprints, run their reviews, and reflect during retrospectives—without relying on the coach.

Stand-up: more than status updates
Lyssa emphasizes the real purpose of stand-ups: fine-grained coordination, healthy peer pressure, raising impediments, daily commitment, and focus on the few tasks that truly matter. Coaches help teams by teaching the structure (three questions, no long talks, 15 minutes), but then step back. Let the team lead. If the stand-up is off-track, make gentle observations afterward—never hijack it midstream unless the behavior is truly disruptive. And if the stand-up is routinely ineffective? Let the team feel the consequences. Learning often comes through experience, not correction.

Sprint planning: give structure, then get out of the way
Sprint planning requires minimal intervention. The coach’s job is to ensure the product backlog is ready (by working with the product owner) and to offer a structure—like agenda questions—for the team to guide themselves. Then, step back. Use the timebox to focus their energy and listen for teachable moments. Encourage questions about value, ownership, and clarity. If roles blur or the product owner oversteps, step in to restore healthy boundaries.

Sprint review: sit in the back and observe
During the sprint review, the coach becomes almost invisible. It’s tempting to step in, smooth things over, or act as emcee, but resist. Let the team present their work—real product, not polished slides. The coach watches how people interact, what’s said (and unsaid), and makes either reinforcing or deepening observations afterward. The goal isn’t to fix—it’s to help the team reflect and improve through awareness.

Retrospective: your time to shine (and then fade)
Here, the coach plays a more active role. Design an agenda that helps the team inspect and adapt—focusing on how they worked, not just what they did. Use creative activities to surface insights and foster learning. As the team matures, invite them to design and lead the retrospectives themselves. Until then, keep the process focused, timeboxed, and outcome-oriented. And don’t forget to follow up—remind the team of their retrospective agreements during the sprint.

Everyday conversations: coach the quality, not the content
In informal team talks, the coach listens not for what’s being said, but how. Is everyone getting airtime? Are ideas being built upon? Is there healthy disagreement? Use powerful observations, questions, and challenges to shift conversations when needed. These tools help the team reflect, dream bigger, and break through limiting assumptions. But timing is everything—sometimes the best move is to stay quiet and let the moment unfold.

Knowing where to sit—literally
Early on, sit with the team. Be present, offer your observations, and model good facilitation. As they grow, physically move to the edge of the room. Your position sends a signal: they’ve got this. Step back unless you see a pattern of dysfunction or tension that needs gentle intervention. And when your attention drifts (which it will), practice returning it—again and again.

Facilitation isn’t about running meetings. It’s about helping teams own their process, grow their collaboration, and continuously improve. The coach creates containers, not content. Through purposeful observation, light-touch guidance, and skillful use of questions and challenges, you help teams develop the skills they need to lead themselves. That’s the quiet power of facilitation—and it changes everything.

Chapter 7 – Coach as Teacher

Teaching is central to agile coaching
At every stage of a team’s journey, the agile coach takes on the role of a teacher. It begins during the team start-up and continues through restarts, team changes, and everyday moments that present learning opportunities. Lyssa Adkins makes it clear: teaching isn’t about delivering long lectures; it’s about embedding the powerful, simple principles of agile into the team’s DNA—and helping them return to the core of agile when they stray.

Start-ups set the tone
The beginning of a team’s agile journey is a rare moment—short-lived but potent. In a well-designed start-up (ideally a day or two), coaches teach the process, the team learns about one another, and they align on the work ahead. Lyssa encourages focusing more on learning the process and the product than on team bonding. That emotional connection can grow organically during work. During this phase, she recommends concise, clear teaching of the agile framework. Even with experienced agilists, it’s important to recalibrate their understanding, since “my agile” may be far from “your agile” or “real agile.” The coach’s role is to bring the team back to agile’s core, not the rituals accumulated from past teams.

Get personal: learning about each other
Team cohesion starts with seeing each other as full human beings. Lyssa introduces activities like Journey Lines, Market of Skills, Constellation, and Values, which help team members share their stories, skills, and working styles. Journey Lines, for example, ask each person to map their professional ups and downs, building understanding and empathy. One story shared in the book is touching: two coworkers discovered, years later, they had both battled cancer at the same time—without ever knowing. These human moments form the foundation of real collaboration.

Build the team’s identity
After learning about individuals, it’s time to form a shared identity. Teams create a vision by answering four layers of goals: What’s in it for me? For us as a team? For the company? For the world? These become the team’s “big A” agenda—values that outlive any specific project. From here, teams create team norms, including shared values, conflict practices, logistics, and how they’ll support each other in tough times. This helps the team feel like a unit, not just a group of people sharing a backlog.

Prepare for the work
Once the team is aligned, they shift focus to the product. The coach helps ensure the product owner is prepared to share the vision, and the team explores the backlog. Lyssa suggests a creative exercise called the Newspaper Projection—imagine it’s a year from now, and the product is a huge success. Write the headline story. This builds excitement and clarity. By the end of this phase, the team sets a sprint goal and flows directly into Sprint 1.

Don’t fear a rough start
Even when things begin messily, there’s value in letting teams struggle. Lyssa tells a story where a team rejected key agile practices. They soon faced chaos, stress, and misalignment. But when the pain became real, the team asked for a retrospective and began shifting toward true agility—on their own terms. The lesson? Don’t “save” teams from consequences. Instead, trust the process and stay ready to coach them back.

Restarts and new members
Teams evolve. When goals or members change, it’s time to restart—not from scratch, but enough to realign. New members should be taught agile as it should be, not just how the current team does it. Otherwise, local dysfunctions can become the new normal. Use the ten-minute whiteboard talk again, pointing out where the team excels or has room to grow.

Teach agile roles often
Many dysfunctions come from unclear roles. The coach teaches, and re-teaches, what it means to be a Product Owner, Agile Manager, and Agile Coach. These roles aren’t standalone—they’re interlocking. For example, a great Product Owner is a Vision Keeper and Business Value Driver. A great Manager removes systemic impediments, boosts agility, and protects the team without micromanaging. A great Coach is a Servant Leader, Guardian of Quality, and a Shepherd guiding the team back to its values.

Coaching as teaching is about simplicity, clarity, and timing. You teach during the start-up, during restarts, and especially during teachable moments. You don’t overwhelm—you offer just enough to spark insight. And above all, you teach people how to return to agile’s core, again and again.

Chapter 8 – Coach as Problem Solver

From hero to enabler
Lyssa begins this chapter by reflecting on her past life as a project manager, where she was rewarded for solving every problem—even the ones that hadn’t happened yet. That habit followed her into agile, where she found herself “inflicting help” on teams by stepping in before they had the chance to solve issues themselves. Her breakthrough came thanks to her mentor Mike Vizdos, who reminded her of a simple but transformative truth: “It’s the team’s commitment, not yours.” That message freed her from the burden of always being the fixer and allowed her to step back and create space for the team to step up.

The role of the coach in problem-solving
Being an agile coach doesn’t mean avoiding problems. It means resisting the urge to jump in and fix things alone. Lyssa introduces a simple rubric: pause, reflect, take the problem to the team, and allow them to act (or not). The coach supports, but doesn’t carry the team’s commitments for them. This shift from doing to enabling is not easy—it requires patience, humility, and deep trust in the team’s ability to learn and adapt. And sometimes, that means letting potential problems surface naturally instead of dragging them into the present.

Seeing clearly before solving
When problems do appear, the coach’s first move is to reflect. Lyssa shares practical ways to see problems clearly: sleep on it, ask yourself powerful questions, talk to another coach, or revisit core agile principles like the Agile Manifesto and the High Performance Tree. These tools help you look beyond surface symptoms and reconnect with agile fundamentals. One memorable story involves a sprint review that bored a stakeholder. Instead of adding a new report, Lyssa helped the team return to the purpose of the sprint review—showing value in a clear, engaging way. No new tools were needed—just a realignment with intent.

Enlisting the team in the solution
When it’s time to act, the coach brings the problem to the team—not to dump it on them, but to invite their insight and ownership. There are several ways to do this:

• Address it directly, floating a light hypothesis and inviting discussion.
• Reaffirm agile, reconnecting the team with the principles behind a practice.
• Reveal the system to itself, where the coach mirrors what’s happening and lets the team explore it.
• Use the retrospective, designing creative activities to surface unseen issues.
• Add a revealer, like a “pain snake” that quietly collects evidence of interruptions.

Each approach encourages the team to take responsibility and builds their ability to manage their own growth. Some ideas might not stick right away, and that’s okay. The coach keeps trying—not to push a solution, but to open a door.

The deeper challenge
Lyssa warns that this style of problem-solving might seem too passive to those used to command-and-control management. But that’s part of the transformation. Agile teams don’t need a savior—they need space to learn. When managers step in to solve problems, the coach must teach them the new role of the agile manager. It’s not about fixing everything; it’s about enabling the team to thrive.

This chapter challenges coaches to shift from “doing for” to “revealing with.” Solving problems is no longer a solo act. It’s a shared practice, grounded in trust, reflection, and alignment with agile values. The coach becomes not the one who fixes, but the one who holds the mirror, opens the conversation, and trusts the team to find their way. And that makes all the difference.

Chapter 9 – Coach as Conflict Navigator

Conflict is inevitable—and necessary
From the very start, Lyssa reminds us that conflict isn’t just expected in agile teams—it’s essential. Agile experts like Ken Schwaber, Mike Beedle, and Patrick Lencioni have long acknowledged that when people work closely together, conflict will happen. But instead of fearing it, great teams use it. They engage in constructive disagreement, transforming tension into learning and progress. Still, many traditional conflict resolution models treat conflict like a mechanical failure—something to fix. Lyssa argues for a new mindset: stop trying to “solve” conflict, and start helping teams navigate it.

Understanding the five levels of conflict
To do that, coaches need a way to assess how intense a conflict has become. Enter Speed Leas’s five-level conflict model:

• Level 1 – Problem to Solve: Differences of opinion and small misunderstandings. Teams stay fact-based and collaborative.
• Level 2 – Disagreement: Self-protection enters the picture. Language becomes vague, and trust starts to crack.
• Level 3 – Contest: It’s about winning now. Teams splinter into sides, blame increases, and communication becomes distorted.
• Level 4 – Crusade: Ideology takes over. People identify more with their “side” than with the team.
• Level 5 – World War: Total breakdown. Winning isn’t enough—others must lose. At this level, separation is the only path.

This model helps coaches recognize what’s really going on beneath the surface. Through observation, listening to language, and feeling the team’s energy, coaches can gauge which level a team is in—and choose the right way to respond.

Three ways to respond as a coach
When conflict arises, Lyssa offers three escalating approaches:

1. Analyze and Respond – Familiar and structured. Evaluate the conflict, empathize with all sides, and consider the best resolution options. It’s useful but limited because it puts the coach in control, not the team.
2. Use Structures – Tap into agile values, roles, and ceremonies as tools to guide behavior and resolve tension. For example, a poster with agile principles can serve as a daily reminder that helps ground the team during conflict.
3. Reveal – The most powerful approach. Share the five-level conflict model with the team. Let them assess the level and navigate it themselves. When teams learn this language, they gain a framework they can reuse anytime conflict surfaces.

Handling complaints with grace
One of the most common traps coaches fall into is carrying complaints between teammates. Lyssa gives practical advice: don’t be the messenger. Instead, follow a three-step intervention path:

• Ask the complainer if they’ve addressed it directly.
• Offer to go with them for support.
• Only as a last resort, offer to carry the message—with their name attached.

And if the person still refuses to act, let it go. Venting might be all they needed, or maybe they’re not ready. But never enable gossip or triangulation—it undermines team trust.

Dealing with unsolvable conflict
Some conflicts just won’t go away. Like in a long-term relationship, teams will face issues that resurface no matter how many times they’re “resolved.” Lyssa shares research from marriage expert John Gottman: 69% of marital issues are perpetual. Agile teams, with their deep, personal dynamics, are no different.

So what’s the answer? Increase positivity. Studies show that high-performing teams maintain a 3-to-1 (or better) ratio of positive to negative interactions. Coaches can help by reducing misunderstanding and fostering tools like consent checks and consensus checks—simple techniques that ensure all voices are heard and decisions are genuinely shared.

Reconnecting to shared purpose
When conflict becomes heavy, coaches can redirect the team toward their shared vision—the “big A” Agenda. This is not a business goal, but a shared dream about who the team wants to be together. Reconnecting to this bigger purpose can put current conflicts into perspective and help the team rise above personal frictions.

The real magic
This chapter doesn’t offer a magic fix—but it does offer a way to create lasting change. The real magic happens when team members start resolving complaints on their own, naming the level of conflict they’re in, and choosing to respond constructively. When that happens, the coach’s job shifts from fixer to enabler—and the team becomes stronger because of it.

Chapter 10 – Coach as Collaboration Conductor

From garage band to string quartet
Lyssa opens this chapter with a story from her high school days in a garage band. Despite their enthusiasm, the band never truly gelled—they were just a group of individuals playing next to each other, not with each other. Years later, she watched the Shanghai Quartet perform with seamless unity, without a conductor or visible coordination. That kind of deep collaboration—like a string quartet that breathes together—is the metaphor she uses to describe what’s possible when a team truly clicks. But to get there, teams must first build collaboration as a muscle, starting from cooperation.

Cooperation vs. collaboration
These two concepts often get mixed up. Cooperation is smoother than old-school project work—it involves clear communication, mutual respect, and shared progress. It’s enough when the goal is solid delivery. But collaboration is different. It’s about emergence—the magical moment when new, unexpected ideas surface, built on top of each other. Collaboration requires vulnerability, creativity, and a willingness to let go of personal ownership. The coach helps teams choose: do they need to collaborate for innovation, or is cooperation enough?

Building individual collaborators
Before a team can collaborate, its members need to be solid cooperators. This involves basic but powerful skills: taking responsibility, sharing openly, speaking truth with compassion, and preparing mentally for work. Coaches teach these behaviors one-on-one and help team members arrive not just physically on time, but mentally ready. Lyssa also stresses the importance of nurturing ego (healthy confidence) while discouraging vanity (need for approval). Teams can’t create bold ideas if they’re stuck pretending to have it all together.

Establishing the Green Zone
Drawing on Radical Collaboration, Lyssa introduces the concept of the “Green Zone” (a mindset that supports collaboration) and the “Red Zone” (a defensive, rigid attitude). Coaches should model Green Zone behavior themselves, helping teams recover from Red Zone moments with awareness and compassion. Collaboration flourishes in the Green Zone—where people own their actions, listen deeply, and focus on solutions.

Creating surplus ideas
Breakthrough ideas don’t happen when people are burned out or rushing from sprint to sprint. Curiosity and creativity require space. Agile gives us built-in moments for this—like retrospectives—but teams must use that pause to examine assumptions and look at their work with fresh eyes. Lyssa encourages coaches to reawaken a sense of play and experimentation to help teams rediscover their creative voice.

Exercising the collaboration muscle
Once individual collaborators are ready, it’s time to help the team practice real collaboration. The coach takes up the conductor’s baton—cueing quiet voices, dialing down dominators, encouraging cross-functional behavior, and introducing behaviors like speaking the unspeakable, building up ideas, and making sure every voice is heard. But the baton is temporary. The goal is for the team to take over, becoming that string quartet that needs no external direction.

Getting unstuck
Even skilled teams get stuck. Conversations stall, energy drops, and creativity evaporates. Coaches should notice this and gently intervene. Sometimes a walk, a game, or a moment of silliness is enough to reset the energy. Improv games, circle counting, or silent mind mapping help people reconnect. These playful activities aren’t just fun—they’re serious tools for collaborative breakthroughs.

Play as a serious tool
Serious games like Planning Poker, Buy a Feature, or Speed Boat aren’t just novelties—they help teams surface ideas, build shared understanding, and resolve tough product debates. Used thoughtfully, these games turn meetings into meaningful, high-energy collaboration sessions. The research backs this up: even large companies like Colgate and VeriSign use serious games to unlock innovation.

From symphony to quartet
Eventually, it’s time for the coach to step back. Lyssa describes this moment as putting down the conductor’s baton and allowing the team to self-direct. The team has learned to speak openly, listen fully, and trust emergence. Collaboration becomes second nature, not something they “do” but a way they are. To help them make this leap, the coach shares the maxims of collaboration, including one that sums it all up: “Collaboration happens in present time; it exists only while you are doing it.”

This chapter is a powerful invitation to move beyond mechanical agile and into something more human, creative, and alive. With the right mindset, skills, and environment, teams can become more than the sum of their parts—they can make music together.

Chapter 11 – Agile Coach Failure, Recovery, and Success Modes

Failure modes: exaggerated but real
Lyssa opens the chapter with honesty and humor: she’s been in every failure mode she’s about to describe. She doesn’t share them to shame anyone—but to offer a mirror. These modes are over-the-top caricatures meant to help coaches recognize their own patterns, laugh a bit, and grow from them. They’re only harmful when done unconsciously and consistently. But when named and acknowledged, they can be managed—and ultimately replaced by more helpful ways of coaching.

The failure mode gallery
Each failure mode reflects a coach who, despite good intentions, becomes a barrier to the team’s growth:

• The Spy: Observes just enough to gather material for retrospectives but doesn’t truly engage.
• The Seagull: Flies into stand-ups, drops advice (or chaos), and flies away again.
• The Opinionator: Gets attached to their views, derailing team dialogue.
• The Admin: Handles team logistics and access like a personal assistant, undermining autonomy.
• The Hub: Becomes the team’s communication center, preventing direct collaboration.
• The Butterfly: Flits between teams, leaving poetic advice but little presence.
• The Expert: Gets lost in the details and forgets to coach the bigger picture.
• The Nag: Constantly reminds the team to follow up on tasks, creating dependence.

Lyssa makes it clear that the center of anything is the wrong place for a coach to be. When coaches fall into these roles repeatedly, they steal the team’s opportunity to self-organize.

Why failure modes happen
These patterns often come from ego—especially fear-based “I” thinking: What will people think of me? What if the team fails? They also stem from distractions and multitasking. Continuous partial attention—trying to coach several teams while checking messages or mentally juggling to-dos—leads to superficial coaching. This is when coaches become Butterflies or Seagulls, present just enough to appear helpful, but not enough to make a difference.

How to recover from failure
Lyssa offers a simple but profound path: replace fear with trust. Trust the team to fail, recover, and learn. Trust that your presence, not your control, is what helps most. Agile gives us tools to support this—short iterations, feedback loops, and reflection moments. From there, practice presence and attention. She shares tips to cultivate mindfulness (like breathwork), get curious about the team’s reality, zoom out for a broader view, and reconnect to the team’s vision. Even pairing with other coaches can help you break out of failure mode loops.

Practice success modes
Success modes aren’t loud. They often whisper their presence—but they’re powerful. These are patterns that strengthen the team and magnify what’s working:

• The Magician: Asks questions that reveal hidden truths.
• The Child: Brings pure curiosity and open wonder.
• The Ear: Hears everything, but wisely doesn’t react to all of it.
• The Heckler: Adds lightness, jolts people out of stuckness.
• The Wise Fool: Asks “dumb” questions that bring deep insight.
• The Creeping Vine: Slowly and subtly pulls the team back to agile values.
• The Dreamer: Helps teams imagine bold futures.
• The Megaphone: Amplifies unheard voices, making sure all are included.

To grow in these, Lyssa suggests asking the kinds of questions each mode would ask. When you find one that fits your personality, nurture it—practice it until it becomes your default response. And when you see a colleague using a success mode well? Borrow it. Make it your own.

The real coaching journey
You don’t have to fix every failure mode overnight. Maybe just noticing one is enough for now. Maybe catching yourself in the act and choosing a new response is your next win. Lyssa reminds us: stress will make you revert to old habits. That’s human. But with time and practice, new habits will form—and even under pressure, you’ll choose from a place of trust, not fear.

In the end, you are contagious. Your energy, habits, and behaviors will ripple out to the team. So ask yourself—what do you want them to catch? The Nag or the Dreamer? The Hub or the Magician? The choice is yours.

Chapter 12 – When Will I Get There?

There’s no finish line—just trail markers
Lyssa opens this final chapter with a truth many coaches feel but few say out loud: there’s no clear moment when you “arrive” as an agile coach. There’s no badge, no final exam, no mountaintop with a flag waiting. Coaching is a journey that never really ends. But that doesn’t mean you’re lost—there are trail markers along the way. You grow by practicing, reflecting, falling short, and trying again. You pause occasionally to rest, enjoy the view, and realize the impact you’ve made. Then, with humility and curiosity, you move forward again.

The real coaching checklist (but don’t start with it)
Lyssa hesitates to offer a list of coaching skills because it’s often misused—as a prescriptive checklist instead of a reflection tool. But for those who’ve already found their voice and rhythm in coaching, it can be a helpful mirror. You know you’re growing as a coach when you’ve done things like: started up agile teams, coached individuals and teams through change, helped product owners and outsiders, navigated conflict, modeled agile values, and instilled the desire for high performance. These aren’t just tasks—they’re signs you’re becoming someone teams trust and grow because of.

Mastery is deeper than skills
Beyond doing the work, great agile coaches become the work. You know you’re on the path when you accept team ideas over your own, act with self-awareness, challenge organizational dysfunctions, and help teams soar even when your own work is invisible. That’s the paradox: the better you get, the harder it is for others to pinpoint what exactly you did. Which is why agile coaches need to define new performance measures for themselves—ones that reflect empowerment, not control. Lyssa offers a comparison chart, replacing outdated metrics like “drives the team” with healthier ones like “creates an environment where the team delivers naturally.”

Claim your victories—privately and proudly
Since your impact often goes unseen, Lyssa encourages a practice of keeping a personal value journal. Each week, write what you helped happen: changes you sparked, people you supported, breakthroughs you enabled. No one else has to read it, but it’s a way to affirm your impact and track your growth. She even shares a real coach’s list—simple, powerful reminders that the work matters, even if it’s quiet. She suggests doing your own performance review, looking back at your coaching engagements with honesty: what changed, where you grew, and where there’s still work to do.

You’ll know you’ve arrived when you stop asking
Perhaps the most powerful moment in this chapter is the invitation to stop measuring progress by someone else’s definition. When you act from your values, keep learning, and see your teams flourish—even if they don’t fully understand your contribution—you’re doing the real work. “When will I get there?” slowly becomes “How can I keep growing?” And that shift, Lyssa says, is the true sign of an agile coach well on their way.

Chapter 13 – It’s Your Journey

Agile coaching is personal
This final chapter celebrates something deeply human: every agile coach walks a unique path. While frameworks like Scrum or XP might be shared, the reasons we step into coaching—and the way we grow into it—are highly individual. For some, agile offers a humane way to work, honoring people as much as results. For others, it’s a path to redeem past habits of control or to finally understand how teams really thrive. This chapter weaves together six powerful stories of agile coaches, each finding their voice and meaning through their journey.

Rachel’s journey – from waterfall frustration to gentle change
Rachel Davies found agile after witnessing the waste and exhaustion of traditional waterfall methods in the 1990s. Drawn to Extreme Programming, she immersed herself as a developer to fully experience it. But her early days as an agile coach were rough—teams didn’t want to change, and management used “agile” as a cover for layoffs. Her turning point came at a conference where she realized the value of taking small steps and honoring context. From then on, she coached gently, letting teams move at their own pace, planting seeds of change rather than enforcing it. Her motto: work slowly, let the team lead.

Dan’s journey – a Shu-Ha-Ri path of humility
Dan Mezick, with his technical background and curiosity, entered agile through a Certified ScrumMaster course. At first, he thought he knew it all. But experience humbled him. He began seeing agile as entrepreneurial thinking in action. His interest deepened through group relations theory, leading to insights about how Scrum’s clear roles and boundaries help teams self-organize. Dan frames his journey through Shu-Ha-Ri—following the rules, understanding them, and finally internalizing them. But even in “Ri,” he admits the cycle repeats. Every insight reveals how much more there is to learn.

Lyssa’s journey – from command to awe
Lyssa, the author herself, shares a raw, personal story. A successful but intense project manager, she drove projects hard—often at the cost of team well-being. Agile disrupted her worldview. Watching empowered teams deliver great results without being micromanaged was like gaining new eyesight—literally and figuratively. Awe replaced control. She dove into facilitation, teaching, leadership, even quantum physics. Eventually, she recognized that giving too many new tools could also overwhelm. Her shift to professional coaching gave her the skills to guide without directing. Her belief today? The team already knows what’s best—she’s just there to help them see it.

Martin’s journey – from title to true influence
Martin Kearns started by wearing the “coach” label to boost his ego. But over time, he saw that influence doesn’t come from a title—it comes from emotional intelligence. Inspired by Daniel Goleman’s work, he began practicing deep listening, empathy, and reflection. His biggest lesson? Coaching is not about teaching—it’s about resonating with the team’s feelings, respecting their journey, and inspiring change by example. His measure of success is no longer personal recognition, but the team’s growth. And that quiet humility has made him a trusted force.

Kathy’s journey – learning to truly coach
Kathy Harman thought she was ready for agile coaching—she had experience, training, and leadership skills. But her early teams resisted her direction. It wasn’t until she studied life coaching that she understood: she was managing, not coaching. Shifting to a coaching mindset—asking instead of telling, letting teams own their process—transformed everything. Her teams became self-organized, creative, and deeply committed. Each team had its own style, and she learned to support that uniqueness rather than impose her own. She compares coaching to conducting a symphony—each player unique, but the harmony created together.

Now it’s your journey
The chapter closes with a simple but profound invitation: it’s your turn. Where have you been? What lessons shaped you? What’s your next summit? There’s a space to draw your journey and a reminder that your story, like the others shared here, can inspire others. Agile coaching isn’t about reaching a fixed destination—it’s about becoming the kind of person who helps teams thrive. And if you dare to be a great coach, your path will matter—not just to you, but to everyone you serve.

4 Key Ideas from Coaching Agile Teams

6 Main Lessons from Coaching Agile Teams

My Book Highlights & Quotes

“… We practice mastering ourselves in the moment so that we can better open ourselves to being a servant leader and to harness our emotions and choose what to do with our reactions…”

“… To be full of love and enthusiasm for your work is a prerequisite for collaboration, a professional obligation…”

“… Clients’ needs change. What the team can do is known only to them and changes over time. The world moves at an unbelievably fast pace and creates situations no one could have foreseen. You cannot make a commitment on anyone else’s behalf and expect committed behavior from them…”

“… When coaching product owners, your job is to help them get that one combination criterion—business value—to the top of their definition of priority…”

“… A ScrumMaster who takes teams beyond getting agile practices up and running into their deliberate and joyful pursuit of high performance is an agile coach…”

“… Agile coaching matters because it helps in both of these areas—producing products that matter in the real, complex, and uncertain world, and adding meaning to people’s work lives…”

“… Teams that fail together and recover together are much stronger and faster than ones that are protected…”

“… A friend loves you just the way you are. A coach loves you too much to let you stay that way…”

“… The most important thing you can do in the face of your mistake is to model the agile value of openness. Transparently and with humility, simply own up to the impact of the mistake, and apologize for it. Tell the team which agile value or principle your mistake undermined so they can learn from your example…”

“… Agile coaching is more about who you are and what behaviors you model than it is about any specific technique or idea you bring to the team…”

“… Agile is easy to get going yet hard to do well. Many reasons collude to make this so. Chief among them is that agile exposes the dirt people have been sweeping under the rug for years. Who wants to look at that? Yet, we must…”

Conclusion

Whether you’re an agile coach, a team leader, or someone trying to be more supportive in your work and life, Coaching Agile Teams offers more than techniques—it offers wisdom.

It’s a gentle nudge toward a more thoughtful, intentional, and human way to lead. And the best part? You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be willing to keep showing up and growing.

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