Articles

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25 Mar 2017Agile2 min read

How to supercharge a workshop with Learning Maps

I’m sure we have all been to many workshops and the first thing a facilitator presents is the agenda for the day. If you are lucky this might be on a flip chart or even worse its powerpoint slide 1 of 100. Your initial thoughts, this is going to be a long day.Introducing Learning MapsLearning Maps are an interactive and metaphorical way to present your agenda. People learn best through experience so a learning map creates an instant connection to the workshop topics.Here is a Learning Map I used

19 Mar 2017Coaching1 min read

Powerful Coaching Questions at Tate Modern Gallery

Asking Powerful Questions is one of the foundations of Coaching. Asking questions that go beyond what is obvious enables the Coachee to think more deeply about a Goal or Challenge.The Tate Modern Start Display has some great Powerful Questions inviting the visitor to go beyond the obvious and think more deeply about the art on display. This certainly provoked my own deeper thoughts.Here are some examples:

19 Mar 2017Agile2 min read

Tate Modern + Babel + Mental Models + Dialogue + Agile Transformation

This weekend I took a trip to Tate Modern, London. One of the exhibitions that caught my eye was Cildo Meireles ‘Babel’ (2001)Babel 2001 is a large-scale sculptural installation that takes the form of a circular tower made from hundreds of second-hand analogue radios that the artist has stacked in layers. The radios are tuned to a multitude of different stations and are adjusted to the minimum volume at which they are audible. Nevertheless, they compete with each other and create a cacophony of

13 Mar 2017Kanban3 min read

Do you have an inclusive Kanban board?

Most Agile teams use a Kanban board to visualise their work no matter what Agile Framework they are following. These Kanban boards come in the form of either physical or digital boards.Recently i’ve been helping teams adopt physical Kanban boards and it was during this we came across an interesting challenge. One afternoon i was helping the team experiment with some colour coding on their board. This was so they could highlight important information, in this specific case, how long an item had b

5 Feb 2017Coaching2 min read

5 Life Coaching Models Every Professional Coach Should Know

As a certified Professional Coach here are 5 life coaching models that you should know! These coaching models will increase your impact with clients.

7 Jan 2017Coaching2 min read

How To Achieve Personal Goals Using Given When Then

At the start of a New Year, many people turn their attention to new personal goals, often referred to as New Year resolutions. We all know how these “resolutions” usually end up, forgotten and unachieved. However, there is a strategy that can lead to significant chances of meeting your goals.One of my personal goals for 2017 is to read 24 books. The first book i’ve finished this year is Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini.Within the book Robert talks abo

25 Nov 2016Coaching1 min read

Becoming a Coach

Today my Coaching Journey took an exciting step.I have enrolled on a course from Barefoot Coaching to become a Qualified Business and Personal Coach.Barefoot Coaching offer a PG Cert in Business and Personal Coaching which is accredited by the University of Chester and the International Coaching Federation (ICF).The course is broken into three modules with each module last four days. The course covers a wide range of topics, far too many for me to mention here. You can read the full course conte

24 Aug 2016Coaching3 min read

How i approach Coaching

This year i’ve been on a journey of discovery into Coaching. My official job title is “Agile Coach” and as the title suggests a key part of the role is Coaching. This blog explores how i approach Coaching with the intention that my experience will help others interested in the topic.What is Coaching?This was a question that troubled me for many months. It’s not an easy question to answer. It’s something i’m still discovering but through constant reading and practice i’m much more informed than i

17 Aug 2016Coaching2 min read

Facilitation using Ritual Dissent

I recently read Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. In the book one of the topics Matthew explores is brainstorming. He talks about how an idea should be exposed to lively debate and challenge in order to refine the idea. Here is an extract from the book:Perhaps the most graphic way to glimpse the responsive nature of creativity is to consider an experiment by Charlan Nemeth, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and her colleagues. She took 265 female undergraduates and rand

12 Aug 2016Coaching1 min read

Are you really Coaching?

I recently read “Brilliant Coaching” by Julie Starr. The book explores practical ways you can apply Coaching in the workplace. She provides great examples of how you can apply a Coaching style moving from Directive leadership to empowering others(Self Directed)In the book, Julie presents a model; the Scale of Influence. This can be used as a model to build self-awareness in your Coaching conversations.Scale of Influence: Brilliant Coaching, Julie StarrIn a Coaching conversation, we may use diffe

1 Aug 2016Coaching2 min read

5 Best Life Coaching Books

Here are the 5 best books that have influenced my professional coaching. These books are essential for anyone training to be a life coach or experienced professional coaches looking for ideas.

25 May 2016Agile4 min read

How to do Example Mapping

A few months ago i came across Matt Wynne’s post about Example Mapping on the cucumber blog. During XP2016 I attended Matt’s Example Mapping workshop. I’ve been using the technique with teams for a few months now. This post will share what Example Mapping is and some of the experiences i’ve had using it.What is Example Mapping?Here is the process taken from the Cucumber blog:Example Mapping uses a pack of 4-coloured index cards and some pens to capture these different types of information as the