You need to have a SIT

So how do you get things to move within a larger organization? As I mentioned before just hiring an Agile Coach doesn’t do the trick. He or she can only bring change on those parts where people are willing to change. But it is just like a Chinese plate spinner. Once you have the first team spinning. The others will loose momentum and might fall. So you need more hands. You have your different Scrum Masters. True, but what if they need coaching as well or are not yet experienced enough to provoke change. What you need it a Scrum Implementation Team. A group of people with enough knowledge to teach others how to work and act with Scrum but also people who have time to do so. And by time I mean, mandated enough to do invest time and effort where needed. Not just one hour per week. This team also should be able to move freely through the company. And last of all but most importantly. They must have authority. It’s almost like the CRACK rules for a Scrum Product Owner.

This team should also be able to provide change by using Scrum. Build a product backlog with all the goals for that period and conduct daily standups, reviews and even retrospectives. So implementing Scrum with Scrum. So what does the coach do then? Is he or she suddenly redundant? Absolutely not, but the coach can start with the change on a corporate level. And start helping the Implementation team as they need all the help they can get.

Now this is nothing new. You can read about this in the book that Jeff Sutherland and Ken Swaber wrote “Software in 30 day’s”. Yes I know, it is nothing more then a big sales brochure but it has got some good point. But also look at Spotify where they use coach teams who teach and help the different subgroups. It works. Change is not something you can do alone as a coach or as a single individual within a company. You need people; lots of people who are willing to adapt but also teach, promote and change. So as soon as you can. Start with a Scrum Implementation Team (SIT), or whatever you would like to name it. And keep all those Chinese plates spinning. It’s the only fast way to get things done.

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