ICP-ACC: Agile Coaching

Change. The Agile Manifesto changed the world. It introduced us all to the idea that change can be harnessed and celebrated. It provided us values and principles upon which to stand and from which to build practices that help us keep pace with an ever changing world. It taught us that change is the only constant, and that it should be embraced. But, it didn’t change the human truth that change is hard, and in the face of constant change, we can be lost, hurt, confused, or left behind.

Change challenges our thinking, our world-view, and our self-view. Agile coaching is a craft intended to guide others in understanding, processing, and embracing constant change, so that the change is sustainable, lasting beyond the individuals.

Agile coaches guide individuals and teams to get clear about the change they desire, identify places where current reality does not match desired reality and then take action to close the gap — all in service of delivering business results that matter. Along the way coaches hold the bigger view of desired change, even when others may have lost sight. Agile coaches support, guide, coach, teach, mentor and facilitate change without colluding with the current reality.

The Agile Team Facilitator and Agile Coaching certifications provide a development path in skills needed by agile coaches. Through the track, agile coaches learn progressively more complex skills, and receive exposure to rich areas of further self-development beyond the classroom. Agile coaches bring their whole self to the work, weaving together skills from professional facilitation, professional coaching, mentoring, and teaching. They do this in service to teams, to cause change, navigate conflict, intervene, and guide teams toward joyful high performance.

These two knowledge-based certifications describe steps of development in Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF) and Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC); this is followed by a competence-based ICAgile Expert step (ICE-AC) intended for those who are practicing agile coaches. The content a learner will experience in the knowledge-based certifications is necessarily “a mile wide and an inch deep” because they are experiencing a confluence of professional disciplines that each have their own deep roots, techniques, and craft. It is expected that learners will find compelling areas to further study, in their service to the work and teams. By design, expertise in the learner is not presumed simply by engaging in the classroom; rather it is demonstrated at the ICAgile Expert step, based on demonstrable competence and peer review. To effectively operate at each step, there is an increasing level of skill, gravitas, and scope of influence expected.