Visual Agile Coaching – How to be a Visual Agile Coach

In our Visual Agile Coaching workshop – How to be a Visual Agile Coach we will set

participants off on their own Visual Agile Coaching journey.

Our workshop provides an immersive Visual Agile Coaching experience, exploring what it

means to be a Visual Agile Coach and explore the Visual Agile Coaching Toolkit.

By the end of the workshop – as Visual Agile Coaches - everyone is able to use Visual

Practices within their ways of working and have insight into the:

explore

• The roles and responsibilities of a Visual Agile Coach
• The story behind Visual Agile Coaching
• What it means to be a Visual Agile Coach (the concept) – the why, what and how
  All participants will received a signed and personally illustrated Visual Agile Coach Playbook!

Workshop Schedule – per time allocation:

The workshop is fully interactive with participants encouraged to start their Visual Agile

Coaching from the get-go. During the workshop, we will:

• Introduce the Visual Agile Coach – the origin story, the roles and responsibilities, the big picture concept, the Power of Visuals AND get drawing and using visuals.

• Look at a ‘Big Model’ – visualise it, discuss it and explore its VAC application
• Research, discover, adapt and apply – i.e. the VAC Chemistry Lab experiments
• Use the Tried & Tested Toolkit with Visuals
• Lift the lid on the Visual Agile Toolkit – try a model
• Create your own VAC model

Part 1: Introduction to the Visual Agile Coach

Following a brief introduction – providing the VAC ‘origin story’ – and asking participants to

draw ‘what go them here to the session’, outlining the ‘big picture concept’ of Visual Agile

Coaching before getting started with some simple and fun activities to prove that everyone

can draw – or draw well enough in a business context. We’ll experiment with squiggles or

doodles and word association-type games and look at how drawing can be used to convey

different emotions (ice breaker exercises).

Part 2: What is Visual Agile Coaching

A) Before embarking on the Visual Agile Coaching journey, we will look at the science

behind the Power of Visuals. This will allow participants to understand why Visual Practices

are such an effective communication and collaboration tool to be used by Agile Coaches (or anyone really).

B) Outline what, why and how of Visual Agile Coaching:

• Starts with (Agile) Growth Mindset – a desire to learn, explore, try out and get better (improve yourself and others)

• Discuss how to learn, grow, and experience on your own and as a team (inc. coaching)
• Discuss how to apply learning and personal development
• Discuss how to adapt, apply and build – looking at some examples from the Visual Agile Coach Toolkit
• Discuss how to help and lead others on a Visual Agile Coaching journey – coaching-led leadership

Part 3: Get Drawing

Pick up the pens and pencils and iPad again for an overview of how to get drawing and lock

in some basic shapes, frames, faces etc.

Including how to draw digitally: Olina can provide a masterclass on how to draw digitally

including how it is different to drawing on paper, which apps are best and some tips and

tricks to get started or improve your current digital drawing.

Part 4: Visual Jam – building a Visual Library

After building confidence in drawing and visual skills we will hold a Visual Jam to build a

visual icon library to be used in the later exercises – icons such as goals, targets, team,

rewards etc. will come in handy in the later exercises as well as build confidence in creating

visuals.
- Exercise: Review the Visual Agile Coach Role Profile, inviting the participants to pick up their pens again and visually represent the roles and responsibilities of an Agile Coach as Icons – as well as discussing the Agile Coach role as a group.

Part 5: Big Model review

Look at a well known or ‘big model’ and discuss – what do we know about it already and

what different applications can we see (VAC ‘adapt and apply’). Use Visuals to understand

and communicate the ‘big model’.

Part 6: VAC Chemistry Lab - adapt and apply

Look at the VAC Chemistry Lab and the concept of ‘adapt and applying’ and the VAC GEAR

and CELIA models.

- Exercise: create and discuss experiments – visualise the ‘equations’

Part 7: VAC Toolkit - adapt and apply

Look at the VAC Toolkit and how we created it – discussing how they fit to the VAC role

profile

- Exercise: try out a Tool

- Exercise: create your own VAC Tool

Part 8: Reflection and Summary

We will close by asking the participants to reflect on their Visual Agile Coaching journey –

answer any questions and give tips or advice on how to develop their utilisation of Visual

Practices within their ways of working. Plus a Q&A session with discussion on how to

practically apply visuals in the Agile domain)

Extra Session: Visual Process Mapping

Armed with their ready-made visual icon library the attendees will now work together to firstly align on and then process map an Agile concept such as Retrospective, Inspect and Adapt, Scrum Framework. This is the largest exercise and help place visuals within a work context, as well as assisting in building confidence in using visuals it will also illustrate how effective visuals are in representing and communicating processes and concepts.

Extra Session: Coaching

Review the Coaching Toolkit and discuss coaching led-leadership

Host or Publisher Agile-Lean International