Agile Notes (No. 38)

Hi, all! We are continuing our re-read of Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins. This week Chapter 10: Coach as Collaboration Conductor.

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There is a fair amount of nuance in this chapter. Lyssa spends time defining the differences between cooperation and collaboration.

Collaboration yields that old adage: The whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Cooperation yields the sum of the parts.

Collaboration needs cooperation as a baseline, but (!) you need collaboration to yield “innovative, breakthrough, astonishing results…” See? I told you there was nuance.

Lyssa recommends starting with cooperation. The team needs to learn “what each person brings to the team: their skills, talents, desires, and work preferences.” Cooperation becomes the base. The screen grab above provides the domains of skills needed to advance to collaboration.

We will spend a lot more time with collaboration when we start Collaboration Explained by Jean Tabaka in a few weeks. Only 3 chapters to go in Coaching Agile Teams.

Please comment and let me know if you and your team are cooperating or collaborating.

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