Standard Agile Coaching Kit circa 2019
Years ago, any Agile Coach worth their salt carried a role of blue painters tape in their Agile toolkit. This bag of goodies extended to the Agile classroom, where coach/trainers relied on a stock set of materials to engage learners. Then COVID happened, and among the many things that got turned upside down, Agile training was one of them. In-person training instantly dried up, and we at Hard Yards were forced to re-tool/re-skill ourselves very quickly. The result of that chaos turned into something I’m rather proud of. We transitioned all our in-person training to a shared whiteboard tool, created virtual collaborative spaces, and found we could offer (in some cases) better and more interactive training than we could in the classroom. It was certainly easier to reach more people.
This week, I’m headed back into the classroom to teach for the first time in 30 months. It’s a little scary, and a little exciting, which isn’t all that bad. When we switched from in-person to virtual, we had to think about all the elements that made in-person training effective and memorable, then try and replicate them using online tools. In preparing myself for this class, I’m forced to go backward. What are all the things that made virtual training better? And how might I bring those elements back into my in-person training? In no particular order, here are some things that stood out for me w/ training, and how I’ll try and put them into practice.
Small Group Discussion, Large Group Integration
Video teleconference tools make small groups easy to facilitate. And given enough physical space, this can be recreated in a classroom space too. However, what I found most valuable in virtual sessions was the contextualization to the larger concept that took place when people returned from the breakout session. Like several small groups working on one jigsaw puzzle, some of the best breakout exercises happened when we used the breakout rooms for discussions, while using a shared large-group space on the virtual whiteboard to record the results. This time I’m challenging myself to find ways to blend small group discussion with large group collaboration
Written Directions / Prompts
I used to be arrogant enough to think that people were listening to me. And maybe a few were. However, one habit I got into training virtually was to provide written instructions for an activity, written debrief questions and written tips/tricks. This is absolutely something I’ll continue to do. My slides look quite a bit different this time around. We still don’t teach from the slides, but using the booklet for supplemental materials and leaving a space to take some notes can be very helpful.
Frequent breaks
Cats are very agile
It doesn’t take too many days in the virtual classroom to realize that staring at a Zoom screen all day long is mentally and physically exhausting. To combat this, we cut our materials to just the required concepts, leaving plenty of breathing room in the agenda. Our online rule is we try not to go more than 45-60 minutes without a short break. I'm carrying that rule with me into the real classroom as well. I bet people won’t complain.
Modularization
One thing we found worked extremely well in virtual training was complete “modules” of content that could be plugged in, re-ordered, discarded or brought in at a moment’s notice depending on the needs and desires of the group. I intend to follow this same idea in the physical classroom. I’ll bring more content than I plan on using, giving me delivery flexibility that I haven’t had in the past.
We talk a lot about Mixed Agile Arts at Hard Yards. In fact, we have a whole page dedicated to the topic on our website. Just like Mixed Agile Arts, I think a best-of-both-worlds approach to training can serve us well. Is virtual training “better” than in person? It can be in some cases. Is in-person training “better” than virtual? It can be. If you have the luxury of choice, pick the training vehicle that best meets the needs of the group and the content. But most importantly, I think it’s about meeting the learners where they are, and taking advantage of the space and tools available to you.
This may sound antithetical to what I’ve just described, but virtual training need not faithfully reproduce in-person training note-for-note, and neither is the inverse true. Each type of training can stand alone for what it is. So this week, I’m looking forward to taking advantage of the physical space available to us. We can use motion, body language, physical activity, and interpersonal connections in ways that simply aren't possible over a Zoom call. And if the Internet goes down while we’re in the room, no one will ever know — though I will miss the occasional cat walking in front of someone’s screen. But I think I’ll bring a roll of blue tape, because you just never know.