Keeping up with writing on my blog seems to be something I am not good at, but I believe this is about to change. It has to do with the fact I am training to become a professional Agile coach, a process I am very much enjoying right now but also something that makes my head spin with possibilities and ideas. In short, enough fuel to feed the fire.
I feel like I should take you back a few months to explain what has happened.
In december of last year I was approached by my old training company that was offering a unique course to individuals that really want to stretch themselves on the field of Agile transformation. Being an avid Agile enthusiast and struggling myself with this very question for the company I work for (Sanoma) I was eager to participate. After a lot (and I mean A LOT) of lobbying I got green light to take the training.
The training itself started in July this year. We’ve discussed topics from Agile maturity, transformation acceleration to Agile practices, values and principles. Each module features a day of training, a homework assignment and a coaching retreat in which we present and discuss our results.
Having finished the first three modules I feel very energised, inspired, extremely motivated and intellectually satisfied. The training days and coaching retreats are literally the highlights of my professional month, and so far I’ve always left these sessions with more energy than I came with.
I also love the group of people that I train with. I am naturally shy, so in general I find it hard to deal with people I don’t know well (or at all). My training group consists of people from a global bank, major energy company, an IT service supplier, and even a direct competitor of one of my company’s assets; they were all complete strangers. Our common cause however has overcome any reservations I usually feel and the stories we share are a source of great inspiration and joy.
After these few months I’ve also noticed I am growing a lot in my field. I am looking differently at the governance and cultural problems within a traditional company trying to be Agile, am helping fellow Scrum Masters with their daily pains more effectively, and starting to get a clearer picture how to approach the subject of Agile transformation. Looking back and seeing the distance you’ve traveled in such a short amount of time is simply mind-blowing.
Realising how much these past few months I have learned and the fact I need to start organising my thoughts a bit more for the coming trial of writing a white paper on my subject led me to decide I will set myself a goal to write a blog post at least every two weeks (and preferably more).
This post was more from a personal point of view and feels more of an update, but you can expect the following series of posts to be much more on subject.