Code of Ethics

Do no harm. Leave a better way of working.

That is my Prime Directive.

Above all else, I enter every engagement with one overall view: do no harm. And when I exit, I leave your team with a better way of working. Every commitment on this page hangs off that.

The Commitments

As your agile data coach.

Seven commitments I make to you before any work starts.

  1. I will enter each coaching relationship with a focus on your team's readiness, open-mindedness towards change, and a willingness to engage as leaders.

  2. I will not sign a contract where revenue is my primary driver or cost is yours. The focus is achieving agility and business outcomes.

  3. I enter with a goal of partnership, shared work and shared outcomes. I will not engage with you in a client and supplier model, or a contractual model, as our primary working relationship.

  4. I will hold your context in confidence, whether we put an NDA around it or not.

  5. I will endeavour to be a truth-teller, even when the truth is hard to hear. That includes occasionally telling you no, or I can't do that, or in my experience you're making a mistake, or you should get another coach. I owe you nothing less than honest engagement.

  6. I will always start an engagement with a Discovery step based on observation. Exploring your goals, your team and your culture, then proposing a path of agile teaching, facilitating, coaching and mentoring that I believe will achieve your goals.

  7. I will share this Code of Ethics early in our engagement and make it part of our coaching agreement and general operating understanding. It is the foundation of any and all letters of expectation and statements of work.

Walking the Talk

I will model the behaviours I expect from you.

Ten behaviours, on the wall where you can see them.

  • Listening to understand
  • Honest and radical candour
  • Transparency in everything
  • Continuous improvement
  • Walking my talk
  • Leaving my baggage at the door
  • Respect for your history and results
  • Respect for your team
  • Respect for your leaders
  • Focus on your team first

The Craft

As an Agile Data Coach.

Ten more that govern how I practise the craft of coaching itself.

  1. I will not coach in areas where I have only academic, not direct, experience. And I will disclose those gaps to you.

  2. I will always endeavour to meet you where you are, as opposed to where I want you to be. That said, I will push you hard.

  3. I will not only adopt a coaching stance. I will teach, mentor, consult and guide as is appropriate for a partner. Point being, I won't make you come up with everything on your own.

  4. I will not take over ownership of your actions or your ultimate results. Yes, we're partners, but in the end you have to own your actions and behaviours.

  5. I will endeavour to model the agile principles and this code in every interaction. Showing you agile behaviours by example, not just describing them.

  6. I will not become a party to evaluating the performance, agile readiness or evolution of your people, including you. No judgement.

  7. My coaching philosophy is to teach you to fish and to put myself out of a job as soon as possible. That said, increasing agility takes time.

  8. I will pair-coach as often as possible. It increases the impact of the coaching, the value you get, and the skill and learning of the coaches.

  9. I will treat you with respect in every interaction, as I would expect to be treated. And I will call out inappropriate actions as I see them in your environment.

  10. I will approach every interaction without judgement of your past. You tried your best given the situation and the historical context. We will learn from the past, but focus on the future.

Hold Me Accountable

Call me on it.

If I miss the mark, say so.

I fully support every client and every team member holding me accountable to this code. If you ever feel I am missing the mark in walking my own talk, call me on it. I owe you nothing less.

Talk to Shane

Adapted with respect from Bob Galen's Agile Coaching Code of Ethics.