Working Well Enough: the Four Questions

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The question asked was "how do we know we need a coach?" The more general question is "how do we know if we need help?"

The question seems to assume that the goal of coaching and training are rescue; that the team is in trouble or incapable of success. That's horsefeathers.

I think that the more valid question is "are we working as well as we can?"

Here are my criteria for teams that don't need anything:

  1. We deliver
  2. Delivering software keeps getting easier
  3. We are always learning
  4. We have fun

If all four of those are true for a team, then that team probably doesn't need help. Of course if those are true, then the team is poised to provide a lot of help to other teams by describing how they work.

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