How to run a (quality) coaching session

You've finally convinced your team to hold a coaching session on a quality-related topic. Congrats! Now, to turn this opportunity into a successful outcome.

Running a task-based, time-boxed coaching session is a great way to embed concepts and learning into a team. Task-based coaching sessions focus on the team performing a specific activity. By doing, rather than discussing, the team gets to experience the concept as opposed to a hypothetical discussion on the topic.

Coaching sessions help teams understand the concept, but if you want to embed them into a team's psyche, it requires a consistent application. This means follow-up sessions, tweaks to team processes, and the inclusion of tasks into backlogs. So while you might be tempted to pat yourself on the back after a successful coaching session, realise that you have only started the change journey.

Holding a coaching session on a topic is relatively simple. You could use a formula such as this:

• Agree on the topic and outcome
• Select a small bit of work that can be time-boxed.
• Direct them through the task. Answer questions directly and as best you can.
• Once the task is completed, hold a short discussion session and explore the topic in more detail.  
• Agree on the next steps, such as follow-up tasks and further catchup sessions

Challenges in Coaching

Sessions like these look relatively simple to run, but like most things in tech, it hides the skill required to run one successfully. Here are some of the challenges I've experienced;

• Keeping the session on track is tricky, especially if there are a lot of questions.
• The team maybe have various degrees of experience, and balancing the session to ensure everyone is involved is complex.
• Some teams may love the coaching session but failed to incorporate it into their daily habits.
• You may find it hard to keep across all that's happening in a coaching session. .

Here are some tips to help you get going. I will use learning to use Playwright as an example of a task.

Planning a Coaching Session

• Focus on a topic that will help in a team's current work. If you can link a task to a specific outcome for the team, they will be more motivated to attend and get involved in the session. So in our Playwright example, it might be, "by learning to create Playwright scripts, we can help deliver greater reliability of our features".
• Plan beyond the coaching session. What will be required to convert the learning from this coaching session into a team's daily habit?  I've observed it can take over a year for a new idea to become adopted into a team's culture. So who in the team can help you ensure success when you're not there? Think Delivery Lead or Tech Lead.
• Agree with the team on the coaching outcome. For example, "by the end of the session, we will have set up and created a playwright script". Stick to this outcome and come back to it if the session begins to deviate.
• Do a dry run. The last thing you want is to spend the first 30 minutes downloading the latest library dependency.
• Think about the nuances of the task in a real life context. What are the challenges that teams will face when adopting this task? Then, think through how you might answer if these questions are asked. In our example, a question might be: "when is a good time to create a Playwright script"? Think where its useful to run a Playwright test and when its not.  
• Communicate in advance the topic, what they will learn, and the duration, so the team fully understands why and the benefits of the session.

Running a Coaching Session

There can be a lot happening during a team coaching session. Here are some tips to help the session go smoothly.

• Keep focused on the outcome and time. This is not easy if there are lots of questions. Answer simple clarifying questions straight away. More complex open-ended questions can be answered during the discussion time.
• Encourage pairing in tasks. This encourages people to discuss the topic and avoids people falling behind without you noticing.
• Consider a facilitator to help you with those pesky setup questions, such as "I can't log in", that pop up regardless of how planned you are and can threaten to derail a coaching session.
• Take notes while the task is being performed. I've used mind maps to track sessions. In particular, note complex questions that could have multiple answers. Then, discuss these topics in the debrief and explore where possible different answers might apply.

Running the discussion section

Discussion is where learning is consolidated, so avoid skipping it. In my experience, people enjoy this part of a coaching session. A discussion  can be as simple as how the task went, or you can get more complex and discuss the nuances of the task. Here are some tips on running a discussion.

• The objective of the discussion session is to give an insight into the topic's complexities. Time rarely allows you to discuss nuance in detail thoroughly, but it can be enough for people to think twice about the simplicity of the testing tasks.
• As a rule of thumb, where there is little experience, and low motivation, be more directive. Where there's high motivation and loads of experience, encourage exploration of nuance.  
• As part of your planning, you may have identified follow-up resources and links for further reading. Share those either at the end or after the coaching session.
• Right before you end the session, refresh on what was learned
• Agree on the next steps. See below for more details.

Post session work

I encourage quality coaches to discuss the next steps on the information learned. Your time and the team's time are valuable; the topic was crucial enough to schedule a coaching session (something that you probably had to fight tooth and nail to get scheduled). Getting the learning embedded into team habits and ways of working ensures that the session is not wasted.

Here are some ways to embed the learning into your team's culture:

• Agree on the next small bit of post-coaching work. Keeping it small ensures better chances of the team succeeding. For example, the team commits to writing 3 Playwright tests in the next sprint.
• Get work put on their backlog.
• Follow up during and at the end of your team's iteration. Pop in occasionally, and set up slack reminders to prompt people about the agreed work. Also, ask if they need any help.
• Work to include the activities in the team's ways of working. Using the definition of done help incorporate new rituals and habits.
• Once you're confident the concept is embedded in the team's work, you can reduce your involvement.

That's it for now! I'm sure I've left out a tonne of complexity here, but hopefully, I've covered the key areas. What about you? Are there other aspects of coaching sessions that you have found helpful? Why not share?