Sharing the Knowledge: Educational Coaching

Hackman and Wageman (2005) posit that there are three fundamental functions that determine the level of team effectiveness. The third of these is the amount of knowledge and skill members bring to bear on the task. Coaching that addresses knowledge and skill can be seen as educational in character.

At the heart of Agile approaches is the concept of continuous improvement. Moreover, the process of a team continuously improving stems from the team continuously learning. Effective teams will continuously develop new knowledge and skills, seeking opportunities to learn how to work better as a team in pursuit of their given task.

The Agile concept of a cross-functional teams and members with T-based skills strives to enable members to make a valued and continued contribution to the output of the team. Creating and maintaining an effective cross-functional team and T-based members though requires continued investment. Knowledge and skill need to be fostered both in terms of how to work well as a team and the individual task skills required within it. This is where educational coaching delivers.

Educational coaching is best placed at the end-point of performance cycles when teams have collected as much performance data as they can. With the task in hand complete and armed with maximum data, teams are arguably best positioned to reflect on their performance and internalise any lessons for going forwards.