In Responsive Agile Coaching, Niall McShane draws on over a decade of agile coaching experience to document a clear and well-researched model that lifts the lid on how agile coaching actually works. The book starts by defining what the role of agile coach has become in recent times before putting forward a field-tested and theoretically sound model for conducting agile coaching conversations.

Packed full of real-life stories from authentic coaching work, you’ll laugh and cry with the characters as you learn what it takes to be one of the best agile coaches in the current market. Drawing from areas such as neuroscience, mindfulness, behavioral psychology, and unlearning theory, this book is focused on when and how to have conversations that matter with clients during times of change.

The central point in the book argues that agile coaches are more than the sum of their competencies; they need to execute the right “moves and steps” during coaching conversations. The model Niall outlines is built around one moment that matters in all agile coaching conversations; Niall calls this the responsive moment. Sensing this moment and responding in a way that best serves the needs of the client and the organization is what the book guides you to be able to do (consistently).

The Responsive Agile Coaching model is a dynamic flow-based approach to delivering agile coaching as a service. It dispels the thinking that agile coaching needs to be delivered by a person with the title of agile coach and aims to “open source” it as a skill anyone can develop. This book puts the "coaching" back into agile coaching by providing a model to balance the agile expert and coaching elements of agile coaching.

Responsive Agile Coaching is part theory, part practical guide book.