{"id":2083,"date":"2015-01-19T07:43:14","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T15:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookforwardconsulting.com\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:50:21","slug":"i-know-how-lonely-it-can-be-out-front-interview-with-deborah-hartmann-preuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2015\/01\/19\/i-know-how-lonely-it-can-be-out-front-interview-with-deborah-hartmann-preuss\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Deborah Hartmann Preuss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"XP_Days_2013_0879\"<\/a>During my consultants retreat in\u00a0October where we discussed Agile Chartering<\/a>, I had a chance to collaborate\u00a0deeply with a dear colleague and friend\u00a0Deborah Hartmann Preuss<\/a>,\u00a0coaching for effectiveness + joy. \u00a0Deb and I first met way back in 2008 at the very first Agile Coach Camp in Ann Arbor, MI and we have always stayed connected on-and-off via the Internet. \u00a0In 2012 we reconnected because I was experiencing some trouble focusing in my professional life, I was not entirely satisfied with the results and I recently learned that she was focusing her career in professional coaching. \u00a0So, I signed up for eight\u00a0coaching sessions with over five months and our conversations really helped me get the focus I needed. \u00a0I highly recommend coaching with Deb if you ever feel stuck or in a rut either personally or professionally.<\/p>\n

Deb is such an amazing person and has been doing some very interesting things since we first met in 2008. \u00a0When talking with her in France, I thought she would be the perfect person to include in our interview series<\/a>. \u00a0Here is our conversation.<\/p>\n

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  1. How did you get involved with the Agile community? \u00a0Why? \u00a0<\/strong>In\u00a01998 I was a software consultant on a small team in Montreal, developing a scientific B2B web app. \u00a0One day, I stumbled across the c2 wiki<\/a>,\u00a0specifically, the anti-patterns collection<\/a>. \u00a0My appetite was whetted: I was tired of delivering fragile code and half-functional features, and suddenly I saw hope for more transparent, more values-based work. \u00a0In the following months, I observed that my colleagues had other priorities, that their imaginations were not sparked, as was mine, by the approaches I was discovering.<\/li>\n
  2. What happened next? \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>I left my beloved home city, went somewhere more passionate, ending up on a spirited team where we asked management to let us take over and restart our struggling RUP<\/a> project – without a traditional project manager, and using Scrum. Astonishingly, they agreed! \u00a0The memory of that awesome team fuels my work to help others create great work experiences. \u00a0And the bittersweet aftertaste of losing that job (our team, and others, were laid off en-masse) drove me to develop skills for aligning teams and organizations. \u00a0It taught me the risks of us-vs-them, and the critical need for building bridges across gulfs and silos to create success for everyone.<\/li>\n
  3. Tell us about your involvement with Agile Coach Camp (ACC)? \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>From 2004 to 2007, I opened space for Joe Rainsberger’s<\/a> touring XPdays North America. \u00a0At the NYC event, Naresh Jain<\/a> and I got to talking about the limitations of the big annual Agile conference. \u00a0As much as I love the energy there, the community-builder in me balked at the effort expended, and at its expense and exclusivity. \u00a0Of course: anyone can attend Agile 20xx<\/a> … anyone who can get leave from work and family, and a big travel budget, that is. \u00a0Oh, and for whom the timing fits. \u00a0At XPdays I’d experienced Open Space<\/a> as an easier-to-plan, more cost-effective alternative that also built up local communities. \u00a0Open Space is a natural fit for agilists, who are understand the needed balance of freedom and self-discipline required for self-organisation. \u00a0I think Naresh particularly valued the way it invited innovation and exploration. \u00a0His experience with SDTconf<\/a> gave us a huge leg up – inspiring our simplest-possible formula for making it happen without fuss and risk, through community collaboration.<\/li>\n
  4. How was ACC going to be different than the other conferences?<\/strong> \u00a0We didn’t want to “own” another series of events. \u00a0So we invited helpers, set up a wiki, held open-invite phone calls and intentionally left a clear trail of breadcrumbs. \u00a0Ron Jeffries and his co-conspirators secured a venue for us, and so we invited everyone to Ann Arbor in 2008. \u00a0And then we invited people to run their own! Our dream was of viral, regional events that would spark growth, innovation and community everywhere, between the big annual conferences. \u00a0That’s pretty much how it’s worked, too. \u00a0We’ve seen events spring up all over Europe, in Scandinavia, India, North America and Australia. \u00a0In 2014, I was excited to go back to our roots, opening space with Paul Boos at #ACCUS, attending my first #ACCCA in my home country, and participating in the 40th instance of ACC on the beach in Barcelona! \u00a0(Please, steal this format! :-)<\/li>\n
  5. What are you doing these days? \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>It’s funny, but as it turns out, everything I do seems to be a variation on what I’d call “holding space.” \u00a0My main passion is to\u00a0coach change-agents, holding a safe space for them to reflect and find balance, and to experiment with making more resonant, satisfying choices. Most of this is telephone work, and my clients are all over the globe. \u00a0I also hold space for communities and groups, too, when I open space for their unconferences. \u00a0 I teach others to open space in one-day workshops. \u00a0The next workshop is immediately before Play4Agile<\/a>\u00a0and we are planning one in Ontario [Canada] this June.<\/li>\n
  6. What is new for you right now?<\/strong> \u00a0I am excited to have recently initiated, together with Steve Holyer and Diana Larsen<\/a>, a new community of “Agile Chartering” facilitators. \u00a0You could say we want to help product communities hold vibrant, generative spaces within which to do great work together. \u00a0I was really happy to see you again in person there, Carlton! \u00a0The web is great but there’s nothing like face-to-face for collaboration. \u00a0Oh, and I’m just getting started in 2015 on a totally new and outside-my-comfort zone thing: podcasting<\/a>!
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  7. What is the connection between your work today and your Agile work? \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>As an Agile Coach, I saw that we do have useful ways to help willing teams work better. \u00a0But again-and-again I watched teams lose heart at the dysfunctional connections they had with their wider organizations. \u00a0For this, I felt ill-equipped. \u00a0So I went looking for new skills, lucked into an inspiring personal coach in Michael Spayd<\/a>, and ended up studying professional coaching with The Coaches’ Training Institute (now known as Co-Active Training Institute<\/a>), Newfield Network and the Center for Right Relationship (i.e. ORSC) in 2008. \u00a0In the process I discovered that a more effective way for me to apply my intuition and passion was to support the change agents working with and within teams. \u00a0I can impact more teamwork by helping individual change agents be happier and more effective, who will, in turn, take that renewed energy back to the teams they work with and care about. \u00a0And I know how lonely it can be “out front” as the change agent: leading the way, seeing possibilities others don’t see yet… the support I offer can be a sanity saver.<\/li>\n
  8. What is coaching? \u00a0What types of things would not be considered coaching? \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>Such a simple and complex question! \u00a0The word is used in several different ways, in the business world I’ve worked in, so I will set the context for my answer first.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Coaching, also called “life coaching” by some, in its present form was developed in the 1970’s. \u00a0In the 1980’s, it jelled into a few major schools of coaching. \u00a0Common elements in all these schools are now embodied in the International Coach Federation’s<\/a> coaching competencies, code of ethics and include a “no fixing” stance, where the coach supports the client(s) to discover their own strengths, solutions, and sources of inspiration.<\/li>\n
  9. How would\u00a0define coaching?<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Coaching is a partnership between a coaching professional and a client (or team) seeking transformation. \u00a0Clearly, there is overlap here with the Agile process improvement I used to do. \u00a0However, I now think of coaching as the slower, deeper “teach a person to fish” in contrast with the consulting mindset of “give a person a fish”.<\/li>\n
  10. From your perspective, what are key benefits of coaching?<\/strong> \u00a0Coaching develops deep, transformative life skills and helps individuals (re-)take control of finding meaning and joy in all aspects of their life. \u00a0Naturally, this includes their work. \u00a0When an organisational transformation makes room for this deeper work, I believe culture change will be more profound and change will happen more organically and lastingly. \u00a0Zappos<\/a>, with their “Insights<\/a>” program is an example of this.<\/li>\n
  11. What is coaching? \u00a0<\/strong>Joseph O\u2019Connor and Andrea Lages in their book,\u00a0How Coaching Works, give this description, “Imagine a relationship where the total focus is on you … on what you want in your life and on what will help you achieve it … Imagine a relationship with someone who will absolutely tell you the truth … This coaching relationship is one of trust, confidentiality and safety.”<\/li>\n
  12. Why would someone be interested in coaching?<\/strong> \u00a0People come with motivations from crystal clear (need a new job) to barely-formed (seems like the right time to look inward). \u00a0These are some common ones I hear:
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