Lyssa equated learning to the game of telephone. We learn agile from someone who teaches us, as well as through our own unique experiences. Somebody taught the person who is teaching us, and that person likely brought in concepts and theories that seemed to be complementary. And this continues.
How has the message been changed along the way?
Do we know how the message has changed?
Because this is how we learn, Lyssa talked about the importance of knowing your learning lineage.
The first step is to think about the core domains with which you most strongly associate. For example, perhaps you have a technical background and associate with Extreme Programming and Scrum.
The core domains I am currently focusing on are Scrum, training, and coaching.
The second step is to think about where you learned that core domain. And then find out where that person learned. Did they pull from established theories or practices? Who did they learn from? Dig in. What might that person have added or not passed along in the original message. And then go back another “generation” of learning and repeat.
My learning lineage for Scrum traces back to Ken Schwaber, a co-creator of Scrum. I learned Scrum from people who learned Scrum from Ken Schwaber. As a member of the Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) community and as a Steward for the Professional Scrum Master Course, I have had opportunities to learn directly from Ken and many other PSTs around the world who have been practicing and teaching Scrum for years.
My learning lineage for coaching traces back to Lyssa Adkins. I first read her book Coaching Agile Teams, and I have taken training from Lyssa. I know that Lyssa’s coaching lineage traces back to Co-Active Coaching. This is how I made my decision to go through the 5-course Co-Active Coaching training program. And that then led me to enroll in the 10-month Co-Active Leadership Program.
This has been life changing, and I bring it into all of my work.
The game of telephone sounds a bit scary, but it seems inevitable.
This is how humans create, learn, and evolve. Yet we must be cautious and remain curious.
While I didn’t know the term learning lineage at the time, this is why I chose to become a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) through Scrum.org. This is why I chose to shift my focus more towards teaching Scrum courses.
Be mindful when choosing a training course of who created it, who is teaching it, and what their learning lineage is to ensure the training aligns with your goals. Often, when I get on a discovery call with a company seeking Scrum training and coaching, I end up telling them what they want is not what I offer. Because of my experiences, I believe in my approach, and I will not compromise to delivery something I know is not what they really need to achieve their goals. I will not compromise quality nor do something that doesn’t bring me joy and fulfillment.
Providing excellent training options for people to learn what Scrum is matters. Helping people understand how to effectively grow self-managing, collaborative teams matters. Helping people understand the importance of getting to done matters.
My work matters. And that is my why.
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