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This is the first post I've written in a LONG time. The last time I wrote a blog was pre covid, before my children were born, a LOT has changed in the intervening time. However, as I looked back my old blog posts, some of which I moved over to this new website, I realised that some of what I said back then is still relevant now, perhaps even more so! I thought it would make sense to start off with a new series of blog posts, which are based around the 'why' of my focusing on collaboration coaching as a business. This is the first, more general post - but it will be followed by a series of posts which talk through some of the anti patterns I see when people try to work together - and what we could do to turn these around to be more helpful. Firstly, what is collaboration? For me it's about a diverse group of people coming together as equals, with autonomy to solve complex problems in unpredictable situations. I have a firm belief that we shouldn't (and actually cant effectively) work on our own to solve complex problems. When I say complex I mean from a complexity theory point of view. Problems where there are no right answers, many routes to a solution and a constantly changing landscape in which the problem exists. There is little or no certainty as to what the future holds. I think we all operate in unpredictable environments like this (and if you think you don't, take a moment to really consider whether that's true). I've come across many circumstances where people tell me they collaborate on something, be it a piece of work or a process they need to follow. On closer inspection, I find that what is sometimes meant be collaboration is this - 'I do my bit, then they do theirs'. For me, this is not collaboration. Collaboration would be, 'We work on it at the same time, talking, adapting and furthering our understanding as we go.' For a lot of people, this concept is completely alien. And that's ok - if you've never truly collaborated with someone then you won't know what it's like. Society and the cultures around us aren't geared towards collaboration necessarily. However, complexity and unpredictability in the world are becoming more and more commonplace, which means we need to find ways to succeed and thrive in it - and as I've said I believe we can only do that by truly collaborating, working together, learning as we go and being open to changing our plan to deal with the things going on around us. I think that's enough on this topic from for now. I may leave you with a wee story though. Humanity x Lego / Valerie x Robb I was asked by a local meetup group to collaborate with a good friend of mine on a session for their community. Robb and I have worked together before, we've put together a workshop together before, but we've both come a long way since then and have our own interests and skills now. We of course said 'YES', before we'd even had a chance to think about what we were going to do, never mind how. We got together twice to work out the details. We exchanged many messages on whatsapp and we finally delivered a fantastic workshop together. When we first said yes, we had no idea how the session would go. Robb is a Lego Serious Play facilitator and I've been exploring how we accept and become aware of ourselves and our colleagues as humans, to work better together and make the world a better place. How were we going to fit that together? After our first conversation about it, we had a bit of an idea how therse two themes would fit together, but it was just a brief outline. I had a bit of a wobble with a month or so to go and we almost threw the whole plan out and started again. However, the second time we got together, we were in Robb's car, driving home from a Lego Serious Play workshop he had just run, part of which would form the structure of our session. I attended his workshop purely to watch him in action and figure out if - and how - I could fit 'humanity' in with what he was doing. We spent 30 mins in the car, him driving, me on my iPad, thrashing out the details. We got pretty close in that time, with just a few minor areas to figure out. From there, we played to our strengths and our capacity to make the session ready for the meetup community. We were still making edits 30 minutes before we were due to start, but we were always talking, considering what we were doing and how we could make it better. The session 'Exploring Humanity with Lego Serious Play'was a great success. There were of course lots of things we could have done differently, but we stuck to our purpose and feel we served it well. So what? There is a lot to be learned from that experience. Openness, Vulnerability, a willingness to learn and adapt. Making the most of time together, playing to our strengths, accepting when someone doesn't have the capacity and working within those boundaries. It helped that I've known Robb a long time and we have a fantastic working relationship already - but what I do on a daily basis is strive to give others that easy sort of experience, whoever they are working with. It takes time, patience and a lot of getting comfortable with uncertainty. It's hard, really hard, but it is achievable through awareness and acceptance of ourselves and others. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss how I can help, no matter how big or small the group, or the challenge they are facing.

Recently I gained my Certified Agile Leadership 1 from Scrum Alliance. I attended Michael Sahota's course in London with around 20 other budding agile leaders, over 2 days. I've had some time to let the learning set in - to say it was an enlightening experience is putting it lightly! I'll try my best to sum it up in a coherent way. First of all, how does Michael himself describe his courses? It says this on his website: HIS CLASSES ARE CONTROVERSIAL AND UNIQUE BUT THAT’S WHAT ALLOWS HIS AGILE STUDENTS TO FLOURISH BY SHOWING THEM THE MISSING PIECES AND COMMON ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES YOU CAN GO BACK AND IMPLEMENT IMMEDIATELY. It certainly was controversial and unique. Before attending the course, participants were told to leave their Assumptions, Ego and Attachment to ideas at home. That in itself tells you that you are going to need an open mind to get the most from this course. The first day started with a short meditation and sharing with the group. This set the scene for what was a soul searching couple of days, with lots of meditation between delivery of course content. Half way through the first day, Michael asked if anyone would describe themselves as an agile 'evangelist'. I proudly raised my hand as that is absolutely how I would describe myself. I have seen first-hand the benefits agile ways of working can bring to teams and organisations and it is something I feel really passionate about - hence going on the course. Imagine my surprise when Michael said I needed to 'kill' that part of me and make sure it never comes back.... This shocked me to the core, if I came here to learn about agile leadership, how can I kill the agile enthusiast within me?! We were all assured before the course started that we may have moments like this, where we doubt and don't want to believe, but we were promised that if we kept an open mind we would be able to process by the end of the course. By the end of day one, I was still in shock but I was willing to be open to the reasoning - Agile should not be the end goal. It is a means to an end, but it might not be the best or only way to reach the end goal. We need to look deeper than this, why do we think Agile is the answer before we even start? What are we looking to achieve? Once we look at the answers to these questions, we often see where Agile could be useful, but before we know this we are blindly going somewhere with no real destination in mind apart from being more 'Agile'. The evening was a good chance to debrief with some course mates, we challenged each other and discuss what we had learned and uncovered that day. We looked ahead to the second day with a hope that it would answer some of the questions we had, or help us to deepen our understanding of some of the things we had been introduced to. By the end of day two, my overall word to sum up the day was 'Ready'. I genuinely felt like I had gained some real usable tools and insights in a way that I would never have thought of before. With Agile now firmly not the answer in my brain, I tried to process why - and I recognised the following: we spend so much time looking a tactics and strategy for 'doing Agile' that we can often forget or ignore the bigger picture of 'being Agile'. The mindset that goes behind agile ways of working and the culture that brings to an organisation, is so much more important than scrum or kanban. It is that mindset, rather than the tactics, that a lot of companies who try to adopt agile actually want, they just don't realise it at the start. Once we get in behind the reasons for an 'Agile transformation', we will often find that using agile tactics could be a way to achieve their results, but we also need to ensure that the leaders who want to make the change happen are willing to lead the change and lead by example. And more than all of that, it’s about the way you communicate with people, not just the things you implement. In order to implement effective change, you need to leave your own personal agenda at the door and allow others to do the same. You can only take them on a journey when they are willing and ready. You can't push it. You're maybe now reading this thinking, 'I still don't get it, what's all that got to do with Agile?' That's just it, the course had very little to do with 'doing Agile'. It was much more than that, it was about 'being Agile', but only if its appropriate. Confused? I'm not surprised. Go on the course and open your mind up to new possibilities, I found it enlightening, eye opening and game changing, but not in a way I can easily describe. Maybe sometime in the future I'll put it in to more coherent words.

This post is about music, but bear with me – it has a point! I realised recently that the areas of my life are all aligning and I’m noticing one common theme. This is particularly true in my new found love of playing the bass clarinet. I’ve played the clarinet for about 20 years now – since I was still in primary school. I grew up in a musical household and decided to play the clarinet after attending one of the school concerts where my parents worked when I was about 8 or 9, as I saw the principal clarinet player of the concert band playing a solo and was just mesmerised. She then became my first teacher when I was in primary 6. I enjoyed playing the clarinet through my school years, I had a good support structure with my parents able to help and my mum would accompany me for exams – we played as one it wasn’t two random people, we knew what each other was thinking. When I left school, I left home, moving from Aberdeen shire to Glasgow, and didn’t play my clarinet for years. After I finished university I was asked if I wanted to join a band in Ayrshire – Stewarton Winds – and thought it would be great to play again. I soon rediscovered the joy of music and became one of the regular members of the clarinet team for 6 or 7 years. There was only one issue. I found the music really hard – which is a good thing, I love a challenge – but there was something missing for me and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then an opportunity opened up for me – playing the bass clarinet instead of the clarinet. For those who don’t know the difference, the clarinet is one of the upper woodwind instruments, they get a lot of the melodies but also the decorative fast notes and runs, which makes it difficult and is great for a gorgeous effect in the piece as a whole. The bass clarinet plays more of the bass line, supports the band by keeping time and often playing longer pedal notes which support the sound of the band in the upper ranges. This was a whole new challenge for me. First of all, it’s a much bigger instrument – which means it needs more puff, more lung capacity and more support from my breathing. But also finding my place amongst the lower instruments in the band, the supporting role was a shift for me. 2 years in and I absolutely love it. I think I’ve been a bass player all my life and just never realised it. I’m reenergised, feel more confident and less stressed about all the quick notes (although I still get them from time to time). I’ve found that spark that I felt I’d been missing. So bringing it back to my point – I’m beginning to notice the similarities between my musical life and my professional life. The reasons why I like this new role in the bass section so much. Being a Scrum Master means playing that supporting role, it’s the servant leader. You lead but support. I love my job, so it makes sense that I’d love a similar role in a band. I keep time and support from the lower end of the musical score, with the odd moment to shine with a solo. The spotlight isn’t on me, it’s on my team. My role in their success is helping them to succeed. IT’S BEEN A REVELATION. Well done for making it to the end of my slightly random post about the slightly random thoughts in my head! If you want to know more about Stewarton Winds, we’re online and on facebook. We also just won a gold plus award at the Scottish Concert Band Festival, you will find a few of our performances over the years on their youtube channel.