We’re doing this increasingly frequently now, with some very encouraging results. With some tips learned from experience, here’s how you can use the Agendashift values-based delivery assessment in a one-on-one coaching session (some options for group work are mentioned later). The preparatory steps 1-4 should be done in advance.

1. Get added as a beta user (see below) – if you’re not one you won’t be able to do steps 2-4 below, but do not fear, all is not lost if you aren’t one yet!
2. From My contexts, create a context for the company, team, class, or individual you are working with
3. From the page for that context, create a survey to represent the current point in time and the current state of their Lean-Agile transformation journey (slightly mixed metaphor there, sorry)
4. In a private window (where you’re not already logged into Agendashift) or on your coachee’s machine, go to the address given by the long link on the survey page. For example, the 2016 global survey’s long link is https://www.agendashift.com/surveys/46/my_assessment?access_token=822933d1a042945228ecdcadad508f05bc2f290f (not that anyone needs this in order to participate in this special case)
5. Sit beside them or share screens, with them in control
6. Ask them to sign up (or sign in, if they’ve done this before)
7. Explain what the Agendashift values-based delivery assessment is, observing that the assessment’s sections are named after values. Use your own judgement on how much – if any – of the origin of the model you want to explain at this point.
8. Explain the scoring scale, noting the help icon next to it. Summary: it goes from 1 to 4; you’ll know if a 1 or a 4 is appropriate; there is no lazy middle option, and whether you’re a 2 or a 3 depends on whether you feel closer to the start or the finish.
9. Proceed to the Transparency section and let them talk you through it. Use questions like “what do you think is the intent behind this prompt?” and “what would a 4 look like here?” if you think they’re going off track or missing something important, but otherwise take the opportunity to listen.
10. At the end of each section (before proceeding to the next), ask them which prompts (up to three of them per category) represent areas they would prioritise for urgent attention. Note these down (keep a pen and notebook handy); there is the Agenda tab for this purpose but it’s better to keep the conversation going at this point and input the data later. Obviously, some tool changes are warranted here.
11. Now we’re into next steps, the subject of a future post! Meanwhile, see here and here for some clues on where we’re going with that.

For groups, you can either conduct a number of these sessions (the survey nicely combines the results together for you), send out the link and let people work it out for themselves before you hold a joint debrief (more on that in a future post), or facilitate the population of a single assessment as a group exercise. That last one is my least favourite option as you’ll be able to capture only the consensus view and will lose the opportunity to visualise the range of opinion.

If you’re not already a beta user you have two options:

1. Ask – telling me a little about your context. Agendashift is not (yet) a paid product but we do need feedback!
2. Use the global survey, which uses the “mini” template – 18 prompts instead of 44. You get one assessment per signup (no ability to create contexts, surveys, etc).

Either way, I strongly recommend our LinkedIn group. We’re acting on feedback and tweaking the tools constantly; it’s the best place for sharing your experiences and keeping track!

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