Kanban Coaching
What the exam tests
Kanban Coaching tests your ability to create change through partnership rather than command. Questions cover the coaching stance, the coaching agreement, using the KMM diagnostically, coaching at each maturity level, and handling sponsors, resistance, and evidence.
Core rules
- Coaching is not mentoring, consulting, or training: the coach asks, observes, and reflects; the client owns the solution.
- The coaching agreement defines goals, scope, roles, confidentiality, success measures, and exit.
- Coach the system, not just the individual: use value-stream and systems thinking.
- Use the KMM to locate the current level and select fit-for-purpose next practices; do not push Level 4 metrics into a Level 1 system.
- Align with Kanban change principles: start with what you do now, agree to pursue evolutionary change, respect current roles, and encourage leadership at all levels.
- Model the Kanban values: transparency, balance, collaboration, customer focus, flow, leadership, respect, understanding, agreement.
- Measure coaching by business outcomes and behavior change, not by levels climbed.
Worked example
A director asks the coach to “make the teams do daily standups and report velocity.” The coach recognizes a directive request and contracts with the sponsor on the real goal: predictable delivery. A KMM-based assessment shows the teams at Level 1: boards exist, policies are implicit, and WIP is uncontrolled. The coach agrees with the sponsor to frame the goal as flow predictability, coaches the teams to visualize policies and limit WIP, and sets a six-week review using flow data. Reasoning: the coach neither rejected the request nor accepted it literally; they renegotiated the goal, grounded it in evidence, and chose practices that fit the level.
Traps
- Taking the sponsor’s prescribed solution as the coaching goal.
- Confusing coaching with advice-giving or expert consulting.
- Assessing maturity without evidence, or using the assessment to judge people.
- Ignoring power dynamics and confidentiality.
- Declaring success from activity (workshops held) instead of outcomes.