An Agile Coach’s job is to help teams grow and enhance their effectiveness. Rather than push practices, give answers, or do the team’s work for them, coaches can help teams increase their effectiveness by paying attention to the quality of conversations and the flow of information in their work.

Two ways Agile Coaches can improve the quality and flow of information is by noting observations and asking questions.

Noting

Noting is when you share an observation or an idea with the group to raise group awareness and invite a discussion on ideas that have been missed. I often do this by raising a point or observation and asking, “Is this a thing?”

When noting, I look for patterns, such as:

• Connected ideas from different areas: “Another team mentioned a possible edge case. Could that be related, or is that different in some way?”
• Inconsistent terminology: Are people talking about the same thing but using different terms?
• Misaligned definitions: Are people using the same terms but mean different things?
• Reminders: Teams usually work in high-WIP situations and are constantly overloaded. That, paired with poor systems, means they don’t always remember the information they need when they need it.

When I note things, I’m paying attention to gaps or elements of the conversation that might be valuable to highlight. Noting puts ideas into the shared pool of information, creating awareness and triggering a wave of new questions and discussions from the team.

Questioning

Lots of meetings I attend follow the pattern where only one person speaks, and everyone else passively listens. Then, at the end of the meeting, the presenter eventually asks, “Does anybody have any questions?” followed by a reluctant “No.”

Collaboration and communication aren’t happening if nobody’s asking any questions.

A big part of increasing the quality of meetings involves planning and meeting design, but you can still make an impact by breaking the pattern and proactively asking more questions.

Here are some areas I focus on:

• Getting clarity on unclear concepts: When something’s off about how things fit together or when it’s unclear how things flow from A to B to C, ask for clarification.
• Digging deeper: When people propose an idea, try to pull more information out of them. Ask them to share the thought process and the assumptions behind their idea.
• Listen for gaps in the questions and answers: People don’t always ask the questions they intend and don’t always answer the questions they get asked. Listen closely and watch for signs that questions or answers don’t satisfy the original intent or reflect what the person is trying to communicate.
• Addressing misinterpretations: Use paraphrasing and ask for confirmation on what people are trying to say.
• Slowing down: Rather than rush to the next agenda item or task, ask people to summarize or revisit unresolved issues.

Notice What’s Missing

A crucial skill is being able to sense and spot when something’s missing or not being talked about:

• Does the discussion feel like it’s skipped over some important points?
• Are there people not included in the discussion that should be?
• Is the team ignoring the “elephant in the room”?
• Does the team know the reasons behind out-of-the-ordinary questions or requests? Has something changed?

Sometimes, when people are too focused on completing tasks, they forget to consider more fundamental questions:

• “Should we do this work?
• “Is this the right problem to solve right now?”
• “What’s the goal?”
• “Who cares about this problem?”

These questions are important because they can save teams from wasting time doing work they shouldn’t do in the first place.

Get the Context

Watch for missing context in statements. For example, if someone says, “The value is now 25,” take the time to get more context:

• “Is 25 good? Is it bad? Why?”
• “Why are we changing it? What’s changed?”
• “What was it before? Is it increasing or decreasing?”
• “How did we manage to get it to 25?”
• “How does this compare to other values?”
• “Now that it’s 25, what happens next?”

Questions that explore the context behind what’s being discussed are helpful because they create room and space for people to jump in with questions they might have but aren’t comfortable asking.

Good Practices

People tend to have a high tolerance for ambiguity, but in the negative sense that when things aren’t clear, rather than seek clarification, they choose not to reveal that they don’t understand something publicly and instead decide not to ask any questions, even if it means working less effectively. Not asking those questions hurts the team because trying to work without a clear understanding reduces quality, delays feedback, and makes work take longer.

To improve the impact of noting and questioning:

1. Try to find the best way to capture the idea: Rephrase what’s being discussed in the simplest, clearest, most straightforward way possible.
2. Visualize information: Make things visual by taking notes or drawing simple diagrams. Update things in real time as more information is shared.
3. Constantly seek clarification and confirmation: Make sure the team is on the same page by constantly checking in with the group, summarizing, and asking, “Is this right?”

In the case of meetings, remember to check in with people after the meetings finish. Try asking questions like:

• What do you think?
• Is anything still unclear?
• Was there anything you didn’t get a chance to ask?
• Did anything come up that we should try to confirm?

Conclusion

Communication challenges are a type of friction for teams. These techniques aim to help your teams grow and improve their effectiveness.

By noting observations and asking insightful questions, you can help teams uncover blind spots, challenge assumptions, and make meaningful progress without imposing your own solutions. If you’re doing it right, you should see teams start asking better questions, ideas getting communicated more clearly, and more voices participating in discussions.