Certified LeSS Coaches and Certified Coaching Companies

The goal of the “Certified LeSS Coaches and Certified Coaching Companies” track is:

• Connect companies adopting LeSS with the best and most suitable coaches for them in their context and their neighborhood.
• Connect coaches to companies adopting LeSS and providing a way to differentiate themselves from other coaches and coaching companies by showing proven LeSS knowledge and experience.
• Provide a way to grow LeSS adoption in the world by working together with coaching companies and coaches to learn from each other.

Overview

Certified Coaching companies are evaluated based on whether their values are aligned with LeSS, whether they have LeSS (or LeSS-like) experience, and whether they have created a sustainable environment for capable coaches to continuously improve themselves.

When a coaching companies is certified, they can themselves register coaches on the LeSS.works site. Each coach must have been gone through a Certified LeSS Practitioner course.

Coaches and Coaching companies build up credibility via:

• Coaches and Coaching Companies can be linked to case studies and, that way, build up a LeSS-resume.
• Coaches and Coaching Companies can be tagged based on their key skills, their focus areas. Companies adopting LeSS can search based on location and expertise (tags).
• Coaches and Coaching companies can be ‘liked’ by other users (people who went through a certified course). The liking is public and will be visible for all.
• Coaches and Coaching companies can be reviewed by any other user. The reviews are visible on the profile of the coach/coaching company.

LeSS.works will help the coaches and coaching companies to continuously improve their skills and experiences.

Coaching Company Evaluation

The evaluation of coaching companies is done using three broad categories:

• Enough experience
• Aligned values
• Sustainable capability building

Because part of the evaluation is done based on values, therefore the coaching company evaluation is a subjective evaluation on the part of LeSS.works.

The candidate coaching company will go through the following certification activities, explained in the following sections:

• Case study with company coaches involvement
• Internet-based review
• Questionnaire and company profile
• Remote interview
• In-person visit to coaching company

These are more or less sequential, though LeSS.works will be able to make a decision at any point in time.

Case study

The company or the coaches in the company must have been either involved in an already published case study or provide a case study of their own. The original case study author is the one who decides whether a person or company was involved in a case study.

A coach didn’t have to work for the coaching company at the time of the coach’s case study..

Internet-based review

LeSS.works will do an intenet based review of the coaching companies. In this they will look for evidence of the following:

• Aligned values (e.g., the company is not also providing support for conflicting ideas/values, such as PMP)
• Evidence of coaching experience (e.g., LinkedIn recommendations or testimonials)
• Evidence of expertise (e.g., published articles and books)
• Evidence of sustainability (e.g., length of coaches employment and their activity during this period)
• Community involvement

Questionnaire

Less.Works will provide a short questionnaire for the company to discover some of the values, experience, and expertise. Also, the company is asked to provide their first draft company profile that they would like to have on the less.works site.

Remote Interview

A remote interview is held with at least one of the coaches of the company and possibly with the company management. This interview is likely to last about two hours and will involve questions and discussions related to how the company works, how they improve, and how they look at LeSS and their future involvement in LeSS.

In-person interview

This is optional and especially for coaching companies that consist of more than a few people and who have a physical office. Someone from LeSS.works will come for at least one day to visit the office space to have discussions with people and to Go and See how the organization works. The cost of travel will be covered by the coaching company.

Coaches Evaluation

Companies can register coaches themselves, based on an honor system of due diligence.

Coaches should meet the following criteria:

• be a Certified LeSS Practitioner
• have experience in a LeSS adoption
• complete the three LeSS books

Fees

A coaching company will be subject to an annual fee of 1000 USD which includes one coaching licence and an additional 1000USD for each of the registered coaches.

How to apply?

You can apply to be a coaching company by sending an email to less_coaching_company AT less.works)