I watched Greg coach all by himself 90 teams over a couple of years. Of the two dozen or so coaches I was managing he made magic happen. Most of my coaches could only impact about one tenth the number of teams as Greg. I decided to followed him around for awhile to better understand how he did it.
How Greg Got So Much Done
Greg understood something the rest of us mere mortals did not. He understood you cannot coach somebody who does not want to be coached. So he didn't try. And he didn't do their work for them either. If one team wasn't ready he found another who was, meanwhile working his magic on the team which wasn't ready.
He knew how to make people want to be coached. And he knew that might take time. He never gave up on a team, but he did prioritize them based on their readiness. And he knew how to grow their desire to be coached in dozens of different ways while they were waiting.
Once they wanted it. Once they had intrinsic motivation. Greg could spend just a few hours of a week coaching a team. With a ready team, just a few hours a week might be all that is required.
Greg knew that if a team wasn't ready, he could coach them for forty hours a week and see almost no progress. When they wanted it... knowledge and insights could be successfully transmitted in hours. No struggle. No arm wrestling. No trying to convince people it was a better way. They simply run the experiments and evaluate the results for themselves.
A Small Handful of Great Agile Coaches can Change Everything How many Agile coaches do we need? "We need Greg, " is my typical reply. I know, I hired him.