Many thanks for your thoughts on this entry – it’s inspired me to respond to your question regarding how to choose an Agile Coach for your team: http://www.selfishprogramming.com/2009/04/18/which-agile-coach/

As usual, all feedback most welcome!
Portia

The first 2 paragraphs are basically saying that 9/10 of Agile coaching doesn’t stick because it follows the Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do mantra. Probably true. But this statistic troubles me. It simply gives a thumbs down to hiring an Agile coach, because the chances of finding the right one are very slim.
A manager not familiar with Agile (but interested in making the step forward) can also find that there are Agile ‘camps’: one of these camps performs an unsticky kind of Agile (at this point a dilemma creeps into this manager’s mind: are these Agile coaches trustworthy? A trust issue suddenly emerged).
To distinguish the camps, one must observe built-in collaboration and trust their instinct.

I beg to differ: I own a driver’s licence (over 10 years of driving in right-hand traffic), but I won’t trust my instincts when it comes to left-hand traffic, I’ll start from scratch.
As a novice driver in left-hand traffic I need somebody I trust to teach me and keep things simple for me until I feel I can trust my instincts. From that point, I should be able to see the ‘camps’.

Unfortunately, the meaning of Collaboration is heavily abused.
Everybody understands what it means. The problem is everybody understands something else.

I’ve almost forgotten to appreciate the message of this post:
a team has to come up with its own guidelines or manifesto through a collaborative effort.