As an agile coach, I spend much of my working life in the gap between a change that has been announced and a change that has actually happened. That gap is rarely a matter of methods. It is a matter of people, and that is why Esther Derby’s 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results has become one of the books I reach for when I’m unsure what to do next.
The book doesn’t try to be a framework. Derby offers heuristics that help answer the question “What should I do next?” That is the question I ask myself in the middle of almost every engagement, usually when a team is stuck, a stakeholder is skeptical, or a well-meant initiative is losing momentum. estherderby
The idea that changed my coaching vocabulary: change by attraction
Derby contrasts driving change with change by attraction. Driving change means pushing, persuading, and sanctioning. Change by attraction relies on trust, expertise, and good information, so that people can move toward something voluntarily. When it works, resistance fades because there is nothing left to push against. Coaches see the difference quickly. Teams rarely resist improvement. They resist being improved.
Where the seven rules show up in coaching practice
- Strive for Congruence. Before I facilitate anything, I check whether the people asking for change and the people living with it are talking about the same problem. If they aren’t, no retrospective format will fix it.
- Honor the Past, Present, and People. Every team has a history, and the current ways of working once solved a real problem. Naming what works and should stay makes it much easier to talk about what should change.
- Assess What Is. Change begins from the present state, not from the target picture. Looking at long-standing patterns keeps me from prescribing solutions that don’t fit.
- Attend to Networks. Work moves through trust and expertise, not through reporting lines. Knowing who people actually ask for help tells me whom to involve early. I also like Derby’s rumor control board, a visible place where rumors are collected and then checked or countered. It is a simple tool against the negativity that spreads when information is missing.
- Experiment. Practices that worked at another company often fail in a new setting. Small experiments, with explicit assumptions and visible results, lower the stakes and keep everyone learning. This is the rule that fits most naturally with an agile mindset.
- Guide, and allow for Variation. In knowledge work, a single mandated way of working often gets in the way. I find it more effective to explain the goal and the reasoning, and to describe what good and bad outcomes look like, than to enforce one rule.
- Use Your Self. For a coach this rule is a mirror. Empathy, curiosity, and patience are not personality traits you either have or lack. They are skills you practice, and the book is a good reminder to keep practicing them.
Who should read it
I’d recommend it to coaches, Scrum Masters, team leads, and anyone who has to guide people through uncertainty. It is easy to read and works well as a reference you return to when a situation feels foggy. Some readers find the rules broken into many sub-points and feel it’s a lot to absorb at once. My advice is to read it with one live change in mind and to try one rule at a time.