Coaching

Several years ago, I participated as an observer in a Sprint Retrospective of a team. The Scrum Master facilitated the event with beautiful drawings to encourage active participation from the attendees. The Sprint Retrospective ran smoothly. They gathered the data, generated insights and decided what to do. In the subsequent Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum Master introduced a Mario Kart theme as part of the facilitation process. The event, again, ran smoothly. The Scrum Master reviewed that facilitation was successful and decided to keep applying the fun elements during the Sprint Retrospective. However, when I revisited the team several months later, the team barely kept the “fun” style, and the attendees were not energetic anymore. ...

As a Scrum Master, I often have new ideas about the tune-up of a team. I further develop the ideas by reading books, listening to podcast channels, and working with the developers on actionable practices. As an Agile coach in a company with over 20 Scrum Masters, I occasionally present and discuss new ideas. If my idea is too controversial or niche to the Scrum Masters, half of them will feel uncomfortable and refuse to listen to my ideas. ...

Several weeks ago, there was a meetup at my company, targeting Scrum Masters to share their experience with their teams. A Scrum Master shared how several Scrum teams within his area work. “Let me give you some advice,” said one of the attendees, “You should do blah blah blah…” After the attendee’s advice, the presenting Scrum Master immediately denied the advice and explained a lot. Tension built up. The debate, filled with “No, I mean…”, lasted several minutes until the facilitator stepped in to end it. ...