In well working Scrum Teams one will experience extremely high motivation, very high collaboration and above-average productivity. Where does that come from? If you have worked with such Scrum Teams in the past, you might have asked yourself the very same question. At least I did - and came up with an interesting answer:
People are productive, when they are motivated. People are motivated when they are proud. Pride only develops if people are treated like human beings, not like resources. They must be allowed to manage themselves, but also shown respect for their work. They must be allowed to deliver high quality work. (You might argue now, that "every Team is allowed to deliver, that's what they are paid for!". Let me assure you, that this is not the case. I have worked with Teams who were so bound by technical barriers and mandatory processes, that they could hardly move an inch. Of course, they weren't able to use full Scrum either and therefore didn't get the benefits out of it. We first had to remove the impediments, which took quite a while).
Have a look around you, especially at open source projects: Why do those people put so much effort into something they aren't even paid for? Every single one of them has his/her own specific reason, but they have one thing in common: They want to make a difference and put their ideas to practice. That is something they often are not able to do during their working time. This potential should not be wasted! As a Scrum Master it is your job to find out what motivates each individual Developer in your Team and find a way that those needs are satisfied. Usually that shouldn't be too hard, because people tend to come in a "motivated" state by default. Just remove everything that impedes this intrinsic motivation.
If you succeed here, meaning the Team takes pride in what they do and are highly motivated as well as productive, you get something very important for free: The will to win. If your Team has a strong will to win, they will overcome difficult times by themselves and they will tackle every problem that arises. If this will to win is missing, you find the Team accepting almost everything without argument. If you have ever heard a Developer say that "this takes awfully long, but that's how it is done around here" you know what I am talking about.
The above described concept is valid and essential for the management of a company as well. Only if they have the will to win, they will be able to solve systemic problems of the organisation. Without it, you (as Scrum Master / Scrum Coach) will have to do everything yourself, go on their nerves, push them further and finally leave the company out of frustration (or because they are fed up with your attitude) - which is the point in time when everything falls back into place as it was before you even started. Does your management keep their promises?
Let your people create high quality work which makes them proud and you will get an unstoppable winning Team.
Sunday, January 15. 2012
How to become a good Scrum Master
This is a translation of my second-most visited German article. Please note, that this is the last translation of one of my German articles for now. If you want to see another one translated, just let me know.
You have read my opinion about certification in my last Blog entry. But what can you do to become a good Scrum Master, if a certificate doesn't really help you? Well, here is my opinion:
You have read my opinion about certification in my last Blog entry. But what can you do to become a good Scrum Master, if a certificate doesn't really help you? Well, here is my opinion:
- Start. Only who is fully grounded in experience can understand why and how Scrum works.
- Learn from your (own) mistakes (inspect and adapt). Everybody who starts doing something will make mistakes. No worries - but learn from them. Reflect yourself regularly. Especially reflect every single item that comes up in the retrospectives. Check if you could have avoided or anticipated it. Also ask yourself, if you had a share in this impediment coming up. As I said: This is not a problem, as long as you learn from it.
- Participate in a training. On the one hand, you can learn from a professional how Scrum works. On the other hand you can meet interesting people and keep in touch with them.
- Exchange your thoughts with other Scrum-users frequently. No matter if you choose UserGroups, Scrum Tabels, a beer with friends or a Community of Practice in your company - go looking for the exchange. If you can't find anything similar to the aforementioned, create something yourself.
- Read much. Even though reading alone does not make you a professional, it broadens your horizon. This gives you some ideas in real situations, which you might not have had without reading. Books, Blogs and forums should be consumed in exactly this priority.
- Improve your skills far beyond Scrum. Management practices, psychologies, moderation, mediation, creativity techniques, sociology and so on are at least as important as the hard Scrum knowledge.
- Use every opportunity to put to practice whatever you have learned. You are planning a private project? Good - why don't you try a Backlog and Iterations on this one? Your girlfriend cannot decide where to go for the holidays? Well, take the role of the PO and write down the relevant criteria. Your private project has ended? How did it go and what can you learn from it for the future? Of course you are allowed to use your skills on projects from your professional live as well.
- Take aid. If your Team is stuck, it needs an expert - so do you. Nobody can be perfect in all areas - this is valid for you as well. Look for somebody who is a professional in the area you are lacking the most skill (Psychology? Process? Organizational development?) and learn as much as possible from this person. Maybe you can solve related problems alone next time.
- Consider that you can strengthen your strengths and weaken your weaknesses. You won't ever become a hero in your weak spots though. Usually it's better to acknowledge your weaknesses and take some aid there, while you develop your strengths to a point where you are a true expert.
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