How to Inspire a Busy Scrum Team with Examples
If you want to transform your Scrum Team to be the best performer, you have to be able to provide the best guidance and inspire them to take the benefit of Scrum methodology. There are so many ways of doing that, including the team training, one to one coaching, mentoring.
But how is the best way to do that in their busy life?
Mastering the Scrum in your team sometimes would give you some “scratching your head” as you have to deal with the different personalities of people. Conveying messages about what is good in Scrum and how to do are challenging most of the time. Conducting lengthy training during the busy sprint may just end up a waste of time for them. They may not focus on what you are giving to them as they have the sprint goals to achieve in every sprint.
Coaching may be the best way, as it is personalized to each individual and you have your design to communicate with each of your team members. The chance of your messages getting the traction is higher. But the one-to-one session is exhausting.
There are few things in which the author finds the best way of guiding the busy Scrum team.
So, what is it?
1. By Example
You may probably have heard the phrase “teach by example”. It is just another way to make the audience better in understanding a theory by providing them with an example. Yes, this is the way to inspire your scrum team.
You may start thinking of what are the examples that show the Scrum way of working. The Scrum maybe quiet “alien” in the real world, and it might be difficult to find an example. But actually, the example of doing Scrum is just around you and you may not realize it.
How to do this?
It’s simple. What you have to do is to match the Scrum things with the event that you see in your life, regardless it is being real or not. Then take those events to be a story and there you have a message that can be conveyed to your team to inspire them on how to do things in Scrum way of working.
You can start with the things that Scrum couldn’t stand without it. The Scrum Pillars: Transparency, Inspection & Adaptation. Then you could extend it to Scrum values, process, ceremonies, etc. You may also like to add the basic principle of Agile which is the Agile Manifesto.
Sounds simple right? now I am going to do what I just mentioned above: giving examples.
- Transparency
If you are a fan & have watched The Avenger movie, you may easily grasp this story. There is a scene whereby the Avenger curious about the purpose of the Tesseract that being kept by the Fury which at this story already in Loki’s hand. This one of the factors that the Avenger is not well organized as there are suspicion and assumption which they have no idea why they should work as a team. Eventually, The Fury revealed the purpose and the reason, which after that the Avenger has clarity on what needs to be done, as the transparency is in place between The Fury & The Avenger. - Inspection & Adaptation
I have this message based on my true experience of observing my son when he starts his first day in lower elementary school. I forgot to buy a notebook for him. At the end of the day, he went back home and when I check his bag, I saw a paper with his writings. What I do next, I purchase a few notebooks and pass them to him.
You see, as a parent, I observe my son’s school activity to ensure he got what he needs for his study (inspecting team member activity). Which then I fulfil what he needs by purchasing the notebook for him (adaptation to ensure the team towards goal achievement).
There is also a very good example which you could get some ideas to inspire your Scrum team from this post: What Pixar movies teach us about Scrum values.
2. Short but Precise
As Scrum Master, we should understand that the Scrum Ceremonies are just enough for the team members to become busier in the sprint. To not overwhelm them, we should convey your message in short but precise.
what does it mean?
The message that you are going to convey to your team should be just short enough for the team members to listen to. Team members may lose their focus on what you are talking about, and yield the point in your message would not be well understood by your team. Eventually, it is just a common long story of the day. Therefore, keep your message simple & short.
As for precise, it is to see the best moment to convey your message. You should be able to observe what the team is lacking, and there you inject your message so that the team has an idea of a way to improve.
For example, your team is lacking in team collaboration which causes the delay of waste among team members, then it is time to share your message regarding team collaboration. This way, when your team listens to your message, they will automatically connect your message with the condition of the team. And with an example, they will be inspired to improve further.
3. Slip in it
Sharing your story & messages to your busy team may be another challenge. You may have difficulties in gathering them in one place or a conference call if your team works remotely. Therefore, the best time to share is during the Scrum ceremonies. You could slip into your daily Scrum before or after, or in some cases depending on the point that you would like to highlight and the precise consideration that you think, it could be in other Scrum ceremonies. For example, when you would like to point out the importance of Scrum values commitment, it would be better to highlight before the sprint planning, as this ceremony requires team members to commit the prioritized product backlog to be in the sprint backlog.
4. Not too frequent
To often may also overwhelm your team. Too many messages and stories being conveyed to your team may cause distraction on which things they should do & practice the improvement while they also need to deliver their sprint.
Understand that your team may be a lot of things that need to be improved. However, it is very important to keep your team focus on their sprint goal, while improving on what is lacking, overtime.
Conclusion
Whether you are guiding mature Scrum team or new Scrum team, it still essential as a Scrum Master to always inspire every little thing that could earn the benefit from the Scrum methodology, while they are also busy striving toward the sprint goal. An effective way to do that is by providing short inspirational story guidance with example in the right place and the right moment.
Would you like to give it a try?
So, what do you think ?