Teams are not teams when the individuals are put together. Creating a team is something that takes time and intentional work. How do we bring individuals together to form a real team? How do we help a team emerge from a diverse group of individuals? That’s the topic we tackle in this episode.
About Mike Collins
Mike really enjoys working with organisations, teams and individuals to enable the delivery of great products and services. He is a believer in the agile (and Lean) mindset, that challenges people to improve, respect everyone and collaborate to achieve goals - "valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools". Mike calls Agile and Lean a game changer!!!
You can link with Mike Collins on LinkedIn. Or get in touch with Mike Collins via Oikosofy.
Teams cannot work on the highest value work unless someone helps them focus on that work. The role Scrum assigns that responsibility is the Product Owner. Without a good, engaged and available Product Owner the teams are lost. Mike tells us such a story and what he has learned about helping Product Owners understand their role.
About Mike Collins
Mike really enjoys working with organisations, teams and individuals to enable the delivery of great products and services. He is a believer in the agile (and Lean) mindset, that challenges people to improve, respect everyone and collaborate to achieve goals - "valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools". Mike calls Agile and Lean a game changer!!!
You can link with Mike Collins on LinkedIn. Or get in touch with Mike Collins via Oikosofy.
Tereza explores the systems where she works in a very specific way. She shares with us the 3 key questions she asks of herself and the system (e.g. stakeholders) to understand the system conditions affecting the team.
About Tereza Šimůnková
Tereza is a passionate traveller, first she started as a Scrum lady and now leading a team of 11 Scrum ladies and Scrum masters for 2 years. Recently amazed by improvisation (Improv) as a personal development tool.
You can link with Tereza Šimůnková on LinkedIn and follow Tereza Simunkova’s blog at ScrumLady.cz
Tereza focuses her definition of Scrum Master success on the direct interaction with the team and each team member. Safety and trust become key ingredients in what Tereza considers the interactions for success.
About Tereza Šimůnková
Tereza is a passionate traveller, first she started as a Scrum lady and now leading a team of 11 Scrum ladies and Scrum masters for 2 years. Recently amazed by improvisation (Improv) as a personal development tool.
You can link with Tereza Šimůnková on LinkedIn and follow Tereza Simunkova’s blog at ScrumLady.cz
Change is a process we are all involved with, but often we face the challenge of getting that change started. In this episode Tereza shares with us her recipe to get change started. We refer to the book Lean Change Management by Jason Little.
About Tereza Šimůnková
Tereza is a passionate traveller, first she started as a Scrum lady and now leading a team of 11 Scrum ladies and Scrum masters for 2 years. Recently amazed by improvisation (Improv) as a personal development tool.
You can link with Tereza Šimůnková on LinkedIn and follow Tereza Simunkova’s blog at ScrumLady.cz
Each team is unique, and even one team can go through different phases and moods. We have mentioned that here on the podcast a few times by now. But sometimes, when a team follows another team’s footsteps, it can be caught in a game of imitation. That’s the anti-pattern we explore on this episode.
We also mention a previous episode on the podcast where we explore re-teaming a concept developed by Heidi Helfand (WARNING: PDF link).
About Tereza Šimůnková
Tereza is a passionate traveller, first she started as a Scrum lady and now leading a team of 11 Scrum ladies and Scrum masters for 2 years. Recently amazed by improvisation (Improv) as a personal development tool.
You can link with Tereza Šimůnková on LinkedIn and follow Tereza Simunkova’s blog at ScrumLady.cz
We strive to help teams, but need to know what moves and de-motivates the individuals that we work with. Tereza explains how that process is important in helping teams. Tereza also shares a very simple tool that helps us zone in on the toughest problems the teams face but might not even be aware of.
About Tereza Šimůnková
Tereza is a passionate traveller, first she started as a Scrum lady and now leading a team of 11 Scrum ladies and Scrum masters for 2 years. Recently amazed by improvisation (Improv) as a personal development tool.
You can link with Tereza Šimůnková on LinkedIn and follow Tereza Simunkova’s blog at ScrumLady.cz
Dmitry’s approach to Systems Thinking is inspired by Donella Meadows’ book Thinking in Systems, a primer to systems thinking, he also shares with us some concrete tools he uses to review and assess the system conditions that influence the team and its stakeholders.
About Dmitry Lebedev
Dmitry is Software Engineer with pragmatic approach to creation of a working software, who now, as a Scrum Master, is trying to apply the same principles to creation of a working team, nurturing productively working relationships within and outside of the team.
You can link with Dmitry Lebedev on LinkedIn and connect with Dmitry Lebedev on Twitter.
Dmitry shares with us 3 of his own indicators for the success of the Scrum Master’s work. We also discuss some of the tools we can use as Scrum Masters to assess our performance in those 3 indicators.
About Dmitry Lebedev
Dmitry is Software Engineer with pragmatic approach to creation of a working software, who now, as a Scrum Master, is trying to apply the same principles to creation of a working team, nurturing productively working relationships within and outside of the team.
You can link with Dmitry Lebedev on LinkedIn and connect with Dmitry Lebedev on Twitter.
Once you know what must be changed (and it’s not that simple to know it!) you must develop your approach to enact or lead that change. Dmitry discusses his approach and how to know if you have the right kind of change in mind.
About Dmitry Lebedev
Dmitry is Software Engineer with pragmatic approach to creation of a working software, who now, as a Scrum Master, is trying to apply the same principles to creation of a working team, nurturing productively working relationships within and outside of the team.
You can link with Dmitry Lebedev on LinkedIn and connect with Dmitry Lebedev on Twitter.
In this episode we talk about the Wall of Silence anti-pattern. When something must not be discussed. And what to do about it, including some useful tools for us to apply in this situation.
About Dmitry Lebedev
Dmitry is Software Engineer with pragmatic approach to creation of a working software, who now, as a Scrum Master, is trying to apply the same principles to creation of a working team, nurturing productively working relationships within and outside of the team.
You can link with Dmitry Lebedev on LinkedIn and connect with Dmitry Lebedev on Twitter.
We all make this mistake, we think we know the answer. That drives us to reach for a solution instead of reaching for the creative thinking of the team. How can we avoid this common anti-pattern? Dmitry tells us his approach.
About Dmitry Lebedev
Dmitry is Software Engineer with pragmatic approach to creation of a working software, who now, as a Scrum Master, is trying to apply the same principles to creation of a working team, nurturing productively working relationships within and outside of the team.
You can link with Dmitry Lebedev on LinkedIn and connect with Dmitry Lebedev on Twitter.
There are many tools we can use to explore the system where the team lives. And Scott explains many of those tools. System thinking tools that help us understand the system conditions that affect team performance.
About Scott Duncan
Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.
You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.
Asking questions, involving people in the process of adaptation and including (rather than excluding) multiple views and options is one of the key tasks for us as Scrum Masters. The Socratic Method is one tool we can use to achieve that goal. Scott explains his use of the method.
About Scott Duncan
Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.
You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.
Retrospectives are incredible tools for change. We know that retrospectives are important for team improvement, but they can be the engine of change at the team, and organizational level. Scott explains how.
About Scott Duncan
Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.
You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.
Instead of focusing on what did not work, Scott asks the teams a completely different question. A questions that focuses the teams on what we should do differently instead of what we “need”/”must” change.
About Scott Duncan
Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.
You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.
There are many difficult transitions out there. Even when things seem to be going right, any change in management can easily derail the Agile adoption at the team level, project level or overall at the enterprise level. One of the most critical tasks for us is to setup our role and expectations as well as our support base for the work we need to do. Scott shares with us such a story and how he would do it today if he had a magic time machine.
About Scott Duncan
Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.
You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.
Yves shares with us many different approaches to “measure” the system where we work, and describes how impactful a bad system can been the performance of a team or individual. Yves also shares with us an easy technique that can help teams learn to give and receive feedback, thereby creating a very important condition for the team system to improve.
In this episode we refer to the book by Portia Tung and the concept of EduScrum, or Scrum applied to education.
About Yves Hanoulle
Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.
Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.
And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”
You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.
With his very unique definition of a successful outcome for Scrum Masters’ work, Yves points us to one important lesson: our work does not end, we must help others continue our work.
In this episode we refer to the Tuckman Model of team evolution where the famous Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing stages come from. And we also mention Visualisation as a key tool for us Scrum Masters, and link to the book by Jimmy Jalen with 96 visualisation examples every Scrum Master should know.
About Yves Hanoulle
Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.
Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.
And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”
You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.
One of the most difficult responsibilities for a Scrum Master is to help teams lead themselves. This is perhaps the biggest change we are responsible for in our work as Scrum Masters. Yves shares a story of how he helped a group of teams change their composition, and break through their fears.
About Yves Hanoulle
Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.
Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.
And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”
You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.
Teams want to help their stakeholders and that sometimes leads to saying YES too often and too quickly. This pattern can cause many side effects, for example disappointing important clients and stakeholders. In this episode Yves shares that story and an easy trick to stop saying yes, when you really mean: “no way!”
About Yves Hanoulle
Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.
Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.
And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”
You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.
Sometimes we want to help too much. Is that possible? Listen in while Yves explains his own personal failure story and what he learned from having tried too hard to help. This episode also contains some important insights to those interested in Systems Thinking.
About Yves Hanoulle
Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.
Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.
And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”
You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.
Anna describes a model to help us survey and understand the system conditions that affect our teams.
About Anna Zalucka
Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.
You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.
Surveys can be powerful tools to measure the impact of our work as Scrum Masters. Anna explains how she started to measure her success as Scrum Master and why she started using surveys as a way to complement her feedback collection.
About Anna Zalucka
Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.
You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.
Agile adoption brings many different changes to teams and organizations. In this episode we mention some of those tools and how to help teams and organizations benefit from those tools to adopt Agile.
We also mention the following books: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie and Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg.
About Anna Zalucka
Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.
You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.