In this episode, Junaid shares a story from his early days as a Scrum Master when enthusiasm got ahead of experience. Fresh from a CSM certification and full of ideas, he walked into teams and started proposing solutions — "No, this is not how you should do it." It felt obvious. It wasn't.
The wake-up call came when he proposed working agreements to a team that had been collaborating well for two years. The pushback was immediate: "Why do we need this?" He realized he was bringing a tool he'd seen elsewhere without first understanding whether the team actually had the problem that tool was meant to solve.
This led to a key shift in his approach: stop assuming. Instead of going in with answers, Junaid started creating small tiger teams with the affected people, facilitating sessions where they owned the solution. The result? Much higher acceptance and genuine continuous improvement.
These days, Junaid tests his ideas before bringing them to the full team. He connects with individual team members first — his "closer allies" — to validate whether his analysis matches reality. Only when a few people confirm "yes, this is a real problem" does he bring the proposal to the group.
As Vasco puts it: not all tools are appropriate at all times for all people. The same working agreements that were wrong for one team at one moment might be exactly right for a different team, or the same team at a different moment.
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Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she's caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn't just about the product—it's about the people.
🚨 Will Angela's coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue.
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About Junaid Shaikh
Junaid Shaikh is an energetic Agile Coach with a natural flair for Agile and Scrum, shaped by recent experiences at software giants like Ericsson and hardware leaders ABB. In his work, he champions collaboration, curiosity, and continuous improvement. Beyond coaching, he brings the same passion to cricket, table tennis, carrom, and his newest sporting obsession — padel. You can link with Junaid Shaikh on LinkedIn.