If you want to help your people understand Scrum, resist the temptation to give them a book — instead, spend time discussing what you all stand to gain from adopting the framework.
Taking a driver’s ed exam? Better get a book of traffic rules. Want to learn a new language? Don’t forget a grammar book. It makes sense to refer to written-down knowledge if you want to learn to do something new. For Scrum, too, but perhaps not in the way you expected.
“Yo, do you know a good Scrum beginner’s book for teams? My team don’t know the basics, so I want to send all of them a book. Preferably, a nicely straightforward starter model.”
My friend, a veteran Product Owner in a recently new job, sent me this message. She…
“True leaders” are for cults; Scrum Masters should continue prioritising servant-leadership and leave the labeling to others
In describing the Scrum Master, the 2020 Scrum Guide swaps out the term “servant-leader” for the label “true leader”. I think Scrum Masters should stay clear of assigning themselves that new moniker and keep aspiring to servant-leadership. Here’s why.
Small change, big word
The Scrum Guide’s recently-released 2020 edition uses fewer words than its 2017 predecessor. At the same time, it’s become more broadly applicable and less prescriptive. No mean feat.
There is, however, one crucial term that I wish had survived this year’s trimming: the Scrum Master’s servant-leadership has been replaced by a far less powerful alternative.
The 2017 edition simply read, “The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team.” In the 2020 edition of the guide, Scrum Masters are now rebranded as “true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization.”
Who speaks like that?
As I understood from Scrum Guide…
Having previously been exposed to practices of agility through your work, on the pandemic-induced level playing field of distributed collaboration, you have a key advantage: as a PO, developer, analyst, tester, you already know that change is a given, and you’ve got the tools to iteratively deal with it. Help others do so, too.
🗣 This article is a companion piece to my conference talk Facilitating Intentional Agility from Home, delivered at Agile Tour Vilnius 2020.
Stepping up to the plate
Even if you’re the biggest anti-agilist on your team, or if you think that all meetings are a waste of time — as long…
What does a live webinar look like from the perspective of the facilitator?
Hosting half a dozen different webinars in rapid succession has allowed me to inspect and adapt my set-up for facilitating live events. I’ve found that the smooth hosting of live webinars benefits greatly from well-arranged desktop space. I’ll show you what works for me and I’ll share my top advice so you can benefit from both in your own webinars and meetups.
Workshops vs webinars
While it’s almost just as easy to set up a webinar as it is to set up a ‘regular’ online meeting - sometimes with the…
Thomas van Zuijlen
Facilitator & Scrum Master
