Which way you take, the new Scrum Master
So now you are a scrum master in a new team.
What should you do? You see that things aren’t ideal, from a side you see that events aren’t set up or aren’t facilitated nicely.
You see that team isn’t “owning delivery”.
They don’t know what status to put the story to. And have no shared understanding of what is meant when others say “it’s done”.
You see the team is tired. And pushed for the deadlines committed to being done a while ago.
You go the first route. You tell them that well, there is a bunch of things that don’t work on your first week. You may even list them. And now everything is going to be different and shiny. You compose an ideal process and present it to the team and tell them to follow it from now on. If they don’t you mock them, hint, or tell them that they don’t understand and they need to follow it. It’s for their own good after all.
Each meeting you tell them exactly what they did wrong. You blame them. Show how their foolish ideas lead to the miserable state they are in.
If they don’t agree — you argue till you lose your voice and push the right decision. They are just so inexperienced and wrong. They will thank you later.
You constantly ask the status. Suggest who does what. When there is a decision to be made they are lucky — you already had something similar in the past and you know the answer. They just need to follow it. And own the damn delivery.
In a couple of weeks or months or days, you feel that you are constantly angry, not appreciated. You put so much effort into this and no-one values it. You start indirectly blaming everyone for not doing something. You feel miserable. And the team just won’t work.
But let’s rewind. There is route #2. You come and look. And listen. Things are quite rough so you ask if they don’t mind you conducting this daily or a session. You talk to people and ask them how they see their work. What challenges they have. You share some of your observations like ‘I see that we are struggling with our process. How about we discuss it?’ And listen to their answers.
You explain why you suggest this or that thing. You see that people are actually willing to help each other. And you note it. You ask the team what can you do to help them.
You introduce changes one by one. Noting to the team what those changes give to them. Asking them how they find it — helpful or not. You engage the team in a discussion of what approach to take or what can be done. You celebrate with them their small wins.
And in a couple of weeks or months, you feel proud for the way they made. For the things they managed to do. You understand that there is a huge backlog of things that can be better. But you know that you did what you could to support the team. And see how they start taking responsibility, maintaining focus, and engage in conversations. And you understand that it’s enough. And that you are enough.
