“It did not quite go as planned. I was really humbled.” – Alf Dobbert-Baums
Alf was new in the company. His boss walked over with a setup that already sounded like a warning: two development teams in two countries, two locations in Germany, a “difficult” Product Owner — and a quick “do you want to take it?” Alf said sure. Everything happened on video chat. Every meeting, every conversation, every attempt to read the room — through a window that closed the moment the call ended.
The rapport never built.
The PO stayed difficult.
Alf eventually got pulled from the team. Looking back, he saw what the video chat had hidden: the crossed arms, the eyes drifting to email, the small in-between moments that turn coworkers into colleagues. The fix wasn’t a tool — it was a flight. Visit the other location. Run a workshop with a real goal (“how do we want to work together?”, “what’s hard about our setup?”). Build a positive anchor before anything goes wrong, not after. And when you do go, don’t lead with the failures — lead with what could be possible together.
In this episode, we refer to the practice of building team working agreements as a way to create rapport without putting people on the defensive.
Self-reflection Question: When was the last time you saw the people you work with face-to-face — and what conversations are you still postponing because they only happen well in person?
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About Alf Dobbert-Baums
Alf lives in Berlin. He studied Theater/Religion at the Freie University Berlin. He is a Systemic Organizational Consultant, a Scrum Master and Agile Coach. He has also been a freelancer for Usability and Requirements Engineering for car manufacturers. At “Verti” he led the agile transformation.
You can link with Alf Dobbert-Baums on LinkedIn.
