conflict Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Takunda Noha: From Paper to Practice, Addressing Accountability and Discipline Issues in Agile Projects

In this episode, Takunda shares his experience as the scrum master for a team that supported the HR department and developed an HR platform. While the team seemed successful on paper, they struggled with discipline and frequently missed their sprint goals. Takunda attributes these challenges to a lack of accountability for not delivering on promises. He recommends the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, which helped him understand and address these issues, emphasizing the team’s avoidance of conflict and lack of focus on results. He highlights the importance of ensuring that the team feels alive and engaged.

Featured Book of the Week: The Servant Leader, How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance by James Autry

In this segment, Takunda discusses his transition from being a project management professional (PMP) to a scrum master, which he describes as a significant change. He recommends the book The Servant Leader by James Autry, highlighting its impact on his understanding of the scrum master role. The book emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence in building connections and unlocking influence. Takunda shares that this book helped him develop a deeper understanding of how to effectively serve his team. In this segment, we also mention another recommended book, How to Win Friends, And Influence People by Dale Carnegie, which provides insights into building relationships and fostering positive interactions with the Scrum Master’s critical stakeholders.

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches – Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!

About Takunda Noha

Takunda is a seasoned change agent. He specializes in turning dysfunctional teams into high performing teams.

You can link with Takunda Noha on LinkedIn.

Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse: When collaboration fails in Agile teams, and what Scrum Masters can to about it

In this episode, Frederik shares a story about a software development team that self-destructed due to a lack of collaboration and issues with code quality. The team had differing opinions on code quality but failed to openly address the problem, leading to slow progress and frustration. Frederik provided tips such as visualizing the problem, having individual meetings with team members, and promoting feedback sharing. He facilitated a retrospective on communication using the “Stinky Fish Canvas” method and encouraged anonymous data collection to surface issues. The episode emphasized the importance of addressing code quality concerns, fostering collaboration, and creating a culture of open communication within teams.

Featured Book of the Week: Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high by Grenny et al.

In this segment, Frederik discussed his favorite book, “Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high” by Grenny et al. Frederik emphasizes its importance for collaboration with management and leadership. He highlighted that the book provides a model for conducting effective conversations and emphasized the need to continuously ensure a safe space within conversations. Frederik noted that the book offers valuable tools for structuring conversations and recommended using them to understand others’ thoughts and perspectives. Additionally, we also refer to a related book, “Crucial Accountability” by the same authors, which provides further insights on handling accountability in crucial conversations.

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse

Frederik is a Certified Team and Enterprise Coach at the Scrum Alliance. He works and lives in Belgium. He is part of the company iLean. Frederik has worked as Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Agile Coach. He works with teams and leadership to improve collaboration, flow, and learning. Frederik co-organizes the XP Days Benelux conference – this year, in 2023, the conference has existed for 20 years. He is also a regular speaker at local and international conferences.

You can link with Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse on LinkedIn.

BONUS: Remote work tips for successful distributed teams by Lisette Sutherland

Lisette’s journey into remote work began approximately 20 years ago when she started working for an online project management tool. What made this tool unique was its objective of bringing scientists together to find solutions to the aging problem. This experience got Lisette thinking about the possibilities of removing distance as a barrier.

Due to the nature of her work for the tool vendor, Lisette had the opportunity to work remotely while being a tour manager for a music band. At some point, someone suggested that she start a podcast on remote work, which sparked her interest in exploring and sharing her knowledge in this area.

To get her main remote work tips in one neat, freely available kit, download Lisette’s remote work super kit here.

Unveiling the Challenges of Remote Work: Communication Overload, Bonding Struggles, and More

Continue reading BONUS: Remote work tips for successful distributed teams by Lisette Sutherland

Cynthia Kracmer: Lessons learned from a team of Agile Coaches that failed to work as a team

In this episode, Cynthia shares her experience as part of an agile center of excellence. The team was responsible for deploying agile coaches to help different functions achieve their objectives. However, the Agile Coaching team faced challenges in aligning and organizing themselves as everyone was convinced their way was the better way. The team had a young Scrum Master, but had high expectations and did not support that junior Scrum Master. Unfortunately, the Scrum Master failed and left the company, and the team missed an opportunity to help that Scrum Master improve, and improve themselves as a team.

Cynthia reflects on the importance of humility as a value of Agile and emphasizes the need to be open-minded and accept different ways of working. She also discusses the importance of leading by example when inspiring people through Agile principles. Additionally, they note that not all tools resonate with all team members, and it’s okay to have different preferences. Cynthia emphasizes the importance of accepting ideas from others and being receptive to help, even from juniors. This episode highlights the need for a collaborative and open-minded approach to Agile and the importance of valuing and supporting all team members, regardless of seniority or experience.

Featured Book of the Week: Design Sprint, by Banfield et al.

In this segment, Cynthia recommended the book “Design Sprint: A Practical Guidebook for Building Great Digital Products” by Banfield et al. which helped her see that the creative process can be structured to increase creativity and help teams make decisions. Cynthia initially believed that creative work had no structure, but the book helped her understand the connection between creativity and structure. She highlighted the importance of using structure to help teams generate ideas, make decisions, and ultimately be more creative. Overall, the book provided valuable insights into how to approach creative work in a more structured way to achieve better results.

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Cynthia Kracmer

Cynthia Kracmer is a Business Transformation & Human Capital Managing Consultant passionate about creating innovative, stimulating and ‘healthy’ organizations for people. She is Agile agnostic, and has worked as a Scrum master, agile coach and agile transformation lead in the Life Sciences area. She loves singing, traveling (she’s been to 63 countries), cycling and running.

Connect with Cynthia Kracmer on LinkedIn.

Harri Tunturivuori: When Suggestions Sound Like Orders, The Cost of Micro-Management in Agile Teams

In this episode, Harri recounts a challenging experience he had while working with a team that had a new manager. The manager was promoted from within the team and was a high-performing team member, but lacked good leadership skills. He couldn’t let go of the technical skills and ended up micro-managing the team.

The manager would step in and give suggestions to the team members, but it came out as an order. He even wrote the solution in the user stories, which resulted in the team disengaging because the manager was bossing them.

Some team members quit their jobs, and others became demotivated. Harri felt helpless in the situation and eventually came up with tips to deal with it, including having a conversation with the manager, preparing for the conversation, and being understanding. The team’s feedback was collected, and facts were presented to the manager on how this behavior was affecting the team.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone dealing with anti-patterns in their team dynamics.

Featured Book of the Week: Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts

Harri’s most influential book is Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts, who has been a past guest on the podcast. The book offers many practical tips and advice for Scrum Masters, emphasizing the importance of being a servant leader. Harri found the book funny, which made it a pleasant read. He appreciated the tips provided in the book, which can help Scrum Masters go from being good to great. Geoff Watts is a well-known author in the field of Scrum and agile software development, and his book has been highly recommended by professionals in the industry. If you are a Scrum Master looking for practical advice to improve your leadership skills, Scrum Mastery is definitely worth checking out.

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Harri Tunturivuori

Harri is an experienced leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach who was introduced to the world of agile software development in 2010. Since then, Harri has had the pleasure of leading great agile teams in various forms.

Harri enjoys working in a fun environment where there is room for innovation, and Harri is driven by the challenge of growing a group of good people into a great team.

You can link with Harri Tunturivuori on LinkedIn.