hero anti-pattern Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Peter Janssens: Learning to work well with a difficult team member, a critical lesson for Scrum Masters

Peter joined a team, and after a while he found himself not wanting to coach one of the team members. The team member in question was well respected in the team for this technical knowledge, and his “hero” status, but Peter was not able to help him to adapt to the needs for the team. He missed daily meetings on a random basis, and did not accept other ways of working. Over time, Peter and this team member grew apart, and Peter eventually handed the team to another Scrum Master. In this episode, we talk about how to avoid situations like this, and what Peter learned that now helps him deal with even the hardest to coach team members!

Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story – How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.

About Peter Janssens

Peter built a long career in agile coaching and training, and worked in leadership positions leading a PO team, and recently became CTO in a SAAS product company. Peter loves all conversations on effectiveness of team decisions, but he quickly realized that being responsible is different from being a coach. As a leader there is the challenge of sticking to the same foundations when dealing with delivery pressure.

You can link with Peter Janssens on LinkedIn.

Ali Asl: How to recover a Scrum team after a “hero” leaves the team

In this company, there was one developer who was considered the “hero” by everyone. Junior developers felt intimidated, and the management further promoted the view that this person was a “hero”. Even the Product Owner no longer acted as the Product Owner. Ali noticed that the team was deferring too much to the “hero”, who had become arrogant in their ways of communicating. Ali had to help move the “hero” to another team, and started a process of rebuilding the team again. Listen in to learn what you can do, to help recover a team after an “hero” anti-pattern.

Featured Book of the Week: The Four Agreements, by Ruiz

In The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz, Ali found a book that helped him shape his way of thinking and acting as a Scrum Master. Even if this is not an Agile book, it shares important lessons for personal growth.

How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she’s supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta!

About Ali Asl

Ali is an experienced and accomplished Independent Agile Coach, Trainer and Scrum Master focused on supporting organizations and teams in the application of Agile values and principles to deliver quality and value.

You can link with Ali Asl on LinkedIn.

Allison Zimmerman: The “hero” anti-pattern and its many consequences for Agile teams

This team did not have a clear focus or vision of what the stakeholders wanted to deliver. The team leaders did not trust the team to deliver what was being asked of them. On top of that, the PO and the team did not have a good working relationship. Not surprisingly, all of these factors led the team to isolate themselves, and started to think that it would take more than 2 years to deliver even the “MVP”. Why did this happen? As Allison started to look into it, she found that the team was organized around one “hero” role. This person was the only one that was able to work with some critical parts of the product. Listen in to learn how a team can get into this anti-pattern.

Featured Book of the Week: Everything I Know About Lean I Learned in First Grade by Martichenko

In Everything I Know About Lean I Learned in First Grade by Martichenko, Allison found how a teacher’s day can show many examples of how Lean can be applied in our organizations. In this segment, we also refer to Coaching Agile teams by Adkins and The five dysfunctions of a team, Lencioni.

About Allison Zimmerman

Allison believes that all people have the power to succeed when they work together. As a teacher-turned-scrum master, she has spent the last five years helping enterprise teams build on their strengths to deliver customer value. She also serves as a Scrum Master Community of Practice leader, supporting growth and development of scrum masters across many teams.

You can link with Allison Zimmerman on LinkedIn.