Richard Griffiths Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Richard Griffiths on how talkative cultures help create safety in Scrum teams

When talking about cultures, we often talk about the contrasts. What makes certain cultures more Scrum-friendly, or the opposite. In this episode, we talk about how certain cultures’ focus on more conversation can help create safe spaces for the team, and help them be more collaborative. But we also talk about the concept of “time”, and how the different perspectives on time (e.g. cyclic vs linear time) can affect the adoption of Scrum.

In this episode, we also refer to the premier Agile conference in Ireland, the Agile-Lean Ireland conference.

About Richard Griffiths

Lapsed software developer, agile and scrum learner, tenor, drummer.
Richard guides and coaches Scrum Teams and organizations on how to use Agile/Scrum practices and values. Helping to teach, facilitate, collaborate & mentor software development teams, enhancing their agile maturity through coaching technical practices as well as the ceremonies and techniques. Richard likes to help teams and organizations obtain higher levels of maturity, at a pace that is sustainable and comfortable for the team and organization.

You can link with Richard Griffiths on LinkedIn and connect with Richard Griffiths on Twitter.

Richard Griffiths on 4 clear success signs for Scrum Masters

When thinking about the role of the Scrum Master, Richard comes up with 4 clear signs that indicate we are on the right path with the teams we work with. In the end, Richard says, we must do ourselves out of a job to be successful Scrum Masters.

Featured Retrospective of the Week: The Amazon Product Review retrospective

Richard suggests the Amazon Product Review retrospective format. And although Retromat suggests this can be used as a “check-in” exercise, we can also use it as the core exercise for the retrospective.

In this episode, we refer to the Agile Retrospectives book and the retrospective outline defined in the book.

About Richard Griffiths

You can link with Richard Griffiths on LinkedIn and connect with Richard Griffiths on Twitter.

Richard Griffiths discusses 4 steps to adopt SAFe

Richard shares the story of a change process where an organization decided to standardize on SAFe as the scaling approach. Richard also shares what they learned about adopting SAFe, and the 4-step process they created to help the adoption of SAFe.

About Richard Griffiths

You can link with Richard Griffiths on LinkedIn and connect with Richard Griffiths on Twitter.

Richard Griffiths and the perils of siloed Scrum teams

Teams are usually encouraged to specialize. That may be a necessary step in some organizations. But even when it is necessary, we must be aware of the side-effects and prepare for those.

In this episode, we talk about the reasons why teams start behaving like silos, what the consequences might be, but also what we can do to overcome those anti-patterns.

Featured Book of the Week: The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice for Your First Year by Mitch Lacey

In The Scrum Field Guide by Mitch Lacey, Richard found many lessons that helped him in his journey as a Scrum Master. The book shares models and keys to successful scrum mastering, but also many references and other sources to read up on.

About Richard Griffiths

You can link with Richard Griffiths on LinkedIn and connect with Richard Griffiths on Twitter.

Richard Griffiths: Improve your change management, sell the problem, not the solution

Often, as Scrum Masters, we know what needs to change and focus our efforts in “selling” the solution. What it is, why it is a good idea, etc. But, when Richard failed to help an organization change he learned an important lesson. To improve how we help change progress, we should sell the problem, not the solution.

About Richard Griffiths

You can link with and connect with Richard Griffiths on Twitter.