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Rohit Ratan Mani: Motivating Teams With a Proactive and Inspirational Product Owner

The Great Product Owner: The Power of a Proactive and Inspirational Product Owner

In this episode, Rohit shares his experience working with a highly enthusiastic Product Owner (PO) who joined from the business side. This PO actively sought knowledge by attending training sessions and conferences, generously sharing their learnings with Rohit. They introduced the concept of NoEstimates and encouraged experimentation. Despite initially being unfamiliar with NoEstimates, Rohit appreciated the PO’s drive for innovation. He emphasizes that Product Owners like this create a safe environment for the team to explore, challenge, and improve. The episode highlights the importance of a proactive and knowledgeable PO in fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

The Bad Product Owner: Collaboratively Establishing Clarity in Scrum Master and Product Owner Roles

In this episode, Rohit recounts his experience with a problematic Product Owner (PO) and how he addressed the situation. Initially, the PO relied heavily on Rohit to build and write the backlog, causing him to become a substitute PO. Realizing the negative impact of this pattern, Rohit initiated a conversation with the PO to clarify his need to prioritize the team’s focus. He emphasizes the importance of setting clear boundaries and saying “no” to taking on others’ responsibilities. The episode underscores the significance of establishing accountability and ensuring a healthy balance between the Scrum Master and Product Owner roles.

The Ultimate Guide to Supporting Product Owners as a Scrum Master

Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

About Rohit Ratan Mani

Rohit is an Enterprise Agile Coach, helping Leaders, individuals and teams to develop a growth mindset to be top achievers in their respective work area and  in personal life.

You can link with Rohit Ratan Mani on LinkedIn and connect with Rohit Ratan Mani on Twitter.

Rohit Ratan Mani: The Short and Long-Term Success of a Scrum Master, Two Contrasting Perspectives

In this episode, Rohit distinguishes between short-term and long-term success. In the short term, he shares his experience with a team new to DevOps, encouraging them to take initiative and experiment by asking, “Who’s stopping you?” Rohit emphasizes the importance of building a safe space for the team to explore and learn. In the long term, he measures success by the team’s ability to refer to the knowledge and conversations shared, becoming self-sufficient and capable of driving their own growth. Trust, empowerment, and fostering self-organization are vital for achieving success as a Scrum Master.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Improv Theater Inspired Retrospectives

Drawing inspiration from the book “Improv-ing Agile Teams” by Paul Goddard, Rohit incorporates metaphors and improv games into retrospectives to encourage creative thinking and engagement. One format he enjoys is Collaborative Drawing, where the team collectively creates a drawing representing their reflections on their work. This leads to a fun and deep conversation about their sprint experiences. Rohit suggests having the team title the drawing and recommends using word games or drawing games to trigger creative thinking before the retrospective. The key takeaway is the importance of incorporating interactive and creative elements to make retrospectives more engaging and insightful.

How can I, as a Scrum Master, supercharge my facilitation?

Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!

About Rohit Ratan Mani

Rohit is an Enterprise Agile Coach, helping Leaders, individuals and teams to develop a growth mindset to be top achievers in their respective work area and  in personal life.

You can link with Rohit Ratan Mani on LinkedIn and connect with Rohit Ratan Mani on Twitter.

Rohit Ratan Mani: Making Change Fun and Collaborative for Agile Teams

Working with a team of mixed experience levels, he shares the struggle of balancing high delivery expectations with the need for learning. By encouraging the team to learn from each other, organizing a “talk show” for knowledge sharing, and leading by example, Rohit initiated a positive change. While Rohit’s suggestion was initially met with hesitance, the team gradually embraced the learning culture, triggering a cascade of actions such as hackathons. This story emphasizes the importance of being a partner in change, fostering a safe environment, and actively participating in the transformation process.

Want to Improve Your Change Management Results? Discover the Lean Change Management Approach Today!

As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

About Rohit Ratan Mani

Rohit is an Enterprise Agile Coach, helping Leaders, individuals and teams to develop a growth mindset to be top achievers in their respective work area and  in personal life.

You can link with Rohit Ratan Mani on LinkedIn and connect with Rohit Ratan Mani on Twitter.

Rohit Ratan Mani: The Power of Perspective in Unveiling the Meaning Behind Back-End Work for a Scrum Team

Rohit discusses his experience as a Scrum Master working with a back-end team suffering from high attrition rates. He realizes that the team members feel undervalued and that the monotonous work is affecting their motivation. To address this, he arranged a workshop with the team and leaders, where the team gained new insights into their importance to the organization. The workshop helped the team see the bigger picture and meaning behind their work, revitalizing their motivation. The key takeaway is the significance of creating opportunities for teams to understand their value and fostering open communication to prevent attrition.

Featured Book of the Week: The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team by Lencioni

Rohit discusses “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Lencioni, which provides valuable insights into team dynamics. The book helped him understand the hidden dynamics within teams and enabled him to observe and analyze their functioning. It particularly highlighted the significance of trust and conflict in team success. Rohit emphasizes the need for adaptability when working with different teams, as each team is unique and requires a tailored approach. Overall, the book enhanced his understanding of how teams work together and his role within them, emphasizing the importance of trust and conflict resolution.

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 Rohit Ratan Mani

Rohit is an Enterprise Agile Coach, helping Leaders, individuals and teams to develop a growth mindset to be top achievers in their respective work area and  in personal life.

You can link with Rohit Ratan Mani on LinkedIn and connect with Rohit Ratan Mani on Twitter.

Rohit Ratan Mani: Breaking Free from the Command & Control Mindset, and Embracing Agile Mindset as a Scrum Master

In this episode, Rohit shares his journey from a project management mindset and a need for control to a Scrum Master mindset. As he learned more about being a Scrum Master, he realized he was a bottleneck for the team’s progress. Going on leave highlighted the team’s dependence on him, and he felt frustrated. This experience led him to embrace the art of letting go and find new ways for the team to work independently. He emphasizes the importance of doing things differently to foster a mindset change. We discuss the conflict between control and empowerment, with the key takeaway being the significance of awareness and a willingness to change.

The inspiring story of how a failing hospital turned things around with Agile and Lean

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 Rohit Ratan Mani

Rohit is an Enterprise Agile Coach, helping Leaders, individuals and teams to develop a growth mindset to be top achievers in their respective work area and  in personal life.

You can link with Rohit Ratan Mani on LinkedIn and connect with Rohit Ratan Mani on Twitter.

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Get These Valuable Lessons Today!
Down-to-earth, hard-earned Scrum Masters lessons and the Tips from the Trenches e-book table of contents, delivered by email
Enter e-mail to download a clickable PO Cheat Sheet
This handy Coach Your PO cheat-sheet includes questions to help you define the problem, and links to handy, easy techniques to help you coach your Product Owner
Enter e-mail to download a clickable PO Cheat Sheet
This handy Coach Your PO cheat-sheet includes questions to help you define the problem, and links to handy, easy techniques to help you coach your Product Owner
Enter e-mail to download a checklist to help your PO manage their time
This simple checklist and calendar handout, with a coaching article will help you define the minimum enagement your PO must have with the team
Enter e-mail to download a checklist to help your PO manage their time
This simple checklist and calendar handout, with a coaching article will help you define the minimum enagement your PO must have with the team
Internal Conference
Checklist
Internal Conference
Checklist
Download a detailed How-To to help measure success for your team
Motivate your team with the right metrics, and the right way to visualize and track them. Marcus presents a detailed How-To document based on his experience at The Bungsu Hospital
Download a detailed How-To to help measure success for your team
Read about Visualization and TRANSFORM The way your team works
A moving story of how work at the Bungsu Hospital was transformed by a simple tool that you can use to help your team.
Read about Visualization and TRANSFORM The way your team works