team success Archives - Page 39 of 40 - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Ruta Hardikar: Building great Scrum teams, the how to!

As part of working with teams, we must learn to grow teams, to make them feel as a group that can perform and overcome the challenges they will inevitably face. In this segment, we talk about a team Ruta was working with, and how she helped them create a safe space to share and talk about “the hard stuff”, and how we can build in team building into the Scrum ceremonies with the goal of building a great team.

In this segment, we talk about the Tuckman model of group development, and the book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni.

Featured Book of the Week: Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

In Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry, Ruta found different aspects we need to develop as Scrum Masters. Scrum Masters work in a people-oriented job, therefore we need to actively study and learn more about people’s defining characteristics. The book helped Ruta learn to manage, and benefit from emotions, rather than be afraid of them.

In this segment, we also talk about Start with Why by Simon Sinek.

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 Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn.

Pedro Silva: Learning to grow trust within an Agile team

When Pedro joined this team, he noticed that the team members did not try to include a new team member in their conversation. Although sometimes this pattern is subtle, in this team it was an obvious lack of inclusivity in the team’s approach to communication: they did not use a language that the new team member would understand! Listen in to hear the critical lessons Pedro learned about inclusivity in Agile teams!

Featured Book of the Week: The Speed Of Trust by Stephen Covey

In The Speed Of Trust by Stephen Covey, Pedro found a clear manual on how to focus on building trust within an Agile team, and with stakeholders. He shares one of the key lessons, that trust has many different aspects that we don’t often consider. Listen in to learn how trust can change depending on the relationship and the context.

About Pedro Silva

Pedro considers himself a Scrum Master supporting software development teams while keeping his focus on their growth towards the efficient delivery of value, while having a blast.

You can link with Pedro Silva on LinkedIn.

Shaun Bradshaw: The technique that quickly moves a Scrum team from mini-waterfall, to true Scrum

Shaun was working with a team that was consistently failing to meet their Sprint commitments. At first glance, the team was doing everything right, the Product Owner was present and supportive. After a few failed attempts, Shaun decided to “visualize” how the team worked, by asking them to plan out a Sprint on the board. Through this technique, Shaun finally realized that the team was working as if they used Waterfall, even if they were just planning the Sprint. That insight changed the team, and changed Shaun’s approach to coaching that team! Listen in to learn how!

Featured Book of the Week: Predictably irrational by Dan Ariely

In Predictably irrational by Dan Ariely, Shaun found an explanation for some of the confusing observations he had made as a Scrum Master. It helped him understand that, even if some behaviors appear irrational, they can be predictable once we have the right models in mind.

About Shaun Bradshaw

Shaun is a founder and principal of Zenergy Technologies, a modern software delivery solutions firm that specializes in Agile, DevOps, Quality, and Automation. Shaun’s background in QA, testing, and metrics has played an important role in his work as an Agile consultant since he joined the community in 2008.

You can link with Shaun Bradshaw on LinkedIn and connect with Shaun Bradshaw on Twitter. You can also follow Shaun Bradshaw’s blog at the Zenergy Technologies site.

Robbie Ross: The anti-patterns in Scrum teams that focus on velocity

Very often teams compare themselves to other teams. Even when successful, the comparison is inevitable, and sometimes even pushed/fostered by stakeholders. Robbie shares a story of a team that got stuck in the comparison of velocity with another team. And even if the team was working great, they were still trying to “achieve” the same number of story points that the other team was doing. Even when asked not to focus on the number, the team worked on getting their velocity higher, and higher, but not because they were working better, just because they were assigning more story points to the same work! In this episode, we discuss this and other anti-patterns that emerge when teams start focusing on the velocity, rather than the impact of the work they have ahead.

Featured Book of the Week: Scrum, the art of doing twice the work in half the time by Sutherland

In Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, by Sutherland Robbie found an inspiring book that helped him find the Scrum Master career. He describes the book as filled with solutions and valuable even for people with significant experience!

About Robbie Ross

Robbie is an Agile Practice Manager at Jumar Technology with a passion for working with and empowering teams to foster an Agile environment at scale. He’s also a Certified Scrum Master, Kanban practitioner and Agile community member helping teams release their genuine potential to deliver value. Quite a career shift since completing a Sports Science degree at University.

You can link with Robbie Ross on LinkedIn and connect with Robbie Ross on Twitter.

Marcus Hammarberg explains his recipe for team success

Many management approaches settle for measuring activity instead of outcomes. Marcus asks us to focus more on outcomes to be able to investigate the system conditions. After all it is outcomes that matter. He also asks us to be so precise about outcomes that we can measure it with a single metric. His process is:

Go for smaller and smaller iterations as a way to help teams “own” their work
Bring the outcome definition down to ground-level, so that everyone understands it
Everyone needs to understand the metric. Simplify it.
The metric needs to be one that changes often, so that we can use it as feedback.
Update the metric daily
Celebrate success

Marcus shared with us a discount code for all that purchase his book until October 14th, 2015. Don’t miss it, purchase the book at http://bit.ly/theKanbanBook, and use the code scrumkan.

Marcus is the Author of Salvation:The Bungsu Story, a fascinating account of a real-life crisis, and how Agile, Lean and Kanban saved the Hospital from bankruptcy! Twice! Get ready for the journey, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

About Marcus Hammarberg

Marcus is a Software / agile consultant from Sweden on IT-sabatical leave in Indonesia, working for the Salvation Army hospitals there. And yes, using techniques from agile in that work even in non-software environments.
One of those approaches he is using is Kanban, as Marcus is the author of the book Kanban in Action with Joakim Sundén, don’t forget to go to http://bit.ly/theKanbanBook, and get the book with the discount code scrumkan.
You can link with Marcus Hammarberg on LinkedIn, and connect with Marcus Hammarberg on twitter.