Thomas Kofoed Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Thomas Kofoed: The flexible Agile Retrospective, a method to constantly adapt to the team’s needs

When Scrum Masters reach a successful state with the team, they will feel confident to skip a few events with the team. That’s a good way to help the team take more ownership of the events, and eventually, take over.

Thomas shares his recipe to “step back” from the work with the team, and let them take over.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Structuring an adaptable retrospective

Thomas asks us to consider the retrospective as an adaptable practice which is flexible to the needs of the team at a certain time. He’s asking us to have a structured approach (a “box”) to which we bring many different exercises and activities to help the team reach their breakthroughs.

In this segment, we refer to the Toyota Kata format.

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About Thomas Kofoed

Passionate Agile Coach / Scrum Master. Thomas focuses on engaging people while helping organizations and teams evolve their products guided by the feedback from their customers/users.

Thomas switches between Facilitation Coaching and Teaching (sometimes Mentoring). He’s open about his purpose and that he strives to get his teams to where they don’t need him but might miss him 🙂

You can link with Thomas Kofoed on LinkedIn.

Thomas Kofoed: Setting up the right expectations when working with a new team

When a Scrum Master gets hired or called into a team there might be mixed expectations between managers, team, and yourself, the Scrum Master. How can we prepare for that possible problem?

In this episode, we discuss the setting of expectations and the early agreements we need to establish when starting to work with a new team.

About Thomas Kofoed

Passionate Agile Coach / Scrum Master. Thomas focuses on engaging people while helping organizations and teams evolve their products guided by the feedback from their customers/users.

You can link with Thomas Kofoed on LinkedIn.

Thomas Kofoed: The “hero” culture that destroys Scrum teams

When we start out as a Scrum Master we might not yet be able to detect the anti-patterns that may develop in teams. That lack of experience can turn against us. One anti-pattern that emerges over and over again is that of the “hero”. In this episode, we explore what leads people to assume the “hero” role and how that negatively affects the team.

In this episode, we refer to the graphic novel series Asterix and Obelix.

Featured Book of the Week: Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts

In Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership by Geoff Watts, found many good stories and examples that make a difference between “good enough”, and “really great” Scrum Masters. The book does this via many short stories that illustrate the differences.

In this segment, we also refer to The Scrum Guide as well as Gunther’s Scrum – A Pocket Guide.

Both Geoff Watts and Gunther Verheyen have been previous guests on the podcast.

About Thomas Kofoed

Passionate Agile Coach / Scrum Master. Thomas focuses on engaging people while helping organizations and teams evolve their products guided by the feedback from their customers/users.

You can link with Thomas Kofoed on LinkedIn.

Thomas Kofoed: Solution focussed coaching, a solution for problem-centric Scrum teams

Thomas, a game 3d artist turned Scrum Master, got started in his journey thanks to a mentor who was a Scrum Master in his team. As he started his own journey he fell into the trap of focusing only on questions, which was important, but led teams to dwell on the problem for too long. Invariably the retrospectives turned into a complain fest, and there was little time to focus on solutions. It was then that he learned about “problem-focused” cultures and what to do about it. Listen in to learn how Thomas got his teams from problem-centric to solution-centric.

In this episode, we talk about the book Solution-Focussed Coaching: A Manager’s Guide to Getting the Best from People by Grant and Greene.

About Thomas Kofoed

Passionate Agile Coach / Scrum Master. Thomas focuses on engaging people while helping organizations and teams evolve their products guided by the feedback from their customers/users.

You can link with Thomas Kofoed on LinkedIn.