Wouter Gheysen Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Wouter Gheysen: Physical and emotional distance, the destroyers of the Scrum Product Owner effectiveness

In this episode, we discuss how distance, both physical and otherwise, can help build or destroy the relationship between the Product Owner and the team.

The Great Product Owner: The emotionally available Product Owner

Great Product Owners are emotionally available to the team. That’s the first characteristic we discuss in this episode, where we also explore the role of having a Vision for the product, as well as knowing how to negotiate with stakeholders, and helping the Scrum Master protect the team from interference.

The Bad Product Owner: Physical and emotional distance, the destroyers of the Product Owner effectiveness

This Product Owner was sitting 5 floors above the team (literally). He was not available for the team to ask questions or interact with. The physical distance a PO builds with their team also transforms into emotional/relationship distance and destroys the collaboration that is so critical. We share some tips on how to overcome that distance between team and Product Owner.

Are you having trouble helping the team working 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 Wouter Gheysen

Wouter is a creative generalist with a broad area of interest beyond agility, a focus on people, and working with teams. He is a coach, guide and life long learner with a keen interest in facilitation, design thinking and systemic coaching.

You can link with Wouter Gheysen on LinkedIn and connect with Wouter Gheysen on Twitter.

Wouter Gheysen: Scrum team success from many different perspectives

Success can have many different perspectives. We start this episode, discussing how those perspectives affect how we define and measure success with the teams we work with. And Wouter asks an important question, we should all think about: “What do you do that brings success to the team you work with?”

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The Sailboat Retrospective

Even if he uses many different retrospective formats, the first retrospective format that Wouter uses with a new team is The Sailboat Retrospective. For many teams, this format is something new, that helps them feel engaged with the retrospective. The use of metaphor and drawing can also engage the team, and help the team discuss difficult problems that would otherwise be difficult to approach.

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About Wouter Gheysen

You can link with Wouter Gheysen on LinkedIn and connect with Wouter Gheysen on Twitter.

Wouter Gheysen: Helping a team, learn and then own the Demo/Review ceremony in Scrum

Wouter was working in a bank, with a team that was just at the start of their Agile transformation. This team was insecure about the idea of a demo, they weren’t sure about how to conduct a demo with stakeholders, and the team members were hesitant to take ownership of that ceremony.

Slowly, and methodically, Wouter helped the team first learn how, and then slowly take over the demo. By the end of this change, the team fully owned the demo, and team members put themselves forward to be the ones demonstrating the achievements they had accomplished during the sprint.

About Wouter Gheysen

You can link with Wouter Gheysen on LinkedIn and connect with Wouter Gheysen on Twitter.

Wouter Gheysen: How to help teams improve, even after an Agile transformation

When we work in a company that is in, or has just gone through an Agile transformation, we often see that external coaches leave and slowly the good behaviors fade away. The pressure of delivery takes over, and the teams start skipping the good things that had helped them before, like the retrospectives. In this episode, we discuss what Scrum Masters can do to help teams stick to the good practices they’ve learned and how the collaboration with the PO is so critical in keeping the process going, and the team improving.

Featured Book of the Week: Coaching Agile Teams, by Lyssa Adkins

In Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins, Wouter found instpiurational and practical tops that he wanted to try in his work. It helped him understand the importance of coaching and gave him methods and tools to deal with conflict in the team.

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 Wouter Gheysen

You can link with Wouter Gheysen on LinkedIn and connect with Wouter Gheysen on Twitter.

Wouter Gheysen: How to find the “right” sustainable pace for your Scrum team

One of the challenges for Scrum Masters is to know when the team is already working at their pace. The idea of sustainable pace is that we help the team find and slowly improve their pace, rather than do the “death march” sprints that can destroy the team’s morale and productivity. In this episode, we talk about how we may be able to help the teams we work with find their pace, and how to know when we are pushing them too hard (and too little).

About Wouter Gheysen

You can link with Wouter Gheysen on LinkedIn and connect with Wouter Gheysen on Twitter.