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The Top 5 Reasons Teams Regress and Tips to Avoid Them

By: David Pointer | Mar 08, 2023 | Agile Transformation, Leadership, Team

As an Agile Transformation Coach, I have seen my share of successful Agile teams. I have also seen teams plateau at some point struggling to move beyond the initial stages of transformation. A trend I would like to focus on is team regression, which is when an Agile team starts their journey, but along the way may slide back into old habits and processes.

This trend is not abnormal and is dependent on the environment an individual team finds itself in. Most expect Agile teams to be self-sufficient or well established. But, without the focus on improvement or the support to progress, teams tend to slip back to old ways of working, even if they are detrimental to the team’s health. Let’s talk about the top reasons a team may regress.

Reason #1: Lack of Leadership Support

One of the most common reasons an Agile team may regress is a lack of support from direct or indirect leadership. Teams truly desire autonomy and control over how they work, but this desire may not align with how leadership expects teams to behave. Many times, this is because of the lack of synergy between teams changing, while the rest of the organization maintains the status quo. There could be misalignment between leadership expectations vs what the team is actually doing, so the pressure begins to be applied to circumvent the team’s new way of working. Because of this pressure, teams can start to shift back to the old ways of working. Leadership may not see the benefits of Agile or do not want to change themselves to meet the needs of what the team is trying to accomplish.

Reason #2: Conflicting Workplace Culture

Along with leadership, culture can have a big impact on the success of an Agile team. Typically, I see pockets of Agile champions who are challenging the status quo, making ways for new practices, but also some still stuck in old ways resisting the transformation. This conflict between new and old ways of working is challenging for teams on the ground to maneuver through. The organization’s response may be slow, uncertain, and unexpected at times as the initial stages of any transformation are chaotic.

The culture of an organization can also influence how psychologically safe a team feels in changing their way of working. If an organization does not promote psychological safety as part of the culture, individuals and teams will not feel comfortable challenging the status quo and the likelihood of an Agile team thriving or even surviving is greatly impacted.

Reason #3: Unclear Organizational Goals

The focus of an organization can also influence how successful an Agile team becomes. The main goal of any organization is to please and delight their customers. For many, that means a focus on delivery, which can translate to chasing a timeline, which in many cases are not realistic or inclusive of opinions of people on the ground developing and testing. Spending time on innovation and learning may not support that delivery-focused mindset. Teams without a clear goal to work towards will often revert back to old ways of working when things get tough.

Reason #4: Inadequate Staffing of Roles

Another aspect which can cause teams to regress is not having experienced, empowered roles on the team. If an organization does not put effort into hiring or training quality Scrum Masters and Product Owners, the team can suffer. When an organization starts their Agile journey, they may not fully understand the roles needed for a successful Agile team. The organization may experiment with filling these roles before fully committing to adding these roles permanently. The organization may also utilize existing employees to fill these roles or have an employee wear multiple hats of responsibilities. These employees may not have the skillset or aptitude to perform these roles which can slow the ability of the team to mature.

Reason #5: Inability to Make Decisions

In many organizations, decisions are made in a vacuum without clearly communicating those decisions to all affected. Teams on the ground floor don’t know the reason behind the decision, the desired outcomes, or their role in supporting the decision. This leads to teams feeling like cogs in the machine, which reduces employee morale, and the desire to be innovative and think outside the box. By centralizing decision-making, an organization can reduce their ability to get products and services to market quickly. By decentralizing decision-making powers down to the people who know most about the work, more can be accomplished with quicker delivery.

How to Avoid These Traps and Build Successful Agile Teams

Organizations can avoid many of these pitfalls by being intentional about how they start their Agile journey. This would include understanding the outcomes it is trying to achieve, being transparent about what is trying to be accomplished, and communicating this information out to all affected. Organizations need to be more intentional about how they start their Agile journey, starting with:

Right sizing the team
The right roles and skills in each function
Empower the team to make decentralized decisions
Ensuring there is enough leadership support to sustain the strong foundations of an Agile team
Break down organizational silos
Communicate, communicate, communicate

The more intentional an organization is about how they start their Agile journey the higher the chances of success.

If you’d like to improve your organization’s ability to create successful Agile teams and operate with true agility, I’d love to chat. Learn about our team agility service, here.

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Whose Agile Journey is it Anyway?

By: Bhavani Krishnan | Nov 03, 2022 | Agile, Article, Leadership

An image of a hand holding question marks and a hand holding lightbulbs to represent the clairty that comes when an Agile Journey is aligned around a compelling purpose.

This past weekend I went to an Agile meetup and a particular question kept coming up in many variations, “Whose agile is it?” And the answers equally had many versions–Some sided with ‘software teams’ and said, “Agile only works for development teams”.

Others sided with ‘executives’ because they are the influencers. And some, including me, were scratching our heads thinking, “have we strayed too far from the why behind it all?”

Finding the Why Behind your Agile Journey
Agile, as many of us have experienced, is a culture and a mindset. An organization with a compelling purpose to improve, regardless of software or business teams, experiments with a set of practices, and iterates through them operates with agility. Success comes to those that are intentional and holistic about it.

When trying to master a new skill, practice and support lead to permanence. Similarly, during a transformation journey, top-down support and bottom-up practice lead to Agile maturity. Focusing on the WHY behind an Agile journey unites the whole organization to prioritize the need for change and creates resilience to resistance. When leaders acknowledge, celebrate, and support the WHY, people in the Organization feel safe to experiment and excel.

Embrace Change, Celebrate Wins
I have witnessed both. Leaders that mandate the transformation without truly standing behind the purpose, eventually blaming it on Agile, and those that have internalized, walked along with the members of the organization, experienced the shift, supported the challenges, created room to fall, and celebrated even the smallest wins.

I remember, when I was supporting a major transformation at a financial organization, a team had accomplished a 100% say/do ratio during a sprint–which was consistently slipping for them for a few sprints. When the VP of the technology department learned about this, he formed a human chain and brought the entire floor to applaud the team and their accomplishment. He said it was important to acknowledge the win and didn’t measure, small or big. It was an accomplishment worthy of celebration. He openly encouraged, empowered, and supported the transformation.

Making Sustainable Change
Purpose is very personal. It varies for everyone. A new level of clarity is attained when it is acknowledged. For example, I have learned through many failed attempts that yo-yo dieting does not result in permanence. In order to make real change, I need to make a lifestyle change. It’s a mindset shift. I had to intentionally focus on the reason behind my desire to be healthy. I had to allow myself to feel safe when I failed. The final why that clicked for me was when I realized, clean eating aligned with my philosophies of clean earth and leaving it better than I found. THAT was my compelling purpose!

The question is not whose Agile it is, the question is, do you have a purpose for change? Without that, you are trying to solve a puzzle with a lost piece.

So ask yourselves again, what’s YOUR purpose for change? Share if you don’t mind via comments below.

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4 Agile Leadership Tips For A Successful Agile Transformation

By: Agile Velocity | Sep 28, 2021 | Agile Transformation, Leadership

An Agile transformation is a major organizational shift requiring senior leadership to be deeply engaged. The truth is, people at the team level cannot make a lasting shift happen without leaders leading the change. In the last few years, we have seen an influx of new workshops and coaching designed to support leaders during the initial transformation push and beyond. This is great news as Agile has historically only communicated the things leaders can’t or shouldn’t do, e.g. attend retros, task teams, etc. In this article, we provide 4 ways Agile leaders can create an environment that will help the transformation and agility thrive.

Tip #1. Inspire with Purpose

In 2009, Daniel Pink’s book Drive shifted the way many leaders thought about human motivation, highlighting the concepts of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. While autonomy is driven by trust and mastery is driven by practice, purpose is not always something employees can divine on their own. Leaders should clearly communicate how a team’s efforts make a tangible difference for the business. Connecting a team’s work to business outcomes creates a shared sense of purpose and generates a sense of urgency for improving.

Tip #2. Create focus

Agile transformations can be complex and time-consuming. Provide focus for your organization by prioritizing the transformation as a top initiative. Agile transformations often fail because the organization underestimated the commitment required. While transforming your business, you can’t merely go through the motions for a month and then go back to the next fire waiting in the wings. Your job as an Agile leader is to prioritize the change and communicate clear outcomes so the rest of the organization can focus on working towards those outcomes.

Tip #3. Empower the team

Problems are best solved closest to the source. When teams self-organize and solve the problems that impact their day-to-day, Agile leaders can focus on optimizing the system. In a systems agility mindset, we are all part of the same group of teams trying to deliver value to the organization. Empowering team members to solve problems at the team level enables leaders to collaborate with their peers on things like how to improve cross-team collaboration, multi-team predictability, and reducing dependencies.

Tip #4. Enable decision agility

Information needs to flow both up and down the chain of command. Bi-directional communication allows leaders to share strategy, direction, and organizational data so the people closest to the problem can make tactical decisions. As an Agile leader, it is your duty to make sure teams have what they need to pivot quickly because slow decision-making is costly. By building trust and enabling teams to make their own decisions, Agile leaders can focus on the bigger picture.

Agile transformations fundamentally change the way your organization works, so you can deliver more value to your clients, more often, with better quality. Success doesn’t happen by accident, and people at the team level cannot make it happen without leadership involvement. Inspiring with purpose, creating focus, empowering teams, and enabling decision agility will provide value to your organization throughout its transformation. What are some other ways leaders can support the transformation? Leave your comments below.

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How to Build and Sustain Organizational Resilience

By: Andy Cleff | Oct 01, 2020 | Leadership, Team

After reading the Gallup Group’s article “Remote Agile: Sustain Performance While Working Remotely” a few things floated up in my mind. To keep those things from bouncing around too much, I thought I’d write them down and share them out.

In case you haven’t read the article, here are Gallup’s key points and recommendations for sustaining performance for remote and distributed teams at a glance:

The need for remote Agile happened overnight amid the pandemic
Build trust through relationships to combat anxiety in agile remote teams
Focus on four key actions to bolster a successful new way of working:
- Maximize the use of virtual collaboration tools for remote teams
- Replicate agile rituals while working remotely
- Build trust in a remote work environment
- Get closer to your customers

The Elephant in the Room

While there are some interesting (and debatable) points in the article, I think Gallup has missed a larger and more significant issue.

The issue is not about performance through tools and rituals. It is about building and sustaining organizational resilience–at individual, team, system and organizational layers–in the face of a VUCA* world, cranked up to eleven.

(more…)

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3 Agile Transformation OKRs Leaders Can Use to Avoid Wrecking an Agile Transformation

By: Agile Velocity | Sep 17, 2020 | Agile Coaching, Agile Transformation, Business Agility, Leadership

The image is a ship leaning on its side. We discuss Agile transformation OKRs leaders can use to avoid wrecking ship. The leaders and change agents we meet are eager to ensure their Agile transformation avoids hitting rocks or running aground. After all, nobody wants to experience a shipwreck. We have found that the ones who do enjoy a successful journey have navigated three especially challenging obstacles.

We aim to address those obstacles in this article by offering three Agile transformation OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for you to consider. For those who are not familiar with OKRs, they are a helpful goal-setting tool particularly for initiatives or efforts like an Agile transformation. OKRs are used to define how to achieve objectives (the “O” part) through concrete, specific, and measurable actions, the Key Results (KRs). The key results are time-bound and measurable milestones under the objectives.

We provide example measures below but keep in mind that your key results can and should be modified for your situation. If you are just starting out on your transformation, it may be helpful to have more general measures until teams become predictable, at which time very specific measures can be used.

The First Agile transformation OKR – “Leader Engagement”

In the 14th State of Agility report, the second greatest challenge experienced when adopting and scaling Agile is “Not enough leadership participation.” The first is “General Organizational Resistance to Change.” Both of these challenges are dramatically improved with increased leadership engagement.

An OKR addressing leader engagement is a great opportunity. Do well here and the impact can offer massively outsized returns. The opposite is also true. It’s such a high-reward, high-risk area it deserves special emphasis.

Example Objective: Leaders are ready, willing, and improving their ability to lead an Agile organization

As measured by:

Business outcomes are clear and understood by teams and stakeholders
The transformation’s compelling purpose permeates throughout the organization
An Agile Leadership Team is in place
The Agile transformation roadmap is clear and visible
Leaders are trained and supported in their new Agile leadership capabilities

Organizations that have leaders who are ready, willing, and improving their leadership in an Agile approach recognize significant business advantages. When companies achieve this objective, as measured by the above key results, there is a new sustained capability that contributes to a massively positive impact.

These leader key results are intentionally chosen because they quantitatively describe how the ready, willing, and improving leadership objective is met.

These specific key results are taken from the Path to Agility^®(P2A). With P2A, we lead Agile transformations by focusing on business outcomes which, in turn, engage leaders. Leaders who are excited about improving business results are far more willing to actively support a transformation effort.

Tactics you might consider offering your leaders:

Apply a credible outcomes-based Agile transformation framework
Utilize high-quality, tailored training your leaders will value (training to equip them for leading an Agile organization).
Offer ongoing agility-based executive coaching to help them to enhance and/or build their new leadership capabilities.
Have, and keep having, leadership conversations about the business goals and outcomes.
Connect the business goals to the transformation effort so there is clarity about how the teams are working better towards measurable business results.

The Second Agile transformation OKR – “Team Capabilities”

What companies need are long-lasting Agile teams. Agile capabilities enable teams to adapt to the widest range of disruption and keep functioning at a high level. That is a promise of agility.

Keeping an eye on capability growth while adopting these new Agile ways of working is key. Good questions about Agile team capabilities are:

How are the teams learning and improving?
How are they collaborating better?
How transparent is their work?
How do they hold each other accountable?

Establishing these capabilities can be helped a great deal by implementing the necessary Agile practices. Also bear in mind that a team can do “Agile things” while not learning or improving, collaborating better, being transparent, or holding each other accountable, and so forth. So focusing on doing Agile things may not get you the result you want. The objective here is to keep the capabilities foremost in scope for long-lasting results.

Based on our research, most companies get stuck and stay stuck in middling Agile at best. What we observe is that it’s easier to measure how many teams are “doing Agile things” like how many “ARTS have launched” or how many teams are “having regular standups” and so on. Until relatively recently, measuring practices has been easier than measuring Agile capabilities.

We created the Path to Agility for ourselves, in part, to address the challenge of keeping capabilities in view. We needed a transformation framework that could establish business outcomes, identify and measure necessary Agile capabilities, and integrate Agile practices. It’s not an easy task to keep all those things in mind during a transformation. However, they are all critical for success and P2A keeps us on track for growing team capabilities.

Example Objective: Teams are ready, willing, and improving agility by building new capabilities

As measured by:

Self-organization and collaboration as teams take ownership of their work (Team ownership)
Clearly defined goals and aligned expectations enabling autonomy and understanding how their work ties into the larger whole (Team Purpose)
Teams improving continuously to deliver value more effectively (Value delivery)
Learning loops from experimentation with inspection and adaptation (Learning culture)
Team work made visible (Transparency)
Stakeholder input and feedback is sought early and often (Visibility)
Team members seek ways to help each other to complete high-value items (Quality)
Stable team throughput measures (Predictability)
All team members are trained in overall <insert your Agile methodology here>

Granted, this a long list of key results, and it would be best to spread them out over time. This list is a selection of the kinds of capabilities a team likely needs to measure as they build mastery over time.

The teams that are ready, willing, and improving agility by building new Agile capabilities become dependable and predictable partners in delivering customer value. That is the significant advantage of team agility.

The Third Agile transformation OKR – “IT and Business Partnership”

One of the most rewarding Agile transformation obstacles to overcome is seeing business and technology work better together. When these groups partner and build trust, it pays important dividends throughout the organization.

We rarely see a greater incentive for momentum than when a customer lights up because a team solved one of their most difficult problems. When a team knows their work contributes to improving the customer experience, they are powerfully motivated. It builds momentum to higher team performance that improves over time. It’s especially impactful when a cross-functional team sees how everyone’s diverse yet coordinated work made it happen.

More than ever, the most difficult customer experience problems span silos and departments. To have the ongoing capability of solving those problems, cross-functional partnership and trust becomes mission-critical. Calling this out as a specific objective makes good sense.

Example Objective: Sustained partnership, alignment, and trust between the IT & Business departments

As measured by:

Business partners at all levels are trained to support Agile efforts
Customer and stakeholder feedback loops are shortened
All teams are cross-functional with business involvement
A clear value statement (or hypothesis) exists and cross-functional teams understand how they contribute
Internal partnership scores are improving (e.g., eNPS)
Cross-functional team are regularly retrospecting their progress and implementing improvement plans
Predictability is improving

These measures can be made more quantifiable to meet your needs. Each one represents a way to ensure partnership and trust are built for the long-term. They are all dependent on Agile’s empirical process and benefit from the Agile approach of prioritizing human interaction. These often won’t start happening unless new ways of working are introduced and encouraged.

When partnership, alignment, and trust between the IT & Business departments is present and customers lives are being positively impacted, the benefits compound.

Tactics you might consider offering your cross-functional business and IT teams:

Have people from business and IT go through Agile training together so that they can learn together and develop a common language.
Intentionally celebrate and enjoy customer wins together as a team.
Offer soft-skills training (like bringing up difficult topics, holding each other accountable, etc.).
Build a culture of learning by making the effort to discover what teams are learning and how they’ve decided to get better (rather than trying to solve their problems).
Encourage team members to have conversations that help increase their appreciation for one another’s challenges and obstacles.
Use helpful tools like Value Stream Maps, Personas, Journey Maps, etc. to help team members see how value flows to customers and where that flow can be improved.
Again, we recommend having a credible outcomes-based Agile transformation framework to align to common goals.

While customers stand to gain the most when high performing cross-functional teams work together to solve their problems, the internal benefits are also massive. When business and IT effectively come together, it sends a signal that all departments can, too.

Set Your Course

The success of your Agile transformation journey can be helped dramatically by using these three OKRs:

Leaders are ready, willing, and improving their ability to lead an Agile organization
Teams are ready, willing, and improving agility by building new capabilities
Sustained partnership and trust between the IT & Business departments

How you choose to describe, measure, and apply these three key Agile transformation accelerators can be as unique as your organization. The benefits to your customers, your employees, and the long term results when you have them will be profound.

We wish you great success along your path to agility. Learn more about our approach, here.

What’s Your Organizational Agility Score?

In less than an hour, you’ll get valuable insights into your organization so you can improve team performance and achieve your business goals faster.

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A Leader’s Massive Advantage: High-Performing Teams Rising to the Challenge

By: rachel.abrams@agilevelocity.com Cottrell | Aug 31, 2020 | Agile Transformation, Business Agility, Leadership, Team

A picture of the Blue Angels, a high-performing team, flying their US Navy jets. There’s a pattern in client conversations I’m having. Every client I’ve spoken to recently has guided our conversations to highlight how much better they see their teams responding to recent pandemic challenges because of their newly developed Agile capabilities. Every one. Every time.

I’ve reached out to some clients to just check-in. Some have generously checked in on me. I’ve asked others for help with references. Some are asking for our help in new ways. And every Zoom meeting has had a good chunk of time celebrating how pleased they are with their progress. Their high-performing teams are rising up in spite of the current circumstances.

They are quick to point out that their businesses have been affected by the downturn. In some cases, their business essentially stalled in Q2. Revenues were lost, key customers had to make hard choices that impacted every facet of their business.

What’s different for these leaders is they recognize their high-performing agile teams now give them an advantage in the face of their (often) harsh reality.

These leaders *know* their teams can adapt when news breaks. They are observing it firsthand. Their high-performing teams are quickly changing course, staying focused, collaborating even more intensely, facing hard lessons objectively, and learning quickly. Their Agile teams are resilient. And those teams are growing more resilient over time.

For some of our clients, not all of their teams were involved in their transformation. This means they see a stark difference in the teams that aren’t equipped to adapt. Those teams are having a harder time with the volatility. Those teams can’t adjust easily on nearly any level except aspiration. These teams want to respond quickly but simply aren’t equipped and, or, organized to do it. And leaders see the toll that takes on their people.

And that’s the thing that stays with me. Having adaptable ways of working can have a dramatic impact on people. Same for not being adaptable.

While few of us are really happy right now, it’s been remarkable to see leaders experiencing joy in seeing their agile people adjusting and courageously exploring new paths forward. These high-performing teams have the skills and capabilities to do something about where they are headed. This is good for their people, their companies, and especially their customers.

These leaders know they have an advantage. Their teams have a way to rise up and meet their challenges.

And that’s a remarkable thing.

Our mission is to equip companies with the Agile capabilities they need to win in their market. Our aim is to accelerate the time it takes to get there. If you’d like to talk about your teams, we’re always happy to talk. You can easily reach us here: https://agilevelocity.com/contact/

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6 Keys to Agile Transformation Success – Recorded Webinar

By: Rachel Abrams | Aug 26, 2020 | Agile Transformation, Business Agility, Leadership, Webinar

Agile transformations are either never-ending, constantly restarting, or “finished” before they have started to impact business results. This has created transformation fatigue for many individuals and organizations. In this video, David Hawks shares 6 keys to a successful Agile transformation.

He explores how leaders can guide their organizations past common Agile transformation challenges and accelerate momentum towards true organizational agility and lasting business results.

Key takeaways include:

Why most Agile transformations are failing
How Agile transformations have evolved over time
6 keys to a successful Agile transformation

View the full slide deck.

To learn more about our Agile Transformation Services, explore our services page or contact us directly.

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Core Values and Agility Move Southwest Airlines Through the Good & Challenging Times

By: Agile Velocity | Aug 24, 2020 | Agile Transformation, Business Agility, Leadership, Video

There have been many times in Southwest Airlines history where times were great. However, there are other times Southwest refers to as “existential moments” where the outcomes were not obvious and the company was forever changed because of it. These are the defining moments in a company’s history and have ultimately helped shape the industry of air travel. From 9/11, selling tickets online in 1995, fuel hedging in the early 1990s, to the very beginning with Herb going to the Texas Supreme Court to begin flying, and creating the Ten Minute Turn in the early 1970s, Southwest has met and overcome various challenges with innovative techniques coming from passionate Employees and fearless Leadership.

Historically at Southwest, the tough times focus around the core values of the organization: Warrior Spirit, Servant Leadership, and a Fun-Luving Attitude. Focused initiatives and dedicated Teams are created to deliver on key projects… Agile-like. Strategies and decisions are focused on revenue in the most fundamental ways. Innovation comes within empowered core Teams. As we move through undoubtedly one of the most unprecedented crisis, how can the practices we learned from the Agile Teams strengthen Southwest’s ability to adapt once again?

Watch this video to explore how Southwest Airlines’ core values and agility enabled their teams to come together during times of crisis and work towards the same goal.

Fireside style chat hosted by Business Agility 2020 Emerging from Crisis.

About Emily Beatty | Strategist @ Southwest Airlines
Emily Beatty has been in the airline industry with Southwest for nearly 10 years. During that time, she’s focused her career around the Customer in both the commercial and operational areas of the business. Throughout that journey, there have been many changes in the industry as well as internal to Southwest that she has witnessed and played a role in. Being a part of those critical functions, she’s seen the industry evolve and adapt in ways that are seemingly unpredictable. Some changes come from external pressures or internal goals, yet both result in the need for innovative thinking and fast-moving delivery.

In her current role, she is the strategist of a pilot improving the digital space using agile methods within the booking flow. Her expertise has led her to this opportunity where the Customer is the focus, and she’s able to pull together strategic plans and backlogs around those Customer insights. Prior to this, Emily led an internal Team and managed key relationships with external partners where it was critical to understand both how the product functions from an operational perspective and profitability perspective.

The yearlong pilot recently proved itself as a highly successful program. She now sits on an Agile Leadership Transformation Team to help extend agile within the Marketing Department, to strengthen the relationship between the business and technology. The ultimate goal of the Team is to determine how best to implement Agile in certain focus areas of the business to create a sustainable platform for growth.

Emily brings a unique perspective on what it means to adapt Agile to meet the demands of the business, while listening to your Customers for every step in the journey and determining the next best thing. Her proven track record of developing successful Customer initiatives using strategic visions, Customer data, and high functioning Teams is well established at Southwest. It’s no doubt that 2020 has created unprecedented challenges, and the ability to move quickly and make decisions remains paramount.

About David Hawks | Founder and Chief Agilist @ Agile Velocity
Founder and Chief Agilist of Agile Velocity, David Hawks is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer who is passionate about helping organizations achieve true agility beyond the basic implementation of Agile practices.

David’s primary focus is to guide leaders through their Agile transformation by helping to create successful transformation strategies and effectively manage organizational change with a focus on achieving real business results.

Download the Southwest Airlines Agile transformation story, Beyond the Boarding Gate: How Southwest Airlines Uses Agile To Get Better, Faster, and More Efficient, to learn more about their Agile transformation and why it was different and more successful than previous attempts.

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Getting Better Because of Conflict Management: A Conflict-hating Scrum Master’s Story

By: Shelby Turk | Aug 12, 2020 | Agile, Agile Training, Leadership, Scrum, ScrumMaster, Team

The issue.

Conflict.

It makes me nervous just thinking about conflict in the workplace. It brings to the surface old insecurities, hurt feelings, and power struggles. Through my education there was a constant mantra–No one likes a pot-stirrer, don’t rock the boat, grin and bear it –here are a million different phrases, but they all boil down to basic conflict avoidance. Moving into the professional world it is repeated in different ways, often under the umbrella of creating good workplace culture. Conflict is an unavoidable part of life and it will find you in the workplace.

A close friend once told me that all conflict comes from an expectation not being met. At first, this seemed like a gross oversimplification and I blew it off as idle conversation but it stuck in my brain as I began a new chapter in my career, becoming a Certified Scrum Master. Servant leadership, being the buffer between my team and our stakeholders, helping set and meet goals… it all entranced me. I wanted to be good at my job and be liked within the team. Conflict wouldn’t have a place in my team, we would be a well-oiled machine running through Kanban tickets like a dream. All decisions would be unanimous and in the best interest of the company. Laughter would fill all our meetings. It would be like a Hallmark movie.

Please, take a moment to laugh at how ridiculous that image was.

Introduce the next player in this story, March 2020 along with its trusty sidekick. Covid 19. Our team went from meeting daily in the office to meeting over Zoom, and the Scrum Master role went from an interesting idea to an official role in my life and a very important part of keeping my team together.

The solution.

Our team decided to split into two teams, consisting of six members each. The Scrum Master for the other team had more experience leading than I did, she is well respected in the company and is often referred to as the glue of our group. Those old insecurities kicked into high gear and fueled my determination to be the best.

I did what most people do, I took to the internet to find ways to help guide my team through the upcoming months. I poured through articles on Scrum and Kanban, videos on women in leadership positions, dug into the Thomas-Killman Strategy, read David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around, and reached out directly to my trusted coworkers for guidance. It became obvious that my fear of conflict was not going to do the team justice and I was going to have to step far out of my comfort zone.

I reached out to people in the company and practiced interactions–we ran through scenarios of conflict management and I tried different ways to handle it until they sounded natural. I worked with my husband on long monologues of reassurance, collaborative language, and repetitive goals. I forced myself to allow silence when it felt deafening to me and opened the door for criticism on my abilities to facilitate our retro and planning sessions. I put our goals high on the Kanban board so they wouldn’t be forgotten. I got used to playing the devil’s advocate and finding holes in plans that I thought were the best course of action.

Still, my team was struggling. Each day I saw the tension building and I felt the let down of the situation in my core. I expected to work hard and to have struggles, but I didn’t expect it to be quite this hard or this personal. The other team had their share of storming, but they were coming out on the other side. And the better they did, the more pressure I felt and the more personal I took each ceremony. I set my own expectations too high, and they were not being met on any front.

After a particularly bad week, I packed up my car and drove to West Texas to see an old friend. The whole way there and throughout my stay, I contemplated if I was right for the Scrum Master role at all. Maybe this was a sign that I should run, and that my team would be better off without me involved. My friend allowed me to wallow for about a day, and then did what friends do best and brought me out of my own head. She reminded me why I was drawn to the role to begin with. She pointed out how many of the conflicts within the team had nothing to do with me, the work, or the company. The more I distanced myself from the conflict the easier it was to see how I could use the strategies I learned in each situation. I was no longer the center of the problem. I was an observer.

Slowly, it got better. We reorganized the teams to remove some of the conflict between members. Eventually, we compressed into one large team and I handed off the role of Scrum Master to my colleague. As she took over the role I continued to learn and observe how she handled conflict.

What I Learned.

I still struggle with conflict management at work. My nerves creep in at every furrowed brow or sharp tone, but I’ve realized that as I continue in my career and through different roles I will look back on this time and use these lessons to grow. It’s not uncommon for the Scrum Master role to attract a helper personality like mine–the ones who want to be the fixer in a situation and shrink away from conflict. As those people, we have a lot of learning to do in order to successfully fill the role and serve our teams. Through research, continued education, and practice helpers can be some of the best Scrum Masters. Check out our Advanced Certified ScrumMaster workshop to learn how to level up your conflict management and facilitation skills.

Thomas-Killman Conflict Resolution Strategy Cheat Sheet:

Avoiding – Sidestepping the conflict with the hope it will resolve itself and go away.

- This was my go-to. Avoid, avoid, avoid. Laugh it off. Leave the room. Don’t make anyone know you are uncomfortable. This has its place in some aspects of life but in the virtual workspace, it created more stress and anxiety for me. I quickly scratched that one off my list of tactics.

Accommodating – Going out of your way to satisfy the other party’s concerns, often at your own expense.

- Another go-to! Take on extra tasks and work to make everyone else happy and feel heard. This is a short-term fix, but long term it leads to 12 hour-days, burn out, and sleep-deprived work. We all have to accommodate every day, it cannot be a one-way street to resolving conflict at work.

Compromising – Finding an acceptable resolution that partly satisfies both parties, but neither is fully satisfied.

- We learned this style as children and it has its place. The problem with compromise on a high-stress team is that someone gets the short end of the stick. When there are daily conflicts, that stick gets shorter and shorter until all that is left are disgruntled team members.

Competing – Trying to satisfy your desires at the expense of the other parties.

- Finish the project first. Make the most money. Have the highest NPS. Competition drives success and it can make a team soar. But it also can tear a team apart from the inside and negatively impact the whole business. Competition is only healthy if it’s checked frequently.

Collaborating – Finding a solution that entirely satisfies all parties involved.

- The golden ticket. The win-win-win model. Collaboration is wonderful, necessary, and needed in every part of life. It’s hard to achieve and requires all members to be willing to talk and to come to an agreement. For example, if Larry refuses to speak to John and John refuses to see Jessica’s point of view, the team cannot collaborate.

Blog

Agile Coaching – A Key Role to Improve Performance

By: Andy Cleff | Jun 23, 2020 | Agile Coaching, Agile Transformation, Business Agility, Leadership

What Does An Agile Coach Do?

We’d wager most people think of coaches in the context of sports – Vince Lombardi, Phil Jackson and Pat Summit. These are some of the greatest coaches in the history of sports, but coaches exist in every profession. Simply put, a coach (in any context) helps people, teams, and organizations perform better.

Table exploring 8 agile implementation approaches. Our coaches will help you select the best way for your business outcomes. — Learn more about utilizing an Agile coach for a successful transformation

The same is true for Agile Velocity (AV) Coaches. AV Agile coaches help organizations by accelerating their adoption of Agile methods in order to better achieve their business objectives. Coaches use Path To Agility^® to prioritize the business outcomes, identify, and coach to build the capabilities necessary to enable those results.

Agile Coaching to Levels

Building new capabilities is hard. It takes time and it will be met with resistance. Having a consistent, repeatable, proven approach is how AV Agile Coaches are able to get results. The Path to Agility^® breaks down a business into three levels, each of which has a set of capabilities to master in order to achieve the targeted business outcomes. They are responsible for working with leaders, teams, and individuals at all three levels to instill the desired capabilities. They focus on business results, not just process change.

Following are the three business levels along with the key results our coaches are working towards:

Organization – Leadership develops a modern mindset, increases visibility throughout the organization, and creates alignment around vision, goals, and measured success for sustainable organizational change.
System – Networks of teams are coordinating and collaborating to address dependencies and reduce the time to market.
Team – Teams successfully take on new roles, establish Agile team practices, increase engagement, learn faster, and can predictably produce value.

Agile Coaching For Growth and Results

Although the primary goal of an Agile coach is singular, to improve performance, there are many functions a coach performs on an engagement. The following highlights a handful of these. (For a deeper dive, see 7 Roles of an Agile Coach – Besides Agile Coach.)

Observer
Teacher
Partner
Facilitator
Advisor/Mentor
Coach

As you can tell, AV Coaches aren’t just expected to be expert Agilists, they’re also expected to be well-rounded, growth-minded leaders. Our Agile Coaches are leaders that can have hard, honest conversations as well as listen with compassion. Leaders that can share knowledge and impart wisdom from their experience. Leaders, at their core, that want to help others improve, because they are coaches.

Ready to Improve?

At Agile Velocity, each of our coaches’ job is to work themselves out of a job. They do this by establishing core capabilities at all levels of an organization — making the organization self-sufficient and resilient. Our approach greatly improves the likelihood of long-term success.

When you’re ready to improve your organization’s performance by focusing on business outcomes like increased revenue, customer satisfaction, and speed of delivery, our coaches will be prepared with a solution tailored to your unique needs and desired business results.

For more on our approach to building lasting business agility, see Agile Velocity’s Transformation Services.