AGILE IN ACTION

If you're new to light-touch leadership you may find yourself focusing on the big events (standups, retrospectives, planning games, showcase, beer). However it's the little-noticed gardening work that happens over the course of an iteration that really helps a team work together and deliver effectively. Here's a few examples, some of which may be specific to our environment.

For several weeks, due to a lack of desk space, it was not possible to sit with the team in the same workspace. The only way to detect stuff on my radar was to get up and physically walk across the office to the team's bullpen and try to glean from their body language, facial expressions and conversations what was going on. It's easy to miss out on the opportunity to contribute, guide or support situations that could empower the team. So once space became available last week I was glad to move across and join the team. The experience got me thinking about the power of observation and about raising ones awareness and using it to empower the team in a constructive and insightful way.

I mentioned before that I've been reading Artful Making. Well I've just finished it. The final chapter struck a particular chord with me, ending the book on a high. I felt that, in many respects parts of it described (what I like to think) is my approach to working with teams:

I talk a lot about facilitating self-organizing teams. For a Scrum Master, a little more than facilitation skills and authority for the process is needed to ensure people interact with professionalism and demonstrate the right behaviors - respect, humility, empathy - at all times.

A Scrum Master should trigger: Direction by steering the team with a light touch while letting people self-organise. Destiny by leading the team on a journey that realises a shared vision. Discovery by creating an empowering context for the team where people are free .

In his book: Leading Self-Directed Work Teams, Kimball Fisher's comparison between sheep herding and shepherding presents an interesting metaphor for a traditional Project Manager versus a Scrum Master.