Jem D’jelal outlines a common pattern in his post about a ScrumMaster that fears failure. (Article is here) Thanks Jem!
There is a two way street that needs to be established between the team and managers.
Managers help set conditions for the environment in which the team works. This can include some rules of operations when the team had to make assumptions to move forward and the assumptions are found to be false.
Knowledge work is Complex (See Figure 1: Cynefin Framework). There are no silver bullets, no best practice, no good practices, only emergent designs that best serve the needs of the customer and become a shared practice.
When the team gets it wrong, they need to know they have the management support to prioritize making it right. Managers set up guardrails to inform the team how much risk (mistakes/learning opportunities) the organization is willing to take. We got your back!
When the team takes on risk, it forms new experiences that turn into new beliefs and ways of getting things done. Continual improvement!
No risk = no variability. Nature demonstrates this to us in areas with rich biodiversity. Read about what happens when the rain season starts in the Serengeti? Animals will migrate for hundreds of miles to reach newly formed waterholes. Rich biodiversity for the team comes in the form of friction. Debate and deliberate!
Your customers need your teams to debate and deliberate. They need your team to create that new waterhole that will solve their problems. These waterholes form in the moment of serendipity that a mistake or failure can illuminates.
Debating and Deliberation for your team comes from trust.
#ScrumMasterScribbles
(I mistyped silver bullet in this article as solver bullet… Interesting! I’m going to find these solver bullets and load up!)
