What’s the “F” word in Scrum?
Not [F]un. Not [F]ire. Not [F]ailure.
What is it?
Most scrum teams deal with software engineers so they are concerned more about engineering challenges than anything else in all what they do.
In Daily Scrums. In Review Meetings. In Retrospectives.
Often, they don’t pay active attention to important “F” word.
Don’t get surprised when I say that the “F” word is their “FEELINGS!”
Don’t get surprised.
Techie guys don’t tend to speak more about their feelings. Essentially, they are left brainers so they seek logic in what they do. Feelings come as a second thought to most.
But what they feel while being a part of Scrum team is important for a Scrum team to succeed.
“People who feel good about themselves produce good results”
~ Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager
(Read more about my experience with The One Minute Management Learning)
Cannot agree more: People who do not feel good about their work, cannot produce good results!
And, Scrum – or any other Agile framework for that matter – exist to produce great results; not for any other objectives.
Scrum Masters need to figure out ways to understand the feelings part of their team members and create situations where the team is motivated to assume the ownership of the tasks they undertake.
So, ask your team member directly how she feels if you have a great rapport with her. If not yet, there are other ways figure that out. Some example questions:
1. What excites you to do X, Y and Z?
2. What situations make your low point?
3. What situations make your high point?
4. How did you find working with other team mates on this sprint?
…and so on.
Choose the questions that open up your team members and share their experiences.
Experiences express feelings.
Understand what makes them feel good; what makes them feel uncomfortable and create situations that are motivating for the team members to perform.
A small but important soft skill that every ScrumMaster should have.