Confessions of a Scrum MumHow the short term heroics of a Scrum Mum

doesn’t scale

Presented by: Mia Horrigan

Partner Zen Ex Machina

@miahorri

Soccer Novice• Knew nothing about soccer when Gem started

• Started to learn rules, watch EPL, play FIFA xbox

• Picked up some ideas and became Soccer Mum

Soccer Mum• Run around trying to “help” prepare for the game

• Directing play, yelling instructions from sidelines

• Tell her what she did right and wrong

• Then Gem got picked in Development Squad…..

Parents briefing at AIS• Congratulations your child has skills…..

• We were to watch in silence, provide no coaching

• No place for Soccer Mums at squad level

Dear Scrum Mum……• Was I being a “Soccer Mum” at work?

• I feel protective of the team and wanted them to be successful but was I holding them back?

Evolution of a Scrum Master

Angel Medinilla

“The Scrum Guy”• Rudimentary skills , very little experience

• Team secretary, lists impediments

• Black and White on process

• Results into low-performing teams

“Scrum Mum”• Protective to their teams

• “Takes care of everything” to remove impediments

• Teams functional, but not challenged

• Results in Team stagnation

“True Scrum Master”• Mentors and develops high performing teams

• Involves everyone, progressively delegates

• Challenges the team to be innovative

• Encouraging, collaborative and motivating

• Team able to learn and continuously improve

“Agile Sensei”• Listens to understand context

• Asks why ( “5 Whys pattern”)

• Masters silence

• Promotes innovative thought

Parallel to my evolution as a Scrum Coach• 15+ years of program management and

practitioner roles in service delivery• Was used to being the “Manager” directing

teams, making decisions, resolving problems

Trying to be a Scrum Mum at Scale • Agile Coach across 8 teams• Component teams delivering services • Digital Transformation• Running around trying to plug holes, make

decisions and directing the teams

People learn skills in 4 stages

Shu: Learn a technique

Ha: Collect techniques

Ri: Invent / blend techniques

Kokoro: Simplify

Knowledge makes things more complicated until it starts to simplify

Stuck in the “Shu” box• Stuck in process land

• Stagnation, burnout, no improvement, no innovation

• Succeeding because of a few good individuals

“Scrum Mum” Anti Pattern• Directing and telling the team what to do

• Teams never become empowered or self managing

• Not sustainable, NOT scalable

Rules that are broken• #5 - Build projects around motivated individuals. Give

them the environment and support they need,

and trust them to get the job done.

• #11 - The best architectures, requirements, and

designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

• #12 - At regular intervals, the team reflects on how

to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts

its behaviour accordingly.

Treatments??????• Looked at what other coaches did

Soccer Coach - Academy• Saw how he helped her consolidate the 10

key skills in soccer

• Did drills, showed how to read the play so she could make split second decision required

Treatments•Learn contingency based patterns

•Apply based on an assessment on

environment and capability

(Fiedler, et al 1967)

8 Elements Coaching Model

“A” Level Coach • Gem made elite squad (FIFA World Cup 2015)

• Coach was practitioner (ex Matilda), trainer, mentor, motivator, leader and change agent

• Made it simple, targeted, focused disciplined

Elite Agile CoachCore behaviours:ListenAsk deep questionsEmpowerEnable to actReinforce behaviourIncrease insight

Heart of Agile Coaching

Conclusions• Being a Scrum Mum is an anti pattern – not

sustainable, not scalable

• Just looking after the integrity of the Process not enough either to enable teams to learn or improve

• Good Leadership requires a contingency based approach (Fiedler et al, 1967)

• Coach needs to be a leader – help the team through its maturity based on its context of need for improvement to be repeatable, sustainable and long-lived

Fin!• Mia Horrigan

• Zen Ex Machina

• @miahorri

• Mia.Horrigan@zenexmachina.com