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Posts Tagged ‘scrum teams’

Scrum Meetings: Painful or Successful?

Agile Pathways, Musing, Well Formed Teams | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Aug 15 2011

 

 

 

 

You have a meeting at 3:00.  Are you looking forward with dread or anticipation?

Scrum meetings are a frequent and essential occurrence as we move through the Scrum framework.  As a team member, a Product Owner, or a ScrumMaster, we have an obligation to facilitate meetings that are engaging.  How to accomplish that??  It requires awareness and practice.

An engaging meeting. That sounds like a tall order.  Webster’s Dictionary defines engaging:  : to attract and hold by influence or power : to interlock with : to hold the attention of : to induce to participate.

I have been to many a product demo that is lack luster.  I have seen daily standups where team members leave asking, “what are we doing next?”,  and retrospectives that are dominated by one or two people. Meetings are a forum for learning.  Learning about the product, the requirements, or learning about the people involved in development.  To craft a successful meeting, we must shift our perspective.  We must view meetings as a opportunity and challenge to expand our ability to engage.

How are we going to accomplish this engagement?  By running a meeting that appeals to all learning styles and team members.  If we use the Learning Type Measure from 4MAT, we know the learning language that everyone speaks. Whether the ScrumMaster or Product Owner is directing the meeting, if a framework is followed, engagement will be embedded.

The first step is to answer the question Why?  Why are these features important, why do the stakeholders value something, why was this process selected?  Then we move to What?  What features have been built, what does the market research say, what are the advantages of the new development process?  How is the next question in the meeting format.  How will the features work in the real world, how can this be built with the resources available to us, how will we test the product in the market?  Finally, we need to know What if?  What if we shift our budget to finance the newest trend in the market place, what if we eliminate feature X for feature Y, what if we re-organize our priorities to meet the deadline?

A meeting framework grounded in good learning strategies will propel your team to a higher degree of effectiveness and achievement.  Want to learn more?  Join 3Back for our new course targeted at teams and meeting dynamics, 4MAT for Scrum Teams.

 

 

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I don’t like my teammates…

Musing, Well Formed Teams | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Aug 12 2011

You don’t have to like your team mates.  You don’t have to go to happy hour together or the office birthday parties with them. BUT this is what you do need.   You need an awareness of their differences and how those differences contribute greatly to a highly creative and productive learning machine:  a team.

Lori was on my team of four.  Lori drove me crazy…always pointing what details I missed, how she could have done better, and how our processes weren’t followed.  Hearing her voice on the phone caused me to roll my eyes and tighten my voice.  My answers were curt.  I kept Lori at arm’s length whenever possible.  And I sure didn’t sit by her at meetings.

As a ScrumMaster, my task was to nurture this team. I had us all take the Learning Type Measure from 4MAT.  Of our team of four, each of us had a strength in different quadrants.  We were a perfectly balanced team.  Kyle’s strengths were involving people in the decision making process and kept the team true to our values.  Jeremy was the best in organization, sticking to the rules and regs, keeping structure at the forefront.  Lori was operation and results orientated.  She preferred to work alone and was highly productive.  My strength was cheering the team on to new heights and evaluating what happened to make it bigger and better next time.

Armed with diagnosed learning styles of my team mates, I began to see Lori through a different lens.  No longer did I view her as an enemy or a thorn in my side.  I realized that I NEEDED her to shift my thinking, to ask different questions of the problems, and to complement my own strengths.  All those comments, that I thought were so nasty, were a manifestation of her learning style, not her opinion of me or my performance.

I never did become good friends with Lori.  But I did come to respect her opinions because they were different from my own.  Different is good.

To discover how to put your team’s learning preferences to work, join us in Minneapolis, MN for the launch of our newest course at 3Back, 4MAT for Scrum Teams.

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3Back Launches New Training: 4MAT® for Scrum Teams

News | Posted by The 3Back Team
Aug 09 2011

 PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

3Back Launches New Training:  4MAT® for Scrum Teams

ScrumMasters and their teams now can detect and maximize learning strengths to improve collaboration and build better client solutions.

Racine, WI August 10, 2011-

Today 3Back, a highly regarded Scrum consulting company, announced the newly developed training course, 4MAT® for Scrum Teams.  This course is the result of numerous requests across North America by ScrumMasters to build more effective teams in the workplace.

This is the first Scrum course designed to tap into the learning intelligence of the team engine.  The course will cover Scrum meeting effectiveness, maximizing creative tension, and how to manage team dynamics.  For a limited time, 3Back is offering a team special discount when your team of 3 or more registers for the course.  This is also an ideal workshop to bring on-site for your entire Scrum team.  The full course description can be viewed at: http://3back.com/scrum/4mat-learning-for-scrum-teams/

3Back has collaborated with 4MAT4Business to develop a team course specifically designed for Scrum environments.  4MAT4Business has worked with companies such as Merck Pharmaceuticals, Boeing, and 3M using the Learning Type Measure® assessment tool to build effective training and communication patterns in diverse and co-located environments.

 

About 3Back                                                                                                                                

3Back-logoFounded in 2004, 3Back is a Scrum management consulting and training company that assists organizations in North America to recognize the power of their teams.  Utilizing all aspects of agile product development, 3Back applies expertise through training, coaching, and consulting to develop pathways for improved proficiencies needed in today’s demanding business marketplace.   The diverse background of the 3Back team brings expertise in the pathways of Scrum, Agile, Lean, and PMBOK to all our engagements.

3Back Links:

Learn More About 3Back

Connect with 3Back on Facebook

Scrum Training Events

 

About 4MAT4Business                                                                                           

4MAT for Business Logo4MAT4Business is a consultancy group that delivers learning and performance solutions to businesses across the nation.  4MAT®, one of the most widely used training design formats in the world, has assisted Fortune 500 companies in improving meeting efficiency, enhancing communication, and building a sense of team.  By creating a common language through a learning assessment tool, 4MAT® is a model for effective communication across the organization resulting in improved team engagement with each other and with clients.  The ability of leaders to coach and nurture teams is sharpened through awareness of learning style preferences and diversity on the team using the 4MAT® model.

4MAT4Business Links:

Learn more about 4MAT4Business

4MAT Facebook

4MAT Event Calendar

###

Additional Information Contact

Brian Glatzel – VP of Marketing, 3Back
brian.glatzel@3back.com

704-621-6446

 

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The Scrum Wheel and the Learning Wheel United

Musing, Well Formed Teams | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Aug 04 2011

Scrum teams spin the wheel daily.  Every product, story, and task begs for the Scrum wheel to be in motion.  Another wheel is spinning every time the Scrum team gathers.  Whether it be for a daily stand-up, a product demo or a sprint retrospective, the learning wheel is also present.

Learning wheels churn through ideas and knowledge in an effort to increase our understanding and ability to apply. We see this in water cooler conversations, daily stand ups, retrospectives and more.  These learning patterns are hard-wired in our brain.  The outward appearance of these brain patterns is sometimes tagged as our personalities.  In reality, it is a learning style.

Learning styles have been studied in depth and can be accurately assessed through a tool developed by 4MAT.  The Learning Type Measure (LTM) assessment tool reveals four brain-based preferences for perceiving and processing information.  The four styles are formatted into a wheel and in every instance when knowledge is being shared, our brains spin rapidly through the learning cycle.  We may prefer one part of the cycle over the other and linger there longer.  This is why learning styles are often mis-labeled as personalities.

Imagine a Scrum team with all four learning styles represented.  There would be a One on the team, an Integrator.  By actively listening to team members, Ones integrate a sense of community with teams, ScrumMasters, and Product Owners.  An Organizer, a Two, would be an asset.  Organizing thoughts, ideas and people, giving structure to the work of the Scrum team.  Producing results is always the goal.  Threes are the Producers.  Threes, constantly striving to root us in reality, lead teams to produce tangible deliverables.  Fours are the Visionaries.  All things possible live in fourness.  Visualizing the big picture of the product is the strength of a Four.

Diverse learning strengths should be at the core of every well formed team.  Ideas that are probable and ideas that are possible.  Solutions that are effective and solutions that are efficient.  This is the collaborative result of a well formed, learning team. Isn’t this the team that should be showing up for work every day?

To discover how to put your team’s learning preferences to work, join us in Minneapolis, MN for the launch of our newest course at 3Back, 4MAT for Scrum Teams.

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When Your Strength is Your Weakness

Musing, Well Formed Teams | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Jul 07 2011

What is your strength?

Is is creating ideas?

Is it researching the latest and greatest data for a project?

Perhaps your strength is figuring out how the system is going to work in the real world.

Maybe your strength is bringing ‘good to great’ thinking to the latest product.

Whatever your strength may be, if it is a deep and strong attribute, it has potential to become your shadow or weakness. Think about a tree. The larger and stronger it becomes, the darker and deeper its shadow.  The same with people.  So, we need awareness when this is happening and strategies to minimize the negative.

Let’s talk about what that may look like in the real world.  If I am a strong, analytical thinker who reflects deeply on all decisions, what are the symptoms of my assets crossing the line into a weakness?  I may find myself commenting on every little detail of situations, projects or even the BBQ sauce on my friend’s sandwich!  Becoming paralyzed by analysis—never believing you have enough data and facts to make decisions—and to make the decisions correctly.

Or you may struggle getting things accomplished, producing results and implementation.  If the strength is fostering corporate culture and team relationships,  then processes, systems and planning may not be on my radar.  I may even be challenged with staying focused and choosing a plan to implement.  When the team asks for direction, you may reply with a dream or a vision for the future instead of a concrete game-plan that can be executed.

So, what to do about it? Awareness is the first step.  Listen to your team and your friends when they point out your habits and share their frustrations with your pattern of thought and conversation.  Ask for what they need from you and make a conscious effort to deliver what they ask for.  Seek out the viewpoint of teammates with the opposite strength.  Look for how their comments contrast and balance your own thought patterns.  Strive to blend the two to create a vibrant, relevant solution and pathway to success.

For more strategies to maximize team strengths, come learn with us at 4MAT for Scrum Teams.

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Learning can be Agile

Musing, Well Formed Teams | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Apr 08 2011

Agile is defined as a ‘quick, resourceful and adaptive character’.  How can we be quick and adaptive in problem solving on our teams? By tapping into the hard-wired learning machines that we are.  Diverse learnings styles that are present on every Scrum team can be tuned for driving rich and vibrant solutions to project challenges.

Learning strengths and weaknesses are hard-wired, but, through awareness, we can grow our abilities as a team to chew through the learning curve. Team members abilities to process information in diverse patterns, is an untapped resource.  A resource that is both efficient and effective.
basic scrum team building block
Preferences in learning are not complicated. People perceive, or take in, information  through experience or through thinking and judging.  Some of us would like to learn by the experiences of feeling, tasting, touching, smelling; being immersed in an experience.  In other words, they prefer to go to Disney World, not read about it.  Others would perfer to read about Disney, to learn about it.  In fact, credible resources, whether print or people,  are very important to analytical, thinking learners.

Once we have taken the information into our brains, we need to process, or digest it. Again, there are two preferences.  Reflection is hard wired for some of us.  The need to ponder and draw purposeful conclusions by observations, serves them well in developing solutions.  Others are active learners.  They process information by doing something with it.  Testing it, adapting it or plunging head first and learning by trial and error.

This world of ours demands that we go fast, fast. It requires that we churn though complicated, complex and even chaotic problems in a rapid fashion. To do that, we need awareness of our team learning strengths and learning gaps.  When Scrum teams have thinking and experiential learners that are both reflective and active, they can derive solutions from multiple perspectives.  With diverse learning styles, they can understand the many voices of the stakeholders.  Well formed teams can question and learn more effectively in daily stand-ups and Sprint Reviews.

A resourceful and adaptive team spins the Scrum wheel and embraces the learning wheel to listen to their product and stakeholders effectively and efficiently.  This will raise your team from formed, to well formed.

Find the latest team tools and skills in our 4MAT for Scrum teams course.

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Teams: Meet Keith.

Musing, Well Formed Teams | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Mar 22 2011

I once chaired a small leadership team, just four people.  Keith, my operations lead, was highly tuned into telling us how our ideas could or could not be implemented.  Keith had a million ways to process, but he appeared to have a  lack of caring about the people we were serving.  Keith was bottom-line results focused and preferred to take on projects alone.  As the team leader, I was concerned about Keith’s ability to collaborate and listen to all the voices on the team. Additionally, I questioned Keith’s seeming desire to take over as leader.

As a team, we took learning style assessments.  I discovered Keith’s characteristics had nothing to do with me or his lack of feelings.  It was simply an outward product of his preference to learn. Armed with this new awareness, I began to seek out Keith for decisions.  His viewpoint was juxtaposed to mine and we created a heightened creative tension. This led to problem solutions and pathways that served our organization in dynamic ways.

Keith’s strengths were testing and tinkering with how ideas could be realistically implemented.  Keith questioned the experts…were they really promoting the most efficient methods possible?  Making unilateral decisions was his preferred method to tackle problems. Keith was a hard worker and strove to make the team and organization productive and profitable.  Getting to the point and editing out “fluff” was Keith’s conversation strong point.  Keith had common sense in spades.

As a ScrumMaster, how do you manage Keith’s energy? How does his preference to work alone fit into the team mentality of the Scrum framework?  What does a coaching conversation with Keith look like?  What if you have an entire team of Keith’s?

Awareness of learning styles is essential to managing the energy and patterns of any team member.  Keith may never be thrilled to do team and small group work, but you will find better success by teaming Keith with team members who value his point of view.   Teammates with a strong voice are also important to pair with Keith.  Implementing few, but reasonable and enforceable rules around team interactions will also appeal to Keith.  Acknowledging Keith’s ability to problem solve is the best way to keep him motivated.

To build your awareness of learning styles on your team, join us for our new teams course, 4MAT for Scrum Teams.

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Teams: Meet Connie

Development | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Feb 14 2011

connie scrum team memberKnow a team member who sits in meetings with their arms crossed and brows furrowed?  Is she always watching the clock?  I bet she has more details to share than the rest of the entire team put together.

That would be Connie.  Learning through reflection and analysis, she is an asset to any team.  Deep in reflective thought and analyzing the discussion, lends to possible negative body language that can be misinterpreted!  Connie crosses her arms because she is internalizing the conversation.  As for clock watching, Connie runs a tight schedule and expects other team members to show the same respect.

Challenged with how to implement processes, moving to action is not her strong point.  What to do is always clear, but to Connie, how to do it is puzzling.  Decisions are ” either/ or ” for Connie; being correct has a high priority.    Connie prefers to think about what will probably happen, rather that what the possibilities are.  Looking historically for solutions is her thought pattern, rather than projecting big picture, risk-taking solutions.  Maximizing certainty is where Connie operates best.

Connie’s biggest strength is knowing the experts, the data and the latest information from the super highway.  Separating fact from feeling gives Connie the ability to make decisions without personal involvement.  Not getting involved in the drama on the team is a breath of fresh air!  Organization is her strong suit and follow through with projects and reports comes easy to her.  Connie has the utmost respect for authority and expects it to be returned.  Logic and linear thinking come naturally and Connie will have great patience with you as she explains every detail in the process.

Connie will lead your organization to a reputation of outstanding tradition and prestige.

Have you seen Connie? If you have and are looking for tools to maximize her contribution to your Scrum team, join 3Back for our new teams course, 4MAT for Scrum Teams.

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Teams: Meet Jake.

Development | Posted by liz.weatherhead
Jan 28 2011

Meet Jake.  At our small team daily stand-ups, Jake has more ideas than anyone else and he feels the need to share them all at every meeting. Although,  I must admit, Jake is the only team member who is concerned that everyone gets a chance to contribute.  Yet, at the large group meetings, he is reflective and quiet and is very intent on listening.   When he is asked a question, Jake takes a long time to respond.  Jake tries to be friends with everybody and sweet talks the boss, in my opinion.   Thriving on consensus, Jake needs to know all the opinions before we make any decision at all.  He takes everything personally!  The core ethical values of the organization are the rationale Jakes relies on  for drawing conclusions.  We must be in alignment with them!  He communicates well, but it’s feeling based, not grounded in best practices or expert thinking.  And team building is his absolute favorite.

Sound like a teammate of yours?  What I described is Jake’s learning style, how Jake prefers to take in and process new information.  Learning styles are often mis-labeled as personalities.  That is how learning can breed team conflict.  We see things as personal, not a function of brain-wired learning.

Let’s get back to Jake.  Jake is a reflective, feeling learner.  He functions more comfortably in small groups, and shows his deep need to be watchful and take it all in.  ”Sweet talking” the boss has no hidden agenda.  It’s Jake’s way of connecting and creating harmony, similar to Jake’s desire to reach consensus with team decisions. Team building is essential to build trust on a team, and Jake brings that voice to the table.  Trust is not a :touchy-feely” attribute, it is a mathmatically proven equation to produce better results in the business world.

As for Jake’s need to ground all things in feelings rather than fact…well, that is simply an example of effectiveness striving to balance efficiency.

Next blog, we will meet team members who are also reflective in communicating and learning.  However, they are trenched in the facts instead of the feelings.

If you are seeking skills to improve team interactions, join 3Back for our newest course, 4MAT for Scrum Teams.

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