Today we dive into Chapter 3 of Fixing Your Scrum, Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems, by Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller, published in 2020 by The Pragmatic Programmers. You can make a good argument that values shape behaviors. This leads most agilists to work on making sure that everyone understands the agile values. In Chapter 3 of Fixing Your Scrum, Todd and Ryan go deep on the Scrum values. The opening sentence is powerful, “bad scrum thrives in environments where intent isn’t clear, values are implicit instead of explicit, and old ways of working take precedence over innovation.” The statement is powerful because we all know it is true. We know it is true because we’ve seen it and lived it. This chapter lays out a number of approaches to reinforcing scrum values so that we see less bad Scrum.
Ryan and Todd do a good job defining and discussing the five Scrum values. They are:
- Commitment,
- Focus,
- Openness,
- Respect, and
- Courage.
My observation is that commitment is the least embraced value of the five. Commitment is hard because it creates obligations and “limits” freedom of action. Commitment is required at many levels including organizational, team, and personal levels both to the work and to each other. When adopting a framework like Scrum, you must be committed to the framework as well. There are a lot of obligations for getting work done in a repeatable and predictable manner! There is often a lot of lip service to commitment that is not matched by behavior.
Eyes are said to the window to the soul. In teams, behaviors are the next best thing. Using the Scrum events, we can evaluate and coach people to adopt or emulate the Scrum values by providing a reason for people to change how they are acting. The short feedback loops found in all agile frameworks make it easier for people to see the link between how they act and the outcomes of that behavior. Coaching is a tool that can highlight the links between values, actions, and outcomes.
Todd and Ryan’s advice on using the Scrum events as value coaching opportunities can be generalized to any framework or methods being adopted. The five values of Scrum are a solid framework of values, that are not unique to Scrum, that can be linked to behavior, and behaviors can be coached. Values on the other hand are very difficult to change. This leads to some of the biggest problems embracing frameworks like Scrum or lean which are built on values that are often not exactly congruent with the values of leaders or organizations. Telling people directly that they need to change their values causes all sorts of problems most of which boil down to resistance. Changing behaviors does not directly confront values but in the longer terms can change those values through feedback tied to outcomes.
In the Coach’s Corner at the end of the chapter, Ryan and Todd make a point of coaching the scrum values regularly. They use the term regularly. As a coach, your coaching must start with emulating and demonstrating the Scrum values. Always tie behavior to values because directly challenging a person or organization’s values is aggressive or belittling and you will not win friends and influence people.
If you have not bought your copy — what are you waiting for? Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems
Previous week’s Installments:
Week 1: Re-read Logistics and Front Matter – https://bit.ly/3mgz9P6
Week 2: A Brief Introduction To Scrum, and Why Scrum Goes Bad – https://bit.ly/37w4Dv9
