High Performance Teams
I’ve been doing Scrum for a while and I found at some point that the teams understand the framework, they start using it but I have that feeling that something else is missing. Most of the teams at some point are able to satisfactorily achieve the goal of the sprints, they get a speed and they get used to the usual Scrum’s ceremonies.
As a Scrum Master and Project Manager, I feel that in all the cases there is a lack of purpose and values that you need to add to the framework if you want to reach the next level.
Expecting high performance from a team is many times understood the wrong way, as if you were demanding that. At this point, I remembered one book I read many years ago that I really liked and I recommend for reading by Addison Wesley — Coaching Agile Teams. In this book, she explains this situation very clearly: “expecting means you believe the team can achieve it”.
The main idea is to explain to the team with an image or metaphor to get a common understanding of High Performance. There are many illustrations to do this, some draw an XY Graph where the x-axis is your values and y-axis is the level you want to achieve vs. average level. For the moment, I will stick to Addison’s tree Image with some additions and modifications.
In this case, the roots are the main values, and the fruit is the team results.
Service: All the team is willing to help each other and serve no matter the role they are playing.
Good Attitude: As a team member, you are looking to generate a good mood in the team, starting with yourself.
Commitment: Be willing to commit to a goal. Scrum provides people with all the authority they need to meet their commitments.
Focus: Do your job. Focus all your efforts and skills on doing the work that you’ve committed to doing. Don’t worry about anything else.
Passion: Passion-driven teams not only generate a good mood in the team, but also look for the best approach to do what they've committed to doing. Passion contributes to the team and organization, it goes beyond the expected.
Openness: Scrum keeps everything about a project visible to everyone.
Respect: Individuals are shaped by their background and their experiences. It is important to respect the different people who comprise a team.
Placing these ground values can make a difference in your team performance at the beginning or during the project execution to reach new levels.
Challenge your team to create a new path to new fruits in their professional and personal life.
What roots do you feel weak at?
What fruits would you like to achieve?
Are you getting any fruits?
