Scrum Value: Courage

Scrum Value: Courage

The Scrum Team members have the courage to do the right thing, to work on tough problems. -2020 Scrum Guide

When I think courage I immediately go to the cowardly lion from “The Wizard of OZ”, the lion actually got a giant metal for courage. This was right after the “Wizard of OZ” admonished the lion for disorganized thinking and confusing with Wisdom for courage. Let’s think about this; what does the Wizard mean by this…well it means that in scrum we don’t go charging in to something blindly. No in scrum we pause and think about what to do next…we plan…we do things methodically. We should not confuse Wisdom for courage….also this does not mean we are fearless. I like this definition of courage: “ the ability to do something that frightens one.” we do something even though it frightens us. When we bring up an item in the retrospective that might upset others…that takes courage.

I also like this definition of Courage from Merriam-Webster “ mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty”….this sounds like grit….we have grit in scrum

What are somethings that take courage in scrum:

1. Courage to be transparent: to be completely open and honest about the state of the sprint, the back log, and/or a story.
2. Courage to get out of a rut: that is right when we have that new process improvement from the retrospective that the team thinks may help. Teams get comfortable..and change is scary…let’s instill the courage to get out of our comfort zone.
3. Courage to stand up to stakeholders and product owners on mid sprint changes or scope creep. No one likes to be told no you can’t have this…yet. We all want everything and we wanted it yesterday…however in the real world this is not possible. We are all constrained (not enough hours in a day, not enough QA to test, this person is on holiday, etc.) we need to have the courage to say NO or even Yes and…which some say is easier.
4. Courage to tackle challenges immediately: no waiting procrastination is just too many syllables to say lazy….let’s take care and address the challenges asap!
5. Courage to voice a minority option in front of the team: Let’s encourage this. Lets encourage what I like to say the minority option. When we are sizing and one person say the story is either higher or lower thant he rest of the team, we need to encourage them to speak up and share how come!
6. Courage to admit our mistakes and own them: there is so much freedom in saying “yes that was me that was my mistake I completely blew it!” we all make mistakes, everyone…and we need to take the stigma out of them otherwise people may cover them up.
7. Courage to bring up issues with the team during the retro: we need to be open and honest in the retro. I know it is hard…but we all want to get better and sometimes kind honesty is the best way to do it.
8. Courage to self manage: this is the best one all in the new scrum guide we moved from ‘self organizing’ to the team is to Self-manage. We are so used to being managed….we need to become more self managed. We need to have this a it gives the team more empowerment to make the changes/adaptation that is needed to mature a team.