Being Agile, Doing Scrum: Making 1:1 Meetings More Impactful
This is another in a series of posts aimed at helping Scrum Masters coach “team members in self-management and cross-functionality []including [l]eading, training, and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption.”
With a simple cut and paste, Scrum Masters can share this post weekly or once per sprint, concurrently adding some frivolity with several fun facts and content.
Note: Some posts come with an intro to provide background and additional information/tips, followed by the ‘cut/paste’ content that can be shared with the team.
Note: There are lots of fun facts and content. Feel free to pick and choose what to include/omit.
Check back next week for another post, and more content to share!
[For an index of all Being Agile, Doing Scrum posts click here.]
Background:
Simply referencing sections of the Scrum Guide or Agile Manifesto limits the types of educational content you can share. We sometimes need to change things up to increase engagement and keep people’s attention. We also need to acknowledge that everyone consumes information and learns in different ways. This week we do this by recommending an excellent book:
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change The Way You Lead Forever
Cut/Paste:
A recent Forbes post observed:
“Effective team communication is crucial to the success of any organization”
adding:
“yet many [] struggle to create an environment that fosters open and clear communication.”
Our Scrum Team communicates through specific events as detailed in the Scrum Guide but the recurring 1:1 (one-on-one) meetings we have are key to ‘foster[ing] open and clear communication’.
By having conversations outside of a group setting we leverage an excellent opportunity to garner direct, but more importantly candid, feedback on how the team is performing. How these meetings are run though has an enormous impact on their outcome.
Putting to one side the importance of discretion and privacy, should the Scrum Master act as a coach, a manager, a mentor, a consultant, or something else in those meetings?
In Matthews Hodgson’s post “Is a Scrum Master an Agile Coach?” he highlights the Scrum Masters ‘three key areas of responsibility’ according to the Scrum Guide:
- Coaching teams by promoting cross-functionality and helping them to self-manage and self-organise within guardrails set by executive.
- Coaching the Product Owner in agile product management techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management.
- Coaching the organisaton by leading, training and leading the enterprise in agile adoption, particularly where Scrum is concerned.
Clearly a Scrum Master is also a Coach.
The 2021 State of Agile Coaching Report provides more clarity describing an Agile Coach as someone who:
“helps organizations, teams, and individuals adopt agile practices and methods while embedding agile values and mindsets.”
They add:
“The goal of an agile coach is to foster more effective, transparent, and cohesive teams, and to enable better outcomes, solutions, and products/services for customers.”
So how do we run/coach 1:1 meetings to positively impact their outcome?
In his excellent (and very readable) book The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change The Way You Lead Forever Michael Bungay Stanier shares seven questions that collectively help you help others and “work less hard and have more impact.”
Let’s look at three of them:
The Kickstart Question: What’s on your mind?
Described as “an almost fail-safe way to start a chat” this question is open “and yet [] is focused too.”
Michael discusses the 3P model: Projects, People, and Pattern of behavior
Projects — the stuff that’s being worked on.
People — relationships, specifically your role in that relationship and what might currently be less than ideal.
Patterns — Patterns of behavior and ways of working that you would like to change.
Starting with “What’s on your mind?” and then touching on all three P’s should elicit actionable outcomes, and personal growth. Michael adds:
“We are what we give our attention to.”
The AWE Question: And what else?
Described as the “best coaching question in the world”, “And what else? “ leads to:
“More options and often better options. Better options lead to better decisions. Better decisions lead to greater success.”
Michael discusses four practical tips when asking “And what else?”:
Stay Curious, Stay Genuine — get used to asking the question with genuine interest and curiosity.
Ask It One More Time — Ask it at least three times, and rarely more than five.
Recognize Success — “There is nothing else” is a response you should be seeking. It means you’ve reached the end of this line of inquiry.
Move On When It’s Time — A strong “wrap it up” variation of “And what else?” is “Is there anything else?” This version invites closure.
After asking these questions it’s important to listen, and fight the advice monster. Michael adds:
“Giving [] advice feels more comfortable than the ambiguity of asking a question.”
We will discuss the power and importance of listening in a future post.
The Focus Question: What’s the real challenge for you here?
Michael comments:
“People [] are working very hard and coming up with decent solutions to problems that just don’t matter.”
Adding:
“[It’s] why the real challenges often go unaddressed.”
He explains that we need to “spend time fixing the real problem, not just the first problem.”
He also suggests coaching the person in front of you, and not the person they might be referring to.
He highlights three strategies to “make this question work for you”:
Trust That You’re Being Useful — recognize the moment when you ask the question, and then pause.
Remember That There Is a Place For Your Advice — One of your roles is to have answers.
Remember the Second Question — And what else?
I strongly suggest you buy the book — it provides a lot more detail and will introduce you to other books written by Michael including The Advice Trap, Do More Great Work, and How to Work with Almost Anyone (which is available next week).
A final point. In the Harvard Business Review article “Make the Most of Your One-on-One Meetings” Steven G. Rogelberg observes:
“[A] fruitful discussion will depend on your ability to create a setting in which your [colleague] feels comfortable. A valuable 1:1 addresses both the practical needs and the personal needs — to feel respected, heard, valued, trusted, and included.”
Expect to see all of this in our next 1:1! And of course consider structuring your own meetings this way as well.
Inspirational Quote:
“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities.” — Bob Nardelli
Fascinating Fact:
Have you, like many people, misquoted lines from movie classics?
Did you know that Humphrey Bogart never says “Play it again, Sam” in “Casablanca”?
Also that Darth Vader never says “Luke, I am your father!”
And Dorothy never actually says “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore” in The Wizard of Oz.
So what did they say? Bogart didn’t say that line at all and the Dark Lord’s actual quote is: “No, I am your father.”
Finally Dorothy said: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Word of the Day:
Adscititous — Forming an addition or supplement; not integral or intrinsic.
Example: “The Sunday papers used to come with more than a half-dozen adscititious magazines and promotional flyers.”
National Day Calendar: June 23rd
National Detroit Style Pizza Day
National Porridge Day
International Women In Engineering Day
National Take Your Dog To Work Day
National Pink Day
National Hydration Day
United Nations Public Service Day
International Widows Day
National Typewriter Day
Born On This Day:
Edward VIII: King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India (Jan 20th, 1936 until his abdication on Dec 11th, 1936), born in Richmond, England (1894)
Alan Turing: British mathematician and computer scientist pioneer (Turing Machine), credited with breaking the German secret codes created by encryption machines called “The Enigma”. (1912)
Clarence Thomas: 108th US Supreme Court Justice (1991- ), born in Savannah, Georgia. (1948)
Frances McDormand: American actress (Fargo), born in NYC. (1957)
Zinedine Zidane: French soccer midfielder/Real Madrid manager (Champions League 2016–17–18, World Cup 1998), born in Marseille, France. (1972)
Duffy: Welsh singer (Mercy), born in Gwynedd, Wales. (1984)
On This Day In History:
Treaty of Interest: King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France sign secret treaty against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. (1532)
The QWERTY Keyboard is born: Christopher Latham Sholes patents the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful of its kind. (1868)
Frederick Douglass is the 1st African-American to be nominated for US Vice President. (1888)
1st contraceptive pill is made available for purchase in the U.S. (1960)
“David Letterman Show” debuts on NBC-TV daytime. (1980)
Barry Bonds steals second base against the LA Dodgers, becoming the first player in MLB history to have 500 career homers and 500 steals. (2003)
