Respect: 2 Key Distinctions for Unleashing Impactful Collaboration in a Scrum Team

I have always asked myself, what is respect? How do I behave respectfully? And why exactly is that worth striving for in the first place?

In the fall of 2001 I enter a Kempo Karate school in Munich for the first time and right at the beginning I learn how to greet the teacher, the Sensei. The warm-up training begins, the air is stuffy after a short time and the windows are opened. It is very loud, clear announcements are made, but still there is an atmosphere of togetherness. During intensive partner exercises and stressful technique training, people still look out for each other. In between, they often bow to each other and at the end of the training they say goodbye to the teacher and everyone else.

I had just finished the Bundeswehr and I still remembered situations where people didn’t pay much attention to each other, where they interrupted each other, talked over each other, didn’t listen or even behaved in an insulting, hurtful or condescending way — where you didn’t seem to care about the other person. Perhaps you know this from your own experience: It can feel extremely uncomfortable.

Photo by Tiago Felipe Ferreira on Unsplash