Five Dysfunctions of Adopting Scrum
In this series, I am going to reflect on what I have learned about Scrum and its large-scale adoption in a non-IT environment through my own revelations and indeed, failures, while working at a large UK-based company, rolling out its own flavour of Agile Transformation. Capital “A” and capital “T” intended.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com in October 2020.
In spite of being a Scrum Master, I am aware that Scrum is never the purpose. My purpose, hopefully in alignment with that of the organisation, would be to move towards the ethos encapsulated in the four values of the Agile Manifesto. Scrum is just one of the means to get there. Hopefully one day. But one never knows, as the journey is rarely (read: never) straight, and Scrum might not seem to make sense or might even break down at times along the way. My job, as a caretaker and gardener, is to support the process and hold it together so that teams find value in it.
This was my second “gig” as a scrummie (as one of the agile coaches loved referring to us), and I was an employee of an organisation I loved working for. I felt connected and understood the part I’d play. The team members I worked with were highly motivated, they had their head, heart and soul in what they were doing. They were on task, on mission, turning up every day in the office ( we used to have one, remember?) wanting to engage and do their best work.
I can’t complain about my fellow Scrum Masters either — we established true and meaningful relationships, we were role models of collaboration, camaraderie and support for one another. We had monthly internal scrum master meetups where I turned up with deep curiosity and left filled to the brim with inspiration. My boss was extremely supportive and I think our relationship was more of a partnership than hierarchical. The environment we operated in supported us any way it could — we were given trainings as well as space and time to explore what we could do to assist the organisation in its transformation.
Still, after some time, I had to realise something didn’t click for me. Whilst I greatly enjoyed and valued the time I spent with my fellow Scrum Masters at our full chapter meet-ups exploring and learning about facilitation, planning workshops, coaching, team dynamics, etc., I started to feel a certain disconnect: I somehow felt I couldn’t translate, convey or apply on the floor what we discovered together. ‘So what’s the point of all this,’ I wondered ‘if I can’t take this all back “to the trenches”’. In reflection, I guess I couldn’t make the impact I truly wanted ( maybe self-limiting beliefs?).
Also, I had to come to the realisation that I couldn’t find the job satisfaction I sought because I just wanted to do Scrum — this game I greatly enjoy — properly. Because over time I had to realise that despite the fact my teams were doing all the “moves”, the result was somehow not Scrum. Or at least not the Scrum I knew and loved.
Eventually, I decided to seek another job. One, where I might not be able to build a network of relationships as strong, supportive and invaluable as before; one, where I probably won’t have the luxury of spending one day a month taking part in awesome, energising and hyper useful chapter meet-ups (they were really honestly pure gold) — but one, where I could practice Scrum every day of the month without the dysfunctions that urged me to leave behind the teams and the environment I deeply loved.
So buckle up, I’m taking you for a ride.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
