A Pretty Cool Way to Learn & Internalize Scrum
How metaphors and visualization improve the Scrum experience
What do you visualize when you hear, “Yesterday was a roller-coaster!”?
Just one short sentence is sufficient to explain how yesterday was, no need for elaborate explanation, no need for details, no need to share any additional emotions. This is the beauty of using a metaphor to explain something new or complex to comprehend or internalize. Metaphors simplify comprehension and ease recollection.
Metaphors create vivid images in our minds and make it easier to understand and remember unfamiliar concepts. Metaphors help improve communication and add the necessary impact while keeping the conversation simple.
Metaphors allow you to make the complex simple and the controversial palatable — Brian Clark
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend a talk titled, “A Taste of Scrum Lake” by John Albrecht (ScrumLake.com is co-founded by John Albrecht and Ryan Brook (PST)). He uses the lake ecosystem as a metaphor for Scrum. This is appropriate as Scrum is like an ecosystem, requiring many aspects to interoperate to thrive.
The Scrum Lake has a bedrock of Scrum Values of Commitment, Courage, Focus, Respect, and Openness. I can’t think of a more appropriate analogy. Like a bedrock of a lake, the Scrum Values form an immutable, solid, and interconnected foundation.
Scrum Lake compares trust to the oxygen tank and courage to the diving equipment of a diver. Just as oxygen and the diving equipment allow the diver to explore the unexplored, courage and trust allow Scrum teams to explore areas that they otherwise may not, and learn something new along the way. For the diver, the diving equipment brings the lake to life. In the same way, embodying the values of courage and trust brings Scrum to life.
Each Sprint is like a voyage.
Scrum Lake compares the Sprint Backlog to a treasure map, and the Increment to the treasure chest to be found at the end of the voyage. Just as a hunt for riches evolves as new clues are uncovered, the Sprint Backlog also evolves as new information is discovered. And just as the treasure chest holds something of value, so does the new Increment.
The Definition of Done is like the lock on the treasure chest; just as the lock projects something of value, the Definition of Done protects the value of the Increment (quality goals).
Metaphors provide a language; pictures accelerate understanding.
Most of us are visual learners. With visualization, we learn more, and we learn better. The quality of learning depends on the pictures (story) that we remember and how it makes us feel. If I say, “Lion King”, I bet there is always just one image that first comes to mind! Tell me I am wrong!
The soul does not think without a picture — Aristotle
That is where Scrum Lake takes it to the next level. The visuals John has created are just out of this world. He uses them to go deep into the artifacts, accountabilities, events, and values of Scrum.
Scrum Lake is a very cool, playful, child-like, and sticky way to internalize Scrum. It is nice gamification of Scrum. “A Taste of Scrum Lake” was addictive. I would love to attend the complete workshop to get all the insight that John and Ryan have to share.
