Get out of your Lazy Boy mindset
How the Comfort Zone prevents you and your Scrum Team from reaching higher performance
The Lazy Boy recliner is a metaphor for the comfort zone. We all recognise that inviting chair as a refuge where we can switch off and relax. Spend too long in the comfort zone and we risk developing a ‘Lazy Boy’ mindset, set in our ways and out of the habits of learning and growth.
As a coach and as a Scrum Master, I am often guilty of something called ruinous empathy: that is my comfort zone. In the excellent book ‘Radical Candor’, Kim Scott¹ described ruinous empathy as caring too much and not challenging enough. I am setting myself a challenge to get out of this zone more often in a coaching stance, and this post is about a few ways to do that.
The Lazy Boy mindset also hurts Scrum Teams, so this post is about the team as well as the coach. There are a few scenarios here to help you recognise that lazy thinking, and how to encourage yourself and others to step away from it.
Lack of Respect: “The Jerk who gets results”
