Scrum Master 3.0 — A Facilitative Leader
Embracing Management 3.0 Principles to navigate the Scrum Mastery path in the VUCA world.
The brain processes visual information 60,000 faster than text — 3m corporation, 2001
Purpose
In a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, it is quite hard to change the mindset of people. It is hard to instill positive change without a safe environment. Creativity is very essential to create sustainable changes. The Scrum Master uses creativity inside-out from the team to the organizational level. Management 3.0 mindset aids him/her to use practices, tools, and games to introduce changes.
Management 3.0 is redefining the definition of leadership with management as a group responsibility.
It is not another framework, it’s a mindset, combined with an ever-changing collection of games, tools, and practices to help any worker manage the organization. It’s a way of looking at work systems.
Management 3.0 mindset enables a Scrum Master with Facilitative Leadership skills. It inspires and influences people at workplaces to exhibit humane behaviors. Let us explore them with relevancy to the statements chosen from the Scrum Guide.
The team model in Scrum is designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity. — Scrum Guide 2017
Are you still curious to understand! What does it take to become a Facilitative Leader? Let us discover more about it.
A Facilitative Leader is one who possesses the below-listed skills,
Serving Others: An ability to serve and help others to fulfill their agenda over self. Thoughtfully empathizing with other’s points of view adding value to them non-destructively.
The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. — Scrum Guide 2017
Offers Guidance: An ability to reveal the assumptions of others using non-violent communication. Like it is can be the agenda of the event for change management practices, ideas for growth or innovation. etc.,
Leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption; — Scrum Guide 2017
Appreciative Enquiry: An ability to humbly inquire about the key decisions or agenda of a situation or an event. Being totally present and actively listening during the conversation. As it encourages the right behavior and fulfills their purpose amongst people.
Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development by facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed. — Scrum Guide 2017
Dialog: Dialog an ability to engage co-workers that is both egalitarian and positive. co-workers include peers, subordinates, and superiors and drive a purposeful change among them.
The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. — Scrum Guide 2017
Are you interested to know! How Management 3.0 Principles aids the Scrum Master to become a Facilitative Leader?
Now, let us delve further into the Management 3.0 Principles aligning with the Scrum Guide. Also sharing few games, tools, and practices against each principle as follows,
Principle #1 Engaging people and their interactions
Get involved in the work by helping people understand the purpose of work considered by them. Interacting with people by energizing them in a creative ecology.
The rules of Scrum bind together the roles, events, and artifacts, governing the relationships and interaction between them. — Scrum Guide 2017
The Scrum Master senses the social temperature of the organizational environment. Energize people by using Persona Maps, Happiness Door, and Niko-Niko calendar.
Principle #2 Improving the system
A Management 3.0 practice should improve the system. The system is not just one team, everyone interacting with the team is part of the system. We believe in a win-win. We should try to improve the whole system and not just one part of the system.
The Scrum Master encourages the Scrum Team to improve, within the Scrum process framework, its development process and practices to make it more effective and enjoyable for the next Sprint. — Scrum Guide 2017
Scrum makes clear the relative efficacy of your product management and work techniques so that you can continuously improve the product, the team, and the working environment. — Scrum Guide 2017
The Scrum Master visualizes everything from a systemic thinking perspective. He or She facilitates the Meddlers Game to identify the prevailing organizational structure. So that Leadership Team understands and aligns constraints to improve as a whole.
Principle #3 Helping to make all clients happy
Clients are not just our external customers, we consider everyone involved in the system a client. Co-workers, other teams, customers, shareholders, etc… We should try to delight all clients, not just the stakeholders or just our co-workers.
The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team. Understanding and practicing agility; — Scrum Guide 2017
Using games like moving motivators to understand the needs and desires of individuals. It provides key insights to inspect and adapt the organizational policies and procedures.
Introducing practices like Kudos Card to create a healthy partnership among the employees. As it helps to improve and maintain high social morale in a transparent way.
Principle #4 Managing the system, not the people
We believe that it is hard to change the behavior of people. But, when you change their environment, people will have to adapt and change their behavior to fit. Also by changing the environment, people can manage themselves. Management is just about nurturing the garden.
The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. This definition consists of Scrum’s roles, events, artifacts, and the rules that bind them together — Scrum Guide 2017
Delegation Poker and Competency Matrix to exhibit the need for self-organization and cross-functionality. Former to build a shared understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities. Later to transparently collaborate with individuals from various departments of the organization.
Principle #5 Co-creating work
Co-workers create things together. co-creating is also about giving feedback to each other. As it nurtures intrinsic motivators such as mastery, autonomy, and purpose.
The Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint. Working with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization. — Scrum Guide 2017
Celebration Grids and Exploration Days enables Growth Mindset among people. To promote and build a continuous improvement behavior within the organization.
Closing Notes
I strongly believe and highly recommend Scrum Masters to embrace facilitative leadership. Build creative muscle memory to sustainably navigate the path of Scrum Mastery.
Note: “Scrum Master 3.0” title is to signify the combo effect of Scrum Mastery and Management 3.0 practices. Still, I admire and respect the naming convention of the “Scrum Master” role as per the Scrum Guide.
As always, Thanks a Ton for reading my article. I am eager to know each of your valuable feedback in the comments to inspect and adapt in my next article. Also, please spread this information within your community, if you find it valuable. “Sharing means Caring”!
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References:
http://web.archive.org/web/20001102203936/http%3A//3m.com/meetingnetwork/files/meetingguide_pres.pdf
