The Basics of Scrum: Openness / Transparency
In our first post in this series, we briefly looked at the Scrum Values. Values are the core beliefs that guide the behaviour of individuals and teams. The five Scrum values are:
1. Commitment
2. Courage
3. Focus
4. Openness, and
5. Respect
Today, we will delve deeper into the Value of Openness. What does this look like in a Scrum team? How can we ensure our teams and organisations live by this value?
Openness means that people are transparent and honest with each other. This value plays a crucial role in building trust, enabling effective problem-solving, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. When people are open with each other, they work more effectively together, and they make better decisions. Openness also helps teams identify and address problems sooner rather than later.
Key Aspects of Openness
1. Transparent Communication: Openness requires team members to share their progress, challenges, and concerns with each other and with stakeholders. This creates an environment where everyone has access to the necessary information, promoting better decision-making and problem-solving. Organizations need to ensure they have the tools and processes to make this possible. Crucially, they must embrace a culture where people can be open and honest.
2. Receptive to Feedback: Embracing Openness also requires people to receive and take feedback from others to heart. By being open to feedback, the team can identify areas for improvement, adapt to changing requirements, and deliver better outcomes.
“Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want to be told the truth.”
Doc Rivers (Basketball Coach)
3. Active Collaboration: Openness encourages team members to work closely together, share ideas, and actively seek input from others. People work well together when they trust each other, and collaboration leads to innovation. In “The Wisdom of Crowds”, James Surowiecki explores the idea that groups of people often make better decisions and solve problems more effectively than individuals or experts. Openness helps teams tap into the benefits of collective intelligence, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving.
4. Adaptability: Openness in Scrum means being flexible and willing to change direction when new information becomes available or when circumstances change. An open-minded team can respond more effectively to customer needs or market conditions changes.
5. Building Trust: Practicing Openness helps build trust within the team and with stakeholders. When team members are transparent about their work, progress, and challenges, others can more easily understand their perspective, leading to a stronger sense of trust and collaboration. In organizations where trust exists, people feel confident in the integrity, fairness, and competence of their peers and leaders. In “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, Patrick Lencioni identifies trust as a crucial element for building a cohesive and high-performing team.
6. Psychological Safety: Openness contributes to creating an environment where team members feel comfortable discussing their ideas, concerns, and failures without fear of judgment or retribution. Psychological safety is crucial for enabling effective collaboration, innovation, and learning. Creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions without fear of judgment is critical.
By embracing the Scrum value of Openness, Scrum teams can foster a culture of trust, collaboration, and continuous improvement. This helps the team adapt to changing requirements, address challenges more effectively, and ultimately deliver a high-quality product that meets customer needs.
What happens when there is no Openness & Transparency?
I have worked in an organisation where the value of Openness completely failed in all aspects — systems, processes, and people. The organisation did not have the systems to support transparency.
Remember the days when all project work was managed using sticky notes? It worked well for the team members who could see their own sticky notes. Unfortunately, no one else knew what was happening unless the Scrum Master captured the information from the sticky notes in an Excel spreadsheet and emailed it to the stakeholders.
Apart from this, the culture of this Organisation did not embrace transparency and openness. People often used knowledge as a weapon for their own political gains and were very circumspect in terms of what they shared, how much they shared and who they shared information with. Needless to say, this Organisation is still struggling along its agile journey.
A lack of transparency can have serious implications for Organisations and Teams:
1. Inadequate Communication: Not sharing important information can result in misunderstanding, mistrust, and disengagement.
2. Withholding Information: Sometimes organisations (or people) may intentionally withhold information to maintain control or avoid criticism. This can lead to a lack of trust and collaboration among team members and ultimately impact productivity or even the organisation’s reputation.
3. Inconsistent Messaging: Confusion and uncertainty arise when people get mixed and inconsistent messages. Can you trust an organisation that claims to value work-life balance and employee well-being but frown upon those who don’t work 60-hour weeks?
4. Resistance to Feedback: This point ties closely with the value of courage. Often employees are afraid to voice their opinions or concerns if the organisation does not encourage open feedback or if it responds negatively to criticism. Consider the impact on continuous improvement — how can you improve if no one has the courage to raise issues or suggest improvements?
There are so many more examples of transparency failure. Have you encountered any of these in your work environment?
How do you promote Openness and Transparency in your Teams and Organisations?
About the Author:
Joanita Radivoev is a Scrum Master here at Version 1.
References:
Agile Essentials | Agile Alliance
Radar Love — Visualising the Scrum Values — The Agile Trainer
The Wisdom of Crowds: James Surowiecki
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Patrick Lencioni
