Motivation M.A.P 🗺️
A navigation compass 🧠for Scrum Team(s) to build and improve self-managing capabilities.
Introduction
People play a pivotal role in the success of any organization be it a start-up or large enterprise. In the context of Agility, hyper-focus on people is a must while introducing change. Change can be behavioral, product development domain, ways of working and list goes on and on. The sustainability factor of these changes depends on people’s affinity towards them. To embark on a successful change adoption understanding what motivates people is critical. Especially while beginning an agile transformation journey starting with the Scrum Framework.
This article is written drawing inspiration from Daniel H Pink's research work, Drive - The surprising truth about what motivates us. It proves that Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose are the key elements that motivate people who perform creative knowledge work in this digital gig economy compared to mundane work performed during the industrial revolution in the past. Based on my learning and experience while working with various Scrum Teams as their Scrum Master helping them in their professional journey. I invite you to explore and understand the Motivation M.A.P. that acts as a guide for the leaders to create an ecosystem in which people can thrive in a sustainable manner.
As we know that Scrum is the most widely employed framework for any organization that desires to begin its Agile Journey. It is a purpose-based framework to discover our inherent process to generate value in a complex environment. The below definition from the Scrum guide also clarifies it and mentions people explicitly which signifies the vitality of their contribution.
Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems. — Scrum Guide 2020
I would like to pick the below-listed terms to explain further in this article aligning to the Motivation M.A.P,
- People
- Complex
- Productivity
- Creativity
As we know that in today’s digital revolution product development space is becoming complex day by day due to ever-changing customer needs and competitive market. According to my view, Productivity refers to the Time to Market required for the product to launch in order to serve the customer. Creativity refers to Unique Selling Proposition offered pertinent to the customer's needs.
Yes, you observed it right, and maybe wondering now what about the people? I will explain their significance with the help of accountabilities that needs to be executed by people in the context of a Scrum Team using Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose. Ideally, the Scrum Team consists of Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers working together collaboratively.
Mastery 🎠denotes the inclination of people to become a better version of themselves in any given field. Also, the skills that any individual wants to improve what they do next in a continuous manner.
The Scrum Master strives to master the application of Scrum in order to foster a psychologically safe environment where the efficacy of value delivery is realized at all levels of the organization.
- Influencing and inspiring people to embrace Scrum to improve and sustain it.
- Exploring creative ways to engage people while performing work.
- Building enduring professional relationships during interactions with Scrum Team(s) and stakeholders.
The Product Owner strives to master his Product management skills in order to maximize and optimize the value of the Product.
- Relentless focus on exploring creative ways to communicate product vision and roadmap.
- Identifying impactful interventions to improve the adoption of product features for sustainable growth.
- Improving product discovery techniques to better understand the customer experience as a whole.
The Developers strive to master their software craftsmanship in order to deliver high-quality products for their end customers.
- Learn and build emergent engineering architecture and practices to improve product quality.
- Identify ways to innovate the product features in the marketplace to improve time to market and generate business value.
Autonomy ⚖️ refers to the choice of freedom provided to people. So that they will self-select ways to achieve the outcomes that create enduring impacts.
The Scrum Master needs the environment with autonomy to devise and experiment with initiatives. To build awareness and co-create paradigm shift towards contemporary management techniques. So that people become aware of their improvement areas and unlock their potential with several unlearning and learning moments. This paves way for them to gain mastery on their path towards becoming a self-managing team.
The Product Owner requires autonomy to take key decisions to maximize product value and optimize the value resulting from the work delivered by the Developers associated with the Scrum Team. So that (s)he gets the appropriate environment required to improve accountability and nurture the Product Ownership to the next level.
The Developers require autonomy to improve development standards and sustain built-in quality while building product increment(s) every Sprint. They must be guided and supported with relevant tools and resources to deliver value. This helps in reducing the accumulated technical debt within the product and fosters their cross-functional skillset and improves self-management capabilities.
Purpose 🎯 refers to a meaningful outcome to achieve that motivates every time as a North Star when encountered with challenges.
People who fulfill the accountabilities by enacting the Scrum roles gain a sense of motivation as follows,
- The purpose envisioned using Scrum adoption motivates the Scrum Master at work to co-create more complementary practices.
- The purpose behind the Product Vision and Roadmap motivates the Product Owner at work to maximize and optimize value.
- The purpose of fulfilling the customer needs and wants in every Sprint. It motivates the Development Team to inculcate built-in quality while building and delivering the product increments.
For instance a pragmatic example especially during the tough times when things fall apart during the product development lifecycle. The Sprint Goal acts as a guiding lighthouse for the entire Scrum Team in the sprint. As it articulates the business impact or outcome in a cohesive manner aligning to the Product Goal.
đź’ Closing Thoughts
Dear Organisation leaders, if you are aiming to build a self-organizing Scrum Team(s) to deliver sustainable value for your internal or external customers. Kindly evoke people within the organization using motivation M.A.P as a navigation compass to achieve enduring success. Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose are critical ingredients to motivate people intrinsically that will enable organizations to thrive in a complex ecosystem.
Also, I would like to emphasize two key elements necessary to build and run a successful business are namely people and teamwork, which are imperative in a rapidly evolving and transforming market. Hence concluding this article referring to the first statement mentioned in the Agile manifesto and a famous quote from Sam Walton’s collection as follows,
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools — Agile Manifesto,2001
Individuals don’t win in business, teams do — Sam Walton
Organisation must build people-centric ecosystem bounded by principles of teamwork before forming self-managing team to achieve sustainable success. — Umar
Think Human before Thinking about Transforming Organisations for Success!
