How To Master Scrum Master Skills

Editor's Notes

• #2 https://www.flickr.com/photos/mgeartworks/10184130755
• #3 My name is Jacek, I’m an agile coach and a consultant. I’m extremely happy because today it’s a first time for me to present the content that I’ve included in my upcoming book about proven ways of dealing with Scrum anti patterns. Quite common thing that I’ve observed is a situation when we want to implement Scrum, but Scrum Master who suppose to drive this change are unexperienced. During my carrier…. So I pick TOP 5 things that helped me to growth.
• #4 Let’s start with this picture. The guy on the picture is a manager. I don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s very busy. So he must be a manager, right? About 3 years ago I’ve decided to join STX Next as a COO. It was my first time in a manager role. After couple of months I realised that I wasn’t aware that management role is so challenging. Why? I was responsible for your people, hiring, stuffing, salaries, finances, clients, issues and so on. I’ve got a new understanding on how the company works. I saw things from a different perspectives. The benefits of that episode are invaluable. After 3 years I can say that now I understand management reality better. Their language, concerns, challenges and day-to-day routine. I shared this story because quite often I hear Scrum Masters complain about managers. Like “They don’t understand Scrum”. But when I ask Scrum Master “When was the last time you talked with them”, the answer is usually “We don’t talk at all”. So let’s change perspective a little bit and imagine how effective as a Scrum Master you would be if you knew manager’s reality better? How beneficial would it be to your company if Scrum Masters and managers worked together on company improvements? I bet you get the point. So what you can do to become a better Scrum Master? Put yourself in a managers’s shoes for some time to fell manager’s reality. You will have an opportunity to get managers perspective. You will learn management at first-hand. And it helps you to support them better as a Scrum Master. If you can’t start your journey as a manager, at least spend regular time every week with managers and try to understand their perspective better. To increase your effectiveness I recommend to listen instead of talking and seek for understanding instead of giving advice. There is nothing worse than an unconscious, rookie Scrum Master who try to advise senior managers about things that he only read in books and doesn’t have a hand-on experience. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hickmott/15968203829
• #5 Let’s go deeper with the idea of trying new things. Who is more trust-worthy for you? A surgeon who just performed his fist surgery or an experienced surgeon with hundreds of surgeries? I think the answer is pretty obvious. Of course the latter - he knows different tools, faced diff situations, patients and diseases. I believe it’s the same with Scrum Masters. Despite it’s not a fight for a human life, still it’s extremely valuable to have rich, diverse and vast experience if we want to cure and support organisations. // może usuń pytanie? Let’s stop here for a while and imagine: How would you work with different team? With different people, diff setup, diff believes? Or how would you use Scrum to develop different products? Different software products, embedded software, pure hardware products or totally different usage like supporting sales or HR? Or maybe, how you would perform as a Scrum Master in different environments? With internal clients? Or external clients, who spoke in different language? In different culture, with different values and willingness to change? Imagine how versatile you would be if you have tried even a few ideas from the list I have just mentioned. You may ask “what about you smart-ass?” Well, for instance, I’ve decided to quit Allegro, despite it was a great workplace, to check how it is to work with external customers from UK and US. Or as a consultant these days I intentionally pick clients who work in slightly different environment comparing to what I know - for example as an Agile Coach I support a team who deliver a non-IT HR product. Thanks to such decisions, my ability to recognise patterns & anti-patterns has growth, my tollerance to uncertainty and unknown and I can support my clients better. So, based on my experience, in order to master Scrum Master skills I would say: get out of your comfort zone and pick a second team or switch to another one. Or support a team who develop totally different product, preferably non-software. Or even - what may sound extreme - get a new job in a company with different business model, different culture and different clients. Such approach will make you versatile I believe. https://www.flickr.com/photos/chineando/4199600540
• #6 Couple years ago I started my first duty as a mentor. My mentee was very ambitious, open to knowledge and with very small experience with Scrum. I was surprised how hard it is to transfer all my knowledge that I use on daily basis as a Scrum Master. Despite it was challenging for me at the beginning, definitely it was very valuable experience. First, it helped me to put my knowledge in order. Expect that mentee will ask a lot of questions about techniques, methods and ways of doing things. So before every session I had to spent some time preparing to it. This process is quite similar to hard drive defragmentation - you knowledge is stored in different places in your head and it is valuable to put all you knowledge in appropriate order and sometimes event extend it, to be ready to share all you know in a form of logical and understandable sequence. Additionally, it helped me learn how to explain complex things in an easy way - not only do you have to have knowledge, but also you will need skills to explain it as simply as it is possible. My wife was recently on a lecture about criminal proceedings. The men who was hosting it is a very respected person in a legal community. But he was unable to communicate his thoughts in a clear and understandable way. And the lecture was boring as hell. He knows things, but he is unable to share it. So, don’t be that guy. What’s more it helped me to have better discussions with stakeholders - as a Scrum Master you probably have many chances to talk with stakeholders. Of course if you talk to them. They don’t have the time and the will to listen about every specific detail of Scrum framework or about agile in general. I noticed that thanks to work with a few mentees I improved they way how I communicate with them.  So from my practice, if you want to become a master Scrum Master it’s good to get a mentee, because it helps to develop yourself. Such discussions may show you areas of knowledge that you would like to explore more or even learn from the scratch. https://www.flickr.com/photos/togawanderings/2557302063/
• #7 I remember when as a Scrum Master I received my first serious feedback after one of scrum event. Actually I didn’t ask for it, but I was asked if I want to hear that. I said “yes”. On the one hand it was very valuable experience - I learn a lot form it, like for instance that as a Scrum Master I shouldn’t be a clerk for a team. On the other hand I remember how stressful it was for me to receive it and to accept the moment of vulnerability. These days I don’t wait for someone to share feedback with me first. I ask for feedback on my own. No matter if I just conducted a workshop, training, a session with a team, created landing page for my book or recorded my first video. I just constantly ask people what the think about things that I do. I developed a habit of asking for it. But it wasn’t always like that. My biggest issue was fear of hearing something that might be uncomfortable for me. In general, no one likes it when his or her work is rejected. What helped me, was awareness that if I didn’t ask, for sure nothing will change. Because I stay unaware of it. And the benefit and value of improving myself is worth more than this temporary pain. Pain is temporary, but glory is forever. Think how many things you may realise if you ask for feedback, for instance: someone might make you aware of the fact, that as a Scrum Master you act like a Project Manager, or you try to coach people without their permission, or you work as a proxy between a team and stakeholders, which is no the best approach of course . I don’t know what you think but if I was you I would like to know that So what I do regarding feedback? I seek for feedback anytime I have a chance to get it. If you fear to do so, thing about things you might miss if you become reluctant. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hickmott/15966796158/
• #8 When I think about my growth I came (czyt. kom) to conclusion that I have learned and understood a lot because of having deep relationship with people. I think that I got more from these people comparing to even best conferences, books or blogs available on the internet. I recognised that there is something that is in common in all these relationships. They are build on the foundation of trust. Imagine a situation, where you are not afraid to share your concerns, failures or fears. You are able to ask for advice without fear of being judged. You are able to share what you really think because you know it will not hurt other person. It is possible although first you have to build trust. How to do it? All you have to do is trust your people by default. In practice, it means that it is you who make the first step. Based on my experience I developed an algorithm to do it. Step 1: show trust accepting some level of possible rejection - for instance, by sharing open, honest thought. Step 2: check the reaction; from my experience, ether someone will notice it and follow it or not . If other person follows, just continue - usually after some time, the other person will also share something honest. If not, make another attempt or stop here. This thoughts around relations are quite new for me. So If I could turn back time I give myself advice, I would tell myself to build deep relationship with people, starting from building foundation of trust. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinpoh/3555850677
• #9 So this is it. If you want to become Master Scrum Master … Put yourself in a manager’s shoes, so you will get this unique perspective of management and you will be able to support them better Enable diversity to gain rich, diverse and vast experience. Get a mentee to develop yourself. Constantly ask for feedback to become aware of possible improvements. And build deep relationship to have great opportunities for honest and deep discussions. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hickmott/15966954350
• #10 That was my story, but conclusion it’s about me. It is about you. What will you do tomorrow to become a master scrum master? (…) Thank you!