Agile Development Blog

When I am coaching a team through their first iteration, I often have a Scrum Master and/or team lead pull me aside prior to the retrospective to express concerns.

Sometimes its about things they know the team should address in the retrospective.
(e.g. “we need to get better at estimating”)

It may also be about things they wish the team wouldn’t bring into the retrospective.
(e.g. “we want longer iterations”)

These team supporters are coming from a place of concern for the success of the team and their Agile adoption, but they aren’t trusting that the team will make the right decisions on their own.

They want me to make sure the team talks about - and only about – these specific items, sometimes asking me to explicitly bring the issues in with a softer (i.e. manipulative) approach. I tell them I can’t and I won’t.

I tell them they need to trust the team and trust the process to determine where to focus their collective energy, passion and time in order to improve their process and product. And almost always, the issue a compassionate and involved leader hopes the team will focus on is exactly what the team ends up discussing and moving forward with.

This isn’t just about the team taking responsibility for their work and their improvements, it’s about creating sustainable decisions the team can own.

Good team leaders and Scrum Masters create a space where teams can inspect and adapt safely and successfully, so they can continue to find ways to improve.