Highly efficient team members with multiple behavioral issues
I have been recently assigned to an additional scrum team (Size = 8) as a scrum master. I was told that the team was very hard to work with given their past in terms of behaviors, and it was more like challenge to be able to make them work as a team. The first few days, may be a week or so went by, everything seemed well. My initial observations about the team:
- Extremely technical and knowledgeable. Every single person in the team were on the top of their game. Very confident and sharp when it comes to their responses.
- Everyone in the team where equally experienced (like 15+), it was strange to learn that the team was initially created by picking up the best of the lots from various other teams to get this new team functional for a very critical and demanding project. (About 3 years ago).
- Almost everyone was mostly to the point, not very jovial or funny or just not in a good mood. They appeared serious and a bit grumpy.
- They took ownership on collabs and discussions wherever needed and weren’t dependent on anyone or anything. They seem to be well settled matured team.
Scene: Sprint Planning Session: Stories well refined and sized. Backlog ready. Pending on Assignments.
For one specific story – no one wanted to pick, whatever you do, they wont budge, it started with a disagreement, followed by blame game and soon moved to all the shouting and yelling. It escalated in few mins. No matter how much I try to budge or stop, no one would. Been on the zoom calls made it even harder. With many attempts and pleads, I could get them to stop, but the grudges kept going on. I suggested for a lottery to assign stories, where they weren’t civil either, but we completed the task to initiate the sprint.
Similar issues happened during refinement sessions as well. Where I observed that they kept taunting and calling out one another that their work in terms of refinement is not good enough. What was unpleasant or shocking was that they were rude, impolite and very unkind in the way they provided feedback to each other. When you confront their style or behaviors, they wouldn’t be guilty of their actions and would say, they are doing it, coz they were exploited similarly in the past.
I don’t even want to bring up, how I felt in this process, because one of the things I have learnt as a Scrum Masters is this, that we are here to clean the mess and this is one of the most thankless job. Nobody really cares about how you are treated or how you are made to feel, we just have to keep making sure that the team blockers are removed. So here it goes, I set up several meetings with each one of them alongside the team retrospectives to understand what’s really causing this drift. These are some of the big ones listed:
- Questioning each other’s work and often in the place of putting them down
- Insecurities (all are in the same grade), big egos, all want promotions not by doing better, but by pulling down others, Visibility issues – all want to be on top.
- No one wants to help each other – what’s for them? No team work, how can I get individual success if I help others to succeed by helping
- Revengeful attitude - Grudges are kept for years and revenges are taken as opportunity arises. Unprofessional behavior due to lack of maturity despite the most experienced lot in the firm
To summarize, this group is one set of people I know who have great 1-1 rapport with each other but when it comes to team, they don’t know how to collaborate, be kind and nice to each other. I would like to think they are good people just not ready to let go of their past and ego and try to be the bigger person for the team and organization.
Any advises from this group, could help me recommend solutions or working style for this team going forward. I appreciate your help.
Thanks.
Run through the Scrum values with them, and even incorporate a team game or two based around them.
Try and get some budget for a team training event outside of the company, or at the very least take them bowling or something similar.
A scrum team is supposed to be self-managing, so perhaps they were told to be on the team instead of being allowed to choose to be on it instead.
At the end of the day, if they do not want to work as a team you will not be able to make them to do so.
From the Scrum Guide section describing the Scrum Master role (emphasis added by me)
Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality;
Helping the Scrum Team focus on creating high-value Increments that meet the Definition of Done;
Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress; and,
Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.
To me it sounds like you are attempting to help with the first bullet but the team is resisting. The reasons that they are resisting sounds like an organizational issue where individual behavior is rewarded and not team success. They are all working based upon the "hero" philosophy where the more I know and the more I do on my own, the more successful I will be seen by the organization which leads to raises and promotions.
The second part I emphasized says that you cause impediments to be removed but it doesn't say that you have to do all the work. In this case, I feel like this is more of an organizational issue and you should be involving their manager in the work to remove the impediment. In fact, the manager would have more ability to impact change on the individuals than you can as a Scrum Master.
This is a situation similar to when a Developer needs support from someone outside the Scrum Team to accomplish their work. In that case, the appropriate individual is approached and their help is gained. You need help from outside the Scrum Team. And since there seems to be a well known history for this team, I question why nothing has been done already. Probably because the previous Scrum Masters tried to solve the remove the impediment on their own. You have a chance to learn from their attempts and try something different.
I appreciate your help.
Have you asked them for help, jointly and individually, so you can in turn help the team and succeed as a Scrum Master?
@Ian Michell: Yep, I did speak to them individually and in group to help me help them in getting some order and cadence in place. It works for a few days and then we are back to square one.
Maybe it's something that has to be done repeatedly and with consistency, so issues are kept on top of, until improved behaviours become normalized.
Emphasize the positive when it happens so it can be reinforced. When things backslide, position this as evidence of your own failure -- when the team fails you fail, when they succeed you succeed -- and ask for their help again.