Team Behaviour
Hello,
I have a team with excellent commitment relative to the product, which is of excellent quality. However, during events, they spend time criticizing matters beyond our control, such as company salary policies and management decisions. They cannot establish dialogue with the respective manager respectfully. As a Scrum Master, I am lost, unsure of what to do. Did you alerady experience that and how did fix that ?
Thanks
You could try the following:
- Work Agreements
- Remind them what the purpose of each event is and try to keep them focused
- Share your observations in the Sprint Retrospective (Spheres of Influence is a good one for this)
Leverage the timebox
during events, they spend time criticizing matters beyond our control
On what grounds? You say product commitment and quality are excellent. What is there then, of substance, that lies beyond their control, and what negative consequences are they observing?
Hello Ian,
For example, during retrospectives, they put cards like '1:1 meetings with my manager are a waste of time.' Or they complain about not having visibility on career progression or office visits demanded by our management. In my view, I think we can't or can't have an impact on these things, and we have to know how to deal with this environment. My difficulty is making my team understand exactly that, but unfortunately, I'm not able to, and the same cards keep reappearing during the retrospective, generating frustrations.
A Scrum Master is "accountable for the team's effectiveness". Sometimes, this means going beyond the team and into other parts of the organization to raise and help resolve conditions that are preventing the team from being effective. A key principle of Agility is having teams of motivated individuals in an environment with the support and trust to get the job done - this doesn't appear to be the case. If people lose their motivation or feel they aren't supported, they may very well leave the organization, taking their knowledge and hurting the morale of the people around them.
Without knowing more about the context, I would suggest doing something to get their concerns heard and addressed. That may also involve educating other people in the organization about the problems and their impacts on the team if they aren't addressed.
My difficulty is making my team understand exactly that, but unfortunately, I'm not able to, and the same cards keep reappearing during the retrospective, generating frustrations.
If they didn't keep on surfacing those concerns, would their frustrations be resolved, or merely covered up?
A good Scrum Master has a low tolerance for organizational impediments, yet also recognizes that it isn't his or her company to change. What you have described is a call to action, even if it is just establishing links with potential sponsors who can bring about the changes that are desired.