what the hell are you talking about, Alex?
hey there,
Have you ever felt crushed by the pressure of expectations the moment you stepped into a role you thought you were ready for? That's exactly how I felt during my first meeting as a Scrum Master.
I find myself in this room filled with my teammates. I am about to give a speech that will change the course of my experience as an Agile Coach. This is the story of a how a process helped me in my first role as a Scrum Master.
We all know that one of the biggest questions we face as Agile Coaches is how to bring agility into the organizations we work for. When I started my journey, this question never crossed my mind. I was too absorbed in trying to understand the newly introduced words in my vocabulary.
Still, my experience led me to one critical conviction: agility can only be achieved through processes.
here's the story
A vivid memory comes to mind. I remember the first meeting I held after getting my Scrum Master certification. Outside, it was a heavy day, but I was hyped—extremely energized and motivated, which was unusual for me on such a day. I was finally a Scrum Master. I had anticipated this moment for some time and I was excited.
I called a meeting with the team to discuss the new direction. As I stepped into the meeting room, I felt like a VIP, assuming they knew the importance of a Scrum Master in their lives.
As I laid down the new guidelines, I felt the growing tension of uneasiness. The blank stares and furrowed brows of my teammates only heightened my anxiety. Buzzword after buzzword, I went on and on for what felt like an eternity.
As I continued talking, I paid little attention to people’s postures. I wasn’t yet equipped to read the room while talking at the same time. To this day, I appreciate the team letting me talk for almost an hour, finishing my monologue. But then came the reaction:
“What the hell are you talking about, Alex? Changes? What? Are you out of your mind?”
You see, I was throwing all these new terms and concepts left and right without any substance attached. To my defense, the trainer had sold me on the idea that people would fall in love with my role and just follow me. To this day, I still romanticize this idea 😂.
After all, I was bringing them Real Agility. Everyone knows Agile and Scrum inside out, right?
oh sh... they caught me
Hearing them voicing their disapproval, my first thought was, "Sh... they caught me!" My insecurity alarm went off, skyrocketing my imposter syndrome. This was my first experience as a recognized Scrum Master, the Change Agent, the Performance Bringer, the Protector of the Realm.
My heart was pumping like crazy, my feet went numb, my mouth was dry, and I was doing my best to recollect myself. The last thing I wanted was to look like a fool, which I probably did.
But honestly, I had no clue what I was doing. I could barely understand half of what I was supposed to preach. I hoped the others would know all the jargon and not question it.
monkey see, monkey do
Being uncertain myself, having no experience or knowledge about change management, I had to let things slide. We succumbed to a Scrumbut approach, an approach we already had.
In my formation as a Scrum Master, I learned that the only authority we have, if we can call it that, is over the processes. Unfortunately, this was all I got.
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The training didn't offer sufficient preparation or knowledge on how to change processes. Work you are supposed to do all day long. I had no idea how to bring changes to the way a team works. I had no idea that I needed a process: a change management process.
In my head, all I had to do was:
I truly believed that this was the authority over the processes, things the team was somehow already doing.✓
In hindsight, I sit and wonder how someone with my level of knowledge could be expected to teach others about Scrum, let alone about agility. This reflection led me to a critical realization about the importance of understanding processes.
my salvation
Looking back, the fact that I was the senior developer (sort of a team lead) saved me. I knew the process of software development and could influence some parts of it internally within the team. This turned out positively, as I managed to help the team grow. We stabilized our releases, the quality of our deliveries increased, and our throughput improved.
As a Scrum Master, I sucked. Scrum Mastering was something I did in my spare time. It was a ceremonial role, being a team's secretary at best. But, in all honesty, I wouldn't have been able to do a better job at that point.
In my role as a Scrum Master, I failed to support the team and the organization in becoming more Agile. My lack of knowledge about processes and how they function put me in very difficult situations.
My knowledge in software development helped a lot in supporting the team, as I was effecting improvement locally. I knew the domain very well. This helped us as a team to move a bit forward.
I recall an argument I had with the scrum trainer regarding domain knowledge. He was saying that domain knowledge is not necessary for such a role. Today, I challenge that statement, as I find it to be extremely important.
What I've learned along my journey is that to truly win over people, you need to help them in tangible ways. And the easiest way to do this is by understanding their work deeply and simplifying the processes that support them.
If I had understood system thinking, I might have been able to argue and better articulate which were our bottlenecks. Advocating and negotiating a redesign of our processes to make our lives significantly easier.
let's change a bit the narrative
What I know for sure is that
How was your first experience as part of a change?
— if you have the lust, you can let me know in the comments
— as well if you agree or disagree with the above 🤗