Effective leaders are mindful of their inner experiences but not caught in them
That is why journaling as a routine to write down what's on your mind is an effective practice. It has become popular amongst leaders like it was the custom of Marcus Aurelius
productive action.
For example understanding what is in your control and what is not. = Stoicism and the dichotomy of control. Being angry about something that is beyond your control is not rational and such not living in agreement with our human nature
internally
Interoception → Lisa Feldman - Barrett.How emotions are made
call a thought a thought and an emotion an emotion
Yes, and consider to learn some more emotional concepts, improve your emotional granularity so that you have more choice in defining what you are feeling. Angry might become bothered or annoyed. Less intense.
to manage one’s thoughts and feelings is essential to business success
And something you can achieve by practising a morning or evening routine, to shape your default thinking,to build new concepts.
they get hooked by them, like fish caught on a line
Precisely what ancient philosophers teach us and why they practiced "spiritual exercises" most famously the emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius as exemplified in his Meditations...
stoic
That islowercase stoic. Uppercase Stoicism is what supports emotional agility.
how the Scrum Master should support the team being self-managed, and the relationship with the Sprint Goal.
In a nutshell, Scrum requires a Scrum Master to foster an environment where:
A Product Owner orders the work for a complex problem into a Product Backlog. The Scrum Team turns a selection of the work into an Increment of value during a Sprint. The Scrum Team and its stakeholders inspect the results and adjust for the next Sprint. Repeat
self-managing
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-guide-2020-update-self-mgt-replaces-self-organization
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-team-self-managing
The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. They do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice, both within the Scrum Team and the organization. The Scrum Master is accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness. They do this by enabling the Scrum Team to improve its practices, within the Scrum framework. Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization.
This is the section in the Scrum Guide that defines the Scrum Master as Leader first. Servant later (below.) The explicit mentioning of accountable and true leaders emphasises the new focus on leadership in a Scrum Master.
Does this support the ongoing discussion between Scrum Masters and Line Managers?
Who’s responsible for coding standards? Who is holding the team accountable when they do not adhere to the DOD? What about quality standards? The role of the QA lead? Yes to all who answer: The Team. They are collectively accountable. What if team dysfunction that a SM can’t solve on his own disrupt performance and quality? He has got no disciplinary status/power, and should not, in order to not restrict his coaching attitude?
There is an article on scrum.org that states that servant leadership is still useful.
Further consider the self-managing / self-governing ideas https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-team-self-managing This article enables each organisation to create shared understanding on how much power lies within the team.
Since the Scrum master is accountable for the effectiveness of Scrum, he must facilitate shared understanding and agreement within the team and within the teams organisation.
the Scrum Team must create a Definition of Done
It’s a mutual effort of the whole Scrum Team to create the DOD. Stephanie describes that well in her article: https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/2020-scrum-guide-definition-done-created-scrum-team
were (or were not) solved
This emphasises that problems are to be solved not only during or after a decision in a retrospective, but during a sprint. However, achieving the Sprint Goal and meeting the DOD for each sprint backlog item still has priority over improvement work. Ach
A Home for Sprint Goal, Definition of Done, and Product Goal
The commitments described: https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-guide-2020-update-commitments
Self-Managing over Self-Organizing
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-guide-2020-update-self-mgt-replaces-self-organization
Consider reading this article from Steven Denning and see how different states of a team contribute to performance. Self-managing is topped by Self-Organising, where teams organise their own context, including team members (self-selection).
And:
Scrum is built upon by the collective intelligence of the people using it. Rather than provide people with detailed instructions, the rules of Scrum guide their relationships and interactions.
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-team-self-managing
three different sets of accountabilities: PO, SM, and Developers.
A great article about this can be found here: https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-guide-2020-update-role-accountabilities
Definition of Done
A great article on how the DOD applies now to the Scrum Guide and the Scrum Team. The emphasis that the entire Scrum Team creates the DOD prevents from misunderstandings in the future, as I’ve personally witnessed in the past.
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/2020-scrum-guide-definition-done-created-scrum-team
Introduction of Product Goal
How do Product Goal and Release Goal relate? Is the Product Goal the product vision and Release Goal is helping us to define relevant Sprint Goals to achieve the Release Goal?
Good reads about the Product Goal: https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-guide-2020-update-introducing-product-goal
2020 Scrum Guides
Several articles on Scrum.org describe and discuss the 2020 changes: https://www.scrum.org/scrum-guide-2020
removing any remaining inference to IT work (e.g. testing, system, design, requirement
Things that have been removed:
Source: https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-guide-2020-update-what-has-been-removed
Sprint Goal.
The importance of the Sprint Goal escalated again. This crucial bit of discussion during Sprint Planning empowers the team to make Yes/No decisions on work pulled into a sprint, not only during planning, but also during the sprint itself. It focuses the product owner and development team on delivering something valuable to be shown in the Sprint Review. (Start with the end in mind.)
“The entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating a valuable, useful Increment every Sprint.” While there are still explicit accountabilities for the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers, all three roles must work together effectively in order to be successful with Scrum.
While the SM worked closely with the Dev team to support them creating the DOD, with this new emphasis on entire Scrum Team the potentially odd moments of ownership and contribution from the SM/PO to the DOD are less likely to happen.
everyone on the Scrum Team should care about and contribute to quality.
This is where the new Scrum Guide 2020 generates some leverage for Coached and the Testing Engineers (as part of DEV). Testing/Quality is everyone’s job on the Scrum Team. Including all DEV, PO and SM.
Product Goals with quarterly business reviews
... which comes closer to Release Goals then?
Refinement usually consumes no more than 10% of the capacity of the team.
It used to give me a good reason to point to the Scrum Guide when the team was annoyed by the number of refinement hours during a sprint.
With more experience, it becomes clear that the number of refinement hours spent should not depend on the Scrum Guide but on the readiness of work. A better measure, and this differs from team to team, is how many stories shall be ready at all times? One to three sprints worth of ready work? At least enough work should be ready before Sprint Planning, so that the actual sprint delivers done work (and not more refinement work, only.)
Refinement hours spent also depend on how predictable the work is on the Product Owner’s roadmap and if there is a need to do first iterations of refinement on future releases, months away to have a very high level estimate of effort.
Opinions?
more emphasis on leadership
Where and how does it place more emphasis on leadership? (need to explore!)
Leading what? Quality goals? Coding standards? Dysfunctional behaviour? → Role of the manager working with a scrum team, within a scrum team, managing people that are part of a scrum team.
The Principle of Effectiveness: Devote time only to what brings you closer towards achieving your organization’s overall objectives, so that you can make the best use of your limited time, energy and resources.
Yes, and reduce WIP and get to done quick!
only pull in what you need,
An important principle to follow. There's no universal recipe to follow in an Agile Transformation.