Teams Going Boldly
Saturday was my birthday, and by coincidence, my company's holiday party was that evening. My goals were to have a relatively stress-free day and to look AMAZING for the party. Without sounding too brazen, I think I accomplished both goals... by relying on a few experts. I had help picking out my dress. And advice for my hair and accessories. And I even had someone else do my makeup. I felt a little like Cinderella with fairy godmothers to help transform my look for one special night, but I noticed that each seemed to advocate courage [without using that exact term].
The 5 values of Scrum are courage, commitment, openness, focus, and respect. They sound so simple, but I feel like courage is often underplayed when it comes to teams. A high-performing team believes it can solve any problem, owns its decisions and commitments, and displays constructive disagreement. The team needs to be not only self-organizing but empowered. And as Esther Derby recently told the DFW Scrum user group, "One way to keep a team self-organizing is to treat them like adults."