Don’t always fight for the team, let them learn and grow

Have you ever heard from any scrum master or agile coach saying these words:

“I am fighting for my team.”

or

“These people are insane. They don’t understand.”

There are many versions of these kinds of statements. What people try to do to fight for their teams? They just mean, I read scrum guide, and it’s written ‘a…b…c.’ I am complaining leaders, they should follow this, but they don’t. When they don’t follow, these agile champions get frustrated or try to leave.

Do we simply forget what we teach teams about the agile manifesto? A simple statement written in the agile manifesto:

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

“Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.”

Let’s closely look into these words “uncovering better ways of developing software.” You can uncover better ways of working by experimenting and inspect & adapt. Fighting is not experimenting. So please help your teams to uncover their way of working by themselves. Partner with them on their learning journey.

Secondly, “Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools.”

It means talk to people, respect them, show your empathy and try to find a solution. It doesn’t say to be rude to leaders to follow some framework.

Yay Yay. Now you will say so should we not follow any framework? I would say use your brain and take the decision what to use, when and where. Also, how far your teams want to go and at what speed? Remember it’s about them, not about you!

Do you also have a similar story? Please share your story or thoughts.