What is a Scrum Master?

The scrum master is an organisational poet. Her material is not language, but environments and relationships. The scrum master sits on the edge of the corporate melee, thoughtfully figuring out how to rescue lost souls from hierarchical, procedural hell, free them up to become the creative humans God made them to be, while at the same time calming the fires of hubris, vanity, indignation, and self-righteousness that threaten to consume them.

https://tobiasmayer.substack.com/p/what-is-a-scrum-master#footnote-2-136926668

TEAM VALUES

A great exercise to do with your team, as copied from https://scrum-agile.nl/?page_id=256

Start by individually answering the following questions:

  • At work, I get inspired by…
  • I’m proud to be part of a team that…
  • What I can offer my colleagues is…

Shared the outcome with each other and talk about the outcomes.

Then answer the following questions:

  • My Personal top 5 values are…

For inspiration you can use a list of values from https://scottjeffrey.com/core-values-list/

After writing down 5 values, you challenge them by asking the following questions for each value:

  • If you were to start a new organization, would you build it around this core value regardless of the industry?
  • Would you want your organization to continue to stand for this core value 100 years into the future, no matter what changes occur in the outside world?
  • Would you want your organization to hold this core value, even if at some point in time it became a competitive disadvantage—even if in some instances the environment penalized the organization for living this core value?
  • Do you believe that those who do not share this core value—those who breach it consistently—simply do not belong in your organization?
  • Would you personally continue to hold this core value even if you were not rewarded for holding it?
  • Would you change jobs before giving up this core value?
  • If you awoke tomorrow with more than enough money to retire comfortably for the rest of your life, would you continue to apply this core value to your productive activities?

(source: https://www.jimcollins.com/tools/vision-framework.pdf )

If you can answer a values with “yes” on all questions, you got a winner.

Collect all values that were answered with a yes on all questions, and from those values look for similar personal values within the team.

David Fox’s Videos

David Fox created some interesting videos which can be found here: http://davidfoxit.com/media/

Scrum Tips for Scrum Masters with Virtual Meetings (1-2-4-all, W3)

Scrum Master Tips for spreading information (1-2-4-all, W3)

Easy but effective tips for better Sprint Planning (1-2-4-all, critical uncertainties, social network webbing)

Measure you own agility using whats important to you (shift & share, ecocycle planning & panarchy)

Tips and Tricks: The Daily Scrum (1-2-4-all)