David Alfaro: Scrum Costa Rica

As the team develops in practicing real Scrum, team members see missing any scrum activity as something painful. Scrum is about people and making them work as a unit more powerful than the sum of the individual powers. That kind of power is lost when someone misses ANY scrum activity.

Off Sick

In practice, punctuality is a supreme rule and Scrum activities have priority over other work activities.

Unexpected events require good judgment, I don’t suspend a scrum activity because someone is sick, unless the Product Owner is sick for the Sprint Review, in such case we have a prioritized Product Backlog so we can pull up the next high priority User Story from it. Maybe the PO is not so sick to be present by phone. Conversely, a team member can present by phone in case of a unforeseen event. Slipping dates undermines commitment.

The team itself sees unfavorably when unjustifiably someone misses or arrives late to a meeting. And that person suffers the lack of involvement and tries hard for not suffer that again. The team become self-managed.

Everybody understand when some is off sick. You have to live with that when rarely occurs. Suffering means “Hey, those meeting are really important, I don’t miss them better”

In cases of someone’s sickness (I have dealt with that quite a few times) I try to keep that person updated, as much as possible, that’s the best way to reduce the absence effects.

On the other hand, if the team frequently experiences “being off” frames, scrum can hardly be done, and by my experience, that team is hardly a team.

I am really passionate when it comes to organizational culture, specially the attitudes and values it comprises. People who choose to be in a company for a while, coalesce around attitudes and values, that’s the lock-in factor.

How to take a sip of a company culture? Go to those corporate/company meetings when every is invited.

I willenumerate the common behaviors in a traditional company meeting, a company that thinks itself living in a Cold War world of secrecy and castes. Conversely, I’ll enumerate the common behaviors of a company meeting that promotes credibility and commitment. Effective leaders realize that Information Workers of today baulk more at any imposed directive. Information Workers grudgingly do something that they consider whimsical or not fully explained.

Old-Fashioned Corporate meetings

• Boring.
• Upper management is seen as Ivory Towers.
• Flaunting Managers.
• Patronizing, overemphasis on hierarchy.
• One way channel:  Management just want to talk, not conversation-friendly.
• TOO formal.
• Technology oriented rather than people oriented.
• Management is noncommittal when asked about goals committed in past meetings.

Engaging Corporate meetings

• Topics provoke interest.
• Upper Management is seen as connection hub for employees and customers, willing to hear.
• Presentations are succinct, result-oriented, but in a “telling story” fashion.
• Managers are humble: no problem in admitting mistakes.
• Informal enough: It’s not a bacchanalia, but is not a mass either. The environment tend to be conversational.
• People oriented (customer, employees) rather than Technology oriented. REMEMBER: Technology is a tool to satisfy PEOPLE. PEOPLE FIRST, then technology. When you think in that order of priorities, you end up with the most advanced technologies, or advanced enough at worst.
• Management commit to specific and reachable goals, and present results in following meetings.

The latter kind of company understands how important is getting people connected, how important is to listen and joining the conversation that employees are already happening in the hallways, and customers are already happening in the streets.