Agile Notes (No. 33)

Hey, all! Posting a day early this week. I have some things going on Friday morning and cross-posting to social media (anyone using Mastodon?) is a manual process. We are continuing our re-read of the EXCELLENT Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins. This week Chapter 5: Coach as Coach-Mentor.

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Don’t judge me by the highlights. This is not my first time through this book. This time around I used the blue highlighter. This is my most highlighted chapter by far. And that passage on the right got double vertical marks this time around! That passage also highlights the thing I am struggling with most right now.

Adkins writes about working with teams whose “definition of agile has been twisted around the dysfunctions of the people in and around the team and the organization…” After many conversations (interviews), doubt is starting to creep in. I worry that I have ONLY known dysfunctional organizations and people around the Scrum teams I have scrum mastered. I worry that I allowed these teams (a few different teams, same overall org) to compromise on doing agile well by allowing the team to be Agile in spite of the greater company.

I am questioning whether I have known only dysfunction and that I did not do enough to fight it. We would continually improve within the team but would not share that with teams we worked with across different business units.

Please share in the comments if you have gone through similar experiences. I would love to hear about the situation and what you did to overcome it.

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