Motivated Agile

I am going to start this blog with my favourite and maybe the most forgotten principle of the agile manifesto.

"Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done"

Keep this in mind, in particular the word "motivated" as you read on because this is all but forgotten and never talked about.

I see posts and blogs constantly debating the finer details of agile software development. To estimate in story points, time, T-shirt sizing or not at all, how to measure the value we deliver, how to report our performance, how we identify, map and remove blockers, how to deal with absent product owners and over bearing upper management, how we embed quality into our iterations etc etc.....

This is all very important stuff and I have spent my career refining my approach in dealing with these issues and many more but, there is some things you may not be able to coach so easily (we will try this later), the part of you that leads and has the ability to cultivate a winning mentality, the character that brings people together focussing on a common goal and the drive and hunger to win and win again and again and again....even without you! This is the Jurgen Klopp in you. (disclaimer: I am Liverpool FC fan)

Many will say that I am over cooking the importance of this but these things don't happen by themselves.

This doesn't have to be the scrum master or delivery manager (although the role lends itself to this) it can be anyone in the team but when it exists, it is infectious. Under the right conditions, it spreads like wild fire and everything else, the estimating, the metrics, the dependencies, the absent product owners, all become a lot easier to manage because the team is succeeding and the majority if not all, want to be part of it.

What this means to me!

This, more than any other reason is why I do the job I do. It suites my natural skill set and so it comes easier to me. I have experience working in scrum squads as a business analyst, tester and even dipped my toe into the PO role on numerous occasions but in a scrum master or delivery manager role, I can truly leverage my natural abilities.

I used to be a full time tester, I even made test manager but I was always hiding behind the myth that I was actually good at it. OK, I was a good test manager but as a tester, my value was in dragging projects across the line, bringing people together and I wanted to win, every time. People noticed that and for a long time as a senior tester and test manager, 80% of the work I was doing was scrum master work on numerous squads working the most important projects.

Pre-requisite

Ok, i harped on a bit there but I am very passionate about this and I wanted to give some context on my own experiences but lets get back on topic.

People expect teams to perform but don't take into account the real people element of a high performing team. Just doing your health checks, retros etc.... wont cut it. The team won't improve if the team doesn't work together as a team and they wont care about the sprint goals unless they want to achieve them. Ultimately, some people are just able to cultivate this.

If you dont build projects "around motivated individuals" then you are missing a huge part of what makes agile development the "go to" for almost every organisation providing software solutions, but the majority of the time, this isn't pre-existing when you join a team. If you skip this bit out then it will make the rest much harder and the road a lot longer.

So how is this done?

I indicated earlier that this may be something that is difficult to teach, if it even can be but lets give it a try.

• Be positive

Always smile, be apprachable. You are a servant leader so be part of the team. It doesn't matter whether it is 6am or 6pm, if you are coasting to a sprint goal or tracking late on a regulatory change, be positive. Teams squabble, make mistakes and look to blame when they are under pressure or frightened and people are less likely to be frightened or be affected by the pressure when as a leader, you show positivity.

• Bring the energy

Nobody wants a dull scrum master with a monotone voice, droning on about metrics. Crack jokes, bounce about, motivate. Infuse energy into the team and involve everyone. I have found that some of the quitest people have the best input but, they need to feel part of something and your energy and positivity can help to bring this out in other people.

• Build raport

Meet with the team individually and/or in smaller groups as often as you can or at least share conversations on things outside of work with the team. This helps to build trust and builds a bond. The team will work better together the closer they are and will want to succeed, not just for themselves but for eachother and they will support eachother to succeed.

• Give honest recognition

I could write an entire blog on this because recognition is one of the biggest motivators there is, but it has to be honest. Honest recognition and flattery are 2 different things. I have struggled with this in the past as I am genuinely appreciative of people really putting in the effort and find that when I work in good teams, I seem to be forever calling out high performers. You need to find a balance because if you do it too often, even if it is genuine, it can be percieved as flattery and discredits the recognition that you are giving, in turn reducing the value to the person who is receiving it.

• Allow the team to achieve and celebrate the success

My wording may be a little confusing because the whole team is responsible for achieving right!! what I mean is maybe have a couple of easier sprints, make the goal posts wider and the crossbar higher. Once the team achieves a goal, shout it out, report it to senior management and dont be afraid to call out individual performers to their line managers and ask it be fed back (calling out individual performers publicly outside of the team can have a detremental affect on those excluded). Winning is infectious and once the team gets a taste, they will become hungry and addicted, as I am!! We can then start to crank up the volume and start to increase what we are producing and the team will have a higher level of detirmination to hit the goals.

• Battle through adversity and provide a platform for emerging hero's

Trust. In software delivery we are often in high pressure situations, running against the wind with challenges. Sometimes, try to orchestrate things a little. Again, I know the team is responsible for the work that they pick up but doing that properly comes with maturity. When you are in a challenging situation, task, trust and provide the opportunity for the team to overcome the challenge. Openly show faith in the people or person tasked with the work and when they achieve it or even come close, give honest recognition for their efforts.

The best teams are formed through the biggest challenges. It is no coincidence that the highest point tallys achieved in the premier league are all over 3 or 4 seasons when Manchester City and Liverpool were fighting it out (unfortunately, Liverpool only won one of them). Would they have reached these points tallys without the challenge from the other. I don't think so. It creates a bond, a togetherness and provides a platform for emerging hero's to score the winning goal.

• Always promote a focus on the sprint goal

This may sound obvious but without a unified target of value, the team will not be unified in their work. A sprint goal with value is THE primary measure of success, everything else just helps to improve. Just churning through tickets can only take a team so far. It can sometimes be difficult to set one goal and scrum really wants it done that way but like I have said many times before, don't get locked into a framework, do what makes sense and if you are ticking off 2 or 3 goals then so be it. Not every organisation is the same, sometimes you may be building 3 minor features in a sprint. Just make sure that everybody is working on something that helps to achieve the goal(s)

Ok, back to the principle

What I have spoken about is really the first part "Building projects around motivated individuals" but there is a huge amount we could go through in "providing the environment and support they need". This is where you draw on and combine your experience in estimations, metrics, facilitation, dependencies etc.

On the flipside, I believe that if you don't have the practical experience in the finer details of how to make squad tick, the pros and cons of different estimation techniques, the way to knock out dependencies early on, the understanding to capture and feedback important metrics then your credibility will be short lived. I advise anybody wanting to be a scrum master or delivery manager, to try work within a delivery squad so that you face the challenges from ground level to really get an understanding of the hurdles that the team may face and how to overcome them.

Final Thoughts

I like when the team hits their goals regardless but the best times I have had in my career and the biggest sense of achievements is when the team has worked hard to overcome challenges, stared defeat in the face and had the motivation and dedication to bite down hard, dig in and win. There is nothing better than the interactions with the team when that happens and we all feel part of something, we all feel like winners and it is in moments like these that a real team and the hero's that are part of it are formed.

The bonus prize here is that once this motivation is embedded, it becomes a culture and will be there with or without you and sometimes, that is on an individual level as well. You plant the seed, but you don't need to sit by the tree for it to grow.

The bonus prize here is that once this motivation is embedded, it becomes a culture and will be there with or without you and sometimes, that is on an individual level as well. You plant the seed, but you don't need to sit by the tree for it to grow.