How to Use Scrum in Human Resources

Scrum and Human Resources (HR) - how do they work together? And what are the implications of using Scrum within HR?

In this webinar, Professional Scrum Trainer Martijn Magermans and Agile HR Expert Astrid Karsten, author of Toolkit for Agile Talent Development, will take you with them on a journey through agile HR from a Scrum perspective. This webinar is for both HR professionals with an interest in Agile & Scrum and for Scrum Professionals with interest in HR. Martijn and Astrid will explore how Scrum can be used in areas such as professional scrum master performance management, rewarding and compensation, the employee journey and more.

During this webinar attendees will:

- Get a clear understanding of what Agile HR is

- Learn how the Scrum Framework works in HR

- Learn how to make the first step towards increased agility within HR

About Astrid

Astrid started her Scrum and Agile journey as a frontend developer in several teams. By then she was already most intrigued about the “human” factor in development and high performing teams. She continued her career as an Agile Consultant, mainly focusing on agile in infrastructure and non-IT. Since two years she has taken a deep dive in the wellbeing of humans from different perspectives; leadership, HR, personal agility and of course the perks agile and scrum could give in those areas.

About Martijn

Martijn's mission is to connect people, processes and technology, putting people at the heart of the business. As an Agile Coach and trainer he helps clients effectively apply agile ways of working to increase business value, employee happiness and customer satisfaction. He's been passionate about agile product development ever since I was asked to head the development of a technologically advanced track and trace service used in hospitals. As a Product Owner he learned the benefits Scrum offered in controlling complexity and driving continuous improvement.

Resource: https://www.scrum.org/resources/how-use-scrum-human-resources

Read More

Winning Office Politics-3 Tips That Scrum Masters Can Use

The term Office politics is taboo for many professionals, as it is pervasive at any workplace.

To put it simply, workplace politics centres on differences within employees at the workplace, differences in views and opinions, conflicts on various interests and perspectives, etc. Everything boils down to communications and relations in-between humans.

You don’t have to be intimidated by office politics. Great professional scrum master who have swiftly mastered the delicate art of convincingly winning in the field of office politics.

Here are 3 distinct tips that are helpful to make you victorious at your workplace:

Are you having a Choice?

An intelligently common reaction to any kind of office politics is either fight against it or resort to flight. It is a usual human reaction for surviving in the wild and has been in practice from the days when people were hunter-gatherers during prehistoric times.

If you want to be victorious, then you have to consciously select an apt response according to the situation you face. You have to recognize that irrespective of how bad the situations are. You do have a choice of how you actually feel and then respond accordingly. I know very well that this thing is easier said than actually done. So, how are you going to select? This leads to the next crucial point…..

Interpreting Self

Whenever there is a conflict, it is very easy to get completely immersed in it with a tunnel vision, and concentrating on prevailing differences. Such an approach is self-defeating. There is a high probability, in this case, that you will invite ever further resistance, by keeping your focus on differences in positions or views of people.

I would positively recommend the approach of self-interpreting. In this manner, you are able to successfully mitigate the existent risk, without appearing as if you are desperately fighting to win the conflict.

In order to achieve such a focus on various business objectives, you need to gauge the positive and negative attributes of each of the choices or options. Eventually, each employee wants the organization to be successful. If the business is unable to win, then no individual in the organization wins.

It is practically easier for a person to taste a piece from the humble pie and then immediately back off after realizing the selected approach is the most appropriate one.

When you gradually learn to steer the dynamics of the discussion in this specific direction, you would be also able to learn to disengage yourself from a barrage of petty differences, positioning yourself as an individual who is keenly focused on getting the right things done. Your boss would certainly appreciate you as a mature and strategic person who can be bestowed with responsibilities.

Concentrate on Your Arena of Influence

There are many issues, frequently, at the workplace, on which we don’t have any control. It is not an uncommon phenomenon to get entangled in corporate policies, mandates of senior management or client demands that affect the personal interests you have.

Such events are marked by gossiping/complaining, beyond our control. But think for a moment – other than venting out emotions in short term, what are the actual tangible results of gossiping? In most cases, there are none.

Instead of becoming frustrated or feeling victimized about the particular situation, you need to seriously focus on ways to influence the circumstance – here lies the importance of your arena of influence. I want to cite an example. I face such a situation in my company. I tackled it by shifting my focus in adding more value to community meetups, locally. I concentrated on creating a healthy community of different Scrum Masters, productively shifting my focus. Even though it is not a part of my job, it provides me with a platform to shift my attention and focus on my bright spots.

This technique is empowering, as it overcomes the feeling of sheer helplessness. It removes any kind of victimized feeling. It also shows you in good light, where other employees see you as an individual who can efficiently operate within the given limitations, with a self-motivating approach. At times, it is an incredibly effective way to strongly prove one’s mettle.

You may be not in a position to alter or determine the eventual result but, it is always possible to walk away by becoming aware that you have delivered your best in the given situation.

The workplace is full of constraints. With a balanced approach, your boss would admire you as a positive and insightful individual.

Resource: https://tryscrum.com/2021/05/08/winning-office-politics-3-tips-that-scrum-masters-can-use/

Read More

Challenges For Shared Accountability-A Perfect Agile Coach Training

Last Sunday, I was talking to an Agile Coach. Naturally, we started conversing around “Accountability”. We exchanged some excellent thoughts and moved on to discuss the challenges for Accountability. In this blog, I will share my thoughts on Accountability.

In the recent 2020 Scrum Guide, Accountabilities has been emphasised and reworded for Roles. Even though there is no harm in calling roles, but the importance of mentioning them as Accountabilities holds the key as now it stresses the importance of owning the work and learning from it.

Accountability is typically associated with a single person so that the person owns up to work done. On not being able to achieve the desired outcome, the person owns it to learn from agile coach training.

Interestingly in Scrum, we have individual accountabilities — Scrum Master & Product Owner and Shared accountabilities — Developers.

Scrum Master — Accountable for proper implementation of Scrum

Product Owner — Accountable for Why & What — Value of the Product

Developers — Accountable for How — Instilling Quality in the Product

Now, what is shared Accountability?

Each individual is accountable for what they all do.

Each individual is accountable for the group’s actions.

It doesn’t matter how much an individual contributes, but each individual is accountable for the outcomes they deliver as a team.

Is it simple? Let’s look at it.

For the shared Accountability to thrive, it needs an appropriate environment for teams to have

Common Purpose

Open Communication within and outside

Collaboration

Continuous Improvement or Learning

Challenges in achieving Shared Accountabilities

Typically, Organisations today are operating in the Hybrid world that creates particular baggage in the below areas preventing them from achieving shared Accountability.

Organisation Structure

Organisation Culture

Leadership

Organisation Structure:

As the organisations grow, the industry trend to manage it by splitting into different parts. And the easiest way they organise is based on Specialisations, causing departments that hold the power of decision within their boundaries. Now when there is a need to take a collective decision for an organisation to deliver value, the decision making becomes ambiguous as it lies in different departments. Co-ordinating the decision making becomes an overhead and, at times, lead to power conflicts which is a significant constraint for the teams doing the actual work to deliver value.

Organisation Culture:

Schneider’s Model of Culture says, “Culture is how organisations do things to succeed”. Typically, most organisations believe that they succeed by getting and keeping control, like relying on hierarchies for stability and maintaining standards & procedures for every aspect. When encountered a problem that affects the entire organisation, the blame and finger-pointing emerge rather than finding a solution consensus. Then at the team level, thrusting them comply and follow directions.

Leadership:

Typically, the leaders of bureaucratic and controlling organisations exhibit reactive leadership, like being risk-averse and cautious over their actions, not challenging the status quo, complying with the operating procedures, and exercising control over collaboration.

If you noticed a pattern, all three challenges are interrelated.

Recommended Antidotes

To achieve shared Accountability, the organisation’s shared purpose alone wouldn’t be sufficient. It needs to unleash the power and humanising nature of the teams, understanding the shared sense of individuals.

This needs an organisation to organise around customers, which in turn helps teams manage themselves around value. On top of it, autonomy in decision making within boundaries hold the key. Or need to find ways to collaborate across specialisation driven departments and minimise decision making overheads.

Additionally, the organisation’s cultural beliefs should be supporting the purpose of individuals — succeeding by cultivating people who fulfil the organisation’s vision in which the leaders serve as gardeners nurturing the individuals.

Note: You shall explore, the tryScrum’s Agile programs to learn more about Organisation Structure, Culture & Leadership.

Resource: https://tryscrum.com/2021/05/05/challenges-for-shared-accountability/

Read More