Scrum Masters are accountable for the effectiveness of the Scrum Team. In a way, the goal is to get your team to high-performing stage where the benefits of teamwork starts to really show.
This is where the team starts to act as a cohesive unit and skyrockets their productivity. They are able to deliver great results and collaborate effectively.
There is no one way to help your team get to that stage, but you should know how your team develops and matures as they learn to work better together.
However, there are a few ways how you as a Scrum Master can help them get to that stage faster. In my latest video, I’m sharing a useful model that can help you better serve your Scrum team and set them up for success.
Tools and practices for high-performing Scrum Teams
There are a few ways how you can help your team go through the development stages with ease. It is especially important when a new team is being created from scratch.
If you do nothing at all the transition will take months depending on different factors. And during this time the team’s ability to deliver value will be greatly reduced.
You can use various tools and practices during this time to help. Proper training is very important at this stage, when the team is still figuring out new ways of working.
Depending on the level of knowledge of a team, I usually run a couple of different workshops. The most important ones in my opinion are the following:
- Team chartering workshop to set up working agreements, define skills and knowledge on the team, and start off of a strong foundation.
- Educational workshops on Scrum and Agile to create alignment around roles and processes.
The next step would be implementing a regular inspection and adaptation discussion. If you are working with Scrum, then retrospective is a perfect place. It’s important to set the right tone for this meeting right from the start and get the team into a habit of doing it.
I use some basic foundational techniques for running retrospectives with new teams. Structure is really necessary here and I recommend using something more organized than just ‘what went well, what didn’t go well’ approach.
Not sure where to start with a new team?
I’d like to share a great tool with you that I have created based on my experiences with many Scrum Teams that I have helped bring to higher levels of maturity. I’ve gathered all the knowledge I have on this subject in a concise guide that you can use with your teams.
It is called “New Team Kick-Off“.
It’s a detailed training plan that contains all the information you need to bring your team from the first stages of development to a stable stage of performance.
In this bundle, I share examples of how you can approach any new team. I share five facilitation guides with Miro templates that you can use right away.
You could buy those guides separately, but then you wouldn’t get my training plans and a deep-dive into team development. You also wouldn’t be able to save 15% on all of those facilitation guides.