Scrum Events didn’t go anywhere as we’re all working remotely and I believe the role of a Scrum Master in facilitating discussions became even more important now. Many professionals are still trying to figure out how to get the same results in this new way of working.
After having run various workshops and discussions in a virtual setting, I’ve collected some tips & tricks that I’d like to share with you. It’s no rocket science, but I believe it can help you to make your online meetings more productive.
Watch the video to know what the five tips are.
The five tips for remote facilitation
Here is a quick recap of all the tips I mention in the video:
- Spend enough time to prepare
- Set working agreements upfront
- Create a collaborative space
- Write it down
- Keep it small
In the end, it is quite straightforward. I hope that the examples I give along the way make it easy to apply in your situation.
Tools to help you in remote facilitation
There are many modern tools available to you that can help you create collaborative space in your Sprint Events, while also keeping the discussions small. In addition, they can be a great way to document everything.
Let me share some tools you might want to check out. I’m in no way associated with any of the companies, so I’m just sharing the tools I know about:
As I said before, smaller groups will have a much more engaging and productive discussion. So if you have many people in a meeting, you can still create small group discussions with conferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. During an online call, you can create so-called breakout rooms by splitting the participants into groups. This would imitate an in-person setting where people are seated at different tables, for example, and work together as a team, instead of working with everyone in the room.
I know that some companies have restrictions on what tools can be used. It just means that you’ll need more prep work done upfront.
For example, if you can’t use external websites to collect feedback, ask colleagues to send you ideas prior to the meeting, then conduct a voting session in advance by asking everyone to send you their votes. That way in the meeting, you focus on discussion and timeboxing.
So here are some of my tips & tricks to the facilitation of remote work and I hope you can start using this advice right away with your teams to create engaging and productive Sprint Events and other meetings.
If you are interested in learning more and seeing remote tools in action, join me for one of the upcoming events. You can attend a free event or register for a full-day workshop, and even watch replays of my previous events.