Search
Close this search box.
Search
Close this search box.
Search
Close this search box.

Scrum Values – The Leader’s perspective

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
WhatsApp

How Leaders can create the conditions where Scrum can thrive

As mentioned earlier, Scrum is founded on empiricism – transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Empiricism is only possible in certain cultures and contexts. Leaders have the role of creating and nurturing the culture and shaping the context.


Focus

Are your teams able to focus on one important mission/goal? Do they have one clear set of priorities? They know when to say “No it doesn’t make sense to start this now, our plate is full”. If you’re a senior leader this starts at the portfolio level – being able to say “let’s focus on these key initiatives” and mainly “let’s NOT do these other things until we actually have the organizational capacity to deal with them” creates the culture where the focus is possible. Ideally, Leaders make courageous choices and organize their teams around concrete Product Goals reflecting these choices.

Openness

Leaders should have open discussions about whether their organization/ecosystem is conducive to Empiricism and Scrum as well as inspect and adapt the cultural behaviors and standards that can be impediments to an effective Scrum culture. Are you able to tell your senior leader they are wrong? Are your people able to tell you you’re wrong? How open will the conversation be in the Sprint Review when leaders and teams get together to inspect an increment of work? Will teams open up to what’s really going on? Effective transparency and inspection require this openness. 

Commitment

Leaders commit to setting the Scrum Team up for success and supporting it through the removal of things that get in the way of flow and feedback loops. For example, an existing quarterly planning meeting requires a long detailed report which has no value for the Scrum Team. When this waste is raised the leader should work with the organization to remove the need for the Scrum Team to provide it. 

Courage 

Leaders have the courage to do the right thing when it comes to setting Scrum Teams up for success and when working on tough organizational problems. They make choices and communicate them and the rationale behind them. This doesn’t mean always siding with Scrum or the Scrum Team or making the popular decision. It might mean decisions that will create some hardship for them and others in the short term but are the right decisions when taking the long view. 

Respect

Leaders understand and respect the Scrum Team roles. They work with these roles within the Scrum accountabilities. Because the Scrum Team accountabilities do not directly map to the organization’s job titles and structures this may require the leader to help smooth out any disconnects. Leaders approach the different Scrum events with respect to the work being done, the opinions being shared, and the rules of the Scrum process. 

More thoughts about how Leaders can use the Scrum Values

Leaders should be open about the work, the challenges in the work, and the process/structural/transformational challenges. They should have the courage to share with other leaders and teams, in a transparent way, what the challenges are. They should be committed and focused on addressing these challenges. They should proceed with respect to the rules of the Scrum framework and the space the Scrum Team needs to thrive. Serving a Scrum Team requires a delicate balance. In some cases, you need to teach/mentor. In other cases, you need to let things be and actively do nothing. In some other cases, you need to proactively work with the Scrum Team on the issue. 

This provides an environment where leaders are demonstrating transparency and the values of Scrum. By courageously and openly sharing these challenges it provides an opportunity for others to provide insights and solutions.  

In summary, The Scrum Values of Focus, Commitment, Courage, Openness, and Respect all correlate to an environment that enables Trust, Empiricism, and Self-Management that in turn support innovation and value creation. 

Creating a Culture aligned with the Scrum Values

Creating a culture that thrives upon the Scrum Values is a tough mission. A key issue is that inspecting and adapting the culture is hard when the culture isn’t very transparent. Scrum helps by making the culture and context painfully transparent. Leaders should pay close attention to the tensions that Scrum highlights between its empirical self-management approach and the current organizational culture. 

Addressing these tensions becomes a key leadership role. 

One additional way Leaders can communicate the importance of the Scrum Values is to start by applying the Scrum Values of Openness, Courage, Focus, Respect, and Commitment to their work and interactions with others – including but not limited to the Scrum Team. For example, when presented with an opportunity to be focused they should call out that they are following the value of ‘focus’ and then describe its use. By constantly re-enforcing the Scrum Values and providing context they become role models for the Scrum Teams. 

One more suggestion is to run a values-focused Retrospective where you explore current strengths and opportunities in your culture, from a Scrum Values perspective. This works well as a skip-level Retrospective with some representatives, or with certain roles such as Product Owners and Scrum Masters, or as a wider event with entire Teams.

There are some situations where Leadership teams become Scrum Teams – in these situations, this helps the leaders understand and model the Scrum behaviors and activities as well as helping them use Scrum to implement Scrum. Introducing Scrum is a complex problem which is a perfect context to use Scrum. 

Each situation is different which requires Leaders to apply Scrum in a different way, however ultimately leaders are accountable for creating an environment where Scrum thrives and teams leverage empiricism and self-management to solve complex problems and create value.

A Leader can leverage the Scrum Values as they figure out how to structure a Scrum Team and as they engage with the team. Our next post in the Scrum Guide Leader’s Perspective will cover the Leader’s perspective on the Scrum Team roles.

Subscribe for Email Updates:

Categories:

Tags:

Webinar
Enterprise DevOps
Lean Agile Organization
Lean-Agile Budgeting
Releases Using Lean
Kanban Game
Advanced Roadmaps
Nexus Integration Team
Introduction to ATDD
Agile Risk Management
Risk Management on Agile Projects
Nexus
Agile Contracts Best Practices
The Agile Coach
speed at scale
Coaching Agile Teams
Agile Israel Events
Pomodoro Technique
Built-In Quality
Test Driven Development
Continuous Delivery
Covid19
Scrum Values
agileisrael
LAB
Acceptance Test-Driven Development
Continuous Integration
Lean-Agile Software Development
LPM
Lean and Agile Principles and Practices
Jira admin
Certification
ALM Tools
Agile Community
SAFe Release Planning
SAFe
TDD
Nexus and SAFe
Agile Release Planning
ROI
Applying Agile Methodology
Perfection Game
Agile Marketing
Confluence
Scrum Guide
ART Success
System Integration Environments
Slides
Agile Program
Implementation of Lean and Agile
Continuous Deployment
Agile Testing Practices
Rapid RTC
Agile Delivery
Sprint Iteration
Agility
Change Management
Agile Assembly Architecture
Agile Project Management
Limiting Work in Progress
Jira
SAFe DevOps
Scrum Master Role
Product Management
Managing Risk on Agile Projects
Implementing SAFe
GanttBan
BDD
Process Improvement
Agile Product Ownership
Keith Sawyer
Lean Agile Basics
AI
WIP
Risk Management in Kanban
SA
Agile and DevOps Journey
Artificial Intelligence
Continuous Improvement
Lean Budgeting
Software Development
Games and Exercises
Sprint Retrospectives
The Kanban Method
Lean Agile
ScrumMaster Tales
Continuous Planning
Lean Software Development
Accelerate Value Delivery At Scale
Quality Assurance
Release Train Engineer
EOS®
RTE Role
Value Streams
Kaizen Workshop
Self-organization
Manage Budget Creation
Agile Release Management
Large Scale Scrum
Team Flow
AI Artificial Intelligence
Daily Scrum
Introduction to Test Driven Development
Agile Development
AgileSparks
Agile Outsourcing
An Appreciative Retrospective
Jira Plans
Professional Scrum Product Owner
chatgpt
speed @ scale
Planning
Agile Mindset
Scrum Primer
A Kanban System for Software Engineering
Agile Exercises
Lean Risk Management
Legacy Enterprise
Agile Techniques
Portfolio for Jira
Engineering Practices
Iterative Incremental Development
Agile Israel
Scrum Master
predictability
User stories
RTE
Kanban Basics
Tips
Reading List
lean agile change management
Business Agility
Lean Agile Management
Managing Projects
Professional Scrum Master
QA
Story Slicing
Hybrid Work
Agile in the Enterprise
Lean Agile Leadership
Agile Basics
Scrum.org
Nexus vs SAFe
Scrum
Entrepreneurial Operating System®
Agile Product Development
ARTs
Program Increment
Agile for Embedded Systems
System Archetypes
Development Value Streams
Rovo
Frameworks
transformation
Professional Scrum with Kanban
Sprint Planning
Nexus and Kanban
What Is Kanban
Elastic Leadership
Lean Startup
IT Operations
Amdocs
Presentation
Legacy Code
ATDD
RSA
Lean and Agile Techniques
Kanban
ATDD vs. BDD
Agile
PI Objectives
Scaled Agile Framework
Agile India
Operational Value Stream
Jira Cloud
Systems Thinking
NIT
SPC
Certified SAFe
Scrum and XP
Principles of Lean-Agile Leadership
Agile Games
Risk-aware Product Development
Tools
DevOps
Agile Games and Exercises
Kanban Kickstart Example
Video
POPM
PI Planning
Code
Spotify
Software Development Estimation
Kanban 101
Atlaassian
System Team
LeSS
Kaizen
Scrum With Kanban
Retrospectives
Effective Agile Retrospectives
Atlassian
Agile Project
Achieve Business Agility
AgileSparks
Logo
Enable registration in settings - general

Contact Us

Request for additional information and prices

AgileSparks Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter, and stay updated on the latest Agile news and events

This website uses Cookies to provide a better experience
Shopping cart