Scrum Mastery

by Geoff Watts

Working as a servant-leader is an alternative approach for many people and organisations. Servant-leaders flatten the hierarchies of their organisations, tear up old standards and challenge the traditions and institutionalised working processes of their companies. At some point, all ScrumMasters will be faced with the prospect of introducing some radical concepts to the team and the organisation in order to continue the journey to a more responsive, high-performing agile structure. Great ScrumMasters are prepared to stand out and break the mould. They pioneer new techniques and strategies in the pursuit of excellence and performance no matter how counter-culture they may seem. Even after many years of experimenting with Scrum, the path is still not well trodden and there is still no blueprint for how organisations should be structured and organised in order to be successful. Therefore ScrumMasters must be prepared to challenge the status quo and do things differently. This doesn’t mean that ScrumMasters should be contrary merely for the sake of it. It does, however, often mean that great ScrumMasters will have to go against the grain of conventional wisdom and, almost certainly, take the more difficult option available to them if the easier option is likely to not be radical enough to alter long-term behaviour. As teams develop and grow, there will even be opportunities to look for alternatives to some of the Scrum practices, especially when the team reach Ri. Be prepared ...