Scrum Master Stances

Being a Scrum Master is not an easy job and it’s also typically misunderstood. There is complexity and nuance and there’s also moving Developers tickets across the Jira board and scheduling all of the team’s meetings. Oh wait, the Scrum Master shouldn’t actually do those last two…

According to the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Master is the person accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness. They are also accountable for establishing Scrum and helping everyone (within the team and organization) understand Scrum theory. That seems like a lot of weight to put on one person’s shoulders, right?. Fortunately, there is an approach that can help the Scrum Masters out there.

SCRUM MASTER STANCES

In this blog, I am going to explore four Scrum Master stances that can help a Scrum Team and the organization be more effective at delivering value, become more self-managing, use empiricism to navigate complexity, and more.

The four Scrum Master stances are:

• • Teaching

  • Mentoring

  • Facilitating

  • Coaching

Before we dive into what each of those means, I would like to point out that using these stances and knowing when to use them takes A LOT of time, practice, learning, and feedback. Contributing factors on when to take a certain Scrum Master stance could be the maturity level of the Scrum Master. Or the maturity level of the individual or team. Or the relationship between the Scrum Master and the individual or team. Or what the team has tried in the past. Or the constraints the team has. And more. The point is: this is complex.

TEACHING

“As a teacher, I will tell you the answer.”

When a Scrum Master takes a teaching stance, this means that they are offering knowledge.

As a teacher, the Scrum Master is going to tell you the answer. Maybe you have never heard of Scrum before. If that’s the case, the Scrum Master might take a teaching stance so that you have a baseline level of knowledge to build upon. This could happen with teams or it could happen with stakeholders and those working with teams. Typically, one of the first places we want to start is by educating people. We shouldn’t expect people new to Scrum to understand it - education is crucial.

In short, a teaching stance can create a shared understanding so everyone is speaking the same language.

MENTORING

“As a mentor, I will share my experience.”

When a Scrum Master takes a mentoring stance, this means that they will share their experience. 

Perhaps, I’m a new Scrum Master and I’m working with my very first team. The team is running into challenges and I’m not sure how to handle them, so I might seek out a more experienced Scrum Master to have a discussion. The more experienced Scrum Master might say ‘well, I’ve seen that a bunch of times and these are the approaches I’ve taken, and here is what worked and what didn’t work.’ Understanding that one person’s experiences are not a one-size-fits-all approach, the discussion will give the new Scrum Master some ideas to think through. Maybe the Scrum Master wants to try one of those ideas, maybe it spurred a new idea of their own or maybe they will just file it away in their Scrum Master toolbox for another day.

In short, a mentoring stance can help someone learn and get unstuck by understanding what others have experienced.

FACILITATING

“As a facilitator, I will guide the process.”

When a Scrum Master takes a facilitating stance, this means that they will guide the process. 

The root of facilitation - facil - means “to make easy.” If I am a Scrum Master facilitating a meeting, I will make sure that I understand the desired outcome of the meeting, who will be there, the time constraints, what tools and supplies are available, etc. By understanding that information, I can help move the meeting along, keep people out of rabbit holes, avoid those pesky squirrels, and help bring tangents back so that the focus remains on the desired outcome.

In short, a facilitating stance can help make meetings, communications, and decisions easier.

COACHING

 

“As a coach, I will help you uncover.”

When a Scrum Master takes a coaching stance, they are helping the coachee uncover their own answer. 

This is the most nuanced and misunderstood of the four Scrum Master stances. This is not a sports coach yelling on the sideline. This is more in line with a life coach or relationship coach. As the coach, I believe that you have the answer inside of you and I am going to ask powerful questions so that you can uncover your own solution. This will lead the coachee to have more ownership over their destiny and less reliance on others. As a coach, it is not my role to provide my desired solution or what I think is the best course of action.

In short, I am there to support someone in finding their own answer.

PIVOTING BETWEEN SCRUM MASTER STANCES

As I mentioned above, pivoting between the stances is NOT EASY. It’s actually REALLY HARD. Even if I am a seasoned Scrum Master with years and years and teams and teams of experience across different organizations, when I am faced with a challenge, there is often no “right” stance to take. It is very situational.

Let’s look at an example…

The Scrum Team consistently bites off more than they can chew. They’ve carried over Product Backlog items the past five Sprints and haven’t met their Sprint Goal once. As a Scrum Master, there is clearly room for improvement. But, what do you do? What stance would be helpful? And does helpful mean you want to tell them what to do? Or does helpful mean you want them to think about it and figure it out on their own?

Maybe there is no rush, so you take a coaching stance by asking, “Hey team, what’s something we could do to finish all of the work in our Sprint Backlog?”

Or maybe there is a HUGE rush and you need to mentor the team by sharing what you have seen work in the past.

Maybe you are new to the team and discover that they have never had Scrum training and don’t understand the accountabilities or events. In this situation, maybe a teaching stance makes sense.

Or maybe, you want to facilitate a discussion about what support they need in order to start moving forward as a more effective team.

All of these approaches are valid and depend on the situation.

IN CONCLUSION

As you can see, which Scrum Master stance to take requires several factors. 

1. First, you need to know what the different stances mean so you can incorporate them. 
2. Then, you need to understand the situation, the context, the players, the constraints, the goals, etc.
3. Last, practice, experiment, and get feedback.

Understanding the context will help you decide which stance to use. Pivoting between the stances is complex and takes time to build confidence. However, with some experimentation and feedback, using the Scrum Master stances can help your teams and organizations maximize their potential!