Photo of a multicolored vertical rug by John Schaidler on Unsplash

Scrum Masters, Adapt!

I’m writing a three part series on the pillars of Scrum. These are at the heart of what is means to “do Agile” in my mind. Those three pillars of scrum are Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation. Today I want to talk about what I think is the most important pillar for a scrum master, adaptation.

Maybe you’ve taken a certification class or read a book or watched a few videos while learning Scrum. Brace yourself – the first time trying to apply the scrum guide in the real world will hurt. And the next few times. And so on. It’s OK, you are learning about the environment you are in. Scrum Masters must be adaptable. I don’t mean we should be doormats, what I mean is we should internalize and follow the spirit of Scrum, not only the written words in a book. This takes practice and self reflection. While scrum masters are champions of the process, we value people over process. If I have to choose between my team and the scrum guide, I adapt for my team every time.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art. From the outside, art school looks like a bunch of drawing people, having long discussions about truth and beauty and making messes. Here’s a secret: a great art program teaches you how to analyze and solve problems. It’s about empirical processes and critical thinking. Are you still with me? What I’m trying to say is we learn a lot about being adaptable and accepting change. Crazy, right? Don’t tell anyone else or everyone will ditch Psychology and Computer Science for an art major. Or maybe not. Three hours of drawing some guy who paints himself blue is not for everyone.

People new to drawing, just like learning anything else new, tend to stick to “the rules”. Picasso was a classically trained artist. Go look at his early work. He learned the rules, and once he took them to heart and knew them well, he broke them. Strategically. Creative people know how to break rules. Actually, what they know is (secret #two guys!) there are no rules, only guidelines. We don’t really break rules if you think about it. We push boundaries with intent and purpose.

Learn Scrum and other agile ways of working. Practice. Then start to make intentional decisions that on paper anyway “aren’t Scrum”. Yeah, I know there are those who would say I am wrong. They will say I’m “not doing Scrum”. I see the information in the scrum guide as training wheels on a bike or better yet, a flashlight. When you are in the dark, you need the light, you cling to it to be safe. Once you are in a well lit place, you pull out the flashlight to check out the back of the cabinet or see better while you fix something. Don’t be afraid to push adaptation to the edge in your scrum practice. You will learn the most when you experiment.