A few weeks back I attended a session on ‘Non Violent Communication’
delivered by one of my colleagues in my organization. The session was extraordinary
and was something in line with what I always make as a point while guiding agile teams. (Special thanks to Adam for the session!)
This session led me to relate the emotions and the Non Violent
Communication of team members and the combined impact on the day to day team
activities. Before moving forward, let us see what veteran agile coach Lyssa
Adkin says for emotions.
Lyssa says in her book- Coaching
Agile Teams, -‘We practice mastering
ourselves in the moment so that we can better open ourselves to being a servant
leader and to harness our emotions and choose what to do with our reactions.
Yet we’re human. We react.’
Lyssa further explains-‘Sometimes, the team needs you to remain
unfiltered—to see your reaction as a reflection of what just happened. More often, though, your
reaction is about you and has no place in the coaching. Notice your reaction
and consciously choose whether to act on it. This is the practiced skill.’
So this gives Agile coaches a sense of their emotional
state. Now I come to emotional state of team members. Emotions play a vital
role, for ScrumMaster/Facilitator and for agile team members as well. When I
say about emotional state of team members, it may be individual’s emotions or
team’s emotions collectively depending upon the situations.
Emotions can be reflected directly or indirectly. There are
many factors which controls emotions. For example- Matter being discussed, Religious beliefs, Cultural differences etc and most importantly communication
(if not following the Non Violent Communication). If an agile team is not adopting Non Violent Communication, sometimes team members get hurt by the way communications take place. Violent communications not only demotivate people but also hinder transparency and collaboration. This creates problem for smooth functioning of a team. A good emotional state of
individuals creates a positive impact on team’s deliveries (sprint).
To control
impact of emotions on day to day life is not an easy task and when it comes to
team’s emotion, a facilitator cannot steer it however he or she could help to
understand the reasons effecting the emotions. If there are some points which could
be taken-care by facilitator to refrain negative emotions, he/she can make efforts
to control it. Sometimes people just need to know that their concerns have been
heard. However as I stated, it is not so easy task and needs a careful effort
otherwise can lead to more complications.
Each ceremony of scrum reflects emotional state of team yet
Sprint Retrospective is the ceremony where team can look back to whole sprint
and share their emotions during that sprint. These are the emotions which drive
what went good, what went wrong and what needs to be improved. So facilitator
must focus on understanding these emotions. If needed the results of
retrospectives may be forwarded to Enterprise Transition team/Project Management Office.
One important aspect of getting true value out of Sprint
Retrospectives is the games being played in Retrospectives. I have seen many
teams which do not invest time in such games and sometimes lead to dry and
monotonous retrospectives. In my next piece, I will come with such games which
make the retrospectives livelier. Till then keep me posting your views on
EMOTIONS.
