Podcasts about Scrum

Scott Smith: Using MIRO to Build a Living Archive of Learning Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "We're in a servant leadership role. So, ask: is the team thriving? That's a huge indication of success." - Scott Smith   For Scott, success as a Scrum Master isn't measured by velocity charts or burn-down graphs—it's measured by whether the people are thriving. This includes everyone: the development team and the Product Owner.  As a servant leader, Scott's focus is on creating conditions where teams can flourish, and he has practical ways to gauge that health. Scott does a light touch check on a regular basis and a deeper assessment quarterly. Mid-sprint, he conducts what he calls a "vibe" check—a quick pulse to understand how people are feeling and what they need. During quarterly planning, the team retrospects and celebrates achievements from the past quarter, keeping and tracking actions to ensure continuous improvement isn't just talked about but lived. Scott's approach recognizes that success is both about the work being done and the people doing it. When teams feel supported, heard, and valued, the work naturally flows better. This people-first perspective defines what great servant leadership looks like in practice.   Self-reflection Question: How often do you check in on whether your team is truly thriving, and what specific indicators tell you they are? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: MIRO as a Living History Museum "Use the multiple retros in the MIRO board as a shared history museum for the team." - Scott Smith   Scott leverages MIRO not just as a tool for running retrospectives but as a living archive of team learning and growth. He uses MIROVERSE templates to bring diversity to retrospective conversations, exploring the vast library of pre-built formats that offer themed and structured approaches to reflection. The magic happens when Scott treats each retrospective board not as a disposable artifact but as part of the team's shared history museum.  Over time, the accumulation of retrospective boards tells the story of the team's journey—what they struggled with, what they celebrated, what actions they took, and how they evolved. This approach transforms retrospectives from isolated events into a continuous narrative of improvement. Teams can look back at previous retros to see patterns, track whether actions were completed, and recognize how far they've come. MIRO becomes both the canvas for current reflection and the archive of collective learning, making improvement visible and tangible across time.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Welcome to Episode 416 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this week’s episode, Ben finally has a chance to sit down with Henrik Wojcik. Henrik has been a long-time listener as well as a fellow Microsoft MVP in Security and we finally had the chance to sit down and record an episode together, something we’ve talked about doing for years. As they sit down and enjoy a sunny afternoon in at Microsoft Ignite in San Francisco they discuss security in the financial sector, EU regulations (N2 and DORA), integrating Data Lake with Sentinel, optimizing log analytics, and the latest on Security Copilot and E5 licensing. They also spend some time chatting about some of their conference highlights, assisting as proctors in the hands-on labs, and the unique experience of Ignite in San Francisco. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Microsoft Ignite (with sessions on demand) Microsoft Ignite Book of News Catch up on Microsoft Security sessions and announcements from Ignite 2025 Microsoft Sentinel benefit for Microsoft 365 E5, A5, F5, and G5 customers Learn about Security Copilot inclusion in Microsoft 365 E5 subscription Microsoft Sentinel data lake: Unify signals, cut costs, and power agentic AI What is Microsoft Sentinel data lake? KQL and the Microsoft Sentinel data lake Henrik F. Wojcik Henrik has worked in the IT industry since 2003. He’s always had a passion for learning new technologies and expanding his knowledge through various means such as online courses, webinars, and reading up on the latest developments in the industry. Throughout his career, he’s gained experience in various areas of IT, making him a true jack of all trades. However, his latest interests lie in the security space, modern workplace and management in Azure, with a particular focus on cyber security. He has experience working with products such as Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Identity, Defender for Cloud Apps, Defender for Office 365, Conditional Access, Microsoft Sentinel, and Microsof t Entra ID. His primary focus is on security on Azure workloads and identity (Entra ID). He prioritizes security awareness and believe that learning never stops, which is why He’s always eager to expand my knowledge and skillset. In the past, He’s also worked with various tools and technologies such as Cisco, Citrix, Dynamics AX, Exchange, ITIL, Azure, SCCM & SCOM, Scrum & Kanban, VMware, Windows Servers, and Windows Desktops. About the sponsors Would you like to become the irreplaceable Microsoft 365 resource for your organization? Let us know!

Scott Smith: Building a Coaching Service Where Survey Scores Become Living Improvement Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Success is about feedback from coaching clients." - Scott Smith   Scott is tackling one of the most challenging aspects of organizational transformation: turning annual survey results into continuous improvement. Working with a domain of about 30 people, Scott is exploring how to create a coaching service that doesn't just react to once-a-year data but actively drives ongoing growth. The typical pattern in many organizations is familiar—conduct an annual survey, review the scores, maybe have a few discussions, and then wait another year. Scott is experimenting with a different approach.  He's setting up a coaching service that focuses on real-time feedback from the people being coached, making improvement a living practice rather than an annual event. The strategy starts with a pilot, testing the concept before scaling across the entire domain. Scott's measure of success is pragmatic and human-centered: feedback from coaching clients. Not abstract metrics or theoretical frameworks, but whether the people receiving coaching find value in what's being offered.  This approach reflects a fundamental principle of Agile coaching—start small, experiment, gather feedback, and iterate based on what actually works for the people involved. Scott is building improvement infrastructure that puts continuous learning at the center, transforming how organizations think about growth from an annual checkbox into an ongoing conversation.   Self-reflection Question: If you were to implement a coaching service in your organization, how would you measure its success beyond traditional survey scores?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Welcome to Wednesday's Rugby Daily, with Cameron Hill.Coming up, Ireland find out their opponents for the Rugby World Cup in Australia,Mack Hansen is in a race to be fit for the Six Nations,The Stormers head coach has come out strongly against yellow cards for scrum penalties,And could we see a league-union crossover next year?Rugby on Off The Ball with Bank of Ireland | #NeverStopCompeting

I don't want a team of people who are so frantic and actually being unproductive because they don't know actually if they're coming or going. Bee Craft, Head of Performance Marketing at Golfbreaks, has found the cure for frantic, noisy marketing environments: the scrum methodology. On the podcast, she explains: How applying structured two-week sprints to campaign planning brings down the stress and increases productivity levels Why scrums are great for accountability and transparency in marketing How it's not just about the data - but also very much about humans, on both sides of the marketing coin.  

Scott Smith: Why Great Scrum Masters Create Space for Breaks Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Think of the people involved. Put yourself in the shoes of the other." - Scott Smith   Scott found himself in the middle of rising tension as voices escalated between the Product Owner and the development team. The PO was harsh, emotions were running high, and the conflict was intensifying with each exchange. In that moment, Scott knew he had to act.  He stepped in with a simple but powerful reminder: "We're on the same team." That pause—that momentary break—allowed everyone to step back and reset. Both the PO and the team members later thanked Scott for his intervention, acknowledging they needed that space to cool down and refocus on their shared outcome.  Scott's approach centers on empathy and perspective-taking. He emphasizes thinking about the people involved and putting yourself in their shoes. When tensions rise, sometimes the most valuable contribution a Scrum Master can make is creating space for a break, reminding everyone of the shared goal, and helping teams focus on the outcome rather than the conflict. It's not about taking sides—it's about serving the team by being the calm presence that brings everyone back to what matters most.   Self-reflection Question: When you witness conflict between team members or between the team and Product Owner, do you tend to jump in immediately or create space for the parties to find common ground themselves? Featured Book of the Week: An Ex-Manager Who Believed "It was about having someone who believed in me." - Scott Smith   Scott's most influential "book" isn't printed on pages—it's a person. After spending 10 years as a Business Analyst, Scott decided to take the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) course and look for a Scrum Master position. That transition wasn't just about skills or certification; it was about having an ex-manager who inspired him to chase his goals and truly believed in him. This person gave Scott the confidence to make a significant career pivot, demonstrating that sometimes the most powerful catalyst for growth is someone who sees your potential before you fully recognize it yourself. Scott's story reminds us that great leadership isn't just about managing tasks—it's about inspiring people to reach for goals they might not have pursued alone. The belief and encouragement of a single person can change the trajectory of someone's entire career.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Is Scrum Slowly Taking Away Your Will To Live?On the surface, it sounds innocent, doesn't it? Cheerful even. Like something British schoolchildren might play on a muddy field before promptly breaking an ankle. But no. In reality, Scrum is a framework for managing work in software development, and it is somehow both wildly popular and completely misunderstood by… well, almost everyone.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Fredrik och Kristoffer snackar musik, böcker, och kodstädande. Kristoffer överväger ett hus, som tillbehör till sina trummor. Efter att ha avhandlat bra ljud på olika sätt diskuterar vi böcker och hur trevligt det känns att läsa lite längre saker. Fredrik har tidiga intryck av Christopher Alexanders A pattern language och har läst ut Kent Becks Tidy first. Som avslutning diskuterar vi att försöka städa och modernisera sina kodbaser, både med och utan stöd av böcker. Ett stort tack till Cloudnet som sponsrar vår VPS! Har du kommentarer, frågor eller tips? Vi är @kodsnack, @thieta, @krig, och @bjoreman på Mastodon, har en sida på Facebook och epostas på info@kodsnack.se om du vill skriva längre. Vi läser allt som skickas. Gillar du Kodsnack får du hemskt gärna recensera oss i iTunes! Du kan också stödja podden genom att ge oss en kaffe (eller två!) på Ko-fi, eller handla något i vår butik. Länkar Mëtta - få 20% på ditt första köp med koden "Kodsnack". Audient ID14 och ASP880 Jeff Bezos hyrde Venedig Room tone - Criterion collections rumsljuds-video IR - impulse response Be Google-högtalare spela ambiens Studio Ghibli Ken Follett En värld utan slut Earthsea-serien Black Sabbath Geezer Butler och hans självbiografi Tony Iommi och hans självbiografi Stöd oss på Ko-fi! A pattern language "Den andra boken" är The timeless way of building The nature of order Tidy first Kent Beck If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter Scrum-guiden Refactoring Extract helper Oskar heter skaparen av bland annat Townscaper. Han gästade också avsnitt 448 Notes on the synthesis of form Structured design ML Ocaml Rust Kubernetes Kubernetes client för Javascript Request-biblioteket som är nedlagt Fetch Typescript Commonjs ESM AMD - asynchronous module definition Eric Normand gästade avsnitt 570 Grokking simplicity Titlar För att kunna spela in trummor Lika långt från virveltrumman Ett jätteavancerat ljudkort En trumma för sig Plocka ut reverbet Ambiensen av ett datacenter Ljudet av Ghibli som pågår Arg på Ken Follett Arbetarklasskillar från Birmingham Rock'n'roll-lever Inte en jättestor bok Ett mönster för allt Vurmandet för små byar En perfekt stad Inget ägandeskap Tvättat bort allt konkret Bara det konkreta Tekniker för att sortera dina hålkort Hur man gör saker inkrementellt bättre

Welcome to another episode of Our Agile Tales, Navigating World Crises: The Agile-Law-AI Alliance in Action!In this continuation of our conversation with Ondřej Dvořák, CEO of AgiLawyer and COPS Solutions, we go deeper into how you actually run and scale an agile, cross-border legal-aid initiative in the middle of a war. If the first episode was about launching Linking Help, this one is about surviving the scale-up.Ondřej walks us through the messy, very human side of scaling legal aid for Ukrainian refugees: from dealing with thousands of requests in a language he didn't speak, to building a “clearing desk” and help desk function led by Ukrainian lawyers, to teaching volunteer lawyers across multiple countries how to work in a pull-based, Kanban system when they're used to command-and-control and assigned work.We explore how culture and ways of working showed up in very concrete ways - why France “just got it” from day one, while countries like Romania needed more support and education before becoming top performers. Ondřej talks about how simplifying the Kanban system (fewer columns, fewer concepts, one clear task: connect the person to a lawyer) was crucial to onboarding busy legal professionals quickly in a crisis.We also dig into scaling patterns: how they expanded country by country, used “early adopter” lawyers to grow local networks, and centralized the help desk while keeping case work decentralized. From there, the conversation shifts to constraints: the difficulty of fundraising for legal aid (which is hard to “picture”), differences in how pro bono is treated across jurisdictions, and the legal and ethical challenges of using AI to support legal work, especially questions of accountability and liability when AI-generated guidance might be wrong.If you're interested in how Agile, Kanban, and crisis-driven decision-making play out in the real world, across borders, cultures, and regulatory systems, then this episode is a rich case study in making agility practical, humane, and scalable beyond software.Episode Outline00:00 Introduction & recap of Part 101:05 The language barrier: Ukrainian requests and the need for a “clearing desk”07:58 Designing the help desk workflow10:45 Teaching lawyers a new way of working: pull vs. command-and-control13:12 Culture in action: why France “just worked” and Romania needed more coaching16:00 Simplifying Kanban for legal work18:48 Scaling country by country: early adopters, bar associations, and building local communities22:10 Centralized help desk, decentralized service: funding, hiring Ukrainian students, and managing demand24:55 Business model and funding constraints: the challenge of raising money for legal aid26:10 Legal and AI constraints: pro bono differences, AI-assisted legal opinions, and accountability28:30 Reflections on crisis as a catalyst and the future of global, AI-supported legal aid29:07 ConclusionAbout Ondrej DvorakOndřej is the co-founder of Linking Help, a nonprofit that mobilized legal aid for Ukrainian refugees using Scrum and Kanban to coordinate real-time support. It's a powerful story of how agility can make a real difference in humanitarian crises—far beyond the domain of business. Andre's work shows how Agile thinking can help even the most traditional sectors become more humane, responsive, and resilient. You can follow Ondřej on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ondrej-dvorak-agile/Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

Scott Smith: The Spotlight Failure That Taught a Silent Lesson About Recognition Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Not everybody enjoys the limelight and being called out, even for great work." - Scott Smith   Scott was facilitating a multi-squad showcase with over 100 participants, and everything seemed to be going perfectly. Each squad had their five-minute slot to share achievements from the sprint, and Scott was coordinating the entire event. When one particular team member delivered what Scott considered fantastic work, he couldn't help but publicly recognize them during the introduction.  It seemed like the perfect moment to celebrate excellence in front of the entire organization. But then his phone rang. The individual he had praised was unhappy—really unhappy. What Scott learned in that moment transformed his approach to recognition forever. The person was quiet, introverted, and conservative by nature.  Being called out without prior notice or permission in front of 100+ people wasn't a reward—it was uncomfortable and unwelcome. Scott discovered that even positive recognition requires consent and awareness of individual preferences. Some people thrive in the spotlight, while others prefer their contributions to be acknowledged privately. The relationship continued well afterward, but the lesson stuck: check in with individuals before publicly recognizing them, understanding that great coaching means respecting how people want to be celebrated, not just that they should be celebrated.   Self-reflection Question: How do you currently recognize team members' achievements, and have you asked each person how they prefer to be acknowledged for their contributions?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

This week, Mike is joined by Ben Johnson, CEO and Founder of Particle 41, for a sharp, energizing look at what it really takes to lead in today's tech world. With more than 20 years of software experience and over $30 million raised across five startups, Ben brings the hard-earned lessons only a seasoned builder can offer. Ben breaks down the traits of effective tech leadership—setting a clear vision, empowering teams, and avoiding micromanagement. He shares candid stories from his early days as a founder, including a memorable misunderstanding of "burn rate." He explains why learning to speak the language of investors is essential for every entrepreneur. The conversation dives into what it takes to build strong, predictable teams through communication, structure, and proven frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, and the "Cone of Certainty." Ben also highlights the importance of starting with an MVP, validating demand, and iterating quickly—illustrated through the growth of Forte, an online music lesson platform that found success through smart, agile execution. Ben also opens up about the four pillars that ground his life—faith, family, fitness, and finance—and shares a touching story about helping his son conquer a fear of heights, a moment that shaped his own philosophy on courage and leadership. Ben then previews Particle 41's new AI Transformation service, designed to help companies integrate AI through smarter workflows and human-like digital agents. His perspective is clear: AI isn't a threat—it's a tool every business can harness to unlock its next level of performance. Packed with practical insights and inspiring lessons, this episode is a must-listen for anyone building products, leading teams, or stepping into the future of tech.   IN THIS EPISODE:

BONUS: When AI Knows Your Emotional Triggers Better Than You Do — Navigating Mindfulness in the AI Age In this thought-provoking conversation, former computer engineer and mindfulness leader Mo Edjlali explores how AI is reshaping human meaning, attention, and decision-making. We examine the critical question: what happens when AI knows your emotional triggers better than you know yourself? Mo shares insights on remaining sovereign over our attention, avoiding dependency in both mindfulness and technology, and preparing for a world where AI may outperform us in nearly every domain. From Technology Pioneer to Mindfulness Leader "I've been very heavily influenced by technology, computer engineering, software development. I introduced DevOps to the federal government. But I have never seen anything change the way in which human beings work together like Agile." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's journey began in the tech world — graduating in 1998, he was on the front line of the internet explosion. He remembers the days before the internet, watched online multiplayer games emerge in 1994, and worked on some of the most complicated tech projects in federal government. Technology felt almost like magic, advancing at a logarithmic rate faster than anything else. But when Mo discovered mindfulness practices 12-15 years ago, he found something equally transformative: actual exercises to develop emotional intelligence and soft skills that the tech world talked about but never taught. Mindfulness provided logical, practical methods that didn't require "woo-woo" beliefs — just practice that fundamentally changed his relationship with his mind. This dual perspective — tech innovator and mindfulness teacher — gives Mo a unique lens for understanding where we're headed. The Shift from Liberation to Dependency "I was fortunate enough, the teachers I was exposed to, the mentality was very much: you're gonna learn how to meditate on your own, in silence. There is no guru. There is no cult of personality." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies a dangerous drift in the mindfulness movement: from teaching independence to creating dependency. His early training, particularly a Vipassana retreat led by S.N. Goenka, modeled true liberation — you show up for 10 days, pay nothing, receive food and lodging, learn to meditate, then donate what you can at the end. Critically, you leave being able to meditate on your own without worshiping a teacher or subscribing to guided meditations. But today's commercialized mindfulness often creates the opposite: powerful figures leading fiefdoms, consumers taught to listen to guided meditations rather than meditate independently. This dependency model mirrors exactly what's happening with AI — systems designed to make us rely on them rather than empower our own capabilities. Recognizing this parallel is essential for navigating both fields wisely. AI as a New Human Age, Not Just Another Tool "With AI, this is different. This isn't like mobile computing, this isn't like the internet. We're entering a new age. We had the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Age. When you enter a new age, it's almost like knocking the chess board over, flipping the pieces upside down. We're playing a new game." — Mo Edjlali   Mo frames AI not as another technology upgrade but as the beginning of an entirely new human age. In a new age, everything shifts: currency, economies, government, technology, even religions. The documentary about the Bronze Age collapse taught him that when ages turn over, the old rules no longer apply. This perspective explains why AI feels fundamentally different from previous innovations. ChatGPT 2.0 was interesting; ChatGPT 3 blew Mo's mind and made him realize we're witnessing something unprecedented. While he's optimistic about the potential for sustainable abundance and extraordinary breakthroughs, he's also aware we're entering both the most exciting and most frightening time to be alive. Everything we learned in high school might be proven wrong as AI rewrites human knowledge, translates animal languages, extends longevity, and achieves things we can't even imagine. The Mental Health Tsunami and Loss of Purpose "If we do enter the age of abundance, where AI could do anything that human beings could do and do it better, suddenly the system we have set up — where our purpose is often tied to our income and our job — suddenly, we don't need to work. So what is our purpose?" — Mo Edjlali   Mo offers a provocative vision of the future: a world where people might pay for jobs rather than get paid to work. It sounds crazy until you realize it's already happening — people pay $100,000-$200,000 for college just to get a job, politicians spend millions to get elected. If AI handles most work and we enter an age of abundance, jobs won't be about survival or income — they'll be about meaning, identity, and social connection. This creates three major crises Mo sees accelerating: attacks on our focus and attention (technology hijacking our awareness), polarization (forcing black-and-white thinking), and isolation (pushing us toward solo experiences). The mental health tsunami is coming as people struggle to find purpose in a world where AI outperforms them in domain after domain. The jobs will change, the value systems will shift, and those without tools for navigating this transformation will suffer most. When AI Reads Your Mind "Researchers at Duke University had hooked up fMRI brain scanning technology and took that data and fed it into GPT 2. They were able to translate brain signals into written narrative. So the implications are that we could read people's minds using AI." — Mo Edjlali   The future Mo describes isn't science fiction — it's already beginning. Three years ago, researchers used early GPT to translate brain signals into written text by scanning people's minds with fMRI and training AI on the patterns. Today, AI knows a lot about heavy users like Mo through chat conversations. Tomorrow, AI will have video input of everything we see, sensory input from our biometrics (pulse, heart rate, health indicators), and potentially direct connection to our minds. This symbiotic relationship is coming whether we're ready or not. Mo demonstrates this with a personal experiment: he asked his AI to tell him about himself, describe his personality, identify his strengths, and most powerfully — reveal his blind spots. The AI's response was outstanding, better than what any human (even his therapist or himself) could have articulated. This is the reality we're moving toward: AI that knows our emotional triggers, blind spots, and patterns better than we do ourselves. Using AI as a Mirror for Self-Discovery "I asked my AI, 'What are my blind spots?' Human beings usually won't always tell you what your blind spots are, they might not see them. A therapist might not exactly see them. But the AI has... I've had the most intimate kind of conversations about everything. And the response was outstanding." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's approach to AI is both pragmatic and experimental. He uses it extensively — at the level of teenagers and early college students who are on it all the time. But rather than just using AI as a tool, he treats it as a mirror for understanding himself. Asking AI to identify your blind spots is a powerful exercise because AI has observed all your conversations, patterns, and tendencies without the human limitations of forgetfulness or social politeness. Vasco shares a similar experience using AI as a therapy companion — not replacing his human therapist, but preparing for sessions and processing afterward. This reveals an essential truth: most of us don't understand ourselves that well. We're blind navigators using an increasingly powerful tool. The question isn't whether AI will know us better than we know ourselves — that's already happening. The question is how we use that knowledge wisely. The Danger of AI Hijacking Our Agency "There's this real danger. I saw that South Park episode about ChatGPT where his wife is like, 'Come on, put the AI down, talk to me,' and he's got this crazy business idea, and the AI keeps encouraging him along. It's a point where he's relying way too heavily on the AI and making really poor decisions." — Mo Edjlali   Not all AI use is beneficial. Mo candidly admits his own mistakes — sometimes leaning into AI feedback over his actual users' feedback for his Meditate Together app because "I like what the AI is saying." This mirrors the South Park episode's warning about AI dependency, where the character's AI encourages increasingly poor decisions while his relationships suffer. Social media demonstrates this danger at scale: AI algorithms tuned to steal our attention and hijack our agency, preventing us from thinking about what truly matters — relationships and human connection. Mo shares a disturbing story about Zoom bombers disrupting Meditate Together sessions, filming it, posting it on YouTube where it got 90,000 views, with comments thanking the disruptors for "making my day better." Technology created a cannibalistic dynamic where teenagers watched videos of their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers being harassed during meditation. When Mo tried to contact Google, the company's incentive structure prioritized views and revenue over human decency. Technology combined with capitalism creates these dangerous momentum toward monetizing attention at any cost. Remaining Sovereign Over Your Attention "Traditionally, mindfulness does an extraordinary job, if you practice right, to help you regain your agency of your focus and concentration. It takes practice. But reading is now becoming a concentration practice. It's an actual practice." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies three major symptoms affecting us: attacks on focus/attention, polarization into black-and-white thinking, and isolation. Mindfulness practices directly counter all three — but only if practiced correctly. Training attention, focus, and concentration requires actual practice, not just listening to guided meditations. Mo offers practical strategies: reading as concentration practice (asking "does anyone read anymore?" recognizing that sustained reading now requires deliberate effort), turning off AirPods while jogging or driving to find silence, spending time alone with your thoughts, and recognizing that we were given extraordinary power (smartphones) with zero training on how to be aware of it. Older generations remember having to rewind VHS tapes — forced moments of patience and stillness that no longer exist. We need to deliberately recreate those spaces where we're not constantly consuming entertainment and input. Dialectic Thinking: Beyond Polarization "I saw someone the other day wear a shirt that said, 'I'm perfect the way I am.' That's one-dimensional thinking. Two-dimensional thinking is: you're perfect the way that you are, and you could be a little better." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's book OpenMBSR specifically addresses polarization by introducing dialectic thinking — the ability to hold paradoxes and seeming contradictions simultaneously. Social media and algorithms push us toward one-dimensional, black-and-white thinking: good/bad, right/wrong, with me/against me. But reality is far more nuanced. The ability to think "I'm perfect as I am AND I can improve" or "AI is extraordinary AND dangerous" is essential for navigating complexity. This mirrors the tech world's embrace of continuous improvement in Agile — accepting where you are while always pushing for better. Chess players learned this years ago when AI defeated humans — they didn't freak out, they accepted it and adapted. Now AI in chess doesn't just give answers; it helps humans understand how it arrived at those answers. This partnership model, where AI coaches us through complexity rather than simply replacing us, represents the healthiest path forward. Building Community, Not Dependency "When people think to meditate, unfortunately, they think, I have to do this by myself and listen to guided meditation. I'm saying no. Do it in silence. If you listen to guided meditation, listen to guided meditation that teaches you how to meditate in silence. And do it with other people, with intentional community." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's OpenMBSR initiative explicitly borrows from the Agile movement's success: grassroots, community-centric, open source, transparent. Rather than creating fiefdoms around cult personalities, he wants mindfulness to spread organically through communities helping communities. This directly counters the isolation trend that technology accelerates. Meditate Together exists specifically to create spaces where people meditate with other human beings around the world, with volunteer hosts holding sessions. The model isn't about dependency on a teacher or platform — it's about building connection and shared practice. This aligns perfectly with how the tech world revolutionized collaborative work through Agile and Scrum: transparent, iterative, valuing individuals and interactions. The question for both mindfulness and AI adoption is whether we'll create systems that empower independence and community, or ones that foster dependency and isolation. Preparing for a World Where AI Outperforms Humans "AI is going to need to kind of coach us and ease us into it, right? There's some really dark, ugly things about ourselves that could be jarring without it being properly shared, exposed, and explained." — Mo Edjlali   Looking at his children, Mo wonders what tools they'll need in a world where AI may outperform humans in nearly every domain. The answer isn't trying to compete with AI in calculation, memory, or analysis — that battle is already lost. Instead, the essential human skills become self-awareness, emotional intelligence, dialectic thinking, community building, and maintaining agency over attention and decision-making. AI will need to become a coach, helping humans understand not just answers but how it arrived at those answers. This requires AI development that prioritizes human growth over profit maximization. It also requires humans willing to do the hard work of understanding themselves — confronting blind spots, managing emotional triggers, practicing concentration, and building genuine relationships. The mental health tsunami Mo predicts isn't inevitable if we prepare now by teaching these skills widely, building community-centric systems, and designing AI that empowers rather than replaces human wisdom and connection.   About Mo Edjlali   Mo Edjlali is a former computer engineer, and also the founder and CEO of Mindful Leader, the world's largest provider of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training. Mo's new book Open MBSR: Reimagining the Future of Mindfulness explores how ancient practices can help us navigate the AI revolution with awareness and resilience.   You can learn more about Mo and his work at MindfulLeader.org, check out Meditate Together, and read his articles on AI's Mind-Reading Breakthrough and AI: Not Another Tool, but a New Human Age.

In this episode we're in conversation with Manjit Singh, the president and founder of Agilious and an instructor at ACT-IAC Academy. They delve into the importance of agile frameworks, particularly scrum, for government IT acquisition and modernization. Manjit shares his extensive technical background and the significance of scrum mastery in managing projects efficiently. He discusses the role of a Scrum Master, common misconceptions, the importance of asking the right questions, and the impact of emerging technologies like AI. The episode also highlights continuous upskilling and the value of lean principles in achieving productivity.Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate. Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria TellsCourtesy of Epidemic Sound(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young CommunityCourtesy of Epidemic Sound)

Can teams pull in more work during a sprint? - Mike Cohn“Can we bring in more work if we're ahead in a sprint?"It's one of the most common questions I get from Scrum teams — and honestly, for a long time, I couldn't understand why. The answer felt obvious.Of course you can bring in more work if you're ahead and clearly going to finish everything you committed to do. Just like you can drop work if you're behind.A sprint plan is a forecast — a best guess at what the team thinks it can get done. It's not a contract. No one gets it perfect every time, and that's OK.But I kept hearing this question over and over, so I started asking why. Why does adding work spark so much hesitation — even fear? Here's what I learned: Teams are afraid that starting something they can't fully complete within the sprint is somehow breaking the rules, or even worse, a failure.That fear leads teams to hesitate to pick up something new unless they're 100 percent sure they can finish it before the sprint ends.Let me reassure you. Being halfway done with one or two things at the end of a sprint isn't a problem. Sometimes, it's even desirable.It only becomes a problem if a team is consistently halfway done with several things or worse, everything.If the team is genuinely ahead, and they've completed what they committed to, they can absolutely pull in something new — even if they might not finish it.Good agile teams always try to finish everything, just like good sports teams try to make every attempt on goal or get a hit at every at bat.And when given the opportunity, great agile teams don't hesitate to make progress on something new even if they might not finish.What's the real issue underneath the question?How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Neil Treacy is joined by Bernard Jackman and Mike Ross on this week's RTÉ Rugby podcast to give a full breakdown on how South Africa dominated Ireland's scrum in Saturday's meeting at Aviva Stadium.

What if you could build a multi-million dollar software company where only 10% of your employees are developers? AFAS, a company with hundreds of millions in revenue, does exactly that with a lean team of just 70 engineers. In this episode, Engineering Manager Michiel Overeem pulls back the curtain on their unconventional strategies for achieving massive productivity with a surprisingly small team.In this episode, we cover:Why standardization is their secret weapon for efficiency.How they thrive without traditional Scrum ceremonies.The two distinct types of engineers they hire for success.The surprising details of their 4-day work week (paid for 5).This video is for engineering leaders and software developers who want to learn proven, counter-intuitive strategies to build hyper-effective teams and get more done, regardless of team size.Connect with Michiel:https://www.linkedin.com/in/movereemTimestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:01:22 - The "10% Engineering" Paradox at a €100M+ Company00:03:20 - How Standardization Allows a Small Team to Do More00:04:27 - The Two Types of Engineers Every Successful Company Needs00:06:46 - Why Feeling Responsible is More Powerful Than Being Responsible00:09:33 - The Secret Sauce of High-Performing Engineering Teams00:11:52 - A Simple Method to Keep Engineers Connected to Customers00:14:22 - What We Look For When Hiring New Engineers00:17:09 - The #1 Red Flag That Will Get You Rejected in an Interview00:19:33 - Why We Don't Use Scrum (And What We Do Instead)00:22:51 - The Power of Strong, Decisive Leadership00:24:13 - How Our 4-Day Work Week Actually Works00:26:55 - Our Approach to Adopting AI Tools like Copilot00:28:19 - Final Advice: The Best Way to Grow Your Career#EngineeringCulture #Productivity #SoftwareDevelopment

Welcome to Tuesday's Rugby Daily, with Cameron Hill.Coming up today, we'll round off the reaction to Ireland's defeat to South Africa on Saturday.Squad updates from the provinces with the URC back this weekend, and the start of the Champions Cup fast approaching.And Felipe Contepomi reveals the physical confrontation he had with an England star at Twickenham this weekend...Rugby on Off The Ball with Bank of Ireland | #NeverStopCompeting

The ARP rates the All Blacks progress and who the top contenders are two years from the 2027 Rugby World Cup. We decide whether the Boks scrum is possibly rugby's greatest weapon, weigh-in on the great Dublin card game and celebrate Malcolm Marx finally getting Player of the Year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sara Di Gregorio: Coaching Product Owners from Isolation to Collaboration Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Using User Story Mapping to Break Down PO Isolation "One of the key strengths is the ability to build a strong collaborative relationship with the Scrum team. We constantly exchange feedback, with the shared goal of improving both our collaborating and the way of working." - Sara Di Gregorio   Sara considers herself fortunate—she currently works with Product Owners who exemplify what great collaboration looks like. One of their key strengths is the ability to build strong collaborative relationships with the Scrum team. They don't wait for sprint reviews to exchange feedback; instead, they constantly communicate with the shared goal of improving both collaboration and ways of working.  These Product Owners involve the team early, using techniques like user story mapping after analysis phases to create open discussions around upcoming topics and help the team understand potential dependencies. They make themselves truly available—they observe daily stand-ups not as passive attendees but as engaged contributors. If the team needs five minutes to discuss something afterward, the Product Owner is ready. They attend Scrum events with genuine interest in working with the team, not just fulfilling an attendance requirement. They encourage open dialogue, even participating in retrospectives to understand how the team is working and where they can improve collaboration. What sets these Product Owners apart is their communication approach. They don't come in thinking they know everything or that they need to do everything alone. Their mindset is collaborative: "We're doing this together." They recognize that developers aren't just executors—they're users of the product, experts who can provide valuable perspectives.  When Product Owners ask "Why do you want this?" and developers respond with "If we do it this way, we can be faster, and you can try your product sooner," that's when magic happens. Great Product Owners understand that strong communication skills and collaborative relationships create better products, better teams, and better outcomes for everyone involved.   Self-reflection Question: How are your Product Owners involving the team early in discovery and analysis, and are they building collaborative relationships or just attending required events? The Bad Product Owner: The Isolated Expert Who Thinks Teams Just Execute   "Sometimes they feel very comfortable in their subject, so they assume they know everything, and the team has only to execute what they asked for." - Sara Di Gregorio   Sara has encountered Product Owners who embody the worst anti-pattern: they believe they don't need to interact with the development team because they're confident in their subject matter expertise. They assume they know everything, and the team's job is simply to execute what they ask for. These Product Owners work isolated from the development team, writing detailed user stories alone and skipping the interesting discussions with developers. They only involve the team when they think it's necessary, treating developers as order-takers rather than collaborators who could contribute valuable insights.  The impact is significant—teams lose the opportunity to understand the "why" behind features, Product Owners miss perspectives that could improve the product, and collaboration becomes transactional instead of transformational. Sara's approach to addressing this anti-pattern is patient but deliberate. She creates space for dialogue and provides training with the Product Owner to help them understand how important it is to collaborate and cooperate with the team. She shows them the impact of including the team from the beginning of feature study.  One powerful technique she uses is user story mapping workshops, bringing both the team and Product Owner together. The Product Owner explains what they want to deliver from their point of view, but then something crucial happens: the team asks lots of questions to understand "Why do you want this?"—not just "I will do it."  Through this exercise, Sara watched Product Owners have profound realizations. They understood they could change their mindset by talking with developers, who often are users of the product and can offer perspectives like "If we do it this way, we can be faster, and you can try your product sooner."  The workshop helps teams understand the big picture of what the Product Owner is asking for while helping the Product Owner reflect on what they're actually asking. It transforms the relationship from isolation to collaboration, from directive to dialogue, from assumption to shared understanding.   In this segment, we refer to the User Story Mapping blog post by Jeff Patton.   Self-reflection Question: Are your Product Owners writing user stories in isolation, or are they involving the team in discovery to create shared understanding and better solutions?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Sara Di Gregorio: How to Know Your Team Has Internalized Agile Values Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Scrum isn't just a process to follow, it's a way of working." - Sara Di Gregorio   For Sara, success as a Scrum Master isn't measured by what the team delivers—it's measured by how they grow. She knows that if you facilitate team growth in communication and collaboration, delivery will naturally improve.  The indicators she watches for are subtle but powerful. When teams come to her with specific requests outside the regular schedule—"Can we have 30 minutes to talk and reflect mid-sprint?"—she knows something has shifted. When teams want to reflect outside the retrospective cycle, it means they've internalized the value of continuous improvement, not just going through the motions. She listens for the word "goal" during sprint planning.  When team members start their planning by talking about goals, she feels a surge of recognition: "Okay, for me, this is very, very, very important." Success shows up in unexpected places. One of her colleague's teams pushed back during a cross-team meeting, saying "We're going out of the timebox" and suggesting they move the discussion to a different time. That kind of proactive leadership and accountability signals maturity. It means the team isn't just attending Scrum events because they have to—they truly understand why each event matters and actively participate to make them valuable.  When Sara first met a team, they asked if she wanted to change things. She said no. What she focuses on is how people improve and understand the process better. For her, it starts with the people—when people change and understand the value, that's when real changes happen in the company. It's about helping people feel good and be guided well, because when they're working well, that's when transformation becomes possible. As Sara reminds us, Scrum isn't just a process to follow—it's a way of working that teams must embrace, understand, and make their own.   Self-reflection Question: Are your teams coming to you asking for reflection time outside scheduled events, and what does that tell you about how deeply they've internalized continuous improvement? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Unstructured Retrospective After facilitating many structured retrospectives, Sara started experimenting with an unstructured format that brought new energy to team reflection. Instead of using predefined frameworks, she brings white paper, sticky notes, and sharpies of different colors. She opens with a simple question: "Guys, what impacted you mostly during the last week? How do you feel today?" Sometimes she starts with data and metrics; other times, she begins with how the team is feeling.  The key is creating open space for conversation rather than forcing it into a predetermined structure. What Sara discovered is remarkable: "They are more engaged, more open, and more present in the conversation, maybe because it was something new." Instead of the same structured format every time, the unstructured approach breaks the routine and creates space for true reflections that bring out something deeper and more meaningful. It allows people to express what's genuinely going on for them, not just what fits into a predefined template.  Sara doesn't abandon structured formats entirely—she alternates between structured and unstructured to keep retrospectives fresh and engaging. She also recommends, if you work hybrid, trying to schedule unstructured retrospectives for days when the team is in the office together. The physical presence combined with the open format creates an environment where teams can be more vulnerable, more creative, and more honest about what's really happening. The unstructured retrospective isn't about chaos—it's about trusting the team to surface what matters most to them, with the Scrum Master providing light facilitation and space for authentic reflection.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

5 Essential Skills Every Scrum Master NeedsBeing a Scrum Master isn't just about booking meetings and quoting the Scrum Guide. It's about showing up every day as a change agent — the one who helps people work better together, face complexity with courage, and actually deliver value.It's easy to forget that Scrum is fundamentally about people.Your job as a Scrum Master is to unlock that potential — not by managing them, but by enabling them.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

In this Scrum.org Community Podcast episode, host Dave West speaks with Nathaniel Davis, CEO of Barrel One Collective, and PST Yuval Yeret about applying Agile principles beyond software — into the heart of business operations.Nathaniel shares his journey from working in a large brewing company to leading Barrel One Collective, a brewing group where he's working to make Agile the foundation for innovation and entrepreneurialism. Together, they explore how Agile thinking can balance experimentation and consistency, drive outcome-oriented leadership, and shape company culture as a product.Tune in to hear how organizations can expand their definition of “product” — from beverages to behaviors — and how agility helps leaders continuously learn, adapt, and deliver value.

Sara Di Gregorio: Facilitating Deeper Retrospectives—When to Step In and When to Step Back Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "When they start connecting and having an interesting discussion, I go to the corner, and I'm only trying to listen." - Sara Di Gregorio   Sara faces a challenge that many Scrum Masters encounter: teams that want to discuss too many topics during retrospectives without going deep on any of them. The team had plenty to talk about, but conversations stayed surface-level, never reaching the insights that drive real improvement. Sara recognized that the aim of the retrospective isn't to talk about everything—it's to go deeper on topics the team genuinely cares about.  So she started coaching teams to select just three main topics they wanted to discuss, helping them understand why prioritization matters and making explicit which topics are most important. But her real skill emerged in how she facilitated the discussions. When she saw communication starting to flow and team members becoming deeply connected to the topic, she moved to the corner and listened. She didn't abandon the team—she remained present, ready to help shy or quiet members speak up, watching the clock to respect timeboxes.  But she understood that when teams connect authentically, the Scrum Master's job is to create space, not fill it. Sara learned to ask better questions too. Instead of repeatedly asking "Why? Why? Why?"—which can feel accusatory—she reformulated: "How did you approach it? What happens?" When teams started blaming other teams, she redirected: "What can we influence? What can we do from our side?" She used visual tools like white paper, sharpies, and sticky notes to help teams visualize their discussion steps and create structured moments for questions.  Sometimes, when teams discussed complex technical topics beyond her understanding, she empowered them: "You are the main expert of this topic. Please, when someone sees that we're going out of topic or getting too detailed, raise your hand and help me bring the communication back to what we've chosen to talk about."  This balance—knowing when to step in with structure and when to step back and listen—is what transforms retrospectives from checkbox events into genuine opportunities for team growth.   Self-reflection Question: In your facilitation, are you creating space for deep team connection, or are you inadvertently filling the space that teams need to discover insights for themselves?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Sara Di Gregorio: Rebuilding Agile Team Connection in the Remote Work Era Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "The book helped me to shift from reacting to connecting, which completely changed the quality of conversation." - Sara Di Gregorio   When COVID forced Sara's team into full remote work, she noticed something troubling—the team was losing real connection. Replicating in-office meetings online simply didn't work. People attended meetings but weren't truly present. The spontaneous coffee machine conversations that built relationships and surfaced important information had vanished.  So Sara started experimenting. She introduced 5-minute chit-chat sessions at the start of every meeting: "Guys, how are you today? What happened yesterday?" She created "coffee all together" moments—10-minute virtual breaks where the team could drink coffee or have aperitivos together, sometimes three times per week. She established weekly feedback sessions every Friday morning—30 minutes to recap the week and understand what could improve.  These weren't just social niceties; they were deliberate efforts to recreate the human connections that remote work had stripped away. Sara recognized that mechanized interactions—"here are the things I need you to do, let's talk next steps"—kill team dynamics. Teams need moments where they relate to each other as people, not just as functions.  The experiments worked because they created space for genuine connection, allowing the team to maintain the trust and collaboration that makes effective teamwork possible, even when working remotely.   In this episode, we refer to Non-Violent Communication concepts and practices.   Self-reflection Question: How are you creating moments for your remote or hybrid team to connect as people, not just as colleagues executing tasks? Featured Book of the Week: Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg Sara credits Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg (translated in Italian as "Words are Windows, or They are Walls") as having a deep impact on her career. The book explores how to listen without judging, how to ask the right questions, and how to observe people to understand their real needs. But above all, it teaches how to communicate in a way that builds connection rather than creating barriers.  For Sara, the book was remarkably practical—she didn't just read it, she experimented with the techniques afterward. She explains: "I think that without this mindset, it's easy to fall into reactive communication, trying to defend, justify, or give quick answers. But that often blocks real understanding." The book helped her shift from reacting to connecting, which completely changed the quality of her conversations.  As a Scrum Master working with people every day—facilitating meetings, mediating conflicts, supporting teams—the way we communicate determines whether we open dialogue or close it. Sara found that taking time to reflect instead of giving quick answers transformed her ability to help teams discover dependencies, improve dialogue, and address communication issues. For anyone in the Scrum Master role, this book provides essential skills for building the kind of connection that makes true collaboration possible. In this segment, we also refer to the NVC episodes we have on the podcast. Check those out to learn more about Nonviolent Communication   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Welcome to a new series of Our Agile Tales, Navigating World Crises: The Agile-Law-AI Alliance in Action!In this series of episodes, we are joined by Ondřej Dvořák, CEO of AgiLawyer and COPS Solutions, and someone proving that agility isn't limited to software teams or startups. With over 15 years at the crossroads of IT, law and finance, Ondřej has been bringing Agile principles into fields few consider “Agile-friendly.”In this first episode, Ondřej explains how Agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban can transform even the most traditional industries, including legal services. He details his initiatives, such as the non-profit Linking Help, which utilized Agile frameworks to aid Ukrainian refugees. Ondřej shares how he sparked Agile adoption in the legal sector by addressing common barriers and educating legal professionals on these methods. Additionally, he discusses the practical challenges and solutions implemented in real-world environments, emphasizing the adaptability and resilience that Agile offers, even in chaotic situations such as war. The discussion highlights the importance of Agile education for students and how it can prepare them for dynamic work environments.00:00 Introduction to Agile Tales00:17 Meet Ondřej Dvořák03:14 Applying Agile to the Legal Industry07:18 Challenges and Objections in Legal Agile Transformation14:09 Agile Education for Law Students16:42 Linking Help: Agile in Humanitarian Aid20:44 Building and Scaling Linking Help29:07 Conclusion About Ondrej DvorakOndřej is the co-founder of Linking Help, a nonprofit that mobilized legal aid for Ukrainian refugees using Scrum and Kanban to coordinate real-time support. It's a powerful story of how agility can make a real difference in humanitarian crises—far beyond the domain of business. Andre's work shows how Agile thinking can help even the most traditional sectors become more humane, responsive, and resilient. You can follow Ondřej on LinkedIn at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ondrej-dvorak-agile/Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

Sara Di Gregorio: When Teams Lose Trust—How Scrum Masters Rebuild It One Small Change at a Time Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "I continue to approach this situation with openness, positivity, and trust, because I truly believe that even the smallest changes can make a difference over time." - Sara Di Gregorio   Sara faced one of the most challenging situations a Scrum Master can encounter—a team member who had lost all trust in change, creating a negative atmosphere that weighed heavily on the entire team. She remembers the heaviness on her shoulders, feeling personally responsible for the team's wellbeing. The negativity was palpable during every meeting, and it threatened to undermine the team's progress.  But Sara refused to give up. She started experimenting with different approaches: one-to-one conversations to understand what was happening, bringing intentional energy to meetings, and trying new facilitation techniques in retrospectives. She added personal check-ins, asking "How are you today?" at the start of stand-ups, consciously bringing positive energy even on days when she didn't feel it herself.  She discovered that listening—truly listening, not just hearing—means understanding how people feel, not just what they're saying. Sara learned that the energy you bring to interactions matters deeply. Starting the day with genuine interest, asking about the team's wellbeing, and even making small comments about the weather could create tiny shifts—a small smile that signaled something had changed.  Her approach was rooted in persistence and belief: she continued approaching the situation with openness, positivity, and trust, knowing that even the smallest changes can make a difference over time. For Sara, reestablishing a good environment wasn't about quick fixes—it was about showing up every day with the right energy and never giving up on her team.   Self-reflection Question: What energy are you bringing to your interactions with the team today, and how might that be shaping the team's atmosphere?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

BONUS: Flawless Execution — Translating Fighter Pilot Precision to Business Results In this powerful conversation, former fighter pilot Christian "Boo" Boucousis reveals how military precision translates into agile business leadership. We explore the FLEX model (Plan-Brief-Execute-Debrief), the critical difference between control-based and awareness-based leadership, and why most organizations fail to truly embrace iterative thinking. From Cockpit to Boardroom: An Unexpected Journey "I learned over time that it doesn't matter what you do if you're always curious, and you're always intentional, and you're always asking questions." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   Christian's path from fighter pilot to leadership consultant wasn't planned—it was driven by necessity and curiosity. After 11 years as a fighter pilot (7 in Australia, 4 in the UK), an autoimmune condition ended his flying career at age 30. Rather than accepting a comfy job flying politicians around, he chose entrepreneurship. He moved to Afghanistan with a friend and built a reconstruction company that grew to a quarter billion dollars in four years. The secret? The debrief skills he learned as a fighter pilot. By constantly asking "What are you trying to achieve? How's it going? Why is there a gap?" he approached business with an agile mindset before he even knew what agile was. This curiosity-driven, question-focused approach became the foundation for everything that followed. The FLEX Model: Plan-Brief-Execute-Debrief "Agile and scrum were co-created by John Sutherland, who was a fighter pilot, and its origins sit in the OODA loop and iteration. Which is why it's a circle." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   The FLEX model isn't new—fighter pilots have used this Plan-Brief-Execute-Debrief cycle for 60 years. It's the ultimate simple agile model, designed to help teams accelerate toward goals using the same accelerated learning curve the Air Force uses to train fighter pilots. The key insight: everything in this model is iterative, not linear. Every mission has a start, middle, and end, and every stage involves constant adaptation. Afterburner (the company Christian now leads as CEO) has worked with nearly 3,800 companies and 2.8 million people over 30 years, teaching this model. What's fascinating is that the DNA of agile is baked into fighter pilot thinking—John Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, wrote the foreword for Christian's book "The Afterburner Advantage" because they share the same roots in the OODA loop and iterative thinking. Why Iterative Thinking Doesn't Come Naturally "Iterative thinking is not a natural human model. Most of the time we learn from mistakes. We don't learn as a habit." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   Here's the hard truth: agile as a way of working is very different from the way human beings naturally think. Business leadership models still hark back to Frederick Winslow Taylor's 1911 book on scientific management—industrial era leadership designed for building buildings, not creating software. Time is always linear (foundation, then structure, then finishing), and this shapes how we think about planning. Humans also tend to organize like villages with chiefs, warriors, and gatherers—hierarchical and political. Fighter pilots created a parallel system where politics exist outside missions, but during execution, personality clashes can't interfere. The challenge for business isn't the method—it's getting human minds to embrace iteration as a habit, not just a process they follow when forced. Planning: Building Collective Consciousness, Not Task Lists "Planning isn't all about sequencing actions—that's not planning. That's the byproduct of planning, which is collectively agreeing what good looks like at the end." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   Most people plan in their head or in front of a spreadsheet by themselves. That's not planning—that's collecting thoughts. Real planning means bringing everyone on the team together to build collective consciousness about what's possible. The plan is always "the best idea based on what we know now." Once airborne, everything changes because the enemy doesn't cooperate with your plan. Planning is about the destination, not the work to get there. Think about airline pilots: they don't tell you about traffic delays on their commute or maintenance issues. They say "Welcome aboard, our destination is Amsterdam, there's weather on the way, we'll land 5 minutes early." That's a brief—just the effect on you based on all their work. Most business meetings waste 55 minutes on backstory and 5 minutes deciding to have another meeting. Fighter pilots focus entirely on: What are we trying to achieve? What might get in the way? Let's go. Briefing: The 25-Minute Focus Window "You need 25 minutes of focus before your brain really focuses on the task. You program your brain for the mission at hand." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   The brief is the moment between planning and execution when the plan is as accurate as it'll ever get. It's called "brief" for a reason—it's really short. The team checks that everyone understands the plan in today's context, accounting for last-minute changes (broken equipment, weather, personnel changes). Then comes the critical part: creating the mission bubble. From the brief until mission end, there are no distractions, no notifications. If someone tries to interrupt a fighter pilot walking to the jet, the response is clear: "I'm in my mission bubble. No distractions." This isn't optional—research shows it takes 25 minutes of uninterrupted focus before your brain truly locks onto a task. Yet most business leaders expect constant availability, with notifications pinging every few minutes. If you need everyone to have notifications on to run your business, you're doing a really bad job at planning. Execution: Awareness-Based Leadership vs. Control-Based Leadership "The reason we have so many meetings is because the leader is trying to control the situation and own all the awareness. It's not humanly possible to do that." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   During execution, fighter pilots fly the plan until it doesn't work anymore—then they adapt. A mission commander might lead 70 airplanes, but can't possibly track all 69 others. Instead, they create "gates"—checkpoints where everyone confirms they're in the right place within 10 seconds. They plan for chaos, creating awareness points where the team is generally on track or not. The key shift: from control-based leadership (the leader tries to control everything) to awareness-based leadership (the leader facilitates and listens for divergences). This includes "subordinated leadership"—any of the four pilots in a formation can take the lead if they have better awareness. If a wingman calls out a threat the leader doesn't see, the immediate response is "Press! You take the lead." This works because they planned for it and have criteria. Business teams profess to want this kind of agile collaboration, but struggle because they haven't invested in the planning and shared understanding that makes fluid leadership transitions possible. Abort Criteria: Knowing When to Stop "We have this concept called abort criteria. If certain criteria are hit, we abort the mission. I think that's a massive opportunity for business." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   There are degrees of things going wrong: a little bit, a medium amount, and everything going wrong. When everything's going wrong, fighter pilots stop and turn around—they don't keep pressing a bad situation. This "abort criteria" concept is massively underutilized in business. Too often, teams press bad situations, transparency disappears, people stop talking, and everyone goes into survival mode (protect myself, blame others). This never happens with fighter pilots. If something goes wrong, they take accountability and make the best decision. The most potent team size is four people: a leader, deputy leader, and two wingmen. This small team size with clear roles and shared abort criteria creates psychological safety to call out problems and adapt quickly. The Retrospective Mindset: Not Just a Ritual "A retrospective isn't a ritual. It's actually a way of thinking. It's a cognitive model. If you approached everything as a retrospective—what are we trying to achieve? How's it going? Why is it not going where we want? What's the one action to get back on track?" — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   The debrief—the retrospective—is the most important part of fighter pilot culture translated into agile. It's not just a meeting you have at the end of a sprint. It's a mindset you apply to everything: projects, relationships, personal development. Christian introduces "Flawless Leadership" built on three M's: Method (agile practices), Mindset (growth mindset developed through acting iteratively), and Moments (understanding when to show up as a people leader vs. an impact leader). The biggest mistake in technology: teams do retrospectives internally but don't include the business. They get a brief from the business, build for two months, come back, and the business says "What is this? This isn't what I expected." If they'd had the business in every scrum, every iteration, trust would build naturally. Everyone involved in the mission must be part of the planning, briefing, executing, and debriefing. Leading in the Moment: Three Layers of Leadership "Your job as a scrum master, as a leader—it doesn't matter if you're leading a division of people—is to be aware. And you're only going to be aware by listening." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   Christian breaks leadership into three layers: People Leadership (political, emotional, dealing with personalities and overwhelm), Impact Leadership (the agile layer, results-driven, scientific), and Leading Now (the reactive, amygdala-driven panic response when things go wrong). The mistake: mixing these layers. Don't try to be a people leader during execution—that's not the time. But if you're really good at impact leadership (planning, breaking epics into stories, getting work done), you become high trust and high credibility. People leadership becomes easier because success eliminates excuses. During execution, watch for individual traits and blind spots. Use one-on-ones with a retrospective mindset: "What does good look like for you? How do we get to where you're not frustrated?" When leaders aren't present—checking phones and watches during meetings—they lose people. Your job as a leader is to turn your ears on, facilitate (not direct), and listen for divergences others don't see. The Technology-Business Disconnect "Every time you're having a scrum, every time you're coming together to talk about the product, just have the business there with you. It's easy." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   One of the biggest packages of work Afterburner does: technology teams ask them to help build trust with the business. The solution is shockingly simple—include the business in every scrum, every planning session, every retrospective. Agile is a tech-driven approach, creating a disconnect. Technology brings overwhelming information about how hard they're working and problems they've solved, but business doesn't care about the past. They care about the future: what are you delivering and when? During the Gulf War, the military scaled this fighter pilot model to large-scale planning. Fighter pilots work with marines, special forces, navy, CIA agents—everyone is part of the plan. If one person is missing from planning, execution falls apart. If someone on the ground doesn't know how an F-18 works, the jet is just expensive decoration. Planning is about learning what everyone else does and how to support them best—not announcing what you'll do and how you'll do it. High-Definition Destinations: Beyond Goals "Planning is all about the destination, not the work to get there. Think about when you hop on an airplane—the pilot doesn't tell you the whole backstory. They say 'Welcome aboard, our destination is Amsterdam, there's weather on the way, we'll land 5 minutes early.' All you want is the effect on you." — Christian "Boo" Boucousis   Christian uses the term "High-Definition Destinations" rather than goals. The difference is clarity and vividness. When you board a plane, you don't get the pilot's commute story or maintenance details—you get the destination, obstacles, and estimated arrival. That's communication focused on effect, not process. Most business communication does the opposite: overwhelming context, backstory, and detail, with the destination buried somewhere in the middle. The brief should always be: Here's where we're going. Here's what might get in the way. Let's go. This communication style—focused on outcomes and effects rather than processes and problems—transforms how teams align and execute. It eliminates the noise and centers everyone on what actually matters: the destination.   About Christian "Boo" Boucousis   Christian "Boo" Boucousis is a former fighter pilot who now helps leaders navigate today's fast-moving world. As CEO of Afterburner and author of The Afterburner Advantage, he shares practical, people-centered tools for turning chaos into clarity, building trust, and delivering results without burning out.   You can link with Christian "Boo" Boucousis on LinkedIn, visit Afterburner.com, check out his personal site at CallMeBoo.com, or interact with his AI tool at AIBoo.com.  

Alidad Hamidi: When Product Owners Facilitate Vision Instead of Owning It Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Co-Creating Vision Through Discovery "The best product owner I worked with was not a product owner, but a project manager. And she didn't realize that she's acting as a product owner." - Alidad Hamidi   The irony wasn't lost on Alidad. The best Product Owner he ever worked with didn't have "Product Owner" in her title—she was a project manager who didn't even realize she was acting in that capacity. The team was working on a strategic project worth millions, but confusion reigned about what value they were creating. Alidad planned an inception workshop to create alignment among stakeholders, marketing, operations, advisors, and the team.   Twenty minutes into the session, Alidad asked a simple question: "How do we know the customer has this problem, and they're gonna pay for it?" Silence. No one knew. To her immense credit, the project manager didn't retreat or deflect. Instead, she jumped in: "What do we need to do?" Alidad suggested assumptions mapping, and two days later, the entire team and stakeholders gathered for the workshop. What happened next was magic. "She didn't become a proxy," Alidad emphasizes. She didn't say, "I'll go find out and come back to you." Instead, she brought everyone together—team, stakeholders, and customers—into the same room.   The results were dramatic. The team was about to invest millions integrating with an external vendor. Through the assumption mapping workshop, they uncovered huge risks and realized customers didn't actually want that solution. "We need to pivot," she declared. Instead of the expensive integration, they developed educational modules and scripts for customer support and advisors. The team sat with advisors, listening to actual customer calls, creating solutions based on real needs rather than assumptions. The insight transformed not just the project but the project manager herself. She took these discovery practices across the entire organization, teaching everyone how to conduct proper discovery and fundamentally shifting the product development paradigm. One person, willing to facilitate rather than dictate, made this impact. "Product owner can facilitate creation of that [vision]," Alidad explains. "It's not just product owner or a team. It's the broader stakeholder and customer community that need to co-create that."   Self-reflection Question: Are you facilitating the creation of vision with your stakeholders and customers, or are you becoming a proxy between the team and the real sources of insight? The Bad Product Owner: Creating Barriers Instead of Connections "He did the opposite, just creating barriers between the team and the environment." - Alidad Hamidi   The Product Owner was new to the organization, technically skilled, and genuinely well-intentioned. The team was developing solutions for clinicians—complex healthcare work requiring deep domain understanding. Being new, the PO naturally leaned into his strength: technical expertise. He spent enormous amounts of time with the team, drilling into details, specifying exactly how everything should look, and giving the team ready-made solutions instead of problems to solve.   Alidad kept telling him: "Mate, you need to spend more time with our stakeholder, you need to understand their perspective." But the PO didn't engage with users or stakeholders. He stayed comfortable in his technical wheelhouse, designing solutions in isolation. The results were predictable and painful. Halfway through work, the PO would realize, "Oh, we really don't need that." Or worse, the team would complete something and deliver it to crickets—no one used it because no one wanted it. "Great person, but it created a really bad dynamic," Alidad reflects. What should have been the PO's job—understanding the environment, stakeholder needs, and market trends—never happened. Instead of putting people in front of the environment to learn and adapt, he created barriers between the team and reality.   Years later, Alidad's perspective has matured. He initially resented this PO but came to realize: "He was just being human, and he didn't have the right support and the environment for him." Sometimes people learn only after making mistakes. The coaching opportunity isn't to shame or blame but to focus on reflection from failures and supporting learning. Alidad encouraged forums with stakeholders where the PO and team could interact directly, seeing each other's work and constraints. The goal isn't perfection—it's creating conditions where Product Owners can connect teams to customers rather than standing between them.   Self-reflection Question: What barriers might you be unintentionally creating between your team and the customers or stakeholders they need to serve, and what would it take to remove yourself from the middle?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Alidad Hamidi: Maximizing Human Potential as the Measure of Success Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Does my work lead into maximizing human potential? Maximizing the ability of the human to use their potential and freedom." - Alidal Hamidi   Alidad calls himself a "recovering agility coach," and for good reason. For years, he struggled to define success in his work. As an enterprise coach, he plants seeds but never sees the trees grow. By the time transformation takes root, he's moved on to the next challenge. This distance from outcomes forced him to develop a more philosophical definition of success—one rooted not in deliverables or velocity charts, but in human potential and freedom.   His measure of success centers on three interconnected questions. First, are customers happy with what the teams create? Notice he says "create," not "deliver"—a deliberate choice. "I really hate the term product delivery, because delivery means you have a feature factory," he explains. Creating value requires genuine interaction between people who solve problems and people who have problems, with zero distance between them. Second, what's the team's wellbeing? Do they have psychological safety, trust, and space for innovation? And third, is the team growing—and by "team," Alidad means the entire organization, not just the squad level.   There's a fourth element he acknowledges: business sustainability. A bank could make customers ecstatic by giving away free money, but that's not viable long-term. The art lies in balance. "There's always a balance, sometimes one grows more than the other, and that's okay," Alidad notes. "As long as you have the awareness of why, and is that the right thing at the right time." This definition of success requires patience with the messy reality of organizations and faith that when humans have the freedom to use their full potential, both people and businesses thrive.   Self-reflection Question: If you measured your success solely by whether you're maximizing human potential and freedom in your organization, what would you start doing differently tomorrow? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Six Intrinsic Motivators Alidad's favorite retrospective format comes from Open Systems Theory—the Six Intrinsic Motivators. This approach uses the OODA Loop philosophy: understanding reality and reflecting on actions. "Let's see what actually happened in reality, rather than our perception," Alidad explains.   The format assesses six elements. Three are personal and can have too much or too little (rated -10 to +10): autonomy in decision making, continuous learning and feedback, and variety in work. Three are team environment factors that you can't have too much of (rated 0 to 10): mutual support and respect, meaningfulness (both socially useful work and seeing the whole product), and desirable futures (seeing development opportunities ahead).   The process is elegantly simple. Bring the team together and ask each person to assess themselves on each criterion. When individuals share their numbers, fascinating conversations emerge. One person's 8 on autonomy might surprise a teammate who rated themselves a 3. These differences spark natural dialogue, and teams begin to balance and adjust organically. "If these six elements don't exist in the team, you can never have productive human teams," Alidad states. He recommends running this at least every six months, or every three months for teams experiencing significant change. The beauty? No intervention from outside is needed—the team naturally self-organizes around what they discover together.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Join Joanna Płaskonka and Ashutosh Garg as they explore the journey from robotics to agile leadership. Discover insights on Scrum, Agile Kata, psychological safety, and small steps that drive big impact in teams and organizations.00:35- About Joanna PłaskonkaJoanna is a professional scrum trainer, a consultant and an effectiveness expert.She's the first agile Kata trainer in Poland, a certified action learning coach and a team psychological safety certified expert. 

In this episode, Dave West sits down with Darrell Fernandes, executive advisor at Scrum.org to explore the The AI Teammate Framework: A Four-Step Framework for Product Teams, featured in a new whitepaper. They discuss how to treat AI like a true teammate—onboarding it with context, guiding interactions through user stories, and establishing governance to manage performance.Darrell emphasizes the importance of structured AI adoption, comparing it to onboarding human team members, and highlights how a disciplined approach can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and even protect jobs. From writing AI job descriptions to building prompt libraries and governance strategies, this episode offers actionable insights for teams navigating the evolving AI landscape.Listen now to learn how to bring AI onboard as a true teammate.For more, there is a live webcast coming up next week that will also be available as a recording. Learn more. Topics covered:Introduction to the AI Teammate FrameworkWhy a framework?The need for a structured, holistic approach to AI in teamsAI as a Team MemberTreating AI like a teammate rather than a toolThe importance of onboarding and providing contextComparing AI onboarding to human onboardingThe Four Steps of the FrameworkIdentify AI's Role – defining the problem and writing an AI “job description”Onboard with Context Management – giving AI access to product, customer, and process contextInteract Using User Stories – structuring collaboration through clear, outcome-based interactionsGovernance and Performance Management – ensuring accountability, compliance, and efficiencyChallenges of Working with AIContext management and maintaining prompt librariesBalancing AI experimentation with structureCost, scalability, and efficiency concernsLessons from the Early Days of Cloud ComputingParallels between the AI adoption curve and cloud evolutionThe shift from unregulated enthusiasm to disciplined governanceFuture of AI in Product TeamsThe importance of a disciplined, thoughtful approachHow structured AI collaboration can enhance — not replace — human workActionable Next Steps for TeamsRead the white paperAssess current onboarding and management practicesApply the four-step framework to integrate AI effectively

Alidad Hamidi: The Tax Agile Teams Pay for Organizational Standards Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "If you set targets for people, they will achieve the target, even if that means destroying the system around them." - W. Edwards Deming (quoted by Alidad)   The tension is familiar to every Scrum Master working in large organizations: leadership demands standard operating models, flow time metrics below specific numbers, and reporting structures that fit neat boxes. Meanwhile, teams struggle under the weight of context-insensitive measurements that ignore the nuanced reality of their work. Alidad faces this challenge daily—creating balance between organizational demands and what teams actually need to transform and thrive.   His approach starts with a simple but powerful question to leaders: "What is it that you want to achieve with these metrics?" Going beyond corporate-speak to have real conversations reveals that most leaders want outcomes, not just numbers. Alidad then involves teams in defining strategies to achieve those outcomes, framing metrics as "the tax we pay" or "the license to play." When teams understand the intent and participate in the strategy, something surprising happens—most metrics naturally improve because teams are delivering genuine value, customers are happy, and team dynamics are healthy.   But context sensitivity remains critical. Alidad uses a vivid analogy: "If you apply lean metrics to Pixar Studio, you're gonna kill Pixar Studio. If you apply approaches of Pixar Studio to production line, they will go bankrupt in less than a month." Toyota's production line and Pixar's creative studio both need different approaches based on their context, team evolution, organizational maturity, and market environment. He advocates aligning teams to value delivery with end-to-end metrics rather than individual team measurements, recognizing that organizations operate in ecosystem models beyond simple product paradigms.   Perhaps most important is patience. "Try to not drink coffee for a week," Alidad challenges. "Even for a single person, one practice, it's very hard to change your behavior. Imagine for organization of hundreds of thousands of people." Organizations move through learning cycles at their own rhythm. Our job isn't to force change at the speed we prefer—it's to take responsibility for our freedom and find ways to move the system, accepting that systems have their own speed.   Self-reflection Question: Which metrics are you applying to your teams without considering their specific context, and what conversation do you need to have with leadership about the outcomes those metrics are meant to achieve?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Is your team moving in sync—or spinning in circles? - Mike CohnEver feel like your agile team should be working smoothly—but something's just a bit off? Handoffs feel clunky. Meetings drag. Even small changes spark big debates.It's not that your team isn't skilled—it's that you're not quite in sync.Rowers have a word for the alignment you're seeking: swing.What is swing?In crew rowing, swing is that near-magical moment when every rower moves in perfect unison—each stroke in sync, each effort amplified. And I do mean perfect unison. This means each rower: puts an oar into the water at the exact same timepulls for the same time and distance at the same speedlifts the oar out of the water at the same timeslides forward at the same paceTeam members hand off work frequently, without fanfare, and in small chunks.Team members can finish each other's… (Did you try to finish my sentence for me?) work. They can jump in and pick up tasks if someone is out sick or on vacation.Meetings are short, focused and valuable.Goals are ambitious, but usually met. When the team falls short, everyone (including leaders) understands that goals are not guarantees.A try-it-and-see mindset permeates the team. They're willing to experiment with new practices (such as user stories vs. job stories or story points vs. time) or frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban).The team is confident in their ability to succeed. As they deliver more and more value, and achieve outcome after outcome, the team feels almost unstoppable. Team members have fun. I sometimes decry that work is called work. I sincerely want work to be fun. I'm not naive: I know that won't always be the case. But when a team is working together well, it is fun.Swing is rare. When I rowed, our boat might have gone an entire race without once truly achieving swing. (And yes, it was usually my fault. Thanks for asking.)But when it happens, it's effortless. The boat flies.Agile teams can experience the same kind of swing. When everything starts to flowWhen teams are aligned and in sync you'll know it: ​​​​​None of this happens by accidentAchieving all of this isn't easy.Like rowers chasing swing, agile teams have to practice, reflect, and adjust—over and over again—in their quest to go from good to great.But take it from me, when it clicks, it's magic.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Alidad Hamidi: When a Billion-Dollar Team Becomes Invisible Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Most of the times, it's not teams that are self-destructive or anything... Simple analogy is when a flower is not blooming, you don't fix the flower, you fix the soil." - Alidad Hamidi   The team sat on the sidelines, maintaining a large portfolio of systems while the organization buzzed with excitement about replatforming initiatives. Nobody seemed to care about them. Morale was low. Whenever technical challenges arose, everyone pointed to the same person for help. Alidad tried the standard playbook—team-building activities, bonding exercises—but the impact was minimal. Something deeper was broken, and it wasn't the team.   Then Alidad shifted his lens to systems thinking. Instead of fixing the flower, he examined the soil. Using the Viable Systems Model, he started with System 5—identity. Who were they? What value did they create? He worked with stakeholders to map the revenue impact of the systems this "forgotten" team maintained. The number shocked everyone: one billion dollars. These weren't legacy systems gathering dust—they were revenue-generating engines critical to the business. Alidad asked the team to run training series for each other, teaching colleagues about the ten different systems they managed. They created self-assessments of skill sets, making visible what had been invisible for too long. When Alidad made their value explicit to the organization, everything shifted. The team's perspective transformed. Later, when asked what made the difference, their answer was unanimous: "You made us visible. That's it." People have agency to change their environment, but sometimes they need someone to help the system see what it's been missing. Ninety percent of the time, when teams struggle, it's not the team that needs fixing—it's the soil they're planted in.   Self-reflection Question: What teams in your organization are maintaining critical systems but remain invisible to leadership, and what would happen if you made their value explicit? Featured Book of the Week: More Time to Think by Nancy Kline Alidad describes Nancy Kline's More Time to Think as transformative for his facilitation practice. While many Scrum Masters focus on filling space and driving conversations forward, this book teaches the opposite—how to create space and listen deeply. "It teaches you to create a space, not to fill it," Alidad explains. The book explores how to design containers—meetings, workshops, retrospectives—that allow deeper thinking to emerge naturally among team members.   For Alidad, the book answered a fundamental question: "How do you help people to find the solution among themselves?" It transformed his approach from facilitation to liberation, helping teams slow down so they can think more clearly. He first encountered the audiobook and was so impacted that he explored both "Time to Think" and this follow-up. While both are valuable, "More Time to Think" resonated more deeply with his coaching philosophy. The book pairs beautifully with systems thinking, helping Scrum Masters understand that creating the right conditions for thinking is often more powerful than providing the right answers. In this segment, we also refer to the book Confronting our freedom, by Peter Block et al.    [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Alidad Hamidi: When Silence Becomes Your Most Powerful Coaching Tool Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "I purposefully designed a moment of silence. Staying in the anxiety of being silenced. Do not interrupt the team. Put the question there, let them come up with a solution. It is very hard. But very effective." - Alidad Hamidi   Alidad walked into what seemed like a straightforward iteration manager role—what some use, instead of Scrum Master. The organization was moving servers to the cloud, a transformation with massive implications. When leadership briefed him on the team's situation, they painted a clear picture of challenges ahead. Yet when Alidad asked the team directly about the transformation's impact, the response was uniform: "Nothing."   But Alidad knew better. After networking with other teams, he discovered the truth—this team maintained software generating over half a billion dollars in revenue, and the transformation would fundamentally change their work. When he asked again, silence filled the room. Not the comfortable silence of reflection, but the heavy silence of fear and mistrust. Most facilitators would have filled that void with words, reassurance, or suggestions. Alidad did something different—he waited. And waited. For what felt like an eternity, probably a full minute, he stood in that uncomfortable silence, about to leave the room.   Then something shifted. One team member picked up a pen. Then another joined in. Suddenly, the floodgates opened. Debates erupted, ideas flew, and the entire board filled with impacts and concerns. What made the difference? Before that pivotal moment, Alidad had invested in building relationships—taking the team to lunch, standing up for them when managers blamed them for support failures, showing through his actions that he genuinely cared. The team saw that he wasn't there to tell them how to do their jobs. They started to trust that this silence wasn't manipulation—it was genuine space for their voices. This moment taught Alidad a profound lesson about Open Systems Theory and Socio-Technical systems—sometimes the most powerful intervention is creating space and having the courage to hold it.   Self-reflection Question: When was the last time you designed a moment of silence for your team, and what held you back from making it longer?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Ben Day is a seasoned software consultant and fractional CTO. With over two decades of experience, he brings a blend of hands-on coding expertise, strategic clarity, and people-focused coaching to help companies — from startups to Fortune 500s — deliver high-quality software faster and with less friction.   As the founder of Benjamin Day Consulting, Inc., Ben offers training, coaching, and architectural guidance rooted in Agile, Scrum, Azure DevOps, and GitHub best practices. He's a Microsoft MVP, a certified Professional Scrum Trainer for over 15 years, and a sought-after speaker who favors storytelling over slide decks.   Topics of Discussion: [2:30] The overlap between music and coding, with Ben explaining the empathy required in both fields. [4:22] Jeffrey mentions the Sunday Sounds app, which allows users to create custom instruments using AI prompts. [6:45] The process of creating Slide Speaker and how Slide Speaker takes screenshots of each moment in a PowerPoint presentation and generates MP4 files. [13:01] Technical details of SlideSpeaker. [16:18] Event-based scaling. [17:10] How SlideSpeaker can be used for internal training presentations and compliance-approved content. [26:06] The opportunity for even more voice models and the ability to create your own custom voice, accent, and tone. [28:11] Ben talks about creating videos that help absolute beginners grasp C#. [32:45] What's next for Ben and Slidespeaker?   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Benjamin Day Consulting Benjamin Day LinkedIn Benjamin Day YouTube SlidespeakerAI     Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Karim Harbott: From Requirements Documents to Customer Obsession—Redefining the PO Role Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Strategic, Customer-Obsessed, and Vision-Driven   "The PO role in the team is strategic. These POs focus on the customer, outcomes, and strategy. They're customer-obsessed and focus on the purpose and the why of the product." - Karim Harbott   Karim believes the industry fundamentally misunderstands what a Product Owner should be. The great Product Owners he's seen are strategic thinkers who are obsessed with the customer. They don't just manage a backlog—they paint a vision for the product and help the entire team become customer-obsessed alongside them.  These POs focus relentlessly on outcomes rather than outputs, asking "why are we building this?" before diving into "what should we build?" They understand the purpose of the product and communicate it compellingly.  Karim references Amazon's "working backwards" approach, where Product Owners start with the customer experience they want to create and work backwards to figure out what needs to be built. Great POs also embrace the framework of Desirability (what customers want), Viability (what makes business sense), Feasibility (what's technically possible), and Usability (what's easy to use). While the PO owns desirability and viability, they collaborate closely with designers on usability and technical teams on feasibility.  This is critical: software is a team sport, and great POs recognize that multiple roles share responsibility for delivery. Like David Marquet teaches, they empower the team to own decisions rather than dictating every detail. The result? Teams that understand the "why" and can innovate toward it autonomously.   Self-reflection Question: Does your Product Owner paint a compelling vision that inspires the team, or do they primarily manage a list of tasks? The Bad Product Owner: The User Story Writer "The user story writer PO thinks it's their job to write full, long requirements documents, put it in JIRA, and assign it to the team. This is far away from what the PO role should be." - Karim Harbott   The anti-pattern Karim sees most often is the "User Story Writer" Product Owner. These POs believe their job is to write detailed requirements documents, load them into JIRA, and assign them to the team. It's essentially waterfall disguised as Agile—treating user stories like mini-specifications rather than conversation starters. This approach completely misses the collaborative nature of product development.  Instead of engaging the team in understanding customer needs and co-creating solutions, these POs hand down fully-formed requirements and expect the team to execute without question. The problem is that this removes the team's ownership and creativity. When POs act as the sole source of product knowledge, they become bottlenecks.  The team can't make smart tradeoffs or innovate because they don't understand the underlying customer problems or business context. Using the Desirability-Viability-Feasibility-Usability framework, bad POs try to own all four dimensions themselves instead of recognizing that designers, developers, and other roles bring essential perspectives. The result is disengaged teams, slow delivery, and products that miss the mark because they were built to specifications rather than shaped by collaborative discovery. Software is a team sport—but the User Story Writer PO forgets to put the team on the field.   Self-reflection Question: Is your Product Owner engaging the team in collaborative discovery, or just handing down requirements to be implemented?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Karim Harbott: Don't Scale Dysfunction—Fix the Team First Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "How do you define the success of a football manager? Football managers are successful when the team is successful. For Scrum Masters it is also like that. Is the team better than it was before?" - Karim Harbott   Karim uses a powerful analogy to define success for Scrum Masters: think of yourself as a football manager. A football manager isn't successful because they personally score goals—they're successful when the team wins. The same principle applies to Scrum Masters. Success isn't measured by how many problems you solve or how busy you are. It's measured by whether the team is better than they were before.  Are they more self-organizing? More effective? More aligned with organizational outcomes?  This requires a mindset shift. Unlike sprinters competing individually, Scrum Masters succeed by enabling others to be better.  Karim recommends involving the team when defining success—what does "better" mean to them? He also emphasizes linking the work of the team to organizational objectives. When teams understand how their efforts contribute to broader goals, they become more engaged and purposeful. But there's a critical warning: don't scale dysfunction! If a team isn't healthy, improving it is far more important than expanding your coaching to more teams.  A successful Scrum Master creates teams that don't need constant intervention—teams that can manage themselves, make decisions, and deliver value consistently. Just like a great football manager builds a team that plays brilliantly even when the manager isn't on the field.   Self-reflection Question: Is your team more capable and self-sufficient than they were six months ago, or have they become more dependent on you? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Systems Modeling with Causal Loop Diagrams "It shows how many aspects of the system there are and how things are interconnected. This helps us see something that we would not come up with in normal conversations." - Karim Harbott   Karim recommends using systems modeling—specifically causal loop diagrams—as a retrospective format. This approach helps teams visualize the complex interconnections between different aspects of their work. Instead of just listing what went wrong or right, causal loop diagrams reveal how various elements influence each other, often uncovering hidden feedback loops and unintended consequences.  The power of this format is that it surfaces insights the team wouldn't discover through normal conversation. Teams can then think of their retrospective actions as experiments—ways to interact with the system to test hypotheses about what will improve outcomes. This shifts retrospectives from complaint sessions to scientific inquiry, making them far more actionable and engaging. If your team is struggling with recurring issues or can't seem to break out of patterns, systems modeling might reveal the deeper dynamics at play.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

On this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Dave West welcomes Professional Scrum Trainer Bogdan Onyshchenko to explore the Agile Product Operating Model (APOM). They discuss how APOM offers a holistic, principle-based approach for product organizations—going beyond Scrum to address team motivation, vendor management, strategic decision-making, and more.Bogdan shares insights on the importance of transparency, frequent delivery, and self-organization. The episode also gets into balancing prescriptive advice with flexible principles, understanding the “why” behind agile practices, and using APOM as a practical tool for improving outcomes and value delivery.Listeners will gain practical guidance on applying APOM in their own organizations and learn how this evolving model continues to support teams and leaders in delivering value effectively.Learn more about APOM. Topics covered:Defining the Agile Product Operating Model (APOM)Practical Applications of APOMBalancing Prescriptive and Principle-Based ApproachesThe Importance of Understanding the "Why"Operating Models vs. Frameworks

Karim Harbott: You Can't Make a Flower Grow Faster—The Oblique Approach to Shaping Culture Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "How can I make a flower grow faster? Culture is a product of the behaviors of people in the system." - Karim Harbott   For Karim, one of the biggest challenges—and enablers—in his current work is creating a supporting culture. After years of learning what doesn't work, he's come to understand that culture isn't something you can force or mandate. Like trying to make a flower grow faster by pulling on it, direct approaches to culture change often backfire.  Instead, Karim uses what he calls the "oblique approach"—changing culture indirectly by adjusting the five levers: leadership behaviors, organizational structure, incentives, metrics, and systems. Leadership behaviors are particularly crucial.  When leaders step back and encourage ownership rather than micromanaging, teams transform. Incentives have a huge impact on how teams work—align them poorly, and you'll get exactly the wrong behaviors.  Karim references Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal, which demonstrates how changing organizational structure and leadership philosophy can unlock extraordinary performance. He also uses the Competing Values Framework to help leaders understand different cultural orientations and their tradeoffs. But the most important lesson? There are always unexpected consequences. Culture change requires patience, experimentation, and a willingness to observe how the system responds. You can't force a flower to grow, but you can create the conditions where it thrives.   Self-reflection Question: Are you trying to change your organization's culture directly, or are you adjusting the conditions that shape behavior?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Karim Harbott: Why System Design Beats Individual Coaching Every Time Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "You can't change people, but you can change the system. Change the environment, not the people." - Karim Harbott   Karim was coaching a distributed team that was struggling with defects appearing constantly during sprints. The developers and testers were at different sites, and communication seemed fractured. But Karim knew from experience that when teams are underperforming, the problem usually isn't the people—it's the system they're working in. He stepped back to examine the broader context, implementing behavior-driven development(BDD) and specification by example to improve clarity through BDD scenarios.  But the defects persisted.  Then, almost by accident, Karim discovered the root cause: the developers and testers were employed by different companies. They had competing interests, different incentives, and fundamentally misaligned goals. No amount of coaching the individuals would fix a structural problem like that.  It took months, but eventually the system changed—developers and testers were reorganized into unified teams from the same organization. Suddenly, the defects dropped dramatically. As Jocko Willink writes in Extreme Ownership, when something isn't working, look at the system first. Karim's experience proves that sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do is stop trying to fix people and start fixing the environment they work in.   Self-reflection Question: When your team struggles, do you look at the people or at the system they're embedded in? Featured Book of the Week: Scaling Lean and Agile Development by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde "This book was absolute gold. The way it is written, and the tools they talk about went beyond what I was talking about back then. They introduced many concepts that I now use." - Karim Harbott   Karim discovered Scaling Lean and Agile Development by accident, but it resonated with him immediately. The concepts Craig Larman and Bas Vodde introduced—particularly around LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum)—went far beyond the basics Karim had been working with. The book opened his eyes to system-level thinking at scale, showing how to maintain agility even as organizations grow.  It's packed with practical tools and frameworks that Karim still uses today. For anyone working beyond a single team, this book provides the depth and nuance that most scaling frameworks gloss over. Also worth reading: User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn, another foundational text that shaped Karim's approach to working with teams.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Karim Harbott: The Day I Discovered I Was a Scrum Project Manager, Not a Scrum Master Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "I was telling the team what to do, instead of helping the team to be better on their own. There's a lot more to being a Scrum Master than Agile—working with people is such a different skillset." - Karim Harbott   Karim thought he had mastered Scrum. He had read the books, understood the framework, and was getting things done. His team seemed to be moving forward smoothly—until he stepped away for a few weeks.  But, when he returned, everything had fallen apart. The team couldn't function without him constantly directing their work. That's when Karim realized he had fallen into one of the most common anti-patterns in Agile: the Scrum Project Manager.  Instead of enabling his team to be more effective, he had become their bottleneck. Every decision flowed through him, every task needed his approval, and the team had learned to wait for his direction rather than taking ownership themselves. The wake-up call was brutal but necessary.  Karim discovered that pushing project management responsibilities to the people doing the work—as David Marquet advocates—was far more powerful than being the hero who solves all problems. The real skill wasn't in telling people what to do; it was in creating an environment where they could figure it out themselves. Geoff Watts calls this servant leadership, and Karim learned it the hard way: a great Scrum Master makes themselves progressively less necessary, not more indispensable.   Self-reflection Question: Are you enabling your team to be more effective, or have you become the person they can't function without?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Darryl Wright: The PONO—Product Owners in Name Only and How They Destroy Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Collaborative, Present, and Clear in Vision   "She was collaborative, and that meant that she was present—the opposite of the MIA product owner. She came, and she sat with the team, and she worked with them side by side. Even when she was working on something different, she'd be there, she'd be available." - Darryl Wright   Darryl shares an unusual story about one of the best Product Owners he's ever encountered—someone who had never even heard of Agile before taking the role. Working for a large consulting company with 170,000 staff worldwide, they faced a difficult project that nobody wanted to do. Darryl suggested running it as an Agile project, but the entire team had zero Agile experience. The only person who'd heard of Agile was a new graduate who'd studied it for one week at university—he became the Scrum Master. The executive sponsor, with her business acumen and stakeholder management skills, became the Product Owner despite having no idea what that meant.  The results were extraordinary: an 18-month project completed in just over 7 months, and when asked about the experience, the team's highest feedback was how much fun they had working on what was supposed to be an awful, difficult project. Darryl attributes this success to mindset—the team was open and willing to try something new.  The Product Owner brought critical skills to the role even without technical Agile knowledge: She was collaborative and present, sitting with the team and remaining available. She was decisive, making prioritization calls clearly so nobody was ever confused about priorities. She had excellent communication skills, articulating the vision with clarity that inspired the team. Her stakeholder management capabilities kept external pressures managed appropriately. And her business acumen meant she instantly understood conversations about value, time to market, and customer impact.  Without formal training, she became an amazing Product Owner simply by being open, willing, and committed. As Darryl reflects, going from never having heard of the role to being an inspiring Product Owner in 7 months was incredible—one of the most successful projects and teams he's ever worked with.   Self-reflection Question: If you had to choose between a Product Owner with deep Agile certification and no business skills, or one with strong business acumen and willingness to learn—which would serve your team better? The Bad Product Owner: The PONO—Product Owner in Name Only   "The team never saw the PO until the showcase. And so, the team would come along with work that they deemed was finished, and the product owner had not seen it before because he wasn't around. So he would be seeing it for the first time in the showcase, and he would then accept or reject the work in the showcase, in front of other stakeholders." - Darryl Wright   The most destructive anti-pattern Darryl has witnessed was the MIA—Missing in Action—Product Owner, someone who was a Product Owner in Name Only (PONO). This senior business person was too busy to spend time with the team, only appearing at the sprint showcase. The damage this created was systematic and crushing. The team would build work without Product Owner engagement, then present it in the showcase looking to be proud of their accomplishment.  The PO, seeing it for the first time, would accept or reject the work in front of stakeholders. When he rejected it, the team was crushed, deflated, demoralized, and made to look like fools in front of senior leaders—essentially thrown under the bus. This pattern violates multiple principles of Agile teamwork. First, there's no feedback loop during the sprint, so the team works blind, hoping they're building the right thing. Second, the showcase becomes a validation ceremony rather than a collaborative feedback session, creating a dynamic of subservience rather than curiosity. The team seeks approval instead of engaging as explorers discovering what delivers customer value together. Third, the PO positions themselves as judge rather than coach—extracting themselves from responsibility for what's delivered while placing all blame on the team.  As Deming's quote reminds us, "A leader is a coach, not a judge." When the PO takes the judge role, they're betraying fundamental Agile values.  The responsibility for what the team delivers belongs strictly to the Product Owner; the team owns how it's delivered.  When Darryl encounters this situation as a Scrum Master, he lobbies intensely with the PO: "Even if you can't spare any other time for the entire sprint, give us just one hour the night before the showcase." That single hour lets the team preview what they'll present, getting early yes/no decisions so they never face public rejection. The basic building block of any Agile or Scrum way of working is an empowered team—and this anti-pattern strips all empowerment away.   Self-reflection Question: Does your Product Owner show up as a coach who's building something together with the team, or as a judge who pronounces verdicts? How does that dynamic shape what your team is willing to try?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Welcome to a special edition of The Easier, Better, for Construction Show (EBFC Show)!

Darryl Wright: The Retrospective Formats That Actually Generate Change Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "My success is, how much have I helped the team achieve what they want? If what they want is to uplift quality, or to reduce their time to market, well then, my success is helping them achieve that." - Darryl Wright When Darryl enters a new organization, he's often told his success will be measured by percentage of Agile adoption or team maturity assessment scores. His response is direct: those are vanity metrics that show something for its own sake, not real success. True success requires multiple measures, carefully balanced to prevent gaming and to capture both the human and business dimensions of work. Darryl advocates balancing quantitative metrics like lead time and flow efficiency with qualitative measures like employee happiness and team self-assessment of productivity. He balances business outcomes like customer satisfaction and revenue with humanity metrics that track the team's journey toward high performance. Most importantly, Darryl believes his success metrics should be co-created with the team. If he's there to help the team, then success must be defined by how much he's helped them achieve what they want—not what he wants. When stakeholders fixate on output metrics like "more story points," Darryl uses a coaching approach to shift the conversation toward outcomes and value. "Would you be happy if your team checked off more boxes, but your customers were less happy?" he asks. This opens space for exploring what they really want to achieve and why it matters. The key is translating outputs into impacts, helping people articulate the business value or customer experience improvement they're actually seeking. As detailed in Better Value, Sooner, Safer, Happier by Jonathan Smart, comprehensive dashboards can track value across multiple domains simultaneously—balancing speed with quality, business success with humanity, quantitative data with qualitative experience. When done well, Agile teams can be highly productive, highly successful, and have high morale at the same time. We don't have to sacrifice one for the other—we can have both. Self-reflection Question: If your team could only track two metrics for the next sprint, what would they choose? What would you choose? And more importantly, whose choice should drive the selection? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The 4 L's and Three Little Pigs Darryl offers two favorites, tailored to different contexts. For learning environments, he loves the 4 L's retrospective: Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed For. This format creates space for teams to reflect on their learning journey, surfacing insights about what worked, what was missing, and what they aspire to moving forward. For operational environments, he recommends the Three Little Pigs retrospective, which brilliantly surfaces team strengths and weaknesses through a playful metaphor. The House of Straw represents things the team is weak at—nothing stands up, everything falls over. The House of Sticks is things they've put structure around, but it doesn't really work. The House of Bricks represents what they're solid on, what they can count on every time. Then comes the most important part: identifying the Big Bad Wolf—the scary thing, the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about but everyone knows is there. This format creates psychological safety to discuss the undiscussable. Darryl emphasizes two critical success factors for retrospectives: First, vary your formats. Teams that hear the same questions sprint after sprint will disengage, asking "why are you asking me again?" Different questions provide different lenses, generating fresh insights. Second, ensure actions come out of every retro. Nothing kills engagement faster than suggestions disappearing into the void. When people see their ideas lead to real changes, they'll eagerly return to the next retrospective. And don't forget to know your team—if they're sports fans, use sports retros; if they're scientists, use space exploration themes. Just don't make the mistake of running a "sailboat retro" with retiring mainframe engineers who'll ask if you think they're kindergarten children. For more retrospective formats, check out Retromat. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Darryl Wright: Why AI Adoption Will Fail Just Like Agile Did—Unless We Change Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "People are looking to AI to solve their problems, and they're doing it in the same way that they previously looked to Agile to solve their problems for them. The problem with that is, of course, that Agile doesn't solve problems for you. What it does is it shines a light on where your problems are." - Darryl Wright The world has gone AI crazy, and Darryl sees history repeating itself in troubling ways. Organizations are rushing to adopt AI with the same magical thinking they once applied to Agile—believing that simply implementing the tool will solve their fundamental problems. But just as Agile reveals problems rather than solving them, AI will do the same. Worse, AI threatens to accelerate existing problems: if you have too many things moving at once, AI won't fix that, it will amplify the chaos. If you automate a bad process, you've simply locked in badness at higher speed. As Darryl points out, when organizations don't understand that AI requires them to still do the hard work of problem-solving, they're setting themselves up for disillusionment, and in five or twenty years, we'll hear "AI is dead" just like we now hear "Agile is dead." The challenge for Scrum Masters and Agile coaches is profound: how do you help people with something they don't know they need? The answer lies in returning to first principles. Before adopting any tool—whether Agile or AI—organizations must clearly define the problem they're trying to solve. As Einstein reportedly said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions." Value stream mapping becomes essential, allowing teams to visualize where humans and AI agents should operate, with clear handovers and explicit policies. The cognitive load on software teams will increase dramatically as AI generates more code, more options, and more complexity. Without clear thinking about problems and deliberate design of systems, AI adoption will follow the same disappointing trajectory as many Agile adoptions—lots of activity, little improvement, and eventually, blame directed at the tool rather than the system. Self-reflection Question: Are you adopting AI to solve a clearly defined problem, or because everyone else is doing it? If you automated your current process with AI, would you be locking in excellence or just accelerating dysfunction? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Darryl Wright: The Agile Team That Committed to Failure for 18 Sprints Straight Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "As Deming said, a bad system will beat a good person every time." - Darryl Wright Darryl was called in to help a struggling team at a large energy retailer. The symptoms seemed straightforward—low morale, poor relationships, and chronic underdelivery. But as he asked questions, a heartbreaking pattern emerged. The team had been "committing" to 110 story points per sprint while consistently delivering only 30. For 18 sprints. When Darryl asked why the team would commit to numbers they couldn't possibly achieve, the answer was devastating: "The business needs that much." This wasn't a problem of skill or capability—it was learned helplessness in action. Sprint after sprint, the team experienced failure, which made them more despondent and less effective, creating a vicious downward spiral. The business lost trust, the team lost confidence, and everyone was trapped in a system that guaranteed continued failure. When Darryl proposed the solution—committing to a realistic 30 points—he was told it was impossible because "the business needs 110 points." But the business wasn't getting 110 points anyway. They were getting broken promises, a demoralized team, stress leave, high churn, and a relationship built on distrust. Darryl couldn't change the system in that case, but the lesson was clear: adult people who manage their lives perfectly well outside work can become completely helpless inside work when the system repeatedly tells them their judgment doesn't matter. As Ricardo Semler observes in Maverick!, people leave their initiative at the door when organizations create systems that punish honest assessment and reward false promises. Self-reflection Question: Is your team committing to what they believe they can achieve, or to what they think someone else wants to hear? What would happen if they told the truth? Featured Book of the Week: Better Value, Sooner, Safer, Happier by Jonathan Smart Darryl describes Better Value, Sooner, Safer, Happier by Jonathan Smart as a treasure trove of real-life experience from people who have "had their sleeves rolled up in the trenches" for decades. What he loves most is the authenticity—the authors openly share not just their successes, but all the things that didn't work and why. One story that crystallizes the book's brilliance involves Barclays Bank and their ingenious approach to change adoption. Facing resistance from laggards who refused to adopt Agile improvements despite overwhelming social proof, they started publishing lists of "most improved teams." When resisters saw themselves at the bottom of these public lists, they called to complain—and were asked, "Did you have improvements we didn't know about?" The awkward pause would follow, then the inevitable question: "How do I get these improvements?" Demand creation at its finest. Darryl particularly appreciates that the authors present at conferences saying, "Let me tell you about all the things we've stuffed up in major agile transformations all around the world," bringing genuine humility and practical wisdom to every page. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Darryl Wright: When Enthusiasm Became Interference—Learning to Listen as a Scrum Master Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Wait stands for Why Am I Talking? Just ask yourself, wait, why am I talking? Is this the right moment for you to give an idea, or is this the right moment to just listen and let them have space to come up with ideas?" - Darryl Wright   Early in his Agile journey, Darryl was evangelically enthusiastic about the principles and practices that had transformed his approach to leadership. He believed he had discovered the answers people were seeking, and his excitement manifested in a problematic pattern—he talked too much. Constantly jumping in with solutions, ideas, and suggestions, Darryl dominated conversations without realizing the impact. Then someone pulled him aside with a generous gift: "You're not really giving other people time to come up with ideas or take ownership of a problem."  They introduced him to WAIT—Why Am I Talking?—an acronym that would fundamentally shift his coaching approach. This simple tool forced Darryl to pause before speaking and examine his motivations. Was he trying to prove himself? Did he think he knew better? Or was this genuinely the right moment to contribute? As he practiced this technique, Darryl discovered something profound: when he held space and waited, others would eventually step forward with insights and solutions.  The concept of "small enough to try, safe enough to fail" became his framework for deciding when to intervene. Not every moment requires a Scrum Master to step in—sometimes the most powerful coaching happens in silence. By developing better skills in active listening and learning to hold space for others, Darryl transformed from someone who provided all the answers into someone who created the conditions for shared leadership to emerge.   In this episode, we refer to David Marquet's episodes on the podcast for practical techniques on holding space and enabling leadership in others.   Self-reflection Question: When was the last time you caught yourself jumping in with a solution before giving your team space to discover it themselves? What would happen if you waited just five more minutes?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Alex Sloley: How to Coach POs Who Treat Developers Like Mindless Robots In this episode, we refer to the previous episodes with David Marquet, author of Turn the Ship Around! The Great Product Owner: Trust and the Sprint Review That Changes Everything Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "She was like, oh my gosh, I've never seen this before, I didn't think it was possible. I just saw you deliver stuff in 2 weeks that I can actually use." - Alex Sloley In 2011, Alex worked with a client organization creating software for external companies. They needed a Product Owner for a new Agile team, and a representative from the client—who had never experienced Scrum—volunteered for the role. She was initially skeptical, having never witnessed or heard of this approach. Alex gently coached her through the process, asking her to trust the team and be patient. Then came the first Sprint Review, and everything changed. For the first time in her career, she saw working product delivered in just two weeks that she could actually touch, see, and use. Her head exploded with possibility. Even though it didn't have everything and wasn't perfect, it was remarkably good. That moment flipped a switch—she became fully engaged and transformed into a champion for Agile adoption, not just for the team but for the entire company. Alex reflects that she embodied all five Scrum values: focus (trusting the team's capacity), commitment (attending and engaging in all events), openness (giving the new approach a chance), respect (giving the team space to succeed), and courage (championing an unfamiliar process). The breakthrough wasn't about product ownership techniques—it was about creating an experience that reinforced Scrum values, allowing her to see the potential of a bright new future. Self-reflection Question: What practices, techniques, or processes can you implement that will naturally and automatically build the five Scrum values in your Product Owner? The Bad Product Owner: When Control Becomes Domination Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "They basically just owned the team. The developers on the team might as well have been mindless robots, because they were being assigned all the work, told how much work they could do in a sprint, what the work was." - Alex Sloley In 2018, while working with five interconnected Product Owners, Alex observed a Sprint Planning session that revealed a severe anti-pattern. One Product Owner completely controlled everything, telling the team exactly what work they would take into the Sprint, assigning specific work to specific people by name, and dictating precisely how they would implement solutions down to technical details like which functions and APIs to use. The developers were reduced to helpless executors with no autonomy, while the Scrum Master sat powerless in the corner. Alex wondered what caused this dynamic—was the PO a former project manager? Had the team broken trust in the past? What emotional baggage or trauma led to this situation? His approach started with building trust through coffee meetings and informal conversations, crucially viewing the PO not as the problem but as someone facing their own impediment. He reframed the challenge as solving the Product Owner's problem rather than fixing the Product Owner. When he asked, "Why do you have to do all this? Can't you trust the team?" and suggested the PO could relax if they delegated, the response was surprisingly positive. The PO was willing to step back once given permission and assurance. Alex's key lesson: think strategically about how to build trust and who needs to build trust with whom. Sometimes the person who appears to be creating problems is actually struggling under their own burden. Self-reflection Question: When you encounter a controlling Product Owner, do you approach the situation as "fixing" the PO or as "solving the PO's problem"? How might this reframe change your coaching strategy? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]