Johanna Rothman Chapter 3 Building Teamwork with Interpersonal Practices Copyright © 2017

“Because agile is human-centric, collaborative approach to product development, your team needs to build its ability to work as a team using interpersonal skills.” What are interpersonal skills?

Communication skills, which includes: Verbal Communication – what we say and how we say it; Non-Verbal Communication – what we communicate without words, for example through body language, or tone of voice; and Listening Skills – how we interpret both the verbal and non-verbal messages sent by others. Emotional intelligence – being able to understand and manage your own and others’ emotions. Team-working – being able to work with others in groups and teams, both formal and informal. Negotiation, persuasion and influencing skills – working with others to find a mutually agreeable (Win/Win) outcome. This may be considered a subset of communication, but it is often treated separately. Conflict resolution and mediation – working with others to resolve interpersonal conflict and disagreements in a positive way, which again may be considered a subset of communication. Problem solving and decision-making – working with others to identify, define and solve problems, which includes making decisions about the best course of action.

Agile team members… … require at least… the ability to receive and to provide feedback and coaching Allowing for a safe environment for collaboration Helping team members to learn from their work … as individuals and as a team

Agile team members are similar Team members exhibit interpersonal qualities: Team members collaborate with each other Team members can ask each other for help Team members are adaptable, willing to work on whatever is next and possibly outside their expertise Team members also exhibit the following preferences: Do something good enough for now (as opposed to waiting for perfection) Creating experiments to try something and receive feedback on the product or the team’s process Being willing to work outside their preferences as a generalizing specialist

Feedback “Information about past behavior, delivered in the present, which may influence future behavior” “Peer based feedback helps team members collaborate, learn, and adapt to what the team needs to finish work now.” Do you care to give such feedback? Can you make use of the feedback to improve your ability to collaborate, learn, and adapt? “Here’s how it works…” page 44

Feedback “Feedback is even more important when you have personal issues.” People on agile teams need the ability to provide and receive feedback about the work and the work environment. META FEEDBACK When people don’t agree on anything. Time needed to address problems in team relationships Touchy! … stick with facts, don’t label each other, and explain how the problem affects you personally

Team members coach each other… … and should be able to learn from one another Team members should take responsibility for completing work… and completing work together … helping to move the work to “done” When team members realize they don’t know something about how to do the work or solve a problem, they should feel “safe” asking for help.

Servant Leader… a different kind of leader Focuses on building a foundation of trust Stimulates empowerment and transparency Encourages collaborative engagements Is an un-blocker and empathic person able to truly listen Shows ethical and caring behavior, putting others needs first Is humble, knowledgeable, positive, social and situationally aware

Scrum Master as Servant Leader Guiding the Development team towards self-organization Leading the team through healthy conflict and debate Teaching, coaching and mentoring the organization and team in adopting and using Scrum Shielding the team from disturbance and external threats Helping the team make visible, remove and prevent impediments Encouraging, supporting and enabling the team to reach their full potential and abilities Creating transparency by radiating information via e.g. the Product and Sprint backlog, daily Scrum, reviews and a visible workspace Ensuring a collaborative culture exists within the team.

Possible “Consulting” Roles

Teams must assess how well they collaborate Rothman “… teams that decided to track “asks and offers” as a way to encourage the team members to work together” Building trust Only happens when the team works together Team members are trustworthy when they do the following: Deliver what they promise to deliver Are consistent in their actions and reactions Make integrity a cornerstone of their work Are willing to discuss, influence, and negotiate Trust in themselves and their team members

Integrity Integrity stretches to all aspects of an employee's job An team member with integrity fosters trusting relationships with clients, coworkers and supervisors. Coworkers value the employee's ability to give honest feedback. Clients trust the employee's advice. Team members care about the quality of their work. They do their best to produce great work, not merely churn out what is needed. The employee's commitment to quality improves the company's overall quality.

Creating a team environment of Safety Safety allows the team to manage the ambiguity and uncertainty about anything related to the work Safety allows the team to learn early by creating small experiments Safety creates an environment in which team members feel safe … Helping team members admit and look for mistakes Making possible team and team member learning Facilitating the use of clear and direct language by all team members Providing an environment where “admitting what you don’t know” and “acknowledging when you fail” is expected

10 tips how to build resiliency in Scrum Teams What is resilience? … the Ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties 10 tips how to build resiliency in Scrum Teams Providing unconditional “love” and acceptance Trusting each other Providing a safe environment for them to fail Trusting their problem-solving skills Encouraging independence and letting the team solve their own problems

10 tips how to build resiliency in Scrum Teams Listening to them calmly and providing a comforting feeling when they are “hurt” Letting the team know the consequences of bad behavior Setting the expectations and rules of the game Providing enough freedom to be creative Accepting your Scrum Team, they are the key to making them resilient “Team collaboration and learning helps the team build safety and resilience.”

Brain-based model for Collaborating with & Influencing others Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness Anti-collaboration patterns When the team’s status is uneven, members are reluctant to take a risk in front of managers When the team feels uncertain about its next steps… example: undertakes a large, not well understood Feature… there is less certainty about how to proceed When the team has insufficient autonomy to work the way they want, the team is bound by decisions outside the team When team doesn’t know or can’t manage its team membership (relatedness), the team does not have the ability to develop member relationships When team members sense unfairness in how they are treated, SCARF

Recognize Interpersonal-Skills Traps Trap: Team members do not provide enough feedback to each other Trap: Team members inflict help when they see a solution Trap: Team members “sandwich” their feedback

Trap: Team members do not provide enough feedback to each other Collaborative teams learn how to work with each other Team members feel safe to ask for help and to discuss what’s going on for them … and do not ignore other members working alone when they are “stuck” Management that rewards individual work, creates incentives to work alone (stacking at Microsoft & GE) “Agile teams work together to move work across the board, to help each other finish work…” … they learn enough to work with and contribute to other team members

Trap: Team members inflict help when they see a solution You want to help team members … providing feedback and/or coaching …BUT … only if the team member has asked for help If the team member is in need but will not ask for help… for a Scrum Team, this is a problem that the Scrum Master might need to be involved…

Trap: Team members “sandwich” their feedback Feedback can come in a variety of ways… not all are helpful The “sandwich” approach Negative feedback is “sandwiched” between two pieces of positive feedback … thinking it’s a balanced approach and the best way to deliver the negative feedback… reducing discomfort and anxiety Research shows that any kind of feedback is best shared as soon as possible… without sugar coating the feedback