Not everyone on the team supports the decision to do scrum. How do I resolve that conflict?

Hi,

Coming off the back of an energising and exhausting (not sure how that works!) Certified Scrum Professional course yesterday, and heading straight into a Certified Scrum Product Owner course today, I thought I would take a moment to collect some thoughts about managing conflict and share them with you.

Let me know what you think.

Have a great Thursday.

One Insight I’ve Had

If you are a scrum master or agile coach, you are likely someone who has fallen in love with a style of working, being, and contribution that resonates deeply inside of you.

An approach, mindset and culture that fans the flames deep in your soul and inspires you to give of your best, wherever you can and however you can.

It is a great place to be. A great profession to master and a great career path to follow.

That said, most people work in 20th-century style work environments where traditional project management and line management rule the roost. Most people know very little about agile nor are they aware of how it can completely transform their lives and capabilities.

Sometimes, you walk into environments where people resist your efforts to help them transform.

At other times, you walk into an environment where resentment is rife, and people are actively sabotaging any effort to adopt Scrum or any other agile framework.

What do you do when people on the team don’t support scrum? What do you do when every effort you make to help the team adopt scrum is met with fierce resistance?

It will happen to you, at some point in your career, and you’re best served to approach this problem with an open mind and a curious spirit.

In the short video I produced, I walk you through a process that will enable you to understand what the problem is, explore what opportunities are available to you and the team, and how to resolve the conflict and identify a positive step forward.

As people who are privileged to work in alignment with agile values and principles, we sometimes forget that many people are deeply afraid of change. Deeply afraid of the unknown. Deeply afraid of anything that looks even remotely different to ‘how things have always been around here’.

Take a moment to acknowledge that, breath, and then move forward through my recommended process with confidence and curiosity.

One Quote

“If someone has been told to do scrum, that isn’t a great place to start. Imposing a new style of working on a team without first describing and articulating the benefits of what you are proposing is going to lead to all kinds of resistance.

Imposing scrum or any other agile framework almost always creates problems.

What we want is for a team to agree that scrum or an agile framework is a great opportunity for them to explore and for them to want to adopt the framework willingly and enthusiastically.”

– John McFadyen

Watch the full video “Not everyone on the team supports the decision to do scrum. How do I resolve that conflict”

And a Question for You

How did you discover Agile/Scrum? What were your first thoughts and impressions when you first started working in a scrum or agile environment? How would you negotiate resistance to Scrum?