From Scrum Master to Agile Leader: Navigating Modern Organizational Realities

How are you doing with explaining the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master? Well, the world of agile has taken a different shape than it intended to. The entire agile movement has shifted its focus from delivering value to templates, rules, frameworks, and tools. You must have heard many idealistic conversations, references to Scrum guides, and so forth. People reacting when questioning the effectiveness of agile is a common scenario on LinkedIn. The truth is Agility is now filled with Rigidity.

Why Scrum Master should be called Agile Leader

Yes, I want to address it in different ways through organizational changes, but there is one important thing that has to be done as a stepping stone. I have stopped calling, ‘Scrum Master’ as ‘Scrum Master’. Yes, I call them Agile Leaders. You would wonder why? The foremost reason is the rigidity of this term. This confines a person within a framework. We all know and agree that scrum is the most followed agile framework in the industry, but it is not equivalent to agility. So, confining a role to only a framework is actually a disservice to the amazing potential of the role.

Rigidity in Agility

Let’s try to see this through a very simple and relevant example. Agility in its purest form is defined as the ability to move around or be flexible. Now, we as human beings, are agile, we all are flexible, and we enjoy our freedom. But do we? Do we have absolute agility? If we have, then we would probably enter into a world of chaos. Homo Sapiens figured this out very early and started creating rules. It can be ethical, moral, law of the land, family rule, and many others. We abide by these frameworks, which guide us to be agile and also enjoy the value of life. We keep switching from one rule to another depending on our circumstances. For example, sometimes, an act might be accepted by the law, but may not be moral or ethical. There is no law to help a person in need, but not to help is not ethical.

Set the Scrum Master free

Agility is similar. Scrum is one such framework that guides us to be agile and helps us not enter the world of chaos. However, it is not necessary that we have to be rigid. Sometimes, scrum does not work, just like the person in need example. Sometimes, we need to experiment or take a different approach, or enrich the process with other frameworks. You must be wondering why am I rambling about scrum and agile. Well, just to point you out that why should you not have scrum master, defined by the Scrum guide? We need leaders who have a much bigger role to play. We need leaders who understand what works, what does not work. We need leaders who develop the people.

People over process

The biggest problem of this role when labeled as a scrum master is that it is taken as someone who controls the process. Do not take me wrong, a few years back, I was telling the same thing, that the scrum master takes care of the process. I was absolutely wrong then. If someone tells it today, they are wrong as well. Agile leaders must be involved with the people. It is a people-oriented role that needs to take the help of process to align everyone towards the common goal. Sometimes, agile leaders do not even consider asking the team to establish a common goal.?In a dynamic world where everything is changing, we must accept the change as the constant. Yes, we keep saying that but hardly accept it.

I can give you specific examples of where scrum masters often get lost. They focus too much on the process of planning than on planning itself. Retrospection is another example. The Agile leaders must try to instill the habit of retrospection through the pause and reflect the event. However, we often focus too much on the process, event, and template and totally ignore the fact that we must create a habit of retrospection for the team.

Agile Leader is just not a role

Before I conclude I must be very specific about a few things, or else the entire narrative becomes very loose. I am not really trying to say that a ‘scrum master’ must do other things such as project management, product management, coding, testing, requirement analysis, big data, analytics so on and so forth. However, an agile leader must understand and apply everything about these. She must have a product mindset to help the team find out the problem before assuming solutions. She must have organized enough to understand the importance and relevance of planning. She must realize the importance of why to build a culture or experiment. She must rely on data to analyze and expose the problems the team is experiencing. She must have the knack to use analysis to drive the team towards transformation. Now, during all these, she might be part of a scrum team or might not, but she must be a leader of the team who leads them towards continuous improvement.

I am not advocating changing the designation of people, neither I am interested in changing the HR labels. I am trying to help everyone see the value a scrum master carries. At a time when many scrum masters are losing their jobs, I feel pained, because they have much to offer. Sometimes, they do not recognize what they have to offer, and sometimes organizations do not understand how to get the most from them. However, there is one truth, we still have scrum masters who are not there. Yes, they are doing some good work in what they are expected in general, but they have still not evolved as leaders. Here is our chance, to acknowledge that we have to work harder and understand what we value we can offer to the organization. But how do we do that?

Next Steps

Step 1:

The first thing we must do now is to seek honest feedback. Embrace criticism even the hardest one. Reach out to people whom you have discarded as a person who does not have an agile mindset. Seek their feedback. Understand what value they seek, what they think how you can make an impact. This does not mean you accept every feedback as truth, but simply accept the feedback with an open mind.

Step 2:

Try to understand and analyze the data you have received. Create a value statement for your role. Try to put together a strategy, a roadmap for your contribution, apart from what you have told yourself till now. Increase your horizon and increase your challenge network.

Step 3:

Embrace yourself as an Agile Leader and make the first two steps a recurring step. Build and embrace the habit of retrospection.

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