If you knew success was a certainty, what would you attempt to?do?
I bumped in recently onto a video on Youtube showing how Mr. Vance Hinds got inspired by Comedian Bert Kreischer’s challenge to decide to make a change and how did he lose weight by saying ‘Yes’ to the challenge.
Mr. Vance Hinds is Ellis County and District Assitant Attorney who when listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, heard about the challenge and went on to try to kickstart his own personal fitness revolution.
Mr. Vance Hinds's spectacular transformation will blow us away to see how he lost 198 pounds in a year.
What remains to be a challenge faced by Mr. Vance Hinds had a few pointers implicitly meant for our Scrum Teams:
- Having a Sprint Goal help setting the priorities when the ‘going gets tough’
- Establishing the Sprint Goal to live up to the values of Scrum
- Inspect and adapt the progress throughout the Sprint in achieving the Sprint Goal
Having a Sprint Goal help setting the priorities when the ‘going gets tough’
“I don’t know if I have a choice anymore at the age of 52. I have to get this weight off of me.
I just think if I have some extended sickness or injury that I’m going to get to the point that I’m not strong enough to move 462 pounds to be mobile.
I don’t think I have a choice. When I started this, I was damn near 500 pounds, close to a quarter ton, so I gotta get it off.” — Mr. Vance Hinds
Mr. Vance Hinds accepted the challenge and made it a public announcement on the Social media that helped in bringing enough focus and take a sustainable effort towards his weight loss activity.
What he saw as a post on Social Media was a reminder of the urgency to do something better than leaning on the couch all day long.
In the absence of the Sprint Goal, following a plan becomes the most important thing. A plan in a complex environment where we have more unknowns than knowns creates a lot of unwanted friction with emerging information as we make progress.
Everything becomes important and eventually, nothing remains important.
The Sprint Goal helps in remind the sense of urgency and create a purpose for coming together as a team in the Sprint.
“The Sprint Goal is an objective that will be met within the Sprint through the implementation of the Product Backlog, and it provides guidance to the Development Team on why it is building the Increment.” — The Scrum Guide
Establishing the Sprint Goal to live up to the values of Scrum
“Over my life, I’ve lost and gained hundreds, if not thousands of pounds. Normally, periodically, I start these paths, and I lose weight for a while, exercising on my own.
But with my wife, it’s just us two, and it’s easy to talk yourself out of it. You do pretty good for a few weeks and a month, and then you start slacking off, and then you quit.
I’ve done that over and over and over again.” — Mr. Vance Hinds
Having made a public announcement on the Social Media, post accepting the challenge helped Mr. Vance Hinds:
- Bring more commitment and accountability (Commitment)
- Start saying ‘No’ to all high carb diets (Courage)
- Changing his diet plan in line with the challenge ( Focus)
- Continue to post weekly updates on the progress and stay open enough for feedback (Openness)
- Starting to accept friends help for community support (Respect)
An effective Sprint Goal for the Scrum Team members:
- help commit to the most important thing to achieve in the Sprint (Commitment)
- shows ways to courageously do the right thing and work on tough customer challenges (Courage)
- supports a focused Sprint Planning by crafting one such part of the planning (Focus)
- enable to be open about all the work and the challenges while performing the work in achieving the Goal (Openness)
- fosters teamwork and help respect each other working towards a shared objective (Respect)
Inspect and adapt the progress throughout the Sprint in achieving the Sprint Goal
What remains unspoken for the most around Mr. Vance Hinds's transformation is in timely inspection and adaptation mechanisms created around the routine.
- Weekly weight check and post the same on Social Media bringing transparency on the progress made
- Gain attention and support from Diamond Dallas Page and Mr.Vance Hinds joined DDP Yoga to learn and reflect on the progress
With the growing complex nature of work, not everything that impedes the team gets immediate attention to resolve unless it has an impact on achieving the Sprint Goal.
The entire team adapts the plan to what steps would help achieve the Goal. The Development Team monitors progress and makes progress towards the Sprint Goal visible.
When a team is challenged facing an impediment, they should not give up instead keep inspecting and adapting as best they can in achieving the Goal.
The Sprint Retrospective drives the Scrum Team to inspect and adapt how the last Sprint went with regard to people, relationships, processes, and tools. The purpose of Sprint Retrospective involves reflecting on the overall process which for sure includes the Sprint Goal too. How well the Sprint Goals were crafted, understood, and what were the adjustments made in achieving the same are discussed in detail during the Sprint Retrospective.
“The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to […] Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools” — The Scrum Guide
Wrap Up!
If you knew success was a certainty, what would you attempt to do?
This was the question in the mind of Mr. Vance Hinds (similar to the Sprint Goal) and hence an inspiring transformation was made possible in his life.
“Sadly, I fall into the latter category — I’m very much a January gym rat — but by February I’ve often lost interest, content to fall back into old ways and patterns which inevitably involve copious trips to McDonald’s, lots of cheese-covered pasta, and a whole draw of the fridge filled with Coke cans. I’m ashamed to even write it.” — Lewis Potton
Every Scrum Team member right from the Sprint start in the Sprint Planning should craft a Sprint Goal to help bring commitment and alignment in building a cohesive ‘Done’ Product Increment.
The Sprint Goal acts as the north star guiding the Scrum Team building the Product Increment and also remains part of the core of the Sprint and all Scrum events.
The moment you take the Sprint Goal off your Scrum Team, all Scrum practices and events become ineffectual.