Retrospectives outside IT“If I’d want an easy job, I’d be a programmer” - Aki Salmi

–Johnny Appleseed

I can’t just go give a talk and say “what I do is call it a safe space and then some magic happens and it works”…

@rinkkasatiainen aki.salmi@iki.fi

www.rinkkasatiainen.fi

Hiking Guide (Suomen Latu)

Supervisor (independent)

(soon) P.E.T Trainer (independent)

ex-ScrumMaster

Software Craftsman

conference organiser

Craft in joy? Crafting joy

#codefreeze

Structure of the talk

• 30+ minutes of talk

• Intro / who is rinkkasatiainen

• background

• “call it a safe place”

• outro

Ever been on a team where

• retrospectives are _not_ held after each sprint?

How many of you

• are ScrumMasters

• facilitate Retrospectives

• ever had a feeling ‘something strange is happening here, and I have no idea what’

What is the most challenging part, in being ScrumMaster?

Working with people Working with folks

Working with myself

Be always present, not always visible

Background

Let’s imagine …

The definition of ‘retrospectives’

–Scrum Alliance

“The sprint retrospective meeting is held at the end of every sprint after the sprint review meeting. The team and ScrumMaster meet to discuss what went well and what to improve in the next sprint. The product owner

does not attend this meeting.”

–Agile Alliance

“often The team meets regularly, usually adhering to the rhythm of its iterations, to explicitly reflect on the most significant events to have

occurred since the previous such meeting, and take decisions aiming at remediation or improvement.” …

–Agile Alliance

“This is often a facilitated meeting following a set format. Several distinct formats have been described, depending in large part on the time set aside for the meeting, typically between one and three hours. One important reason to use a facilitated format is to give all team

members an opportunity to speak up.”

pitfalls and benefits

–Agile Alliance

“Being an all-hands meeting, a retrospective comes at a significant cost in person-hours. Poor execution, either from the usual causes of

bad meetings […] or from causes specific to this format (lack of trust and safety, taboo topics), will result in the practice being

discredited, even though a vast majority of the Agile community views it as valuable”

–Agile Alliance

“retrospectives promote ownership and responsibility by the project team with respect to all aspects of the process; participants can

understand the rationale behind all process decisions.”

Retrospective levelsfrom retrospectives 1.0 to retrospectives 3.0

Retrospectives 1.0

• what did we do?

• what went well?

• what to improve?

Retrospectives 2.0• “The book”

• A process

• practices

• bag of tricks

• prerequisites: trust and safety

• with this only, we can make miracles!

Retrospective 3.0

• Process

• similar, bit less structure, longer, slower

• bag of tricks

• => changed to something different

• Prerequisites

• Trust and Safety

What people say about retrospectives 3.0

Peter Kofler:“People talk more on your retrospectives”

Klaus Nagel:“At codefreeze you did a really great retrospective and there I realized how

important that is.”

This is what I’m aiming to provide “what have I learned”

Supervision (work guidance)

työnohjaaja (fi)handledare i arbete (se)

–Coaching Supervision at its B.E.S.T

“Supervision is a safe reflective place for all individuals […] to explore their own work in partnership with a skilled and respectful

professional. It promotes the safety of all stakeholders, enhances ethical awareness and encourages growth and learning for all

parties.”

Safety revisited

• physical safety

• psychological safety

• social safety

• spiritual safety

Psychological safety• it’s about BEING ACCEPTED

• by building confidence on us

• allowing us to BE OURSELVES

• which encourages me to express feelings and needs

• and wanting me BE my TRUE SELF

• and helps me to BE VALUED

Social safety

• I am who I am

• I am valued

• We’re on this together

Supervision in Finlandhttp://suomentyonohjaajat.fi/

History• since 1950s

• exploration of work

• mostly in emotionally intensive environments

• long process - slow

• different schools

• solution-oriented, community-dynamics, systemic, etc. Scrum vs. Kanban?

Supervision types

• individual

• groups (e.g. ScrumMasters possibly from different companies)

• work groups (Scrum team + SM + po)

• leaders

• crisis

Ethics

• our ethics are defined by the association of Supervisors (STOry)

• loyalty to client, supervisee, self

• => I need supervision for my supervision.

• highly confidential

What is in my backpack nowadays?

Dynamics: a pattern or process of change, growth, or activity

Merriam-Webster

Group Dynamics

• coalescence breeds dynamics

• highly emotional process

• in all interaction, cooperation and experiences

Group Dynamics in Action

• lost core task (rewriting of software over value to customer)

• tensions between (sub-) groups

• dynamics of big groups (more than 10 people)

• power of three

• authority

Supervisors’ / ScrumMasters’ toolbox

• trust and love

• respect

• joy

• sorrow

• courage

• gratitude

ScrumMaster’s greatest aid

• Have someone to talk to

Emotional intelligence - a true story

Emotional intelligence - what did I do

• Listening to one’s own body.

• to recognise feelings and dynamic tensions

• to differentiate own feelings from those of others’

• be able to act, while feeling emotions.

• value sympathy and empathy

Listening

• Reflecting back sensitively.

• and appropriately

• Active Listening

• NVC (Nonviolent Communication)

Clean Language

• Using deep listening

• clean question

• opening and closing (NOT open vs. closed)

• reflecting back specific words used by the supervisee.

• Maintaining total presence in mind and body and focusing on the language and unique style of the clients

I as a Container (IAAC)

• carrying items from earlier to future

• adding observations, feelings, words to my book.

• Going through previous notes, before the next session

• trying to build a process from one session to the next.

Learning• as Growth

• emergent

• within individuals’ thoughts, in interactions within people

• as Change

• my own choice - my activity - I choose to attend

• emotional coalescence to the event

• individual processing of new information and sharing within community

Opinions• They are little black and white?

Opinions, given room to grow

#mehOpinions

All that, sounds like retrospectives?

–Coaching Supervision at its B.E.S.T

“Supervision differs from coaching in that it has a broader, deeper and less defined remit. It is usually longer term and supports the

development of the coach in the service of their client.”

Let’s recap

What would I do differently as ScrumMaster

What I would build upon?

• Prerequisites

• KEEP: safety

• Process

• KEEP: retrospectives (the Agile Alliance way)

• ADD: supervision (of some sort)

• Bag Of Tricks

• UPDATE: into backpack of reactions

Extras

• I’d be observant on group dynamics

• supervision for the group (SM + PO included)

• group supervision for group of SMs (or individual supervision)

• a balancing act between retrospectives and some deeper discussions.

End is close

–Gitte Klitgaard @NativeWired

I can’t just go give a talk and say “what I do is call it a safe space and then some magic happens and it works”…

Role of ScrumMaster

Be Present

Have someone who listens

My Footprint in IT

Be present. Be kind to oneself.

What to read

• https://medium.com/@evanderkoogh/the-single-most-important-thing-to-master-as-an-agile-coach-22dd31d1d80d#.xgdkbxal2