Standups: Breaking a bad habit

[George Paci]

All,

I thought you might like an idea that came to me today in a Standup:

Problem: Everybody in the Standup talks to the Scrum Master,
not to the whole team.

Solution: The SM stands behind the person whose turn it is.
That way, they *have* to talk to the rest of the team. Also,
it's strange enough to be memorable, and so probably won't be
necessary the next day.


Anybody have other Standup improvement ideas?

--George

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving isn't for you.

[Jean-Charles Meyrignac]

I thought you might like an idea that came to me today in a Standup:

Problem: Everybody in the Standup talks to the Scrum Master,
         not to the whole team.

I propose another solution: the Scrum Master covers his ears. This will be understood instantly.

JC

[Yves Hanoulle]

Ask the team how they would solve it

y

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[George Dinwiddie]

George[0]

On 3/6/14, 5:33 PM, George Paci wrote:
> All,
>
> I thought you might like an idea that came to me today in a Standup:
>
> Problem: Everybody in the Standup talks to the Scrum Master,
> not to the whole team.
>
> Solution: The SM stands behind the person whose turn it is.
> That way, they *have* to talk to the rest of the team. Also,
> it's strange enough to be memorable, and so probably won't be
> necessary the next day.

I think that's an excellent idea!

>
> Anybody have other Standup improvement ideas?

It doesn't address this problem, but focusing the standup on the
stories-in-progress rather than the people-on-the-team is often
wonderful for increasing collaboration and reducing time.

- George[1]

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[Mike Bowler]

"The update isn't for me, it's for the whole team. Could you share it with them too?"

Mike Bowler

Agile & Technical Coach

Cell: (905) 409-7052

Sent from my iPad

[Alan Dayley]

I have found that simply not looking the speaking person in the eye will generally get them to look at someone else. The idea of standing behind them or covering your ears would be good if the team needs and explicit message or reminder to talk to each other. Or if they find you looking away distracting, offensive or an indicator that you don't care about them.

Alan

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[Mark Levison]

Things I've done (context dependant): no eye contact; turn SM's back on the team.

Must run

Mark

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[Morgan Ahlström]

I usually do the samt as Alan and Mark; avoid eye contact with the person speaking to get them to seek it from other people in the room instead. In my courses I often have to do this during the introduction since attendees have a tendency to introduce themselves to me instead of their peers, but then I explain what I'm about to do and why I'm going to do it so they don't take it as a lack of interest. Just taking a couple of seconds to explain this technique to the people in the room usually makes it superfluous and at the same time they get a tool for their future stand-ups.

BR

Morgan

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[Ashish Mahajan]

Just tell each one of them to look at the Agile Wall , look at the tasks /stories they are working on , pick it in hands , describe it, and move it across ,and then look at the group..May be initial urge to see the Scrum Master may take a back seat..

Ashish

[Ashish Mahajan]

Here is a list of different patterns of Daily stand up by Charles, that can be referred to try out different things

http://www.scrumcrazy.com/Daily+Scrum+Patterns+Summary

-Ashish

[Lanette Creamer]

Sometimes the problem is who is at the standup that shouldn't be.

Why don't these people identify as a team yet?

There are some great ideas here that I like, but I haven't seen any questions. I'd like to see if you can find out some solutions for the cause of the problem as well as the symptoms if it isn't just a habit.

Thanks,
Lanette

[Margaret Motamed]

How about:

What topic are we avoiding ?

What are we thinking and not saying?

What's most important to deliver this sprint? 

Who can help with story ABC?

What can we do to help one another?

Go first:

I have this sticky problem abc, what ideas to you have for me? 

Margaret

[Jean-Charles Meyrignac]

On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Lanette Creamer <lanette...@gmail.com> wrote:

There are some great ideas here that I like, but I haven't seen any questions. I'd like to see if you can find out some solutions for the cause of the problem as well as the symptoms if it isn't just a habit.

Probably because the stand-up is not a meeting where problems need to be addressed.

In my opinion, it's the role of the retrospective, or a small meeting if the problem doesn't concern the whole team.

The stand-up is a way to quickly report any kind of problem, so the main question is always: do I need some help to finish my current task ?

From my experience, standup's usefulness disappears when people are able to ask for help naturally. It's also a good sign that your team is becoming agile.

JC

[Lanette Creamer]

Oh, sorry if I wasn't clear. I meant questions about the context of the problem, not that a standup is the place to address issues.

I've found at times there are different reasons why a standup becomes a status meeting that isn't useful. I was just curious to understand what questions help others explore those reasons. I do agree that one of the reasons a standup becomes less important is a team is growing past it, by collaborating before it's even needed. That is a wonderful functional "groove" to be part of. I envision it sort of like a team executing a pre-planned football (American Football w Chart on Whiteboard) play--where everyone is working together well.

[Peter Green]

When I've seen stand ups that feel like waste, it's almost always because the team doesn't see the work as a shared commitment/responsibility, but Have divided the work into "my tasks" and "your tasks".  When they swarm, pair, or take shared responsibility for finishing a backlog item, there's almost always an important discovery made at the standup, be it a clarification, an offer of help, an impediment made clear, etc.  

---Peter