As a trained psychologist and experienced Scrum Master, I understand the challenges you may face as an agile team lead in a new team. In this article, we will look at some helpful tips on how to successfully operate as a Scrum Master in a newly formed agile team. I will try to answer the question of how you can successfully manage the dynamics in a new team.
Scrum Master: New team
Underrated: Creating team spirit
What is half the battle in a healthy team? Mutual trust, respect – to know: Everyone comes to work as a person and means well.
You can achieve precisely this effect by ensuring that the team gets to know each other.
Trust through getting to know each other: Getting to know each other is the foundation for a successful team. Organize informal meetings or team-building activities to foster personal connections. A deep understanding of team members simplifies day-to-day collaboration and creates a supportive environment that will significantly increase the effectiveness of agile processes in the short and long term.
Recognize and use individual strengths: Take time to identify the individual strengths of each team member and inform the team about them. Promote a culture in which everyone can focus on their strengths in order to strengthen the team as a whole. The best way to do this is for team members to try to involve colleagues with corresponding strengths in solutions in the right places.
Understanding diversity as enrichment: There is always diversity or diversity of personalities. Recognize diversity in the team as an enrichment. Ultimately, diversity means different perspectives in order to recognize reality more clearly and thus become more innovative.
Meeting Icebreaker to get to know each other: Meeting icebreakers are a great way to bring team members closer together. Start with casual activities that encourage conversation and create a positive atmosphere. This not only strengthens team spirit, but also facilitates collaboration by breaking down barriers and encouraging open communication. In case you need inspiration: Here are 21 icebreakers for agile teams, for example for your retrospectives.
This already gives you some tips for Scrum Masters or Agile Coaches in new teams – but let's go a little deeper.
Scrum Master: New team
Next: Establish healthy processes
Agile Establish processes step by step: The gradual establishment of agile processes is crucial. Start with the basic principles and add other elements as needed. This step-by-step approach allows the team to gradually get used to agile ways of working and creates room for adjustments while evaluating the effectiveness of the processes.
Ideally, agile ceremonies should be introduced when specific tensions arise in the team that can be resolved through a particular ceremony. The targeted introduction of agile practices when they are most urgently needed not only increases acceptance, but also appreciation of agile methods. In this way, agile ceremonies are not only perceived as formal procedures, but also as effective tools for solving specific team challenges. "Zombie Scrum" is prevented from the outset.
Visualization for clarity and focus: Use visual aids such as task boards to clearly visualize the team's progress. Involve team members (if possible) in the selection of digital tools. A classic example could be the introduction of a shared digital board on which all team members can track the progress of their tasks, such as Jira or Confluence.
Encourage continuous learning and adaptation: Agiles project management thrives on continuous learning and adaptation. Encourage your team to learn from experience and constantly improve –, especially at the beginning when a lot is happening. Implementing retrospectives after each agile sprint should be one of the first steps to reflect together on successes and challenges and make appropriate adjustments.
Promote self-organization: Strengthen the team's self-organization by clearly assigning responsibilities and trusting the team members. In the best case scenario, a Scrum Master will eventually become unnecessary and obsolete – you can communicate this as a vision for the team.
Agile Getting to know methods slowlyOrganize workshops to create a common understanding of agile principles and Scrum roles. Use dynamic methods to actively involve team members. An example could be an interactive workshop in which the agile manifesto is discussed together and the team members work out the meaning for their daily work.
With this foundation, you should already have a good idea of what to do in new teams as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach. I have one last, very powerful tip for you.
Scrum Master: New team
Clever support, especially for new teams: tools
A good tool can make your work as an agile team lead much easier, such as Echometer – by structuring your coaching activities, saving time in preparing meetings and making your coaching activities measurable from the start.
Echometer is a digital tool that helps agile team leads with agile retrospectives and team Health Checks. Whether remote, hybrid or on-site: it makes team coaching measurable and professionalizes your work while saving you a lot of work. Just take a look at our website to find out more: www.echometerapp.com.
"Yes, especially at the beginning of agile teams, it helps if you have fun together as a team and get to know each other from a human side."
Scrum Master: New team
Conclusion: New agile teams
Finally, another quick hint: If you would like to know how it feels to develop your team with our tool: You can start an agile retrospective below without logging in, in this case the "Keep, Stop, Start" workshop.
Alternatively, simply forward our website to the responsible colleagues: www.echometerapp.com.
