https://share.descript.com/view/Oi3leO2U9Zw
I want to have a discussion about agile concepts and introducing agile concepts for the first time to a team that's never done it before.
You all experienced that in your own way, in whatever experience you all experienced first. And so let's go around everybody share their first time getting onto an agile team or being introduced to the agile concept. It could be in tech fleet, it could be outside of tech fleet. And what struggles did you face changing your mindset and what struggles did you face in terms of team dynamics on the team and psychological safety on the team?
And like, what did you learn from that first time trying it out? Who wants to go first?
I'll go too, but whoever goes, you call on the next person.
I can repeat the first. Yeah, Amber, go for it. Uh, yeah, uh, I did my first agile design, uh, I, I would say scrum design. Uh, in my master's study, uh, we did a very small, uh, design project for five days. So, uh, very typical one sprint. So we have one, um, let's say action item, not, not one action item, but we have one passport per per day.
So it's very intensive. So my first impression of agile or uh, scrum is, is very overwhelming because we are very new to this concept and very new to the design. So, um, everything feels chaotic. I really, it's literally chaotic. We don't know what to do and we don't know what we are looking for. Even you don't have a clear vision at the beginning.
You don't have scope, you have to, you know, make up everything from zero. So I think the first impression is this really, you have to figure out a way to cooperate with everyone in the chaotic situation. So it's a way of how to manage chaotic, and you, and you have to understand this is what my reflection on my experience that is really about chaotic.
But you have to find a way how to make the balance in the chaotic in that way you can find the, I think would find the, I would say the better way to cooperate with everyone, because everyone knows nothing. No one knows what we are going to do and how we are going to approach the problems. So, um, it is really, you have to, sometimes you, you have to count on your teammates and your teammates have to understand that no one knows the answer.
I think that's the very important thing for Agile, and that's my very first experience and my very first expression. So, so manage the chaos and you will find the way to the next step. That's some great insight right there. What, yeah, what are, when you go start Agile coaching, how are you gonna approach that with the team that you work with?
Well, for me, I think the best way is really you have to learning by doing something. You can't just teach people, but I think I do can help them to understand agile itself is you have to find a way in the chaos. Chaos is the, I don't know, is the central of agile. So don't feel afraid and don't, and I also understand when there is, you know, you know nothing about you, there's a high level of uncertainty.
People become very sensitive and overwhelmed. It is really easy to start to blame someone, but it is your fault that we, you have finished this project. It's really very common in, in every project, I would say. But I think at first we could at least make everyone understand no one in this team knows the correct answer because there's no correct answer for project.
This is a new project. No one knows what the outcome could be. This is the nature of agile. And what we are going to do is that to trust yourself and trust your teammates, let's find the way to decide it. And you have to understand, this is the nature of agile design. So if you feel that you are overview, just try to stop for a second and to think that this is the nature of agile.
You know, what we are going to do is to explore, to find the answer. We are on the way to find the answer. No one can give us the answer. And we have to manage this, this, this is agile. And let to find it with some teammates. Because for if you work on yourself, it's kind of really hard and you may, you know, misstep or you may go to the, the, the other path is maybe not the correct one, or maybe, maybe there's no correct one.
But if with some other teammates, you, you at least have someone to count on to discuss with when you feel unsure about any something. So I think for me, I would say this is the nature of agile. And don't feel, don't feel afraid. This is what you're going to do. You have to explore the future yourself and to find what might be the better solution you can find in this chaos.
Hmm. Well said, Amber. Well said. You know, I'll, I'll just share my perspective, like doing agile coaching officially or not officially over the last. Honestly, decade.
I, in my early days, would shout that from the rooftops, so to speak, would be really, really adamant about that. And one, one recipe component that I've really learned to do early as well as saying that, 'cause that's so important, Amber is building their ownership, building the sense that they have meaning in the work.
So how would you approach building ownership in the team? When you say to them, nobody knows the way we're gonna find the way we're going into a bunch of chaos, how do you approach it so that they don't run away from the chaos, but they take the reins and they learn how to take the reins of ownership?