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Building trust with team

Last post 07:26 pm May 20, 2022 by Daniel Wilhite
5 replies
10:55 pm May 19, 2022

Hey all! Love the community y’all give great advice! My question/advice today is what are some ways to build trust or build relationships as a scrum master?! 


12:36 am May 20, 2022

Be humble. Show humility. Admit mistakes and that you're not perfect. And put the Scrum values in place so trust can thrive.


08:53 am May 20, 2022

Encourage a team to produce at least one Done, finished, immediately usable increment every Sprint. Trust is then earned through the empirical delivery of value, and without a trusting relationship you may build turning into a dependency.


10:17 am May 20, 2022

John Cutler recently shared an interesting thread on Twitter about trust, where he cited some definitions from Larry Maccherone. Trust is described as directly related to credibility, reliability, and empathy and inversely related to apparent self-interest.

Individuals should:

  • Know what they are talking about and be able to admit when they aren't sure or don't know.
  • Do what they say, and do it quickly. If they can't do it quickly, they should be able to give a good understanding of when they will be able to start and stop.
  • Care about the interests, needs, and desires of other people.
  • Minimize their self-interests. It could be that your self-interests overlap with the interests of other people, so emphasize the interests of others. There is a line between interests or desires and needs, so individuals should not risk their long-term health and safety for others (outside of certain counterexamples).

As a Scrum Master, foster an environment where individuals feel safe and comfortable doing these things, and promoting them at a team level. Make sure that teams can admit that they don't know things and have the room to experiment and learn. Make sure that pressures aren't forcing the teams to over-commit, over-extend, or work at unsustainable paces. When people express problems, hear them out and try to work toward mitigations and eventually solutions. Be a servant-leader.


10:47 am May 20, 2022

Thank you Gentlemen! 


07:26 pm May 20, 2022

All great advice!!!!  I'm going to add one more thing. 

Do not EVER tell them how to do something.  Let them decide.  If they are having difficulty coming to a consensus, suggest an option that was discussed and encourage them "to just this and we will see how it works".  Remind them that just because something is done once it can still be changed.  Follow up with them to have them inspect and adapt.  This will help them respect that you aren't there to tell them how to do things but you are there to help them implement changes that they think are needed.


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