In your experience: what proportion of mediation tasks do you have in your SCRUM Master role?

Most of the complexity we deal with comes down to people. Conflict is both expected and necessary, if creative and robust solutions are to be developed at all.

A Scrum Master would coach people to manage this conflict for themselves, leading by example and with reference to the Scrum Values. It's more about facilitation than it is about mediation.

Conflict is going to happen, and you cannot avoid it. I believe that healthy conflict can benefit a team. I want the team to debate and challenge each other to find the best solution to tough, complex problems. As a Scrum Master, trust within the team has to come first, though. 

I try to be proactive with new teams when it comes to conflict. Sharing conflict models (e.g Speed Leas' 5 Stages of Conflict shared in Lyssa Adkin's Coaching book) with the team can be a good first step so the team recognizes unhealthy conflict and can de-escalate themselves without my direct intervention in most cases (unless there's harassment or some ugly display of conflict).

I've also seen teams work conflict into their working agreements. As an example: When conflict becomes personal, we take a step back and focus on the problem at hand".

I don't see my Scrum Master role as the person who has to solve to conflict. My job is to help the team navigate through it. If I were to be the Scrum Dad and solve it for them, I would become an impediment myself to self-management.

All the best!

I like the approaches mentioned above.

Coming from a slightly different angle—but to directly answer your question first—I have not seen open conflict mediation occur that often. That said, there were likely many instances of underlying or "smoldering" conflict that were never addressed, and that is even worse. It is commendable that you were able to identify the conflict and resolve it through a couple of workshops.

I agree that a Scrum Master is well-placed to facilitate the resolution of team conflicts. While HR typically focuses on policy violations (behavioral, legal, ethical), a Scrum Master is more attuned to the dynamics of technology and knowledge work, and understands the values and principles of Scrum. This makes them well-suited to address interpersonal or process-related tensions within teams.

Conflicts do arise—and if handled properly, they can lead to growth and positive change. However, I have also seen conflict created or fuelled by managerial roles, possibly under the belief that “conflict is healthy.” That is a common misunderstanding. Healthy conflict in the form of respectful, constructive debate is beneficial. But conflict itself is not inherently good—it is the resolution of conflict that unlocks improvement. Encouraging conflict for its own sake can be damaging.

To reduce your involvement, teams should be encouraged to resolve issues themselves first. Only if they are unable to do so should the matter be escalated. 

I can really relate to your experience, Julia. In theory, conflict resolution is just one of the many stances a Scrum Master may take—but in practice, I've found that in some organizations, it becomes a disproportionate part of the role.

In my case, while working as a Scrum Master and later an Agile Coach at Phonexa, I noticed a pattern: in teams that had been under prolonged delivery pressure or frequent leadership changes, interpersonal conflict was almost always baked into the team dynamic. Requests for facilitation or “just a retro” often turned into multi-session mediation work. And yes, it sometimes felt more like I was functioning in an HR/business psychology role than a technical agile one.

What helped was clearly defining my engagement scope up front—whether I was stepping in as a Scrum Master, team coach, or facilitator—and setting boundaries for what could be addressed in one session versus what required systemic organizational support.

So to your question: is it “normal”? I'd say it's not uncommon, but it's often a symptom of deeper organizational or cultural issues, not of the Scrum Master role itself. The frequency you're experiencing sounds intense, and it might be worth raising that pattern with leadership—not to avoid the responsibility, but to question whether the org is structurally supporting healthy teams or simply outsourcing their interpersonal dysfunction.

Thanks for bringing up such an important (and rarely talked about) topic.

Let me start by saying "been there, done that". But I was also operating with the title of Engineering Manager and not Scrum Master.  I did have all of the accountabilities of the Scrum Master as defined in the Scrum Guide.  But I also had some HR oversight requirements per my job description.  Now that I set the stage, let me get to my answer. 

Everything that the prior responders have said is true.  But one thing that is not mentioned is that the Scrum Guide lists 3 sets of accountabilities that need to be present in an organization. It does not provide three job descriptions. When a company hires someone with a title of Scrum Master or Agile Coach, there is usually a job description for those job titles.  I have yet to see one that matches the accountabilities from the Scrum Guide without adding in additional duties/responsibilities.  So, you need to look at the job description that your organization has for your title and see what is listed there.  And pay attention for that "other duties as assigned" listing. 

Now, taking from the Scrum Guide it has these statements which I think is applicable. 

The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team in several ways, including:

• Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality;

The Scrum Master serves the organization in several ways, including:

• Leading, training, and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption;
• Planning and advising Scrum implementations within the organization;
• Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work; and,
• Removing barriers between stakeholders and Scrum Teams.

In order to be self-managing, a team has to be able to work through conflict and turn that into a good thing like everyone above has said. There has always been some level of conflict with my teams and other parts of the organization when there is misunderstanding of how the Scrum Team works. I believe that dealing with conflict is going to be a part of everyone's job that is responsible for the Scrum Master accountabilities.