Agile for Humans has launched a new YouTube series called SUCCESSFUL FACILITATION. Episode 4 explores a facilitation technique: Training From the Back of the Room.

Great facilitation makes it easier for everyone to participate, collaborate, and find shared understanding to reach the desired objective. Facilitate effective Scrum events and other meetings by starting with a well-thought-out facilitator guide.

Agile for Humans has launched a new YouTube series called SUCCESSFUL FACILITATION. Episode 3 explores a facilitation technique: Liberating Structure 1-2-4-ALL

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, PSTs Daria Bagina, Shirley Santiago and Mary Iqbal answer questions about Scrum and the challenges faced facing when using Scrum in a setting that is not software-based. (59:21 Minutes)

Agile for Humans has launched a new YouTube series called SUCCESSFUL FACILITATION. Episode 2 answers the question: "What are Liberating Structures?"

How often have you thought: "This Sprint Review is useless and boring!" or "We are just reviewing internally what we already have seen before as a Scrum Team. We have no new feedback. Let's skip this event. Waste of time."

Scientific insights into what creates stress, and how motivation can buffer it. With 5 practical ways to reduce stress and increase motivation

So you recently started using Scrum and are struggling to get the most out of the Scrum events? Or, maybe your journey with Scrum has been going on for some time and you still feel that something is missing in your meetings. I hear you! It might be challenging to switch from well known and understoo...

Everyone on the Scrum Team should level up their facilitation skills. In this video, Todd and Ryan explore why this skill is essential to a Scrum Team and how to improve in this critical area of complex work.

La facilitación se enfoca en ayudar a crear un entorno saludable y de seguridad donde las personas puedas generar ideas en forma creativa y de usar los diferentes puntos de vista para lograr soluciones definidas en un trabajo en equipo. Las técnicas de facilitación junto con los valores pueden po...

In this Introduction to Facilitating Sprint Planning video, you'll learn how and when to use facilitation techniques such as roman voting, visualization, and powerful questioning so that your team can leave Sprint Planning with a Sprint Goal that is in pursuit of the Product Goal and an initial plan...

Im Daily Scrum deines Teams sprechen immer nur die Gleichen und jeder rechtfertigt sich, was er gestern getan hat? Das Resultat davon ist, dass sich das Daily Scrum ewig hinzieht. Im Folgenden findest du drei Facilitation-Tipps, die dir helfen werden, das Daily Scrum innerhalb der vorgegeben Tim...

A quoi correspond la facilitation dans une Scrum Team ? Qui s'assure que les événements sont correctement facilités, et comment ? Comment le Scrum Master peut servir la Scrum Team en passant le relais à ses co-équipiers ?

Daily Scrum events are filled with 3 questions and meandering discussions about tickets that are in progress. Too many topics and not enough time is the typical opinion. So, how about that Sprint Goal? Likely it’s missing or it’s the token “get all the work done” goal. Stop dividing and conquering. ...

Many new Scrum Masters need help to gain facilitation skills to leverage the potential of diverse perspectives within their team. By improving facilitation, it should also help to improve the interactions within Scrum events and also improve participatory decision making. The purpose of this blog po...

In this blog post, we describe the purpose of Generative Relationships STAR, how it works, and when you could use it with your Scrum Team.

3 Do-it-yourself workshops to help your Scrum team improve (the lack of) task- and relationship conflict

Die Diskussion im Daily Stand-up dauert schon wieder ewig. Du weißt nicht, wie du eingreifen sollst. Du stehst nur hilflos daneben. Wenn dir dieses Gefühl bekannt vorkommt, dann bist du nicht allein. Tatsächlich geht es vielen Scrum Mastern am Anfang ihrer Karriere so. Bis sie durch viele Tri...

Scrum Master zu sein, ist nicht einfach. Wir sollen dem Team helfen, die Theorie hinter Scrum zu verstehen, die Mitglieder des Teams in Selbstmanagement coachen, Hindernisse aus dem Weg räumen, die die Entwicklungsgeschwindigkeit verlangsamen, und vor allem das Unternehmen so verändern, dass es v...

Facilitieren ist ein schwieriges Wort. Es impliziert so viel und deshalb ist es schwierig, genau festzulegen, was gute „Facilitation“ eigentlich ausmacht. Komplexe Arbeit verläuft in den seltensten Fällen wie geplant. Scrum Master facilitieren die Arbeit des Teams, damit sie das Wesentliche n...

Produktive Scrum Events, die sich mühelos anfühlen, passieren nicht einfach so. Sie werden situativ aus einzelnen, kleinen Bausteinen zusammengesetzt. Erfahrene Scrum Master bedienen sich dabei an ihrer Toolbox von Facilitation-Methoden und -Techniken, die sie über die Jahre mühevoll gesammel...

Keine Zeit für eine langwierige Facilitation-Ausbildung? 5 einfache Facilitation-Hacks, um alle Teilnehmer in deinen Onlineworkshops einzubeziehen:

What science tells us about how work agreements create high-performing teams. And five practical areas to focus on.

The diversity of a group of people offers a great opportunity to tap into a wider range of creativity and innovation, but it can also lead to misunderstandings and clashes. I have experienced how the journey from exploring a group’s different perspectives and ideas (divergent thinking) to a shared u...

Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills™ is an interactive course designed to help Scrum practitioners develop a facilitator’s mindset, proficiency in facilitation skills, and learn when and how to select effective techniques for various circumstances. Strong facilitation skills enable better problem...

For many years the agile movement advocated that all teams had to be co-located for success. Scrum also encouraged that approach. But the pandemic taught us that remote does not always mean bad. However, we are seeing more and more executives force an in-person return to the office as the pandemic r...

Liberate your Sprint Review from being just a demo. There is much more to it than that! I'm sharing eight things you should do in the Sprint Review

7 Do-it-yourself workshops and experiments to discover new valuable features through experiments, field testing, and research.

One of the things I struggled with at the start of my Scrum Master journey was building consensus in the team. Wanting to stay objective, give everyone space and time whilst still craving for a decision was a challenge for me. My own indecisiveness with regards to how to handle this ultimately did n...

One of the primary purposes of a retrospective is to create action items, but it’s not uncommon to come up with action items that aren’t actionable.  They’re aspirational.  This blog gives you some ways to ensure your retrospectives have actionable items.

Three simple retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures "Conversation Cafe", "Troika Consulting", and "Discovery & Action Dialogue"

Some time ago, whilst discussing this topic with my fellow Professional Scrum.org Trainer Todd Miller, he shared his experience with using White Elephant principles to enable a participative facilitation environment (thanks Todd!). It inspired me to use it and write this blog. 

Why many Scrum teams struggle with continuous improvement, and how you can do better

Practical ideas on how to improve Scrum, personally.

Scrum itself is a simple framework for effective team collaboration on complex products. While it is lightweight and simple to understand, it can be difficult to apply effectively. The Scrum.org Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer series, features Professional Scrum Trainers (PSTs) in a live session, a...

Three simple retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures "Conversation Cafe", "Troika Consulting", and "Discovery & Action Dialogue"

In this post, I share a few questions you, as a manager - or any other stakeholder, can ask Product Owners and the rest of the Scrum Team to support them in doing the right thing.

Three simple retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures "Conversation Cafe", "Troika Consulting", and "Discovery & Action Dialogue"

TL; DR: Designing Powerful Questions with Daniel Stillman Powerful Conversations are the environment that drives change. Learn from Daniel Stillman how designing powerful questions helps you coach, create, connect, and lead from the 35th Hands-on Agile meetup of October 5, 2021. 📺 Watch the vi...

Ideas on how to use Powerful Questions virtually and help teams find their own solutions to persistent problems.

"What is worry about our product is keeping you up at night? What can we build or test this Sprint to make you sleep a bit better?". In this post we share this and 9 other Powerful Questions to help your team find better Sprint Goals. And what to do when these questions don't help you at all.

I have my own biases,  having seen co-located teams work very well and having struggled with “dislocated” teams, I often recommend my clients to reconsider “dislocated” teams. 

This article aims at helping Scrum Masters to conduct the *MOST AWESOME* Sprint Review they ever witnessed. (This article could have been titled: 41 tips that will make your Sprint Review awesome!)

Ah, the Daily Scrum, so often misused as an instrument of status (see https://youtu.be/i7_RPceEIYE for a discussion). Often the way the Daily Scrum is conducted lends itself to a report of status. The team answers 3 questions in a round robin fashion. It often sounds like this: What did you do...