In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, host Dave West is joined by Douglas Ferguson from Voltage Control to talk about facilitation and the importance of effective facilitation. (27:44 Minutes)

Are you a part of a Scrum Team looking to enhance your collaboration and communication dynamics? Join this webinar with PST Simon Flossmann and professional coach Christian Hoftstetter as they delve into the secrets of successful Scrum Teams that excel in conflict resolution and foster healthy relat...

Scrum Masters are often skilled facilitators, and use that skill to help their Scrum teams make decisions and conduct discussions an a positive, productive manner. But does that mean all the facilitation belongs to the Scrum Master? Can others step in as facilitators? And if so, how does a Scrum Mas...

This blog explores the crucial role of a Product Owner (PO) in managing the Product Backlog. Through facilitation, a PO can enhance team and stakeholder understanding of the Product Backlog, turning it into a narrative that drives everyone towards a shared vision and product goal. We discuss how the...

In this video, Martin delves deep into the intricacies of consensus in product development, highlighting its importance and the challenges it can present. 🎥🤔

Does your Scrum Team find itself locked into destructive conflicts where each team member is convinced that their way is the only way, the best way and that everybody else who dares to disagree is crazy? Are you interested in shifting the dynamic from an "us vs. them" adversarial conflict to an "...

In a world marked by constant change and complexity, effective facilitation has become a critical skill for individuals and organizations alike. Whether you're leading a Sprint Planning event, a brainstorming session, or a strategic planning workshop, the ability to guide conversations, foster inclu...

In this vlog, join your hosts Andreanna Marshall, a professional Scrum Trainer at scrum.org, and the fantastic Scrum Master, Scott, as they dive deep into the Sprint Retrospective and provide several facilitation techniques to improve the event.

Thoughts and ideas on how to prevent, resolve, or simply accept it

To excel as an Agile facilitator, understanding the importance of facilitation skills and mastering the essential Scrum facilitation techniques are paramount. This blog post provides insights into these essentials while shedding light on how our Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills™ course can aid...

It's common practice to ask the Scrum Master to take on the role of facilitator in the 5 Scrum events. Let's go beyond this and move towards more learning strategies, for both the Scrum Master and the Scrum Team.

In these 2 episodes of the Agile within podcast, PST Mark Wavle joins to dissect the intricate dynamics of team conflict.

Use the Liberating Structure “Purpose-to-Practice” to create a plan for the Sprint, and revisit & update the P2P canvas during each Scrum event

Escape the Rinse and Repeat Cycle with 5 Sprint Retrospective Ideas

Sprint Reviews are a chance to inspect and adapt. We want feedback!

In this recorded session of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, Reshma (Simran) Nagrani answers questions about the Scrum Master Accountability, estimations, metrics, facilitation techniques and more! (58:45 Minutes)

Scrum Teams need to make decisions all the time. Helping teams reach a decision effectively, and gaining necessary buy-in from all team members can be challenging, especially when team members are unclear on who has the final say in making it. Understanding the decision rule, how a decision is made and whose input is required, is necessary because ambiguity in the decision process causes confusion and frustration.

A simple format for the Sprint Retrospective to create a shared understanding with one of the foundational Liberating Structures

Why create a team working agreement? A team working agreement provides an agreed upon set of guidelines for a Scrum Team to follow, so everyone understands what is expected as they work together in pursuit of delivering value. A team can use a working agreement to help them work toward self-manag...

Effective Facilitation helps Scrum and Agile Teams leverage differences in positive ways, guiding teams to frame their discussions with clear purpose, decisions, outcomes and engagement with one another. In this article, Patricia Kong talks about how facilitation can make or break team interactions,...

How Liberating Structures and servant leadership create an environment for Scrum Masters to find support, offer help, and draw inspiration

Facilitators can use many techniques, but this does guarantee that the outcome will be reached. Ultimately linking the facilitation pattern to the objective of the interaction, makes the event more effective and helps contribute to team success in achieving their goals.

When to use Facilitation, Coaching, Mentoring or Teaching We often use the words “coaching,” “mentoring,” “teaching,” and “facilitating” informally. We may say that we're being coached on how to become a better golfer, or that the person managing the agenda in a meeting is the meeting's facilitat...

Scrum events create regularity and transparency and minimize the need for meetings not defined in Scrum. The events are the Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, and the Sprint. Often, Scrum events don’t go as planned. Good, lightweight facilitation can help the Scrum Te...

This is a recording of a facilitation focused presentation by Patricia Kong, Product Owner of Enterprise Agility at Scrum.org at Beyond Agile Israel 2023. (30:42 Minutes)

Facilitating the dynamics and interactions of Scrum Events is essential towards guiding the scrum team collectively to a shared objective. These five facilitation principles work hand in hand to ensure that your scrum events will become more focused, productive and effective.

In diesem Scrum-Pulse-Webcast erklärt Professional Scrum Trainer Simon Flossmann, wie man mit nur 3 einfachen Facilitation-Techniken die Kommunikation in Scrum Teams nachhaltig effektiver gestaltet.

Facilitation can be used to lead people toward agreed-upon objectives in a manner that encourages participation, ownership and creativity by all involved. Learn about the principles of facilitation, skills and traits of a facilitator, how to facilitate diverse perspectives and explore some facilitation techniques for the Scrum Events.

Being an effective Scrum Master or team member inevitably involves difficult conversations. How we approach challenging discussions can mean the difference between a transformative moment and one that goes sideways. Fortunately, there is a lot we can do to prepare for those times when we need to wad...

In this podcast Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods at InfoQ spoke to Patricia Kong of Scrum.org about the importance and value of facilitation skills for collaborative teams.

There are many ways to facilitate Daily Scrum. In this Introduction to Facilitating a Daily Scrum, you will learn three different techniques along with the benefits and challenges of each. Your team can experiment with these as they see necessary and choose whichever method helps them best focus on ...

This is the fourth part of the four-part series on conflict. In the first part, we explored why we need conflict. In the second how to establish a space that will be conducive to exploration of ideas. In the third some techniques to review suggestions and ideas. In this post, we will explore a patt...

Sprint Planning is one of those events that even experienced teams don’t use to its fullest potential.  Here’s why. Many teams see the Sprint Planning event as the time for selecting which Product Backlog items (PBIs) they will deliver in the upcoming Sprint.  And that’s it.  There is so much more t...

This is the third part of the four-part series on conflict. In the first part, we explored why we need conflict. In the second how to establish a space that will be conducive to exploration of ideas. In this post, we will explore some techniques to objectively review ideas. 

This is the second part of the four-part series on conflict. In the first part, we explored why we need conflict. In this post, we explore how to establish clear boundaries at the start of the event to provide the environment that will enable you as a facilitator to navigate through conflict. 

As a facilitator, your purpose is to hold the space to allow the people in the event to achieve the agreed outcomes. This will require distance from the participants as the focus is on helping the people work through the agenda to deliver the outcomes. This is the first of a four part series.

Die wichtigste Aufgabe als Facilitator ist nicht, zu facilitieren. Stattdessen solltest du deinem Team die Groan Zone erklären. 99 % der Scrum Master machen den Fehler, dass sie ihr Wissen und ihre Erfahrung mit Gruppendynamik nicht mit ihrem Team teilen. Dadurch zwingen sie ihr Team bei der Mode...

Use "Discovery & Action Dialogue" and learn how to ask questions that include different perspectives, and to identify specific and actionable solutions.

Get to know your new Scrum Team now! Explore these 7 facilitation tips to start your Scrum Team.

Let’s look at how as a Scrum Master, you can facilitate a self-organization session, because the most empowered Scrum Teams determine the structure and organization of the team.

Three simple Retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures “Conversation Cafe”, “Troika Consulting”, and “Discovery & Action Dialogue”.

Join PST Andy Hiles, Jessica Martin, Agile Coach and PST Ravi Verma in a panel discussion hosted by Patricia Kong, where they share their experiences with creating psychological safety in teams by using effective facilitation skills in conversations and other interactions.

Scrum define eventos para crear cadencia, ritmo y mejorar la transparencia. Puede suceder que los miembros del equipo no encuentren utilidad en su uso o que el resultado no sea efectivo o el esperado. Estas circunstancias pueden ser mejorados con una facilitación para impactar en forma positiva e...

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer moderated by Patricia Kong, PSTs Simon Flossmann and David Spinks answer your burning questions about Scrum and the challenges you or your teams may be facing when using Scrum, particularly within the Scrum events and other scenarios when it may be...

In this Introduction to Facilitating the Sprint Retrospective video, you'll learn step-by-step how to guide your team through a Sprint Retrospective with techniques such as the Prime Directive, the Perfection Game, Dot Voting and Affinity Mapping so that your team can leave the Sprint Retrospective ...

In this webinar, Patricia Kong and PST David Spinks discuss the group dynamics involved in decision making and how facilitation skills can help a Scrum Team navigate through periods of frustration, confusion or disengagement to reach true alignment on their collective decisions.

In this Introduction to Facilitating a Sprint Review, you will learn a facilitation technique that can help turn the Sprint Review into a more engaging and collaborative session so that you can gather valuable feedback from stakeholders to determine future adaptations of your product. (5:51 Minutes)

Im August hat Scrum.org ein neues Assessment zusammen mit einem neuen Kurs veröffentlicht. Das Professional-Scrum-Facilitation-Skills-Assessment (PSFS) hilft dir, dein Facilitation-Wissen zu evaluieren. Ich habe bei der Vorbereitung mitgewirkt und kann deshalb wertvolle Einsichten in Scrum und di...

Within the Scrum community, Open Space Technology is a common practice. This post can be useful to make the most out of it! 

Given that the Product Owner may represent the needs of many stakeholders, these stakeholders will lobby for their requests.  Unfortunately, some stakeholders often intimidate others as a means to get what they want.  Some will argue publicly, and some will take it offline. Facilitation skills will...