deck the halls

with boughs of scrum events

We are a family of November birthdays, so we don’t decorate for the festive season until they’re all over. This week, I sent my partner into the loft to retrieve the Christmas decorations, and we let our four-year-old boys into the tinsel box for the first time. Decking the halls in sparkly and glittery chaos and navigating the uncharted waters of introducing Scrum to a team of novices – are both experiences rife with their own unique blend of challenges and messes.

Picture this: Tinsel strewn across the floor, glitter sparkling in unexpected corners, and baubles hanging precariously off the tree – I felt like I was introducing a new team to Scrum. The excitement and enthusiasm of adopting a new framework like Scrum can create a similar whirlwind. Much like the tinsel and glitter, each team member might interpret and apply Scrum principles differently, resulting in a colourful but slightly disordered landscape.

Just as a misplaced step can send ornaments crashing, the early stages of embracing Scrum can feel delicate. Individuals and teams are learning, absorbing, and adapting to this new framework and way of working. There's a risk of misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and even resistance. When coaching people through this time, you have to hold the spaces for them with as much care as you hold those fragile ornaments.

The chaos of untangling garlands and tinsel mirrors the complexity of untangling and aligning team members' understanding of Scrum. Each string is like a different aspect of Scrum, and much like untangling those strings, it takes patience and effort to lay them all out and put them together cohesively.

And let's not forget the challenge of keeping the festive spirit alive while dealing with overexcited children making a big mess! Similarly, maintaining team motivation and enthusiasm during the sometimes chaotic learning process is crucial. It's about creating an environment where mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn, much like two small children twirling around with some tinsel until it falls apart.

Like carefully arranging ornaments on the tree, guiding individuals through the Scrum journey requires a delicate balance between support and autonomy. Encouraging self-organisation while ensuring alignment with the organisation's overarching goals is a constant tightrope walk.

Yet, amidst this chaos, there's an undeniable joy. Just as the end result of a beautifully decorated tree brings smiles, seeing a team gradually embrace Scrum and witness the positive impact it has on productivity and collaboration is immensely rewarding.

The messiness of both endeavours, be it the glitter and tinsel or the varying (and often incorrect) interpretations of Scrum, serves as a reminder that growth and transformation often come wrapped in chaos. It's about embracing the mess, learning from it, and finding beauty and progress within the disorder.

Ultimately, both experiences - decking the house with little helpers and coaching a team in adopting Scrum - share a common thread: they're journeys filled with challenges, messes, learning curves, and, ultimately, the joy of seeing progress unfold.