Adapt and Evolve to Scrum

Over the centuries, humans have managed to adapt to many situations and evolve to become what we are today. History shows that we have an innate ability to adapt and evolve.

This remains valid as part of a change in business, such as the adoption of Scrum.

In the past, I've noticed that successful changes in the adoption of Scrum have followed three principles. This doesn’t mean that these principles are universally applicable.

Give Meaning to Change

Why change? Today I am often called by organizations that can no longer compete with start-ups and lose market share. For most of my clients, the time to market of new products often takes months or years. They have to evolve to remain competitive in this complex and changing world. Adopting Scrum is a good way of reducing time to market.

Know the Rules of The Game

How do you work differently? Once convinced and motivated to adopt Scrum, or more often to be convinced, it is necessary to learn the rules of the game. For this, Scrum has very simple rules and training is an excellent opportunity to learn how to practice them. My experience in training allows me to say that we need to learn to collaborate (at all levels) and the difference between a quick change and a slower one lies in our ability to no longer control people but the results provided by a team.

Play!

At this stage you need to practice, keeping an open mind, being aware that it is unlikely (impossible?) to be perfect the first time and that sometimes it will be necessary to read the instructions of the game again, or ask for help to someone who has played the same game in the past. Finally, think of the first time you played your favorite board game; it's the same thing! Playing Scrum, especially the first few times, isn’t easy: commitment, courage, openness, focus, and respect are the Scrum Values that will allow you to inspect the way you play and adapt to play better, like a pro!

Conclusions

I have seen that these three principles have made it possible, in some contexts, to successfully transition to the use of Scrum. I also observed what didn’t work and made the teams return to the old habits.

I am convinced that, at first, we must force ourselves to adapt to change by applying the rules of the game. Over time, thanks to the repetition of the same "gestures," you will evolve towards a Scrum adoption that will be the first step of a journey that will allow you to deliver quality products in a complex context, as it is our world today!

I love playing Scrum following the Scrum Guide rule. Do you?