Tips for Agile Team Collaboration

If you don’t have enough time, have more meetings… what? Counterintuitive, but potentially powerful. Please, allow me to explain: A few weeks ago my team was facing some technical difficulties that were slowing down our target velocity to deliver results. We then decided to apply some Agile-based principles and started having daily standups (quick 10-15 minutes daily team meetings) at the start of the day, to discuss progress, blockers, and day’s objectives. Soon enough we were producing enough traction in daily deliverables that the project got back on track. Not only that, other projects increased in performance, everyone got to learn of what each team member was working on and were able to cross-collaborate. Furthermore, our weekly team meeting was not running out of time but being spent in more tactical and strategic matters, and even to get to know each other more personally. Weekly 1:1s were more easily focused on career development and member’s wellbeing. On our recent quarterly Performance Reviews, I heard of their satisfaction from the daily standups. I agree that a lot of meetings could have been an email, and I agree with the sentiment of so many podcasts I've heard recently on how meetings are often a waste of time. Nevertheless, don’t throw the baby with the bad water. Meetings can be terrifically productive, especially in a remote environment, if intentionally planned and effectively executed. It worked for us, maybe it will work for you as well. #teambuilding #teamcollaboration #timemanagement #agile #highperformance

If you’re not doing these things in your team then don’t complain about having troubles or having to run experiments. Or even Scrum being difficult to master. In 25 years of doing Agile I have found several things that are easy to implement but which few teams do. I also hear complaints that processes must emerge because we’re in a complex system and that Scrum is difficult to master. All this does is justify not taking appropriate action. I list 10 things hear that can be immediately regardless of where you are and which will make a big impact. 1. Use Minimum Valuable Increments—essentially, the smallest value that can be released that provides value. These must also be fully kitted. See https://lnkd.in/gUEMaZAE if you don’t know what MVIs or full-kitting is. BTW – a sprint increment is not an MVI. Although it can be converted into it, that has to be declared and understood. 2. All team members know how to focus on finishing. See https://lnkd.in/gXtycA7G 3. You use a definition of ready so you don’t start something too early. 4. You have explained to management why interruptions don’t just delay what you’re working on but literally create more work to do. See https://lnkd.in/gigh6T9x 5. When something goes wrong you look at the system people are in before looking to blame people. Learn more about systems thinking here https://lnkd.in/g_x-NGrn 6. Your teams have explicit workflows within the team and agreements across the teams. 7. When you have people with scarce skills so teams can’t be fully cross-functional, you know how to efficiently share them across the teams that need them. 8. You do a minimal amount of test-first, even if it’s only asking, “How will I know I’ve done that?” when asked to do something. 9. You do a minimal amount of DevOps even if it’s only letting Ops know what’s coming their way. 10. You select which practices to use based on which ones follow first principles better in your context. See attachment. You can get a significant improvement if you do all of these. When picking a coach / consultant / or trainer, use this list as a checklist to make sure you’ll be taught this.

Tips about daily (standup or scrum or sync or meeting or connection or whatever-you-call-it). 👉 The three question format gets boring. Change it from the usual "do" to "done!" 1. What I got *done* (Not what I did) 2. What I will get *done* (Not what I will do) 3. What kept me from *done* 👉 Instead of *people* taking turns, *work items* take turns Proceed in order of iteration backlog priority At each item, those working on it, tell about the item Don't talk about items no one is working (If all your items have someone working on them, what might that mean?) 👉 Do Standup Poker (Kalpesh Shah, inventor) 1. Don't talk about stuff until the team answers the following question with a silent, fist-of-five-like confidence vote 2. Question: How confident are we that as a team we will meet the Sprint Goal [or plan] by end of Sprint? 3. At the same time, all team members hold up 0 to 5 fingers 0️⃣=No way! 1️⃣=No 2️⃣=Difficult 3️⃣=Yes, I think 4️⃣=Yes 5️⃣=Easy! 4. Dig into low numbers and plan what to do about it before next sync 👉 The daily sync contains status but is not a status meeting. It is a planning meeting of the next 24 hours 👉 Scrum Master: Do not call on people to talk. Do not dominate the conversations, you are not a project manager collecting status. This is the Dev Team's planning meeting. Perhaps facilitate, don't control. 👉 Product Owner: Do not call on people to talk. Do not dominate the conversations, you are not a project manager collecting status. It is the Dev Team's planning meeting. Participate, don't control. 👉 Dev Team: This meeting is for you to plan the next 24 hours, plan it The iteration or Sprint backlog is your plan, own it Your Scrum Master and Product Owner will support you, ask for what you need #dailyscrum #dailystandup #dailysync #scrum #agile #productowner #scrummaster

🤝 Episode 3: Working Agreements – The Team’s Social Contract ✨ From "Just a Group of People" to a Real Agile Team Scrum Guides won’t tell you how to behave. Jira won’t teach you team chemistry. That’s where Working Agreements come in—the glue that holds high-performing teams together. ___________________________________ 🎭 Without Them? You Get... 👉 Side chats instead of transparency 👉 Late joins, early logoffs, muted cameras, muted accountability 👉 “That’s not my job” vibes 😬 Agile success isn’t just about user stories—it’s about human stories. And Working Agreements shape how we work together, not just what we work on. __________________________________________ 🧾 What Are Working Agreements? They’re explicit team rules of engagement. They define behaviors, expectations, and norms that make collaboration smoother, safer, and more productive. Not enforced by the Scrum Guide. Not mandated by management. Built by the team, for the team. ____________________________________________________ 📜 What a Solid Working Agreement Can Include 🔹 Core hours & time zones (especially for remote teams) 🔹 “Cameras on” during key meetings 🔹 No multitasking during standup or refinement 🔹 Feedback is given with care, received with curiosity 🔹 No silent “yes” — speak up if you disagree 🔹 Rotating facilitators for retrospectives 🔹 Celebrate wins, even the small ones 🎉 Pro Tip: Add fun ones too! ("First person to say 'Let’s circle back' buys coffee ☕") _____________________________________________________ 🔆 How to Create (or Refresh) Working Agreements 1️⃣ Facilitate a 60-minute workshop Ask: -“What behaviors help us thrive?” -“What behaviors hurt our flow?” -“What are our biggest friction points?” 2️⃣ Co-create the agreements Everyone contributes. Everyone commits. No top-down mandates here. 3️⃣ Visualize them Post in Confluence, Miro, Jira—wherever your team lives. 4️⃣ Inspect & Adapt Review them quarterly or after major team changes. ______________________________ 🛡 Why They Matter 👉 Build psychological safety 👉 Foster shared accountability 👉 Turn conflict into constructive growth 👉 Reduce the need for “calling people out” by simply pointing back to what we agreed upon. ____________________ 🎯 Coach’s Corner: Tips for Enforcing Agreements ✔ Gently remind, don’t police ✔ Start retros with: “Are we living our agreements?” ✔ Empower the team to own them—not just you as the Scrum Master _______________ 💬 Your Move 👉 What’s one working agreement your team swears by? 👉 Have you reviewed your agreements in the last 3 months? 👉 Drop your funniest or most creative one in the comments 👇 🧱 Coming Next: Episode 4 – Definition of Value: Focus on What Matters We’ve got Done, Ready, and Agreements in place… now let’s talk impact. Follow me to stay tuned for the full Agile Agreement Playbook drop! #AgilePlaybookSeries #WorkingAgreements #ScrumMasterTools #TeamCulture #AgileCoaching #PsychologicalSafety #TeamAlignment #HighPerformanceTeams