“Leading is about learning to be a facilitator.”
Being an agile leader the skills for facilitation is a must for the scrum master. Scrum masters must be better facilitators or else they will only be considered as event organizers or ceremony arranging masters. The scrum master needs to be a better facilitator so that they can lead the event to achieve a high-quality decision that is owned by the complete group. Scrum masters have to facilitate various events such as Sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint retrospective, and sprint review, etc. Let’s learn the steps to be an exact scrum master facilitator.
The responsibilities of the scrum master are categorized into three categories Teach, coach, and observe. Along with these three responsibilities, there is also an important fourth responsibility that is facilitated which determines the scrum master’s other three qualities.
The very first pre-requisition of a scrum master is their mindset. They must have a mindset of creating the best environment for the team what it does the best. Scrum masters must manage and control the event flows to reach the required outcome.
The second pre-requisition is to have transparency. You must make team aware that the team shares everything with you and do not hide any providing you complete transparency.
The third pre-requisition of the scrum master is knowledge of the desired outcome. With knowledge of the required outcome, it is always easier to reach the goal without wandering at other topics.
For successful facilitation requires parts preparation and delivery. Which preparation consists of planning, agenda, controlling the meeting flow. Whereas, the second part of delivery consists of two components that are situational awareness and documenting.
1. Preparation
Planning
Planning the structure is carried out before starting the meeting. This is done by selecting the tools required, selecting appropriate facilitation processes like an open discussion, or the structured one by keeping in mind their pros and cons.
Agenda
The second preparation includes having a real estate agenda. Selecting the facilitation process and agenda of the event always go along as the visualization is already has started building in your mind while facilitation process selection and drafting the agenda. Having solid agenda will always focus everyone on the desired outcome.
Managing Flow
Once these two preparations are completed then we will direct towards ways to control the meeting flow. In this scrum masters will rehearse their facilitation skills and worst handling scenarios. This can be done by deciding the ground rules, figuring out setting the scene, way of starting the discussion, ways of continuing the momentum, ways of intervening, etc. Along with this scrum masters must also try to keep soft touch for keeping their agenda focused.
2. Delivery
Situational Awareness
Some points to help scrum master to be situational aware are
Keep eye on the side conversations as they limit the ability of others to focus.
Keep an eye on the people who are not participating in the event as they can provide some negative pointers about the discussion.
Keep time in account but also be flexible.
Be attentive about group behavior as group spirit matters a lot.
Keep an eye if there is any personal assault as it should be reminded to everyone and stopped immediately.
Documentation
This second component of delivery is about properly recording the outcomes of the meetings. While doing it most scrum masters let the team handle it in the name of self-organization and self-management. But we must know that not all teams matured enough to know the handling of meeting outcomes. So scrum masters demonstrate the example for better results. Scrum masters must record or assign someone for recording and communicate the outcomes. While doing so they must ensure that participants understand what things are recorded, how things are recorded, and who is recording them.
To be a successful facilitator one must know, “leaders are those who know when to lead and when to step aside.” Facilitating is art about stimulating deeper understanding, fresh thinking, and behavioral transformation. It’s easy to be a leader when you learn this art.
About Advance Agility
We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium and large organization across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients, move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting human centric approach to business agility. Embracing the change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitor.
Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe Implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagilty.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are a good trainer or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.
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