“Overbearing and oppressive leadership can make people afraid of failure, destroy initiative, and even cause unethical behaviors within the enterprise.”
“Agile teams live with constant change — whether it be learning, evolving priorities, or shifting technologies — their energies must be spent on working together healthily. If they are living in an unhealthy and unsafe environment, it will undoubtedly slow the team down, reduce innovation, and cause unnecessary burnout within the team.”
– Pete Anderson, Lead Product Owner, Target
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.
“Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.”
So, I can’t give more emphasis on why meeting physiological and phycological needs is a must for any human/team to function effectively.
Cut to the present scenario, as countries introduce measures to restrict movement to reduce the number of people infected with COVID-19, more and more of us are making considerable changes to our daily routines.
The new realities of working from home, temporary unemployment, home-schooling of children, and lack of physical contact with other family members, friends, and colleagues take time to get used to.
Adapting to lifestyle changes such as these, managing the fear of contracting the virus and worrying about people close to us who are particularly vulnerable are challenging for all of us. They can be tough for people with mental health conditions.
For example, one of my friends works for an IT firm. Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, he worked from home for some time. He called me a few days back and sounded very depressed. He told me that he was asked to come to the office and work in the wake of the lockdown relaxation.
He has a tiny kid, and his wife works from home. He has no choice but to comply. I can imagine what he must be going through. Can he focus on work in an office? What about his morale and motivation? This is not just an isolated example. Instead, we have numerous examples around us without a psychological safety net.
As I said before, Agile puts people at its core. As we know Scrum is a subset of Agile. It is a lightweight process framework for agile development. There are three roles in Scrum.
- Product Owner
- Scrum Master
- Development team
A Scrum Master is a servant leader responsible for ensuring the team lives agile values and principles and follows the processes and practices the team agreed to use.
In the context of our discussion, a Scrum Master can be the person who provides a safety net to the team members so that they can feel engaged and work towards the Sprint goal.
But how?
Here are some helpful tips:
Coaching:
The responsibility for psychological safety should lie with the Agile leaders. Agile leaders do not have to hold a ‘C’ level position. Anyone can fulfil the role of an Agile leader. “Moreover, only these leaders can create an environment encouraging high-performing Agile teams to flourish and produce value. Leaders, therefore, must internalise and model leaner ways of thinking and operating so that team members will learn from their example, coaching, and encouragement”.
Suppose this is not the case with some organisations. In that case, the Agile enabler or Scrum Master is responsible for acting as a change agent and coaching the leadership team and critical stakeholders.
Provide a platform to speak up:
Draconian restrictions on employees harm psychological safety, especially rules or infrastructure that limit communication. To overcome this, create liberal pathways to leadership, provide channels for feedback, and encourage conversation.
Develop an environment of trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves. Spend time connecting with people to gain their trust and earn their respect. Remember, respect cannot be demanded with titles.
One key to psychological safety is that people feel comfortable voicing their opinions and do not fear being judged.
- Coach Product Owners and stakeholders so that they, too, recognize the importance of team members speaking their mind
- Be open to opinions that differ from your own
- Be approachable and encourage team members to ask questions
- Be a good listener
Come up with a team social-contract/working-agreement:
One of the core concepts of Agile that any Scrum team should embrace is working agreements. The team’s discipline comes straight from the working agreements it establishes.
A working agreement is not meant to dictate precisely how work gets done but to emphasise behaviours and team behaviours that will keep everyone productive, positive, and accountable.
Let me give an example of a social contract that we follow in our team:
- Show respect for every team member.
- Any change to the Sprint backlog requires the product owner’s approval.
- Always adhere to the Definition of Done when accepting the increment to be released.
- Update the user stories before each day’s daily stand-up event.
- Keep cell phones away during every Scrum meeting.
- Adhere to the time boxing of the Scrum ceremonies.
Focus on team morale rather than the happiness index:
Morale is the enthusiasm and persistence with which a team member engages in the prescribed activities of that group. So, rather than focusing on the mundane Sprint happiness index, we can focus on team morale.
Teams with High Morale usually have the following traits:
- Members are willing to help each other out, no matter the nature of the task;
- Members are proud of their team (and usually tell the outside world) and the work they do;
- Members will go the extra mile individually or for the team, even if it means staying late to finish the sprint;
- Members will persist (not give up), even in the face of high work-pressure, difficult technical problems, nasty bugs or a difficult sprint;
- Members are generally happy in the team and enjoy working there, on a whole
So as a Scrum Master, how can you measure the morale of your team?
A practical version of the measure is shown below:
- In my team, I feel fit and strong;
- I am proud of the work that I do for my team;
- I am enthusiastic about the work that I do for my team;
- I find the work that I do for my team of meaning and purpose;
- I look forward to working with the team every single day
If we have a good, statistically sound measure of Team Morale, we can use it to advance our understanding of the processes at work in the Scrum Team.
Run a better Retrospective:
“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”
Amy Edmondson, Professor, Harvard Business School
We can adapt the following guidelines while running with the Sprint retrospective meetings:
- Nominate a facilitator
A successful retrospective needs a facilitator who can ensure the group will achieve the goals of the meeting. A facilitator can help open up the discussion by asking:
- What didn’t work?
- What did everyone do, and how did we do it?
- What will we do differently next time?
To create safety, the meeting facilitator must actively invite input from and engage with all team members. The facilitator also needs to manage the meeting to avoid interruptions.
- Everyone has a voice.
Team members are not only permitted to speak but should feel a sense of duty to flag issues when they occur. When teams share bad news, creating a feeling of safety and empowerment is even more critical.
- Have Fun
The foundation of play is ‘enjoyment.’ Laughter is often recognised as a fundamental sign of a safe connection inside a team. Therefore, creating fun opportunities will allow everyone to signal they feel safe. This may require you to try out some unconventional techniques, such as using props or playing team-building games, to break the ice and foster a more relaxed atmosphere.
Mastering the art of blameless retrospectives requires extensive, deliberate practice. However, it is worth investing the time to hold regular retrospectives to create a feeling of safety and enable people to discuss their work openly.
Conclusion:
“The best software comes from the collaboration between all team members where all get a voice in the development process. To maximise this collaboration, team members must feel safe sharing ideas and concerns. They also must be encouraged to be creative and push the bounds of the development process to create exponentially better-than-expected software. This goal of developing great software is at the core of physiological safety.”
Mark Smith, Vice President Solutions Consulting, MentorMate
The transformation to Agile, a significant management shift in software development over the last 15 years, is now extending its influence to physical product development organisations. While Agile brings numerous benefits, it’s also true that many organisations, universally, have faced challenges in its implementation.
High-performing teams, regardless of their nature, require psychological safety. This is especially true for Agile teams, where the freedom to speak up without fear of repercussions is a cornerstone. While this may seem trivial, many Agile teams operate in an environment that forces them to avoid difficult conversations and walk around the truth. To conclude, psychological safety is not a luxury for Agile teams, but a crucial aspect of their success.
It’s not just a necessity, it’s a cornerstone of high-performing Agile teams.
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