Case study : Motivation Standstill, part 1

“We’re going nowhere, but who cares?” said Alex, a developer during a meeting. No one in the team answered during few long seconds. Then Samir, another developer said: “With all the tech debt accumulated, do you think we can think of improving anything?”

You, as a new Scrum Master of the team, ask about what we can do to improve the situation. Nobody seems to be interested. Hicham, the Product Owner ignored the question and asked the developers: “I want you to deliver ticket EcoH-39173 ASAP, when can I have it? Stakeholders are harassing me about it!”.

Nael, another developer sitting next to you looked at you and whispered : “It’s been going on this way for months”.

Round 1: Describe briefly the dysfunctions the team is facing : Absence of Trust? Fear of conflict? Lack of commitment? Avoidance of Accountability? Inattention to results?

Round 2: Pretend you’re the team. Design a retrospective to improve this situation. For this, combine Liberating Structures – 8. Troika Consulting and Liberating Structures – 7. 15% Solutions.