Before I became a Scrum Master I made a long journey from a young, frightened software developer to a conscious team player. When I started my software development career I was focused on doing my work the best I can . Back then that was supposed to mean finding a resolution on my own and subsequently writing a piece of code. My team developed one specified product. We worked in something similar to the Kanban model. One day we decided to add daily standups to our work. I remember that it was a very stressful situation for me. I was terrified because of the fact that I was supposed to tell my colleagues about my accomplishments and problems every day. I was afraid of a lack of acceptance by colleagues, I was employed in a specified position and in my opinion, I had to know all the answers. So admitting that I have a problem with something was very hard for me. I had been often unconsciously choosing the path to escape from my fear during daily standups. Some of the possible ways out were:
– Taking too many tasks. Multitasking on purpose was supposed to hide and justify understandable problems, but indeed I was kidding myself and telling white lies to my colleagues.
– Even when foreseeing a problem in the task, I used to postpone claiming it until accomplishing all the understandable things. It was very comfortable for me because I had an illusion that I have done so much work in the task…. Why illusion?
Because a problem which was postponed can have an impact on the whole task. If that were so, the whole time devoted to the issue could be wasted. So this strategy was very risky….
Why was I acting in such a way? As a new member in the team, I didn’t feel safe. It is a natural pattern. If you don’t know people very well, it’s hard to ask for help, it’s hard to offer an idea. Especially, when You are afraid that it might be interpreted as “stupid” idea. You need a psychological safety to do that.
How can we achieve psychological safety?
First of all, we need time. But time is not a magic wand.
At the beginning of my way, I got a lot of support from my manager. He didn’t tell me how to do my work, but instead he gave me space to find solutions. He was also open to new initiatives. I remember that I had a couple of ideas about improving the process: the new workflow, scripts which show some more information about the team performance. My manager gave me space and trust to make those initiatives come true. He didn’t pretend he knew everything. In addition, he knew what my motivators were and he used that knowledge to give me more power. His attitude makes me more confident.
But it’s not only the leader’s attitude that has an impact on our safety. We work with the other colleagues and relations with them are also important.
When I arrived at my team I was “closed in the box”. Moreover, it was my unconscious choice. I was focused on getting only my task done, I said I was frightened to get the feedback about my work from others. When we started making daily standups I slowly realized that nothing bad has happened to me when I was talking about blockades in tasks. Moreover, the problems were resolved faster. And that was the point! When I saw that this causes that work is going faster I changed my focus in order to get out of the box.
Before each daily standup I was thinking about the benefits which my team and I would get from my open attitude. That helps me to talk about my obstacles, ask some questions. And this is the first step to shape a team out of the group of people: firstly, individuals should change their focus from “me” to “us”. For me, the helpful thing in this was thinking about the benefits to the product. Now I think that the size of the group also has a big impact on that. At that time our team contained twelve members. Afterward we were divided into three teams. In my five-people team I observed that focusing on “us” was easier than in a team consisting of twelve members.
This focus pushed me to start being curious about my teammates. I started going for coffee with my colleagues more often, asking questions about different topics, not only work-related, I started observing their reactions. Building relations, getting to know them better – that is the second key. When we know what can block my colleague I can support him not only with problems in the task but also support in talking about the problem. When I have the relations with my teammates built, it’s easier to ask a question, it’s easier to say that something is unclear. The unbound collaboration! I can say that in the best time of my software developer career I was feeling really safe in my 5 person team. We were focused on developing one product, we knew each other, our obstacles and behaviours well and we were curious about each other’s work!
Based on my experience, I can say that there are a few things that must be there in order to change group to a team:
– Manager gives support. Leaders are crystal clear that they do not have the answers and give the space for choosing the resolutions.
– Teammates are aware of benefits brought by the mindset like “us” instead of “me”.
– Everybody is to some extent curious about each other. Our initial judgements can be a barrier on our way to knowing. Don’t let them stop us from knowing our teammates.
– Psychological safety is there . If we don’t know people very well it is hard to ask for help or offer an idea.
It’s hard to grow as a team if:
– The team is huge. If there are more than 9 members, then there are too many connections between the people. We can not get to know each other fast, it’s getting much harder to gain the psychological safety. There is a risk of subgroups emerged. Every team player thinks not as an independent individual equally linked with every other independent individual within the team. Just the opposite, he or she cares about the members of the microteam versus another microteam. People focus not on the major struggle for achieving the goal, but rather on the internal struggle for power.
– The crew is not stable. If members of the team are changing frequently, it’s logically understood that psychological safety will be violated. Additionally, the competences and knowledge about products are changing. Team may experience a decrease in their development.
– Team develops a few products. Switching context between different fields is a waste of time. Also, deep knowledge about one of the products is not achievable. That has an impact on product quality.
– Team members are sure that they know everything. If we are convinced that our resolution is the only right idea, then we are not open to check other roads. On the other hand, if we are frightened that our lack of knowledge will be criticized, it’s a natural outcome that we won’t ask questions, we will waste time to find answers by ourselves despite the fact that the other team members might know the answer.
Creating a great team is a process. To do so, the environment in which the team grows should be team-friendly (leaders, stable team, focus on one product). If we give people a supporting environment and show the benefits of the open mindset, they will start collaborating. And what is the meaning of collaboration? I can describe it by two letters: WE.
