Wind at our backs. Euphoria. And then…

I scream the lungs out of my body. ‘What a gigantic feeling,’ blows through my head. Wind at my back, completely in the flow. At over 50 kilometers per hour I race over the dike on my bicycle. Nothing stops me. Racing to the finish line. Enjoying the view at the same time. Euphoria. And then… a headwind. A symbolic situation for what I often encounter in Agile teams as an Agile trainer and coach. I explain.

“This is tough, how far on earth?” rages through my mind now. Even as a former pro track cyclist, I must acknowledge my superiority in the wind. Speed slows down. Legs get heavy. Head down. Ramming. This is pure fighting the wind. Can it be done differently? Sure, I’m happy to coach you and your team in that with Agile coaching on the job or, for example, transformation coaching for companies.

Don’t fight but work together

In the Netherlands, that wind is just part of it. But instead of fighting wind gusts solo, it’s much easier to work together in a group. So I cycle the same lap of the dike with my friends. This time it won’t be a tussle, but nimble reactions to each other. We adjust positions. Keep each other out of the wind. Divide the heaviest work with short head turns. Does the wind turn? Then we adjust our routine again with lightning speed. Soon we find a wonderful rhythm even in that headwind, we maintain perfect speed. The euphoria is back!

The 3 practical tips

You will recognize this: even in (Scrum) teams it often blows. Some teams always seem to have the wind at their backs, flying successfully through their work. But in your team: rock-hard wind against. Why is that? And more importantly; what can you do about it?

Set your direction and don’t blow with all the winds
Accept the wind force and organize according to it
Break the wind by really doing it together

Determine your direction

In your Agile or Scrum Team, you (I hope) pursue the same goal together. A goal to which everyone contributes, from his or her expertise. You have set a very clear dot on the horizon together. Long term, in other words. Think of it as the finish line of your bike ride. But to get there, you need short-term actions to get closer to that goal. What turn do you take, who will lead, what gear? In summary, your Product Vision should be clear and with your Sprint goal you are getting closer and closer in concrete terms.

Accept the wind force

You have set the direction. Good job. But then suddenly there is an unexpected gust of wind, force ten. As a cycling team and as a Scrum team, you don’t want to be blown over even then. This is where the Daily Scrum is valuable. During the Daily you quickly adapt to the latest insights. What has come our way that we are suffering or benefiting from? Where do we need to adjust our direction or not? And in the Retrospective you then look back and dwell on it a bit longer. Then to accelerate again, of course. If these are new terms for you, then the Agile Kickstart for teams might be for you.

Break the wind

As I said, Agile and Scrum require teamwork. The saying “alone you go faster, but together you get further” really doesn’t apply here. I like to change it to: Together you go faster and further. Alone you fight the wind. Together you find the wind at your back. Yet it is not always easy to work together in a sincere way. Why is that? I’ll give you a few examples.

Alternating Product Owners

I often see the lack of clear direction created by too many changes in the Product Owner role. Some teams even lack the Product Owner completely. Lack of leadership also results in blowing with all the winds. As a team, you don’t even immediately experience this as a headwind; perhaps it even feels like freedom for a while. But over time, motivation sinks, islands form and noise appears on the line. You may even feel frustration, as customers and stakeholders become less and less satisfied. The team’s right to exist thus becomes unclear.

So you see that reflected in the team

How do you see the above reflected concretely in your team? The team has become a group of individuals. Colleagues prefer to avoid cooperation. Everyone focuses on individual tasks and prefers to have them handed to them on a silver platter. Even in meetings, there is little enthusiasm; colleagues are frustrated about everything, but no longer see what they can do to change it. Before one project is finished, they jump on to the next. All in all, the team becomes nonchalant and erratic.

Time to do something about that

Now how to turn that headwind into tailwind? We’ve already talked about it: set direction, accept the wind force and break the wind. First, that means setting direction with long-term goals for the team. Work out with each other when you will be successful and how you will measure that. Then, with an “inspect and adapt” mindset, you can move forward with your customers and stakeholders. Once the basics(check Agile and Scrum Essentials) are in place, you can start building as a team and getting better and better. And this I promise you: that progression feels like wind at your back. Want to talk to me personally about this? Contact me.