Building a Safe Environment for Failure
An Agile Mentors Community member recently asked the group:
“How can a Scrum Master build a safe environment for failure?”
We got a lot of great responses and unique perspectives on this topic from our members. Here’s what they had to say:
Retrospectives Should Be Safe Spaces for Teams
The retrospective meeting is designed for teams to have a safe space to openly communicate, added a member. This is a good time for the team to talk about what worked and what didn’t in a judgment-free zone.
The posting attendee then added that the main reason the team wasn’t feeling safe was due to the product owner’s way of criticizing the team for failing during a retrospective. So suddenly, in the place where team members are supposed to feel they can speak their mind, they were being shut down.
Coaching the Product Owner
An experienced agile coach in the group suggested that the product owner may be dealing with management that doesn’t allow for failure and pressures him to ‘deliver’ rather than fail quickly. He recommended the Scrum Master have a one-on-one coaching session with the product owner to uncover the root causes for his behavior.
Another member added that it’s important for the Scrum Master to inform the Product Owner how his attitude is impacting the team, and ultimately the project. She added that the Scrum Master should listen to the Product Owner’s concerns---maybe he’s frustrated with the team or concerned that his expectations aren’t being met. Of course, the Scrum Master needs to remain neutral and determine if his expectations are realistic. Either way, it’s the Scrum Master’s job to uncover these issues.
Someone else added that this is a great time to teach the Product Owner about the Scrum values, with extra attention given to openness and respect.
He also recommended explaining to the product owner that shutting down team members encourages people to hold back information for fear of retribution, which isn’t in the best interest of the Product Owner achieving his goals.
Conduct a Feedback Exercise
Another member suggested trying to arrange a feedback exercise for the team during one of the retrospectives and using that opportunity to demonstrate the team’s (and perhaps the ScrumMaster’s) perceived lack of safety. He added, “Scrum Masters should be able to express their feelings and take an active part in those exercises when needed.”
Here’s one to try by A Feedback Exercise for Teams that Gets Results.
I recently attended an agile conference where I learned about psychological safety. To conduct an anonymous safety check with your team, follow these easy steps:
1) Get everyone the same color sticky note and pen. 2) Have them number how they are feeling based on this 1-5 scale. 3) If you get 1’s or 2’s, don’t proceed: have an immediate conversation. 4) If you get 3’s, proceed with caution. 5) If you get 4’s and 5’s your team feels psychological safety.
Revisit the Team’s Working Agreement
One member commented that this might be a great time to return to pragmatism and revisit the team’s working agreement. He suggested reading AMC member Scott Duncan’s work, which gets in-depth on working agreements and how they’re key during interactions, co-operation and hopefully evolving to collaboration.
Use Proven Frameworks or Literature to Initiate Conversation
Another member suggested the Cynefin Framework by Dave Snowden as a conversation starter. This framework explains how there are different types of work and software is complicated, which means people will always be learning and making mistakes along the way.
She suggested reminding the team that if they stay in their safe space and only do what’s well practiced and effortless, the lack of innovation will cause the company to soon be out of business.
The same member also recommended facilitating a discussion on why the Product Owner fears mistakes. The team will probably go into why mistakes happen as part of the discussion. For those newer to facilitating, the end goal in the discussion is to get a shared understanding and general agreement on when mistakes are part of the process and when things need to be right.
A few more literary suggestions included reading and discussing with the team the books The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Crucial Conversations, both of which our members chose to discuss during our monthly community book clubs.
To join the conversation and to hear more comments from team members and leaders on building a safe environment for failure, join the Agile Mentors Community. Visit https://www.agilementors.com for more information on membership.