Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches Vasco Duarte, Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner

Avipaul Bhandari: Turning Conflict into Collaboration, An Agile Coach’s Hard-earned lesson Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Avipaul shares a deeply personal failure story as an Agile coach. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, he clashed with a condescending product director. This tension escalated until a senior leader intervened, prompting Avipaul to change his approach. Discover how understanding the director’s perspective and focusing on what the organization needed at the time helped Avipaul overcome anger and frustration. In this episode we also explore the crucial lessons that Avipaul learned about aligning personal values with professional interactions.
 
[IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.
 
About Avipaul Bhandari
Avipaul is a seasoned Agile Coach with extensive experience helping teams and organizations implement Agile practices effectively. His expertise spans various domains, and he is passionate about fostering collaboration and continuous improvement.
You can link with Avipaul Bhandari on LinkedIn and connect with Avipaul Bhandari on Twitter.

Jaques Smit: How to Help Product Owners Manage Many Stakeholders Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
The Great Product Owner: How Saying “No” Helps PO’s Succeed What makes a Product Owner successful in managing large teams? In this episode, Jaques shares an example of a Product Owner who managed a large team successfully by setting clear boundaries and saying "no" unless convinced otherwise. This approach led to a well-functioning team and better innovation. Jaques emphasizes the importance of clear communication and structured leadership.
The Bad Product Owner: Helping Product Owners Manage Many Stakeholders How can Product Owners manage stakeholder expectations effectively? Jaques shares his experience with a Product Owner (PO) working with an unmanageable number of stakeholders and communication lines. The PO's habit of saying "yes" to everyone led to overwhelming challenges. Jaques shares insights on effective PO practices, including setting boundaries and creating smaller, more productive teams.
 
[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.
 
About Jaques Smit
Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.
 
You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Jaques Smit: Mastering Team Dynamics, Tips for Scrum Masters Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
How can Scrum Masters harness conflict to drive team success? In this episode, Jaques explores the concept of conflict in teams and its role in growth. He emphasizes the need for Scrum Masters to manage team dynamics, facilitate decision-making, and promote effective feedback. Jaques shares tips on conflict resolution and the importance of continuous learning and adaptation for Scrum Masters.
Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Team Coaching Conversation Jaques introWhat retrospective techniques can enhance team understanding and growth? duces his favorite Agile Retrospective format: the Team Coaching Conversation. He explains the steps, starting with silent writing, followed by dot-voting and a coaching conversation led by team members. This format fosters understanding and growth, with actionable insights discussed later.
 
[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox! 
 
About Jaques Smit
Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.
 
You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Jaques Smit: The Role of Coaching in Organizational Change, A Key Skill For Agile Coaches Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
How can leaders effectively motivate and guide teams through significant changes? Jaques shares his journey in leading a traditional development team towards creating their own games. He highlights the challenges of facilitating change without sufficient coaching skills and the importance of creating a desire for change. Jaques introduces ADKAR, SCARF, and coaching techniques, ultimately leading to successful organizational transformation.
In this episode, we also refer to Constructivist Learning, and Adult learning theory. 
 
[IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
 
About Jaques Smit
Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.
 
You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Jaques Smit: Beyond the Drama Triangle, Patterns in Conflict Resolution for Agile Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Jaques shares the story of a long-term game development team's recurring issues despite changes in personnel. Several Product Owners had left because of burnout. However, with every new PO the team cycled through the same patterns, eventually leading to the PO’s leaving. Jaques realized the team was stuck in a Persecutor-Victim-Rescuer dynamic, and tried to help the team by bringing in outside assistance. Through this story, Jaques discusses the importance of addressing underlying conflicts, enhancing conflict resolution skills, and avoiding the drama triangle.
Featured Book of the Week: Leadership is Language by David Marquet How can the language we use as leaders influence team dynamics? Jaques discusses "Leadership is Language" by David Marquet (David Marquet has been a previous guest on the show) and its impact on his approach to workplace challenges. The book helped him realize the importance of language in shaping behavior and leadership conversations. Jaques shares how the book helped him facilitate leadership discussions and improve team communication.
 
[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  
 
About Jaques Smit
Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.
 
You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Jaques Smit: Sprint Goals Gone Wrong, Leadership Lessons from a Game Development Team Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Jaques shares an experience with a game development team struggling to meet their goals. Despite his efforts to implement sprint goals and keep the team accountable, he faced resistance. Apparently lost with the process of setting goals, the Product Owner (PO) stepped back, pushing Jaques to take ownership and set the goals, which further re-enforced the team’s attitude of not taking ownership. Jaques reflects on the importance of coaching with an open mind and the challenges of directive leadership. He shares insights on enabling constraints and the Cynefin framework.
In this episode we also refer to Clinton Keith’s work as well as the #NoEstimates book.
 
[IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.
 
About Jaques Smit
Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.
 
You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.