Creative Scrum: Tunnel of Chaos

Persevering in shared leadership.

The whole leadership team needed to be bought in to make a significant shift like implementing Creative Scrum. 

Buy-in takes both time and patience. People are different when it comes to change. Some welcome it, some fight against it, and some proceed with cautious optimism. 

People have different paces and processes for change. Be observant of how people are responding. Implementing Creative Scrum likely means lots of change. Hang in there. It's worth it.

It’s the point in a process when you’re unsure which way to go or what to do, you can’t yet see the end, and you can no longer see the beginning

Common questions or comments included, “Does it work for creatives?” “I don't know if other creative teams are doing it, should we?” “What do all these Scrum words mean?” “It's so technical!” 

Empathizing with your teammates cares for them. It also helps you design a better system and prepare your communication tools when you later roll out the system.

What do we talk about first?

I struggled with this initially, trying to figure out what to explain first. 

It’s hard to talk about the Scrum events if you don’t know what the Scrum roles are. And it’s hard to talk about the roles if you don’t know what a backlog is. 

It felt very chicken and eggish when we started explaining the concepts. Over time I found some helpful strategies for explaining Scrum to people.

1. Start with “why?” What problem are we trying to solve, and why does it matter? For us, the problem was effectiveness. People were burning out, projects weren’t being completed, and it was unclear if what was being delivered was effective.
2. Explain it iteratively. Start with a general explanation, like “so we’re going to break our requests down into three-week batches so we can stay focused and know how long things will take.” Refining the common language version of Scrum is also helpful when you start explaining it to everyone who will connect with your system.
3. Illustrate. I made a good number of icons and animated them in our slide deck to help people visualize how the system played out over time and with people.

Didn’t we already talk about that?

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray always wakes up to the same day with the same events playing out each time. Sometimes our meetings felt like Groundhog Day, as I would have to explain the same concept or answer the same question for the tenth time. 

Some people need all the information before acting; some learn by doing. You will likely have a mix of both on your team.

There are a few causes that contribute to this:

1. People learn at their own pace. Some will pick it up quickly, and some will struggle as they go along. You got to work with both.
2. Understanding grows with exposure. Have you ever rewatched a movie, and there was a scene you didn’t remember at all from when you watched it the first time? People can miss things because they don’t understand the overall system or narrative well enough to organize the information they are receiving. 
3. People are distracted. Let’s be honest, people aren’t always engaged, people check email while they’re on a video call. It’s frustrating and a disrespectful waste of others’ time, but it is something we have to work with.

Here are two tricks I developed in the process:

1. Explaining each time. When you’re talking about something repeatedly, you naturally assume that everyone knows what terms mean and why they are important. I found it helpful to concisely and parenthetically explain concepts and purpose. For example, when discussing the backlog, I would just add, “which is the prioritized list of work to do.” It helps remind, reinforce and normalize some critical concepts and reasons.‍
2. Asking questions. Maybe I’m answering the question being asked but not the one the person has. Asking a clarifying question helps us see where the breakdown is. You can also use the Socratic method and reframe the question to let the whole group work out the solution. This approach can feel slower but results in better understanding.

So many versions...

I took an iterative approach, prototyping an implementation by writing a handbook or creating an onboarding slide deck. 

We went through so many versions, but it was worth it. 

The concepts felt abstract, and people needed something concrete to process, respond to, and ask questions about. The handbooks and slide decks provided this. You must hold a genuine tension between being concrete enough for substantial understanding and not so concrete that the team gets lost in the weeds.

People can miss things because they don’t understand the overall system or narrative well enough to organize the information they are receiving.

Here are three examples of what we did.

1. Process Map. A visual and high-level overview of the process.
2. Glossary of terms. Lots of words and details to define and implement these key concepts. 
3. Slide deck presentation. A guide to how you would talk about it with your team

I didn't know what you were talking about...

After finalizing the system and onboarding the teams, during the first sprint, a leadership team member told me, “I didn’t like talking about before, but I think I get it now.” At the moment, I didn’t know what to think about this comment. 

Empathizing with your teammates cares for them.

To be honest, I was a little frustrated. But then I considered how I often learn by doing and realized this person was similar. They understood it because they were finally getting to do it. 

Some people need all the information before acting; some learn by doing. You will likely have a mix of both on your team. 

Stewarding this diversity is part of the challenge of leading a team through the tunnel of chaos.

Exiting the tunnel of chaos

You will get out. There may be some precarious moments and facilitation challenges, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

When you’re in those tuff moments, name it. Remind them they’re in the tunnel of chaos and encourage the team to persevere.

When you make a significant change or build something new, there will be challenging points along the way.  Hang it there. It’s worth the effort and endurance.

Check out the rest of the Creative Scrum series to explore how you can apply scrum in a creative design department.