How Do You Deal with Managers in Daily Scrum?
A Scrum Master in the community was struggling with a new manager attending the Daily Scrum. While it was initially to get to know the team, three months later she was still showing up and her presence was shutting the team down from having open conversations. The team felt like the manager was always listening.
“As a Scrum Master, how can I raise this issue to my manager in a positive way? Is this behavior healthy for the agile team? I’m very curious to hear from experts in this forum,” she says.
Here’s what a few of our community members had to say about the situation:
Welcome Her with Open Arms
A California-based agile coach jumped in and said, “Your manager always listening to you is a good thing. As long as your manager is not behaving in dysfunctional ways, welcome her with open arms. Perhaps she’ll hear something she can do to help, when the team is in a bind,” he says.
He adds, “It sounds like your team is not enjoying psychological safety with the manager there. I’d investigate why that is occurring. Perhaps the manager is doing things in those meetings that hurt psychological safety, in which case you can have a conversation with her to see what can be done to get her to stop behaving in those ways, while still having her needs met.”
On the flip side, “Perhaps this manager is not doing anything to hurt your team’s psychological safety, but they are simply intimidated by the manager title in the room, in which case you can have conversations with your team about why that is happening,” he says.
Have Crucial Conversations
An agile coach from Rhode Island suggested taking some pointers from the book Crucial Conversations. “Speak to the manager directly. Frame the conversation that it’s helpful to have space and invite her to the Sprint Review instead,” she says.
Nurture Relationships
Another member added, “When the manager has been absent from stand-ups due to holidays or other reasons, have you noticed a more relaxed free flowing stand-up? If yes, it sounds like you need to do some team building with the manager and the team. It might help to get the manager to spend more time with individual team members to build their relationship.”
What Does the Manager Really Need?
An agile coach from Texas brought up a really good point that the manager may feel obligated to attend the Daily Scrum, but by digging into her real needs, she may no longer feel attendance is necessary.
“She may be getting lots of pressure from those above them to give a status report at any point in time. You may find that showing the manager how to review the tools and what days are helpful for her to show up (like day 5 and 8, rather than everyday) may work better for everyone,” she says.
Build Openness & Transparency
Another member chimed in to say, “Agile is about openness and transparency. I allow stakeholders to attend any of the Scrum ceremonies except the Retrospective. As long as they do not disrupt the process, then it is fine.”
“If the team has issues, then meet with them offline to learn of their concerns and remind them that the ceremonies are there to serve the team and the sprint goal, not to appease a particular observer,” he says.
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