A lot has changed in past few month. Lots of people have lost their jobs, business were shut, profitability of organisations tumbled, and remote working has come into significant role. In this interview, we discussed with Melissa Boggs (Co-CEO, Scrum Alliance) about agile industry’s prepared for the epidemiological developments of recent times. She also shared her views on how Scrum can transform the world of work. Let’s read:
Q1. According to you, how much were we prepared to survive the challenges of a pandemic as an industry (agile)?
Melissa: I believe we were as prepared as we could be. Because we embrace values and principles of short feedback loops, experiments, and continuous retrospection, we were prepared for this constant uncertainty. We had principles and practices already in place that allow us to look forward, but incrementally. When the information we were/are getting was changing every moment, that incremental view was paramount. However, preparedness doesn’t necessarily make things any easier. Agility does not mean perfection; in fact, we embrace agility because we know things are not perfect. There is still a lot of hard work to be done in organizations and in our agile community.
Q2. How can Scrum transform the world of work in today’s difficult times?
Melissa: The Scrum framework can provide opportunities for inspection and adaptation, as well as a continuous focus on improvement and team well-being. The customer-centricity of Scrum helps us focus on the right things, even when the world is competing for our attention.
Q3. Share your three key mantras to make an organisation joyful, prosperous and sustainable.
Melissa: These are my personal mantras as a leader for the organization:
1. Create structures and cultures that encourage and inspire empathy for our customers, ourselves, and each other.
2. Invite people (constantly) to tell their stories. Stories connect us, encourage us, and inspire us.
3. Listen, inspect and adapt. Just do the next right thing.
Q4. What/Who has been your biggest inspiration in recent times and kept you going fighting all the odds?
Melissa: The creativity, connection, and belief that our team has in the greater good. These are mission driven people who truly care about each other and the world they are serving. We are a tiny but mighty team, serving a global community in a worldwide pandemic, and our little group just keeps looking for how they can help. It may sound trite, There’s something about it that inspires me as a leader to continually keep striving to be worthy of that magic.
Q5. You have mentioned about viewing the opportunities through different lenses to spark creativity. Can you share an example of how it can be done?
Melissa: As an organization, we are built in a very different way. We do not have traditional departments or management layers. Instead, we have truly cross-functional teams that focus on the different junctures in the agile journey. We recognize that the agile practitioner of several years has different needs than the brand new person, as does the agile leader. These customer-centric lenses provide a much different perspective than the traditional departments focused on marketing, IT, etc. We’ve seen incredibly creative solutions come out of these teams as a result of their focus.
Q6. As a leader of an organisation, is the process of finding the right people the same for you post pandemic? If not, what changes are done to ensure you have the right people hired?
Meissa: We were fortunate to have a mostly full staff before the pandemic hit, so we have not had to seek out new hires just yet. We already had a fairly robust and very custom hiring process prior to the pandemic. It is very interactive in nature, so it will definitely require some adaptation if we need to do it remotely. The pandemic has changed our perspective far less than our continued journey of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The many conversations in our community and worldwide have helped us to see ways in which we can help our team to be representative of the community that we support.
Q7. One tip to keep work life balance in current business environment.
Melissa: Boundaries. Recognizing that mental space for either work or life requires boundaries. Sometimes rituals help us to keep those boundaries defined, things that help us set our intention or clear our mind from one task to the next. Those rituals can be meditation, a walk or run, listening to specific music… whatever works for you to help your brain shift contexts can help maintain those boundaries.
As Co-CEO and Chief ScrumMaster for Scrum Alliance, Melissa Boggs blends creativity and strategy to make bold moves in service to her colleagues and community. She leads with intuition, data, and vulnerability in pursuit of joyful, prosperous, sustainable workplaces for her own organization and the world at large.
Since 2001, Melissa has embraced experiences in leadership, business, and product development. Her experience with applying, consulting, coaching, and training agile values and principles spans executive teams, software teams, marketers, and educators in domains such as healthcare, public education, e-learning, security software, government agencies, and communication technology. As a consultant and as an executive, she has consistently embodied the Scrum values, and additionally holds dear her personal values of Courage, Empathy, and Creativity.