Podcast Summary

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Episode: Maximizing Human Potential as the Measure of Success | Alidad Hamidi

Host: Vasco Duarte (A)
Guest: Alidad Hamidi (B)
Date: November 13, 2025

Overview

This episode delves into the central question of how to define and measure success in Agile teams and organizations, with a particular focus on maximizing human potential. Host Vasco Duarte engages organizational design and strategy advisor Alidad Hamidi in a rich discussion, exploring practical retrospective techniques and deeply reflective definitions of what success means for Agile practitioners and their teams.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Retrospective Formats—Focusing on Systemic Improvement

• Alidad’s Approach:

  • Views retrospectives as essential moments for candid reflection, bridging perceived actions and actual outcomes.
  • Doesn't advocate for a single “favorite” retrospective format, instead favoring context-driven selection.

• Highlight: The Six Intrinsic Motivators Retrospective

  • Drawn from open systems theory, this exercise asks team members to self-assess across six dimensions of motivation, followed by a group conversation to understand and balance differences.
    • First Three – Personal Focus:
      1. Autonomy in Decision-Making: “Minus 10 is I have no autonomy, plus 10, I have too much... autonomy for me is different to autonomy for you.” (B, 03:09)
      2. Continuous Learning/Feedback: Balances receiving enough feedback without being overwhelmed.
      3. Variety in Work: Assesses whether workload is too monotonous or overly scattered; again, deeply personal.
    • Last Three – Team/Environmental Focus:
      4. Mutual Support and Respect: “You can’t have too much of it... Do I see enough respect in my team?” (B, 04:33) 5. Meaningfulness: Including both “socially useful” and “seeing the whole product.” Hamidi challenges the existence of QA-only teams: “That’s an anti-pattern. There shouldn’t be anything called ‘quality assurance team’ in the first place.” (B, 05:01) 6. Desirable Futures: “Am I stuck in a dead end job? Or do I see development in the future for me?” (B, 05:26)

• Practical Application:

  • Recommended periodicity: Every 3–6 months.
  • Helps surface hidden dynamics and prompts open, constructive dialogue.

Defining and Measuring Success for Agile Coaches

• Challenge in Measuring Success:

  • Especially as an enterprise coach, tangible results may not appear during one’s tenure.
  • Hamidi refers to the “planting seeds” metaphor: “I did this and I planted this seed but I will never see the tree grow...” (B, 07:10)

• Success = Maximizing Human Potential:

  • The key measure: “Does my work lead into maximizing human potential?... the ability of the human to use their potential and freedom.” (B, 07:39)
  • Emphasizes outcome over output: Prefer “creation” over “delivery”—critical of “feature factory” mentality.

• Four Lighthouses for Success:

  1. Customer Value:
     • “Is the team actually creating the value? Are the customers happy with the teams?” (B, 08:12)
  2. Well-being & Psychological Safety in Teams:
     • “Is the team a healthy team? Do they have the psychological safety... is it trust? Is there innovation happening?” (B, 08:27)
  3. Growth (Team & Organization):
     • “Is the team growing? And when I use the term team, I want to expand that to the organization, not just a team.” (B, 08:44)
  4. Business Sustainability:
     • Sustainability is vital. “You can do all the digital transformation etc., but... give them free money. Customers are very happy. But I don’t think you can stay in that business for a long time.” (B, 09:11)
  • Stresses balancing these areas and maintaining awareness of trade-offs in different contexts.

Approach to Team Roles & Anti-patterns

• Inclusivity in Team Dynamics:
  • Product Owners are “part of the team... not the special role, it’s just, I’m one of the team members.” (B, 03:59)
• Critique of Siloed QA Roles:
  • Strongly asserts that separating QA into its own team undercuts both quality and holistic team engagement.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Retrospective and to a large degree Agile and agility—it’s about understanding the reality around us and being able to reflect on our action.” (B, 01:39)
• On the Six Intrinsic Motivators: “There are more, but these six are the minimum, the basic. If these six elements don’t exist in the team, you can never have productive human teams.” (B, 05:54)
• “I struggle to define my success, particularly as an agile coach... If you tie your success to the success of individuals or teams, you will struggle unless you have that capacity within you that you can see a much longer time span.” (B, 06:54)
• “If these three things [customer value, team health, organizational growth] are improving, we’re doing something meaningful. If they are not improving... there’s always a balance. Sometimes one grows more than the other, and that’s okay, as long as you have the awareness of why.” (B, 09:45)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:22] — Welcome and opening question on retrospective formats.
• [01:36–06:11] — In-depth explanation of the Six Intrinsic Motivators retrospective.
• [06:45–10:06] — Exploring how to define success as an Agile coach; maximizing human potential; key success indicators.
• [10:06–10:15] — Summarizing “lighthouses” for measuring effectiveness in Agile work.

Final Takeaways

• Retrospectives are not “one size fits all”—choose and adapt formats to context and evolving team needs.
• Encouraging teams to explore intrinsic motivators fosters openness, autonomy, and alignment.
• Success for Agile practitioners transcends velocity or delivery—it’s about lasting impact on people, teams, and organizations.
• True agility requires balancing value creation, team health, growth, and business viability.

This summary distills the heart of the episode, empowering you with both practical tools and philosophical perspectives for deepening your Agile practice and team success.