The Courage to Question—Signs of a Healthy Agile Team| Simina Fodor

Summary

Podcast Summary: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast – "The Courage to Question—Signs of a Healthy Agile Team" with Simina Fodor

Release Date: May 15, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte engages in an insightful conversation with Simina Fodor, an experienced Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Master. The discussion delves into the intricacies of fostering healthy Agile teams, defining success for Scrum Masters, and recognizing the signs of team autonomy and self-management.

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Favorite Retrospective Formats

Vasco Duarte opens the conversation by asking Simina about her preferred retrospective format. Simina candidly shares her surprising choice:

"It's going to come off a little bit of a surprise. It's a really easy one. It's the start, stop, continue version of a retro."
[01:30] Simina Fodor

Simina emphasizes the simplicity and effectiveness of the "Start, Stop, Continue" format. She recounts her experimentation with various retrospective styles, ultimately concluding that straightforward approaches often yield the best results. According to her:

"Sometimes simplicity is best... it just focuses on what's really important. It's basically actionable change."
[02:05] Simina Fodor

This format, she notes, eliminates unnecessary complexity, allowing teams to concentrate on meaningful improvements without the distraction of elaborate facilitation techniques.

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Defining Success as a Scrum Master

The conversation shifts to a pivotal topic: what constitutes success for a Scrum Master. Simina offers a thought-provoking perspective:

"For me personally, what success like looks to me is the fact that I know that I can step away one week or maybe several days to go on a vacation. And the team that I work with is still doing the things like they're still doing retrospectives, they still feel comfortable enough..."
[03:11] Simina Fodor

She challenges the traditional notion that Scrum Masters must be omnipresent:

"...Scrum Master role is so much more than that. So they're not the meeting scheduler, they're so much more than a facilitator."
[03:11] Simina Fodor

Simina defines success by the team's ability to operate independently in her absence. The key indicators include:

• Continuous Retrospectives: The team persistently engages in retrospectives without prompting.
• Psychological Safety: Members feel safe to voice concerns and propose solutions.
• Self-Management: Teams handle their workflows and problem-solving autonomously.

"Do they know how to do the things without the Scrum Master? But I think that's the ultimate goal."
[04:58] Simina Fodor

This perspective underscores the Scrum Master's role in empowering rather than micromanaging the team.

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Building Successful Teams: Signs of Progress

Vasco and Simina further explore the indicators of a team's progression towards self-sufficiency. Simina highlights the importance of psychological safety and open communication:

"Do they feel comfortable enough speaking things that are out of order... anything that they might see as a concern and an item to bring to the table, do they feel comfortable enough doing that?"
[06:15] Simina Fodor

She also stresses the necessity for teams to question and collaborate effectively with other roles, particularly the Product Owner:

"Do they feel comfortable enough to maybe give the product owner a different perspective?... or something related to a user flow journey."
[06:50] Simina Fodor

These behaviors indicate a mature and healthy team that prioritizes continuous improvement and collaborative problem-solving.

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Behaviors Indicative of Team Growth and Autonomy

Assessing a team's autonomy and growth, Simina identifies specific behaviors that reflect their maturity:

1. Early Identification of Dependencies:

   "The way that I see maturity in this team is raising dependencies early on in the sprint, not waiting until the end of the sprint to raise a dependency."
   [08:27] Simina Fodor

   Proactive communication about dependencies avoids last-minute hurdles and fosters smoother collaboration.

2. Effective Inter-Team Collaboration:

   "Teams that are not necessarily integrating their own code, they're relying on a DevOps team or an integration team having the courage to speak..."
   [08:27] Simina Fodor

   Successful teams engage openly with other teams, ensuring that cross-functional dependencies are managed transparently.

3. Delivery Focused on Incremental Value: Simina touches upon the importance of delivering a potentially shippable increment each sprint, highlighting how mature teams align their efforts with this Agile principle.

4. Adapting to Organizational Context:

   "...but it's not one size fits everyone and it depends on the organization and the team."
   [08:03] Simina Fodor

   She acknowledges that team behaviors may vary based on organizational dynamics, reinforcing the need for adaptable Agile practices.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Simina and Vasco reiterating the critical aspects of fostering healthy Agile teams:

• Empowerment Over Control: Scrum Masters should aim to create environments where teams thrive independently.
• Continuous Improvement: Regular retrospectives and open communication are vital for sustained growth.
• Proactive Collaboration: Early identification and management of dependencies facilitate smoother project execution.

Simina's insights provide a comprehensive framework for Scrum Masters seeking to evaluate and enhance their teams' Agile maturity. Her emphasis on psychological safety, self-management, and effective communication offers actionable strategies for cultivating resilient and autonomous Agile teams.

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Key Takeaways:

• Simplicity in Retrospectives: The "Start, Stop, Continue" format is effective for driving actionable change.
• Defining Success Personally: Success for Scrum Masters can be measured by the team's ability to function smoothly without constant oversight.
• Psychological Safety: Ensuring that team members feel safe to express concerns is foundational for a healthy Agile environment.
• Proactive Dependency Management: Identifying and addressing dependencies early in the sprint cycle enhances team autonomy.
• Adaptability: Agile practices should be tailored to fit the unique dynamics of each team and organization.

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By understanding and implementing these principles, Scrum Masters can significantly enhance their teams' performance and foster a culture of continuous improvement and self-sufficiency.

Transcript

[Fran]

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to make Agile work well? At the Global Agile Summit, we're bringing you real life first person stories of Agile succeeding out there in the real world that will inspire you to take action. Whether you're a leader, a product innovator, a developer, you. You'll hear practical insights from those who've done it. They'll be telling their own stories from the stage. I'll tell you more about this at the end of this episode. So stay back and listen to the full detailed description of what we have in store for you at the Global Agile Summit. But if you can't wait, you can go right now to globalagilesummit.com and check out our full schedule for now onto the episode. But I'll see you at the end of this episode with more details on the Global Agile Summit. Talk to you soon. Hello everybody.

[Host]

Welcome to our Success Thursday, the most important day of the week, of course, and this week we have with us Simina Fodor.

[Fran]

Hey, Simina, welcome back.

[Simina Fodor]

Hey everyone. Happy to be here.

[Host]

So, Thursday Success Thursday, and we'll talk about success for Scrum Masters in a minute. But before that, do share with us what's your favorite retrospective format and why?

[Simina Fodor]

Yeah, sure. So it's going to come of a little bit of a surprise. It's a really easy one. It's the start, stop, continue version of a retro. So throughout of time I've experimented with different formats. The fancy ones, the pretty ones, all basically all you can think about. But what I've learned is sometimes simplicity is best, sometimes. So the reason why I love this format so much, it basically cuts through all of the noise that you have with different formats and different facilitation techniques and it just focuses on what's really important. It's basically actionable change, like getting the things you want up to a typical retrospective and not having to facilitate to, I don't know, other type of techniques or formats or pretty visual things. So this is why it works for me. It's easy to implement, it's easy to follow and pair that with some good facilitation. Good old Scrum Master facilitation. You get the best results.

[Host]

Yeah, absolutely. Because the goal is really to support the conversation that we hope is already kind of implicitly happening within the team. Right. Kind of, you know, through corridor conversations or whatever complaints that happen every now and then and really help that come out and express it. First in understanding the problem and then of course in creating ideas for solutions.

[Simina Fodor]

Right, Yep.

[Host]

And of course Retrospectives are really important as I guess, a key tool for us in our toolbox because we want to be successful Scrum Masters. But before we can be successful, we need to define what that is. So, Simina, share with us, what does success mean for a Scrum Master, in your opinion?

[Simina Fodor]

Sure. Well, I don't believe there's a one size that fits everyone. So in the same sense, I don't believe that everyone may measure success the same way. But I'll tell you how I see things. So for a really long time, the way I thought about Scrum Masters and their success is that they have to be at the center of everything. Basically the whole world revolves around them. They have to be involved in every meeting and every discussion, basically anything that you can think of. But the way that I see things now is that the Scrum Master role is so much more than that. So they're not the meeting scheduler, they're so much more than a facilitator. And, and one of the things that matters more is that specific facilitation. Not necessarily how loud you speak in a meeting or the techniques that you're using, but what happens where you're not in that room and what happens to the team where you're basically stepping away for a few minutes or even maybe going in a vacation. So for me personally, what success like looks to me is the fact that I know that I can step away one week or maybe several days to go on a vacation. And the team that I work with is still doing the things like they're still doing retrospectives, they still feel comfortable enough, and I'm talking about that psychological safety to raise the things that are not working out, to raise their concerns. They're still inspecting, they're still adapting. They're basically doing all the things they would normally do if I'm there present with them, like day in and day out. So to answer your question, how would I measure success? Well, I measure it by what happens when I'm not physically presently there, when I'm on vacation or away, is the team still working without me? Because one of the most important principles when you're discussing about agile or Scrum in general is do you have self sustaining and self managing teams? So has the team gotten to a point where they no longer require the Scrum Master to be involved in every conversation, in every blocker that they're running into? Do they know how to do the things without the Scrum Master? But I think that's the ultimate goal. We all strive towards having teams that are self sustaining. So quickly answering your question, basically what happens when I'm not present at work? That's how I measure success.

[Host]

Of course. And you've already mentioned some of the things that you would like to see, right? Like they keep the ceremonies going, they feel safe, they still raise the topics, they have conversations around the issues or the blockers that they want to solve. Those are very important behaviors that happen once you leave the room when it comes to understanding our success. But before you leave the room and as you start building the team for success. Because at the end of the day, as Scrum Masters, we help teams succeed. So as you are building the team, what are the things you're looking for? What are the signs, the kind of patterns, the behaviors you're looking for that tell you, yeah, this is progressing?

[Simina Fodor]

Yeah, sure. Well, one of the most important things that I look for in terms of how the team is communicating and now they're interacting with each other is do they raise things, their concerns, and I'm talking about psychological safety. Do they feel comfortable enough speaking things that are out of order, whether that's something that maybe is related to certain processes, whether that's something related to things that we should be stopped doing, Basically anything that they might see as a concern and an item to bring to the table, do they feel comfortable enough doing that? And when I'm thinking about the interaction with the other roles from, from the Scrum and Agile from works in terms of interacting with the product owner, do they feel comfortable enough to maybe give the product owner a different perspective? Like maybe something isn't feasible from a technical standpoint, whether that may be a design error or something that was missed in terms of a user flow journey or anything in those lines. And I'm also thinking about the overall purpose of it all. Do they question the product owner? Maybe they didn't understand the vision. So I have seen situations in the past where I've had to work with product owners that maybe weren't that familiar with their products, they were new to the role, they wasn't necessarily that interested in showing the team the why behind decisions, like why are we doing a certain change, why are we introducing another logging form or anything in those lines. So these are just some of the things that I'm looking for. And of course we also have certain signals of dysfunction, things that you may notice when interacting with the team. And you know that something's not quite there, something's missing, something's off.

[Host]

When you think about, okay, so we want teams to be kind of self managing self sufficient, autonomous when it comes to collaboration with other teams. Right, like going beyond the team boundary, what are the behaviors you're looking for to assess if the team really is growing?

[Simina Fodor]

I'm thinking about dependencies here. So in the teams that I've worked with in the past, there were certain teams that had dependencies with other teams for just to give you an example, maybe persons of backend for an application. We're depending on other teams and the way that I see maturity in this team is raising dependencies early on in the sprint, not waiting until the end of the sprint to raise a dependency. If I'm thinking about specific interactions with other teams, such as maybe teams that are not necessarily integrating their own code, they're relying on a DevOps team or an integration team having the courage to speak, pick up and also discuss about planning and also discuss about certain steps, things that we may need to consider before those integrations. Although if we consider the actual principle that we have to have a potentially deliverable, a potentially shippable increment at the end of the sprint, we may notice anti patterns when it comes to the framework in some companies, but I guess it's not one size fits everyone and it depends on the organization and the team. So things that I may have noticed in the past maybe are not the same in other organizations. So I can just speak to my experience.

[Host]

Of course. And that's what we all do, right? Like we speak to our experience, but it's really important to also share like what are the things we're looking for? Because as we build this shared or community view of what success means for Scrum Masters, it's really important to have this, I guess we could call it 360 views of how teams perform. Because otherwise this is our focus, right? We work with teams all the time. We want teams to succeed. So we need to think about all the different directions. Simile, thank you very much for sharing all of those ideas with us.

[Simina Fodor]

Sure, my pleasure.

[Fran]

Hey Fran, thank you for staying here is all you need to know about the Global Agile Summit. If you've ever suffered or know people who are suffering from Agile fatigue, this event is for you. Agile Fatigue is that feeling that settles in when we can't really see a light at the end of the tunnel. We get discouraged. Especially when conversations revolve around the same old frameworks, the same old buzzwords and theories. We don't feel that energy anymore. Well, the Global Agile Summit is a different kind of event. We're bringing you real life first person stories of Agile succeeding out there in the real world that will inspire you to take action and transform the way you work. The Global Agile Summit will happen in Tallinn, Estonia May 18th. That's the workshop day. Then 19th and 20th, the conference day. And Tallinn, Estonia is one of the most innovative tech hubs in Europe. The Global Agile Summit is hosted together with Latitude 59, which is kind of a citywide celebration of software startups and groundbreaking ideas. And we'll have a shared ticket for you to attend those events as well. So who will be speaking? Well, we've got an incredible lineup of thought leaders in software and agile. For example, Clinton Keith, the person who wrote, literally wrote the book on game development with Scrum and is busy bringing Agile to the world of game development. You must check his session. The very famous and well known Jurgen Apello, author of Management 3.0, will be talking and exploring about AI's impact on leadership. We also have Goiko Adsic, who's taking an unconventional look at the product growth with his Lizard Optimization keynote. Other speakers include, for example, Sig Sven Dietz, who's challenging everything we know about software development by ditching, literally ditching contracts and estimates. Can you imagine his teams deliver software before their competitors are even done with a contract negotiation? How agile is that? But there's more. We'll cover engineering practices in our development developer track with talks on, for example AI assisted test driven development, developing products in minutes with a different approach to how we develop, configure, deploy platforms, and much more. We also have a product track where we cover cutting edge ideas around product discovery, delighting customers with product delight frameworks. We'll, we'll have a talk about that. And we also have an Agile business track where we will talk about, for example Open strategy, a very agile approach to managing organizations and delivering software faster to clients faster than you can even write a contract. Literally. I mean, I already told you about Svendeet's story is amazing. It definitely is a must see. I'm sure you'll be inspired and get a lot of ideas for your own software projects and software delivery. Now, whether you're a business leader, a product innovator or a developer, you'll definitely find value in our three focused tracks. That's Agile Business for those working with businesses and organizations, Agile Product for product managers, product owners and innovators, and Agile developer for the builders making agile work in practice. The coders, the testers, the designers, the producers, the Scrum masters, you name it. If you join, you will meet over 200 agile professionals from all over the world. People who just like you, want to grow, want to share, and want to learn. By challenging the ideas that don't work anymore at the Global Agile Summit, you'll get new connections, fresh ideas, and the energy to take your own Agile to the next level. And who knows, maybe even find your next career opportunity. So don't miss out. Check out the full program and grab your ticket [e-mail] I'm really looking forward to seeing you all in Tallinn, Estonia in May.

[Host]

I'll see you there.