Podcast Summary

Podcast: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches
Episode: The Language Test That Reveals True Team Ownership | Mohini Kissoon
Date: January 15, 2026
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Mohini Kissoon

Overview

This episode focuses on defining and recognizing true team ownership in Agile teams, particularly through the lens of language and behavior. Mohini Kissoon, an experienced Scrum Master, shares her favorite retrospective technique—the timeline format—and discusses how she measures her own success in the role. The conversation offers actionable insights on fostering psychological safety, promoting constructive conflict, and diagnosing team ownership through subtle language cues.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mohini’s Favorite Retrospective Format: The Timeline

• Purpose:
  To slow down the team's thinking, reflect on the recent period, and build a shared understanding before identifying action items.
• How It Works:
  • Draw a timeline on a whiteboard (physical or virtual).
  • Team members use sticky notes to record significant events (good, bad, confusing, or stressful) from the sprint or review period.
  • This process is done silently at first to avoid influencing each other.
  • The team then discusses the timeline chronologically, sharing stories and perspectives.
• Benefits:
  • Builds shared understanding and empathy.
  • Uncovers different perspectives on the same event.
  • Highlights both achievements and challenges, counteracting negativity bias.
• Memorable Quote:

  “What makes this format powerful is that it creates that shared understanding before asking for solutions...You see those patterns emerging that nobody saw on their own.”
  (Mohini Kissoon, 03:08)

[01:47–06:05]

• Caveat:
  The timeline can feel overwhelming, especially for longer periods or major projects.
• Facilitation Tip:
  Instead of jumping straight from reflection to action items, encourage the team to identify and vote on key patterns before deriving concrete next steps.

  “That bridge is in terms of getting them to have a look at the board and try to identify patterns and then to vote for the ones that they would like to discuss and elaborate more on.”
  (Mohini Kissoon, 05:13)

2. Defining Scrum Master Success

Mohini outlines three areas she looks at to measure her own success:

• A. Team Ownership and Initiative

  • Teams that take responsibility for their processes, Scrum events, and challenge each other constructively without the Scrum Master’s constant facilitation.
  • True ownership revealed when the team initiates discussions, problem-solving, and retrospectives rather than waiting for prompts.

  “If I see my team taking ownership of their work, taking ownership of the Scrum events, asking questions, challenging each other constructively without waiting for me to be asking those questions, I think that’s something which I’m very proud of.”
  (Mohini Kissoon, 06:40)

• B. Measurable Improvement

  • Use of metrics to demonstrate progress and improvement over time, both for team visibility and communicating value to leadership.

• C. Psychological Safety and Innovation

  • Fostering an environment where team members feel safe to disagree, have healthy conflict, and innovate.
  • Healthy conflict creates energy for innovation, but must remain constructive.

  “There’s no innovation without that energy—that energy that comes from conflict—that ultimately is then channeled, turned into a positive source of energy.”
  (Vasco Duarte, 08:53)

[06:36–09:38]

3. The “Language Test” for Team Ownership

• The Subtle Shift:
  Mohini emphasizes monitoring how teams refer to goals and responsibilities.
  • Pre-ownership language: “the sprint goal,” “their goal.”
  • Ownership language: “our sprint goal,” “our delivery.”
• Why It Matters:
  • This linguistic shift reflects deeper psychological change—a sense of belonging and accountability.
  • Easy to observe, often overlooked but highly telling of team maturity and cohesion.
• Quote:

  “Instead of saying ‘their sprint goal,’ they would say things like ‘our sprint goal.’ So it’s still that sense of ownership and how they understand the different concepts...and the language that they’re using.”
  (Mohini Kissoon, 09:45)

[09:38–10:49]

• Host’s Commentary:
  Vasco highlights the simplicity and power of this observation, suggesting it’s a valuable flag (positive or negative) for all Scrum Masters.

  “It’s such an easy thing to look at, but it’s so often missed—the type of words, the type of constructions that they choose to use...That shows that level of ownership.”
  (Vasco Duarte, 10:17)

Notable Quotes

• “What makes this format powerful is that it creates that shared understanding before asking for solutions … You see those patterns emerging that nobody saw on their own.”
  – Mohini Kissoon [03:08]
• “That bridge is in terms of getting them to have a look at the board and try to identify patterns and then to vote for the ones they would like to discuss and elaborate more on.”
  – Mohini Kissoon [05:13]
• “If I see my team taking ownership of their work ... I think that's something which I’m very proud of.”
  – Mohini Kissoon [06:40]
• “There’s no innovation without that energy—that energy that comes from conflict—that ultimately is then channeled, turned into a positive source of energy.”
  – Vasco Duarte [08:53]
• “Instead of saying ‘their sprint goal,’ they would say things like ‘our sprint goal.’ ...That sense of ownership and how they understand the different concepts.”
  – Mohini Kissoon [09:45]
• “It’s such an easy thing to look at, but it’s so often missed—the type of words ... That shows that level of ownership.”
  – Vasco Duarte [10:17]

Important Timestamps

• 01:47–06:05 — Timeline Retrospective Deep Dive & Facilitation Tips
• 06:36–09:38 — Mohini's Criteria for Scrum Master Success
• 09:38–10:49 — The Language Test for Team Ownership

Episode Tone

The conversation is practical, reflective, and supportive—rich with real-life examples and grounded advice. Mohini communicates with empathy and humility, emphasizing learning, team well-being, and creating psychological safety. Vasco brings energy and thoughtful reinforcement, highlighting subtle insights and inviting listeners to notice the less obvious signs of team maturity.

Takeaways for Listeners

• Experiment with the timeline retrospective to build empathy and shared understanding before jumping into action items.
• Observe team language for subtle shifts from "their" to "our"—a key indicator of psychological ownership and maturity.
• Foster psychological safety to enable healthy conflict and innovation.
• Use metrics judiciously to demonstrate improvement, but don’t overlook the qualitative signals of team health.
• Team ownership is best measured not by absence of problems, but by presence of initiative, constructive challenge, and shared language.