Podcast Summary: Why Teams Hate Agile (And How to Change That)

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast
Host: Vasco Duarte (B)
Guest: Carmela Then (C)
Date: January 8, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores the root causes of "Agile fatigue"—when teams grow resistant or openly hostile to Agile frameworks. Carmela Then shares her personal experience of joining a team disillusioned by Agile, detailing practical steps she took to restore trust, foster genuine collaboration, and move the team from task-driven burnout to value-driven engagement. The episode is full of actionable insights and real-world strategies for Scrum Masters facing similar resistance.

Key Discussion Points

1. Favorite Retrospective Format: The Emotional Seismograph

[01:23 – 04:03]

• Description: Carmela shares her preferred retrospective tool, the "emotional seismograph," which visually tracks the emotional highs and lows of each team member throughout a sprint.

  • "It looks like a graph from the beginning, day one of the sprint to the last day... happy at the top, sad at the bottom. Team members draw on the graph how they feel day by day." —Carmela Then [01:54]
  • Triggers conversations about team well-being without focusing solely on failures.
  • Helps surface emotional pain points or moments of satisfaction, stimulating discussion about underlying causes.

• Benefits:

  • Quick pulse-check on team morale.
  • Offers non-threatening way to address issues leading to stress or unhappiness.
  • Linking mood trends to productivity:
    • "When the team is having a positive experience throughout the workday, they're actually more productive than being stressed and being unhappy. Stress is the silent killer." —Carmela Then [03:23]

2. Investigating Emotional Peaks and Valleys

[04:03 – 05:48]

• Practice: After plotting feelings, Carmela asks team members to write Post-Its at points of significant happiness or sadness.
  • Group Post-Its to identify common themes.
  • Discuss both what led to positive moments (so they can be repeated) and negative ones (so they can be addressed).
  • Supports targeted continuous improvement:
    • "Even if it's that little small happiness… we can get data from here. So that becomes the continuous improvement plan." —Carmela Then [05:28]

3. Redefining Scrum Master Success

[06:01 – 07:45]

• Carmela's Evolution: Previously, she focused on quantifiable metrics like cycle time. Her current definition prioritizes team advocacy, morale, and a genuine embrace of Agile principles—not just processes.

  • "Now, I would actually say the advocacy of Agile and Scrum." —Carmela Then [06:16]

• Key Story: Carmela recounts joining a "burned out" Agile team as a trusted business analyst and later, Scrum Master.

  • Previous Scrum Master was micro-managing, rigidly process-driven.
  • Team was drowning in work, plagued by bugs, and saw Agile as a burden.
  • User stories were broken down into granular, disconnected tasks (e.g., one story for dev, a separate story for testing).
  • Lack of ownership and end-to-end visibility—no one knew what was truly delivered or its quality.

4. Rebuilding Trust & Team Engagement

[07:45 – 13:10]

• Carmela’s Approach:

  • Came in as a "friendly" figure, open to hearing frustrations.
  • Let the Product Owner vent about hating Agile:
    • "One day the product owner just wanted to talk about how much he hated Agile. I just let him rant. And for some reason after that, things started to take a turn." —Carmela Then [09:35]
  • Focused on breaking stories/features in a way that created traceability, shared understanding, and preserved the big picture.
    • Helped the product owner and team see how stories fit into an end-to-end product vision.
    • Team began to work in meaningful increments instead of disparate tasks.
  • Improved visibility and created end-to-end documentation, fostering collaboration between devs, QA, and the business.
    • "Show the team how we could grab one section and build it as a story, and grab another section—so they could start to build section by section." —Carmela Then [10:34]
  • Gave the Product Owner true prioritization responsibility, building team ownership.

• Host's Perspective:

  • Vasco notes that the team was “faking” Agile—following ceremonies and frameworks but missing the point of collaboration and value delivery.
    • "They were following all these Agile frameworks, but without living Agile." —Vasco Duarte [11:11]
  • Carmela agrees, emphasizing the need for shared understanding of the product, not just managing a list of tasks.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Stress is the silent killer... If we could lift the spirit up a little bit, have less of the sad or angry days—the team's actually more productive, healthier, and everything good is going to go with it."
  —Carmela Then [03:23]

• "I actually don't know exactly what I did... but I came in waving the flag of 'I'm new here, I have no idea about your industry, but I'm a great business analyst, I could help you figure things out.'"
  —Carmela Then [08:45]

• "They were just delivering tasks instead of delivering value from an end user perspective."
  —Vasco Duarte [12:55]

• “Now, I would actually say the advocacy of Agile and Scrum.”
  —Carmela Then [06:16]

Key Insights and Takeaways

• Team emotional health is key to sustainable productivity.
• Retrospectives that explore emotion (not just facts) are powerful intervention tools.
• The success of a Scrum Master is not found in velocity, but in nurturing true Agile mindsets and advocacy.
• Agile resistance often results from process over people—when the "why" is lost, ceremonies become rote, and burnout is inevitable.
• Patience, empathy, and re-centering on team value delivery (instead of tasks) can turn even the most fatigued teams around.
• Sometimes stepping outside the "expert" role, being a listener, and inviting honest venting creates room for genuine change.

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:23] – Carmela introduces the emotional seismograph retrospective.
• [04:03] – Methods for discussing emotional peaks and valleys.
• [06:01] – Carmela’s current definition of Scrum Master success.
• [09:35] – Letting the Product Owner vent; start of team buy-in shift.
• [10:34] – Building shared understanding, moving from tasks to value.
• [11:11] – Discussion on “faking” Agile vs. living Agility.

Conclusion

This episode is a practical case study for Scrum Masters wrestling with team disengagement or skepticism toward Agile. Carmela Then’s open, human-centric approach shows that meaningful change is possible—if you start by listening, focus on emotions, and steer the team back toward delivering real value together.

Recommended for:
Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, Product Owners, and anyone facing “Agile fatigue” in their teams.