Badass Unscripted - Getting Good At Mayhem

Badass Agile

Badass Unscripted - Getting Good At Mayhem

September 10, 2019

You know what we should teach more of? How to respond to mayhem - rapidly changing expectations in unstable conditions.

What I’ve found - and what’s helpful to communicate to clients - is that the first 3 sprints (literally, the first 6-8 weeks) are mayhem. On a new scrum team, or in new business/technical landscapes, there will always be challenges with insufficient information, assumptions, inadequate tools, unclear expectations, unfamiliar teammates and accountabilities….with firm deliverable dates. Overwhelm is inevitable, and therefore wholly expected.

But the alternative, which is happening more frequently, is to overplan the future (which is often futile). The only thing that works is getting comfortable with discomfort. Try, fail (aka ‘learn’), repeat. That’s how you improve, and eventually reduce mayhem - at least as much as is humanly possible.

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Toronto, ON

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