Onboarding New Team Members When Implementing Scrum
Onboarding New Team Members
Be Intentional
Do you remember the day YOU started as “the new person” on your current team?
You and I have both been here before.
You get a new job / client / work assignment (or heck, even outside of work, this is all true).
Close your eyes and think back to “Day One” of a current team you are working with. Go ahead, I’ll wait until you open your eyes again.
[tap tap tap waiting for you to open your eyes — really… I want you to THINK about Day 1]
OK.
Your first day — which is different than “Day 0” [or the offer / finalization before you get officially started].
In the before times, we used to walk into an office. It could range anywhere from your own corner office suite (nice!) to a cube-farm (hell?) or an open co-located working space (wait, that could be hell for some people too).
These days, it’s hopping into a Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or WebEx [people still use this?] meeting. After meeting. After meeting.
Thus.
The questions about YOUR first day.
It’s a different experience for everyone. Always will be.
As a Scrum Master (or someone supporting an agile team), part of your responsibility is to make sure the environment is set up so that when a new person onboards to the Scrum Team, it’s a consistent and awesome onboarding experience.
Let’s assume for now that it’s a consistent and great experience.
What now?
The Bruce Tuckman Model
Every team is different.
It’s made of of people. Individuals with very strong skills that probably vary from one person to another. Good stuff.
While there are multiple “models” of team development out in the world, one of the techniques I teach new Scrum Masters (in my CSM Training) includes a discussion around the Tuckman Model.
And.
I have the cohort of attendees — remember, these are very different people and individuals — watch the following video together.
I’d like you to watch it now (tuckman.mvizdos.com). It’s just under five minutes and even if you don’t know the “story” of the “Fellowship of the Ring” it’s OK… you’ll still take something away. Trust me!
Possible NSFW: The say “AKA Kicking Ass” in the video captioning. Alas, I think I said “hell” above so if you got this far you should be OK to watch it!
Onboarding New Team Members
This is a great video of the Tuckman Model (by Agile Leadership). You can share tuckman.mvizdos.com as the link.
Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning
This concept of five “stages” of team development exists on all teams (groups of people working as a team instead of as individual hero performers).
Remember, the five stages of the Tuchman Model include:
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning.
As a Scrum Master — or leader of an Agile Team — this is something to be aware of and talked about in your team.
This also means that any time a team member changes, the team needs to hit the “reset” button and intentionally go back to the forming mode together.
Every. Single. Time.
This is important: Onboarding new team members needs to be intentional.
Really.
“Ugh, but Mike,” you may be thinking [or telling your cat or dog] and shaking your head in disagreement, “That’s going to take a lot of time and energy and focus away from doing REAL WORK.”
Yep.
Now, you can always hire an external consultant (such as myself [smile]) to come in and help you do this. I actually get hired a lot to do this, and love the challenge! For you though, it’s much less expensive to do this internally and own it as a team [eesh, can I do any more of an “anti-sell” lol??]. And. Your team (organization) will love you for doing this. If not, or if you need help, heck, contact me!
Or.
Wait until things are off the rails, watch your team blow up or implode, and then try again.
What’s that definition of insanity? (see Albert Einstein)
Being intentional about onboarding new team members is part of doing the important work to produce a high performing team.
Yeah.
You can do this.
Here is one example of how you can do this when Implementing Scrum
During your next Sprint Retrospective, watch the video above (tuckman.mvizdos.com) together.
Geek out a bit (seems like there will be at least a few people are into that “Fellowship of the Ring” series).
And.
Discuss who is the “Scrum Master” versus “Product Owner” versus “Developers” in the video.
Spoiler alert: It’s not necessary to all agree on the “correct” answer, that video is a metaphor that will spark conversations; you know, things that are important when creating the environment for high performing teams to exist.
So.
Go.
Do it.
What Next?
Let me know your thoughts on this topic (or want some help with onboarding new agile team members in your organization?).
Contact me (with feedback) or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss this more together.
One final thing while you are here:
Subscribe to my weekly Saturday morning emails about Implementing Scrum in the real world. And get an “every two week” check in from me too.
What could be better?
About the Author: Michael Vizdos
Hi. I sincerely appreciate you reading this article. My name is Michael Vizdos and I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of people on teams all around the world over the past 30+ years of my professional career.
You can read more about my background or contact me.
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