Receiving Feedback When Implementing Scrum

Receiving Feedback When Implementing Scrum In Your Organization

In my weekly Saturday morning emails about Implementing Scrum in the real world, one of the topics I occasionally review with my subscribers revolves around giving and receiving feedback when you are on a Scrum Team.

Scrum allows for this to happen in each of the four Scrum events (all contained within the Sprint):

1. Sprint Planning

2. Daily Scrum

3. Sprint Review

4. Sprint Retrospective.

During my CSM (Certified Scrum Master) Training, attendees learn how to both give and receive feedback.

And.

There is a LOT of information out there about doing this effectively (the Scrum cartoon above is a great example of what NOT to do [smile]).

This post does not dig into all of those different techniques.

This post is about leaning into two very important words then receiving feedback.

The two words are:

Thank You

Simple. Powerful.

One of the most powerful complete sentences — besides “No.” — that is uber powerful when receiving feedback includes just these two words:

“Thank You.”

And.

That’s it!

Receiving Feedback: Some Additional Context

While Scrum is an awesome framework to use when both giving and receiving feedback, it does not mean your Scrum Team needs to act on (or react to) every single feedback item given to you.

Really.

And.

This is not about being passive aggressive (so — make sure you SET THE CONTEXT when you use this technique… ask me how I know it can come off this way [oops]).

Why do I recommend just saying, “Thank You”?

Let’s say you and your Scrum Team create an awesome new feature that benefits both your customers and end users.

You think it’s awesome.

Then, someone drops a bombshell on your new exciting feature.

They are basically saying, “Your baby is ugly.”

Note: In real life, there are NO ugly babies!

And.

You might want to get defensive or even try to justify why this is so awesome to you and the Scrum Team (see the second panel of the Scrum Cartoon above).

This.

Is.

Hard.

In fact, when I am facilitating exercises in receiving feedback, I hold up a big piece of paper (or put that in Zoom while on camera, because, you know, that’s reality today!) that says:

“THANK YOU.”

This is a skill to learn.

And practice.

When I do this, there are always some laughs (sometimes uncomfortably so) the first few times feedback is being received.

Funny (#NotSoFunny) thing is that this helps both the giver and receiver let down their guard, start getting really honest (like a high performing team should be!), and learn a powerful technique for the Scrum Team to use together in the future.

This technique is super helpful — and super simple (not easy) — to use when Implementing Scrum.

It can help you and your Scrum Team gain back their voice.

It works.

Try it!

What Next?

Capture the feedback you have received (after you have said, “Thank You”).

Remember, getting feedback — through conversations with your customers, end users, and stakeholders — in any of the Scrum Events is a gift.

Use it. Or Not.

Apply the technique of just saying, “Thank you” when receiving feedback during any of the Scrum Events.

Hint: This might be a good time for your Product Owner and the Scrum Team to help refine a Product Backlog Item (or user story) during Product Backlog Refinement when Implementing Scrum.

Contact me (with feedback) or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss this more together.

Thank you.

Also, check out AgileMentoring.com while you are here; it’s a great community of practitioners from around the world who are figuring things out together!

One final thing…

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?

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