Basketball Coach & Scrum Master: Same person, different roles | Part 1
We all take on different roles in our everyday lives: at work, at home, with friends. But have you ever thought about how these roles differ, and what similarities they share? How about different work settings, say, a basketball court and a company’s office?
Our first employee, Kimmo Muurinen, has been with us since the very beginning of Marvel Consulting. He has experience working in many different, interesting positions; he started as a professional basketball player, then moved on to coaching basketball, test automation, and being a Scrum Master. In this two-part blog series, Kimmo reflects on his experience in these different occupations with the help of four roles he has identified.
In this first part, Kimmo presents the first two roles: The Observer and The Inquirer.
Kimmo is a former professional basketball player and current basketball coach and Scrum Master.
Introduction: Same person, different roles
I like to think that we assume different roles or behaviours in different settings. For example, I act differently when I’m at home, out with friends, in a corporate work environment, or on the court coaching basketball.
My job as a coach and a Scrum Master is to help people learn new skills and maximize their potential. Every situation requires a unique approach and people respond differently to different types of interactions. Should I be relaxed, strict, involved or passive?
This text is an attempt to contemplate the differences and similarities of my experiences in coaching and Agile leadership, from the perspective of assuming a role suitable for the environment, and different ways to act within that role to get the best results.
The Observer: See before you act
The Observer assesses their surroundings in an attempt to analyze the situation before participating in a constructive manner, or to help select the correct approach to the ongoing situation.
I’m a cautious person, especially in a new environment. It often helps to start a new project by assuming the role of a silent observer. Assessing the status quo provides insights into what is being done now, relieves the pressure, and prevents pushing new processes to the team too early. To me, it also feels logical to analyze what is already running smoothly and what can be done better, and then later on suggest improvements. I remember doing this instinctively when I started coaching, even though my extensive career as a player left me with lots of knowledge. That knowledge does not immediately translate into being a good coach. What I consider to be easy and simple quite often isn’t for a junior player, and realizing that was one of the first lessons I learned when starting as a coach.
Observing before giving advice
The roles were reversed when my first Scrum Master project started. Even though I have been in many software development projects and teams before, I’m not a developer and don’t have deep technical knowledge. So my lesson here was to learn how to ask experts the right questions without knowing the technical details well. Also, as a rookie Scrum Master, I wanted to observe how agile methodologies were used in practice in my new team, and compare it with what my prior experience and certification studies had taught me. All teams apply Scrum differently, depending on the needs of the team and the project.
So the real challenge was how would I, as a new team member and a Scrum Master, guide established technical experts to be more efficient without knowing the personnel and existing processes, and what credentials did I have to convince them to make changes to their routines?
The Inquirer: Lead with questions, not answers
The inquirer does not push ideas to others but wants to pull them instead. This is the next step towards a more active participation from the observer, but still keeps things on the passive side.
I’m naturally a very active type of coach because of my player background. I want to play the game and be in the action. Sometimes, as a coach, I have to force myself to only ask questions. This helps me develop my listening skills, get to know my players, and understand their thought process for the decisions they make, and maybe even make them think a bit more deeply about those decisions and learn.
We teach players to react a certain way in different situations they face in games. This is so that everybody in the team knows our principles and can work together effectively. Asking why we are doing things a certain way is a question that tries to find out if the player understands our core principles. Why did you do this? Did you see this other option you had? Basketball is full of situations where players only have a split second to make a decision. The best players make the most effective decisions most of the time.
Learning to ask the right questions
As a Scrum Master, my challenge was to be a guide without being an expert in the subject matter. Asking the right questions at the right moment guides experts to be more efficient and productive. What helped me was falling back on Scrum principles of providing value and prioritizing.
What is our goal, and what takes us closer to that at this moment? What enables us now to be more efficient in achieving our goal later? What value does this provide compared to this other thing? These are the types of questions I have used to guide my teams. The most important thing for the team is to provide value to the stakeholders. Prioritizing our work helps us focus on the most valuable and urgent work items. But sometimes you have to look past the immediate checklist and listen to what the team needs to succeed. What is not the most efficient practice but feels comfortable to the team can be more sustainable and efficient in the long run. Ultimately, the team should take responsibility for the efficiency of their work.
Come back next week for the second part of Kimmo’s blog!
