Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Linda describes her own success as a Scrum Masters through the behaviors she wants to see in the teams she works with. We discuss what we need to do as Scrum Masters to enable those behaviors as well as the importance of asking questions. The goal: to help teams feel enthusiastic about their work! Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Creative thinking formats to spice up your retrospectives Linda prefers to use different formats in most retrospectives, and especially likes to use formats and exercises that encourage creative thinking by the team. These formats help the teams get out of “complaining” and focus on improvements. She describes some formats for us, and we refer to Story Cubes; The 4 L’s; Liberating Structures; 1-2-4-all and other formats you can use to spice up your retrospectives.  In this segment, we also refer to the Ecocycle planning workshop.  Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!   About ​​Linda van Sinten Linda van Sinten is an experienced Scrum Master and creator of the Liberating Structures Visual design cards. She combines her knowledge of Scrum with the powerful skill of creating visualizations and visual tools to drive teams forward. She has trained over 500 people in making powerful visuals out of ideas, structuring strategies and product visions in Tech, Healthcare and other industries.  You can link with ​​Linda van Sinten on LinkedIn.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Working with change is a lot about helping the organizations “see” what is going on, and helping them decide what they already want to change. In this episode, we discuss a specific technique that Linda used to bring insights, and visibility into the teams and their challenges, and how that technique helped kick-start a change that was necessary.  About ​​Linda van Sinten Linda van Sinten is an experienced Scrum Master and creator of the Liberating Structures Visual design cards. She combines her knowledge of Scrum with the powerful skill of creating visualizations and visual tools to drive teams forward. She has trained over 500 people in making powerful visuals out of ideas, structuring strategies and product visions in Tech, Healthcare and other industries.  You can link with ​​Linda van Sinten on LinkedIn.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this organization, the teams found themselves dependent on their managers or group leads. The culture was that the group leads would know the answer to everything. Additionally, all improvements were given to “improvement teams”, leaving the Scrum teams out of the improvement discussions. Listen in to learn how Linda and the rest of the Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters were able to turn this story around, and help the teams take an active role in the definition of their work! Featured Book of the Week: Dare to Lead by Brené Brown In Dare to Lead by Brené Brown, Linda learned a different way to lead. She learned that it is ok to not know the answer to every question, and it is necessary to give space to the others, to the teams we work with. She learned about inviting others to share to be vulnerable.  As Linda puts it: “if you always talk, you hear only what you already know!” How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she’s supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta! About ​​Linda van Sinten Linda van Sinten is an experienced Scrum Master and creator of the Liberating Structures Visual design cards. She combines her knowledge of Scrum with the powerful skill of creating visualizations and visual tools to drive teams forward. She has trained over 500 people in making powerful visuals out of ideas, structuring strategies and product visions in Tech, Healthcare and other industries.  You can link with ​​Linda van Sinten on LinkedIn.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. As Linda worked with multiple teams, she saw a pattern emerge. When she brought all her experience, and advice to teams that were new to Agile, the teams would invariably run away from here, or even tell her to step back. This helped Linda learn a very important lesson for Scrum Masters: we are there to help the team, not to help the team “do what we want them to do”. Listen in to learn what Linda went through, and how she works with Scrum teams now. About ​​Linda van Sinten Linda van Sinten is an experienced Scrum Master and creator of the Liberating Structures Visual design cards. She combines her knowledge of Scrum with the powerful skill of creating visualizations and visual tools to drive teams forward. She has trained over 500 people in making powerful visuals out of ideas, structuring strategies and product visions in Tech, Healthcare and other industries.  You can link with ​​Linda van Sinten on LinkedIn.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Developing great networks with stakeholders Great Product Owners know their product backlog back and forth, and develop great networks within the organization that help solve the critical problems, and answer questions for themselves and the teams they work with. This particular PO also made a point of being available for the team when the teams needed them, and met regularly with stakeholders 1-on-1.  In this segment, we talk about User Story Mapping, and Impact Mapping.  The Bad Product Owner: The many anti-patterns that develop when people are forced to take on the PO role This Product Owner did not want to take on that role, they were forced to take it, and acted mostly like a Backlog secretary. By stepping back due to other responsibilities, this PO left the team to their own devices, and was mostly absent when the team needed them.  And this was just the start, listen in to learn about the many anti-patterns that develop when people are forced to take on the PO role.  Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate. About Samet Ulutas Samet has been working as an Agile Coach for more than 3 years and coached 35+ different teams until now. Samet has plenty of experience dealing with difficulties of an Agile Transformation, including being to witness the Agile Transformation of the largest private bank in Turkey from the beginning. Samet is also the co-owner of "Be Agile Stay Agile" YouTube channel.  You can link with Samet Ulutas on LinkedIn and connect with Samet Ulutas on Twitter.