How Scrum increases collaborative efforts in your organization and why that makes your life easier

The very first change Scrum brings to the mindset of a team is with the introduction of equality. As the Scrum framework rejects the notion of hierarchy, it simultaneously emphasizes the importance of diversity of roles and skills within a team, as well as the value of collaborative and goal-oriented behavior. One of the basics of Scrum is daily Scrums. A daily Scrum is a 15-minute long team meeting to check up on progress, ask questions, or discuss impediments appearing in the working process. The idea of daily Scrums is to make sure that different disciplines align to reach mutually agreed upon goals as part of the collaborative effort. On top of that, daily Scrums help people get insights into the priorities of different disciplines or departments, allowing them to take these into consideration when planning work or dividing responsibilities to maintain alignment within a whole company, ensuring focus on its shared objectives.

In 2014, a Stanford study found that even the smallest perception of collaboration when working on a task can boost the performance of a company. The research participants were asked to work collectively, and the results indicated that the group worked on their task 64% longer than their peers, who worked individually. But the final results were even more exciting: people who were working in a team showed higher engagement rates, lower fatigue, and higher success rates. These outcomes remained for several weeks after the experiment. Researchers concluded that feeling like you’re part of a team motivates you to take on challenges.

This hasn’t been the only study on this subject in the last years. Most of the other studies also show the positive effects of collaboration and communication, especially in the corporate environment. But why choose Scrum as the framework for turning employees into team players?

Scrum also offers the principle of acting as the foundation and pillar of the overall technique. One of the foundations of Scrum is collaboration. Its core dimensions are consciousness, clarity, and diversion. Consciousness means that the people you work with need to know what others are doing. Articulation means that the collaborative nature divides the work into units. Units need to be split between team members and reintegrated after work is complete. Diversion is the adaptation of technology to a particular situation. This technology can be used in a very different way than the developers expected. Scrum work is about gathering with your teammates to discuss the deliverables and progress. The gathering can happen in daily Scrums, demo meetings, or certain scheduled sessions.

In case one team member doesn’t work as fast as others, the other teammates can come to help finish the task. Scrum work is about visualization: colorful stickers, Kanban boards, or other tools, all of which help an individual to have a better understanding of the team capacity, the deliverables, and roles. Everything that is being described here is a science that’s well worth mastering.

If all these points are properly implemented in the work of the Scrum team, you will find that the number of change requests is minimized, risk is reduced, and efficiency is improved. Socializing within an organization brings continuous improvement to the team’s voice.

While the topics mentioned in this article may sound like a whole new science, they are also the future of your company in this fast-changing world. That’s why Gladwell Academy provides trainings and support coaching to help you understand what Scrum is and how to implement it in your organization. Feel free to explore Scrum even more and check the upcoming trainings at Gladwell Academy.