The lights go out. You wave your arms wildly. The light returns. It’s those darn motion sensing lights. You must’ve stayed late again. You look around. Weird. Kevin is still here. Maybe it’s not as late as you thought. He’s not moving. You call out to him.
“Kevin! Hey, man, you still breathing?” You ask.
“Yeah, still here,” comes Kevin’s voice.
But he doesn’t bother turning around. You can’t even say for sure that voice came from Kevin.
“Hey, man! I need to commit this story to close out the sprint. Can I get a code review?” You ask timidly as the fluorescent bulb above Kevin flickers.
“AaaAAARRGGGHHH!” Comes a cry as Kevin’s body reanimates.
He rises slowly and jerkily to his feet. His steps are choppy and his shoes scrape the floor as he turns and shambles to your desk.
“Is this it?” He asks through a yawn.
How to Spot a Zombie
Let’s talk about zombies. Specifically, Zombie Scrum. We can also talk about zombies, but you’ll need to message me directly. That’s far too important a subject to tackle here. Speaking of tackling zombies, I’m not going to be able to do any better than Barry Overeem’s article on it over at Scrum.org. Honestly, it’s a great article. Do yourself a favor and go read it if you haven’t already. Simply put, Zombie Scrum is when Scrum appears to be present, but there isn’t any life. A working increment isn’t being generated every sprint, a spirit of continuous improvement is not present, and no one cares. That’s the real issue. It’s that apathy that is really the cause.
Silent quitting is a real hot button issue in the news lately. The idea of silent quitting is that people do only the bare minimum requirements of their role and no more. It’s hallmarked by people who sign off at 5 sharp, leave meetings right at the scheduled end time, and deliver on requirements to the letter and no more. Honestly, sounds a lot like a healthy team to me. Personally, I think it’s unfortunate that we call this “quitting.” I think a person standing up for themselves and not going above and beyond what they are expected to do, presumably to focus that energy on other more important aspects of their lives is courageous and laudable, but I digress. Maybe I’ll do a post on that later. Let’s again get to the root of the issue. It’s apathy. If a person is not motivated to give more or do more, then who is to blame? As a rule, I blame the organization. How are we motivating our teams. Are we motivating our teams? If it isn’t working, do we throw blame, or do we talk to them about it and try something else?
Reanimating The Dead
A meta-analysis by Tim Judge published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior found that people are not really motivated by money. In fact, how much a person is satisfied earning has very little to do with their salary. But, money tends to be the carrot we always use to try and breathe life back into these shambling corpses, if anything. We offer bonuses, raises, and promotions to keep great talent that has made the decision to quit outright, or just stop putting in extra. It’s a lot like trying to bring a zombie back to life with a defibrillator. It’s just a waste of energy.
Hope is not lost, however. There is a cure for zombism. There are ways to breathe life back into a team. Start by re-building their trust. I know a lot of promising teams who have died on the vine because their cries for help, calls to action, and excellent suggestions were met with apathy that they soon adopted or outright hostility. A safe space for creative thought and consideration are the breath of life for a group of creative minds. Ways you can do this range from simply hearing the team and showing interest in their ideas to acting on their ideas and showing them that their contributions are valued. Rebuilding trust is not an overnight process, and trauma from past experiences will cause your teams to react at first. Just be patient, and take heart in small wins. Eventually, trust will return.
Another way to help reanimate a dead team is to give them what they crave. Something they can sink their teeth into. Braaains! Actually, maybe just something to stimulate their braaains. Creative knowledge workers don’t do well with the mundane. Spice things up a bit. Let them lead you. Your teams likely have plenty of ideas on how to improve. Give them ample opportunity to voice and act on their ideas, and you will see the team begin to come back to life. These things are deceptively difficult, but the alternative is far spookier.
How to Make Things Worse
Finally, there is one thing you absolutely should not do if your team is lagging. That is getting rid of the Scrum Masters. I don’t know why, but this seems to be a troubling yet prevalent habit. Scrum masters may need training, coaching, or replacement, but not having scrum masters, flow masters, or someone there to facilitate, the team will inevitably lead to dysfunction. I often tell my teams that when we begin creating workarounds for problems, they normalize, and that’s where we create dysfunction in the system. Scrum masters and scrum master analogs are like the antibodies for that. They are also a great touchpoint for trying to revive a team. Any scrum master worth their salt, if questioned about their team’s vitality, should be an unstoppable deluge of thoughts and ideas.
So, if you have a zombie on your hands, do what I do. Sit them down. Show them this is a safe place. Try to understand their needs and desires. Wherever possible, accommodate them. They might just reciprocate. After all, zombies are people, too.