“5 Practical tips on how to solve conflicts in your teams”
“Conflict Resolution Skills as a Scrum Master”
A Scrum Master is a process coach, facilitator, agile guide, a leader who serves, and a lot more things. But one of the things which the teams and the recruiters look for in a Scrum Master is conflict moderation/resolution skills.
Teams that work together at times may have discussions and disagreements. And this might impact the team spirit and productivity. As a Scrum Master, this is where we help out the team and guide them well. But for that to happen, we need to be equipped with the right thoughts, tools, and mindset.
The below 5 are in my opinion very helpful in understanding your team a bit better. As a result, you can resolve/moderate conflicts better as well.
1. Understand the personalities in the team
It is essential as a Scrum Master to understand the people in your team and their personalities. We need to understand that it is not the specific people who act a certain way, but their personality type guides their behavior.
If you have not tried personality tests for yourself do check it out and I hope that this makes you understand yourself a bit better. There are some sites like the 16 personalities test which give you a good insight into this aspect. You can also check out DISC or the color tests.
The personality tests give you an idea of the personality traits and help you understand the discussions from the people’s point of view. If you do the personality tests with your teams you are better equipped to deal with arguments or even pre-empt as you know what would rustle the feathers in the team.
2. Identify the value drivers for the people in the team
In a Scrum team, you have a mixed bag of personalities. For each of the team members, there are different value drivers and things that keep them motivated enough to bring their best to the team.
If you understand those drivers it always becomes easier to motivate the team members in their journeys. There is a wonderful book on this called “ Surrounded by idiots”. The book talks about how character traits are representatives of four-color energies. The book also talks about the value drivers for the different colors. If you understand what drives people better you can also understand why conflicts emerge better.
A guy in my team with a strong personality (Red- Not afraid of conflicts, aggressive and determined ) and amazing technical skills had frequent disagreements in the team. We sorted out the differences in the team. But he was still de-motivated in the retrospectives and that is when we (he and I) discussed the root cause of his frustration and worked on that. Within a span of 3 months, we could see a visible change in the team spirit and his own attitude in the team.
3. Have some guidance on roles
I am not sure if this is by the book but I have seen overall guidance on roles in the team having a positive impact on the people. There could be people in the team whose roles are not clear to them and that is when this comes in handy.
We had a solution architect as part of our team. He was often confused between where his responsibility ends and he should let the team take the decisions on the development. In his good intentions, he was at times micromanaging the team with his suggestions. We had a good session where I coached him on the expectations from his role in the team. The developers in the team also aligned with him about where the gaps were and it worked out much better.
4.Regular Connect/Unofficial Connect
Have a regular and unofficial connection with the people in your team. Set the tone of the meeting to try and understand them. These meetings are beneficial when you cannot see if they are going through a low phase by his/her body language.
Have those coffee calls and talk to them over the phone if they are not comfortable on the video. Ask them random questions and try to see if you can help them anyways. Try and understand their aspirations and frustrations.
Give them positive reinforcements. MS team has recently introduced the “Send a Praise” feature in the chat. Use that if you see anyone doing a good job right at the moment. Appreciate people without holding back. Everyone likes a little pat on the back for a job well done!
I used the MS teams' praise and some intermittent positive feedbacks with one of my teams when they were going through a hard Go -Live and it helped set the mood at the end of those long days. People started complimenting each other and understanding a bit more.
5. Never make it a blame situation
If you are giving constructive feedback make sure that you do not make it personal to that particular teammate. Have a fact-based and observation-based discussion. Avoid using terms like “ You did this” or “ Because of you” or “ the team thinks that you”. In these statements, it gives an impression that you are pinpointing to the individual for his actions rather than coaching him.
Guide them with a problem-solving mindset and also focus on what can we as a team learn from this. The bottom line is we all grow together and then only we make a strong team overall.
It is important to understand the different personalities in the team and move ahead of the official discussions only. As a Scrum Master, the most important thing that I have learned is to be patient, have an observant eye, and be the team’s safety net whenever possible.
What do you think? Do let me know in the comments.
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