Honesty and Scrum

Are people honest and transparent?

Short answer: Not completely.




To digress… why are honesty and transparency important?


And because there is less to remember.


And, of course, as it has for centuries, honesty has a bad side, too. These days we use the phrase ‘too much information’ or ‘over-sharing’ or we wince when someone gives feedback harshly, or says something in an ‘awkward’ way when a ‘smoother’ way would have been just as effective.

Then we have to face life, and some of us find certain parts of life very discomforting. By this I mean by work-related things, and things only indirectly related to work.

Here are some general facts we must face:

  • our strengths and weaknesses
  • time is short
  • ‘all things must pass’
  • humans are a lot like primates
  • certain body functions (was that delicate enough for you)

I tease. Humans are primates and in so many ways, maybe for good or ill or both, we refuse to think of ourselves as animals. Weird.

There are plenty of roughly similar ‘hard to discuss’ topics at your work, but I won’t list those now.





The main points here are a few:

  3. Still, humans will never be completely honest — ever (I think).
  4. Sooner or later, you are gonna hear things you do not want (or need, in your opinion) to hear. We will tease ourselves with this quip: some things you can’t unhear.

The ScrumMasters, the team and others will forever be working to help people be more honest. Also, sometimes ‘less honest’ (about some things).





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2 thoughts on “Honesty and Scrum

    1. Joe Little Post author

      Hmmm. Probably yes. I whole lot of people think they understand Scrum, when in fact they do not. And a whole lot of people think they understand hockey and can ice skate some, but they are not Wayne Gretzky. So, very likely that you will learn by taking the course. But, yes, in theory you might not learn anything…I would rate the chances, based on what I usually see, as in the <1% range.
      Remember that not only are you learning 'facts'. You are learning HOW to explain it to other people, and get them to do it.
      Also, in theory you know it all already. But in practice you typically will have more influence on others, more street cred, if you have the CSM.

      One more point: What is really important is getting real success, and a lot more of it. For yourself, for you team, for your customers. People's lives need to be better. By comparison, the certification has very little meaning by itself. But we do think that certified people tend to get better results than the same person who is not certified.

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