The 8 Misunderstood Stances of a Scrum Master

In this video, we explain the 8 misunderstood stances of a Scrum Master.

There are several stances & traits that exemplify misunderstandings of what it is that Scrum Masters do, for example:
– Scrum Police: Enforcing the rules of Scrum without considering the context and without explaining why the rules are important;
– Chairman & Scribe: Acting as a chairperson during Scrum Events and keeping tight, unilateral control of the discussion and the agenda. Making notes of the events and sharing them in reports afterward. Writing stickies for the team;
– Admin: Taking ownership of configuration and management of the tooling used by the team (e.g. JIRA). Making the team use certain tooling. Or updating the physical Scrum Board on behalf of the team;
– Secretary: Tracking time spent by everyone in the team. Managing vacations, sick days and holidays;
– Hero: Solving all the problems for the team;

Taken together, Scrum Masters are often considered, or consider themselves, as Team Bosses. Their purpose is to keep everyone busy, to reassure the organization through reporting, to focus solely on the team and ignore the broader environment and to make decisions on behalf of the team;

For organizations starting with Scrum, the stances are often easy to understand and translate to their current understanding of management. Changing this perception is where your role as a Change Agent starts;