Change Fatigue: Is It OK to Pause the Continuous Improvement Journey? with Eric Landes

Agile Coaches' Corner

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by a colleague, friend, and Professional Scrum Trainer, Eric Landes.

In this episode, Dan and Eric are answering a listener’s question that arises from an episode in which Change Fatigue was discussed; the listener wants to hear more about cases observed of Change Fatigue in Teams and Organizations and how they can be dealt with. They wonder if it is ever OK for a team on the path to Agility to say: “We made a really good progress; let’s take our foot off the pedal of continuous improvement and just cruise for a while!”

Key Takeaways

● What does Change Fatigue look like?

○ One-week sprints can exhaust Teams; speed is good but the Team’s engagement is a priority.

○ The retrospective after a Sprint is designed to be a moment to take a step back and reflect, maybe celebrating what is working well as opposed to meaningful process change.

● How to avoid Change Fatigue?

○ A way of avoiding Change Fatigue is by hosting the retrospective after a Sprint in another setting where the Team can unwind.

○ Try to change the mood, promoting a fun and easy atmosphere.

○ Think of places where you can give your Team a little rest and also listen to your Team’s suggestions about where would they like to go for a little relaxation.

○ The change might be needing to pause on changing.

● There is a potential of doing Change wrong.

○ Change is done wrong when you’ve lost the ability to deliver.

○ In Scrum, when you bring changes on they can only be one or two into a Sprint.

○ Ask yourself: Is this change effective?

● Apply, reflect, and adjust.

○ You not only have to be constantly doing!

○ It is OK to rest (by the way, it is needed!)

○ Every task is in a series; just work on one at a time. Don’t worry about the whole thing, just about the next thing.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Listen to Episode 53: “Why Should Scrum Teams Continually Improve” where Change Fatigue was first discussed

Agile Retrospective: Making Good Teams Great, by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen, with forward by Ken Schwaber

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