How to Promote Scrum

Summary

Successfully promoting Scrum to workers is tricky, but invaluable for a smooth adaption. Promote Scrum in a positive light and let your workers experience it for themselves with shared goals, and the path will be easier to walk.

How to Promote Scrum

The trick when persuading workings that going agile is a great idea, is in how you present it to them. Remember these workers have already experienced change and various new practices being rolled out in the company and they know the drill, and they are most likely tired of it and sceptical of the worth of any new change. Especially if past practices introduced haven’t worked out well, people won’t be receptive to yet another change. They will adopt it because they know they have to, but to make this work you need them to do more than that, you need them to love it. You need workers to want to transition to Scrum.

Get that promotion

There are a few ways you can promote Scrum to workers, but at the heart of it you need to make them believe in it. Don’t present this as ‘operation Scrum’ or turn it into a marketing campaign for agile practices, instead keep it nameless as an operation and introduce it without fanfare. Doing this keeps things low key and doesn’t set up expectations amongst workers that they see as doomed to fail. And it’s easier to get your workers on board if you keep it nameless because it’s harder to instantly resist something if it isn’t named and given a label. This under the radar approach will ease workers into the idea.

Go on safari

The best way to persuade workers of how something works is by letting them try it. When promoting Scrum to your workers, if they can actually test drive it and experience it for themselves they are more likely to feel what it’s like and see the positives of it. Allow your workers to join agile teams already working in this way and they will see Scrum at work in a positive environment with people who can tell them first hand what the benefits are.

Be positive

You can promote Scrum without the fanfare by doing it in more subtle ways. Present success stories to your workers and, even better, have workers who already use Scrum present their own stories. You can give this process a little push, but actually it will happen naturally without any intervention. Those who work with Scrum and experience the benefits for themselves will naturally talk about it, and this breeds a feeling of positivity about transitioning.

All of these ways of promoting Scrum within your company can guide your workers towards the light. Most importantly make them feel a part of what’s going on, let them be within the process of change, rather than just being told they have todo this. Hold sessions where they can try it out, find ways they can talk to successful Scrum users and involve everyone in the company, not just the people you think need this. With everyone involved and sharing the experience you foster trust and you present this change as something positive that you are all taking part in together. By banding together with a shared goal, you walk forward as one.