The Car Configuration Team That Spiraled Into Silence—and the Workshop That Saved It | Havva Sevay

Havva Sevay: The Car Configuration Team That Spiraled Into Silence—and the Workshop That Saved It

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes .

 

"First they tell you their opinion. Then they start shouting, getting emotional. And the third one is silence—and resignation. That's the worst part." - Havva Sevay

 

Havva remembers a highly motivated development team working on a car configuration system so complex it began to wear them down. They asked for training. The Product Owner waved it off— they've had enough training, they should understand it. What followed was a three-stage spiral Havva now recognizes anywhere: first the team shares opinions and solutions, then frustration turns to emotion and shouting, and finally comes silence and resignation. The team even kicked the Product Owner out of their daily—a low point Havva calls the worst she has seen in her career. The turning point was a LEGO Serious Play workshop. By getting both sides to build how they wanted to work together, the Product Owner did active listening for the first time, recognized the team needed an experienced developer to guide them, and the relationship transformed. The lesson: Scrum Masters are the facilitators of those moments of coming together—and there need to be many, at every level.

 

Self-reflection Question: Is a team you support moving through opinion → emotion → silence right now? What moment of coming-together could you facilitate before they reach resignation?

 

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