Very interesting side effect: on assignment since September at a (very) fine company: it publishes software in a fairly specific and indeed quite complicated domain. It follows from this that it’s very difficult for me to immerse myself in the business. So to speak, I’m often lost amid the complex and abstruse terminology of the domain in question.

Where things prove interesting is that this shortcoming appears as a true blessing: I only see what I must see: the forces at play, the pressures, the obvious oversights, the problems, the obstacles, etc. This ignorance reinforces my neutrality and gives me better acuity.

And the neutrality of the scrummaster or agile coach is their entire strength. Neutrality goes with transparency.

What’s more, when I begin to integrate the business I sometimes fall into the (very human) trap of interfering in the thinking and in the discussion. I step out of my role, drawn in by my (better) knowledge of the subject. This is moreover a recurring trap: when you intervene within a team already formed long ago and one of its members becomes the scrummaster, it’s difficult for them to forget their former positioning, their former role.

That’s it for this short post.