Identify How To Make Better Use Of Scrum With “TRIZ”

This short blog post offers a simple yet powerful retrospective format based on the Liberating Structure “TRIZ.” Use it to reflect on the Scrum framework and determine what counterproductive activities and behaviors you must stop!

About TRIZ

It’s all too easy to use continuous improvement as an excuse to keep adding new things to do, like those Sprint Retrospectives that always result in ‘one more thing’ to add to the task list, one more check to the Definition of Done, or one more workshop to an already overcrowded agenda. Often, more can be gained by stopping unproductive activities and behaviors. The Liberating Structure ‘TRIZ’ turns this upside-down by inviting the creative destruction of activities that limit innovation and productivity. It does so in a fun, cathartic way, engages and involves everyone, and is bound to create some laughs along the way.

Keith McCandless and Henri Lipmanowicz created this structure, inspired by an element from Genrich Altshuller's problem-solving approach. For a more detailed explanation, check this article by Christiaan Verwijs.

Potential invitations

Invitation — Option 1: a personal perspective 🧐

“If you let your imagination run wild, what can YOU do to guarantee Scrum won’t work at all within your team and the wider organization? How can you ensure the Scrum framework will be completely pointless, useless, and won’t add any value?”

Invitation — Option 2: team perspective 🧐🧐🧐

“If you let your imagination run wild, what can we as a TEAM do to guarantee Scrum won’t work at all within the team and the wider organization? How can we as a team ensure the Scrum framework will be completely pointless, useless, and won’t add any value?

Steps

• (2 min) First, individually and silently, ask everyone to compile a list of everything they can do to guarantee the worst possible outcome.
• (5 min) Invite people into pairs and separate breakouts. Ask everyone to share their lists and expand them together. Encourage people to go wild with here; more is better! Even seemingly ridiculous ideas can lead to great insights.
• (3 min) When everyone is back together or in the main channel, ask: “In silence, go through your list and mark the items that resemble, or are similar to, something we’re already doing.”
• (5 min) Invite people into new pairs and move them into separate breakouts. Ask the pairs to share what they recognized and notice patterns.
• (3 min) When everyone is back together or in the main channel, ask: “Based on the activities and behaviors you recognized in this team, what should we stop doing?”
• (5 min) Invite people into new pairs and move them into separate breakouts where they can share their insights.
• (5 min) When everyone is back in the main channel, ask everyone to capture their biggest takeaways on a shared workspace, and select 1 or 2 activities you’ll STOP doing as a team to make more effective use of the Scrum framework

Our Findings

👉 Don’t spoil the twist in TRIZ between the first and second rounds. Doing so will limit creativity and the brutal honesty that makes TRIZ work, as people will already start reflecting on their current situation during the first round;
👉 I often include a ‘confession round’ in which everyone can share the counterproductive activities and behaviors they already do. Participants finish the sentence “I confess that…”. There’s no discussion at all. It’s only a confession. Fun and powerful!
👉 I prefer the personal perspective (what can YOU do) over the team perspective (what can WE do) because the second round is more powerful. Otherwise, people may start finger-pointing and blaming others for bad behavior.

Why don’t you give this a try during the next Sprint Retrospective?