Practise a Scrum Master's First Facilitation Decision

A planning conversation is dominated by two senior team members. Other people rarely speak. Work is assigned between sessions, and commitments are repeatedly missed. What should a Scrum Master examine first?

The situation contains observations worth exploring, but it does not establish a single cause. Quieter participants may have missing context, a different communication preference or concerns they have not raised. The work arriving between sessions may matter as much as the meeting itself.

Separate behavior from your explanation

Write what the fictional scenario actually gives you: who speaks, what happens between sessions and which commitments are missed. Then make a separate list of possible explanations.

Avoid labels such as “unmotivated team” or “bad senior developers.” They collapse several questions into a judgment about people. A useful diagnosis keeps the next conversation open.

Keep ownership clear

The Scrum Guide describes the Scrum Master as accountable for establishing Scrum and for the Scrum Team's effectiveness. It also describes Scrum Teams as self-managing.

For this exercise, that means examining an intervention that helps the team understand and improve its work. Do not assume the answer is for the Scrum Master to become the person assigning every task.

Propose a small first intervention

One option to consider is asking the team how the current planning conversation helps or hinders participation, then agreeing on an experiment that gives everyone an opportunity to contribute.

For example, the team might try a brief period of individual reflection before discussion. That is an original facilitation suggestion for this scenario, not a required Scrum practice or a guaranteed solution.

Explain why you would try it, what the team needs to agree to and what would make you choose a different intervention. Also identify the separate question of how work enters between planning conversations.

Decide what to observe

A meeting that feels more balanced does not automatically prove delivery improved. Choose observations that relate to the problem: whether concerns were surfaced, whether the team understood its intended outcome and whether unexpected work became visible.

Review the experiment after a defined period, such as two iterations in this fictional exercise. Record what you would ask the team and which evidence would support continuing, changing or ending the experiment. Do not invent successful results.

Your final practice note should contain the observations, alternative explanations, proposed intervention, ownership boundaries and review questions. A reader should be able to challenge the reasoning without having to accept an unsupported story about the people involved.

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