The Coronavirus outbreak caused a significant shift in the approach toward remote working. Instead of seeing each other face-to-face, we see or just hear each other device-to-device (either it´s a computer, phone, or tablet). Of course, we can be grateful for having this possibility, so we don’t need to put on make-up, get stuck in a traffic jam, or stress over not catching up on anything. However, working from home can have also a negative impact – demotivation, lack of interest, procrastination. To avoid this, as a Scrum master I started to apply motivational & engaging hints that you can get inspired by.
The story is simple, yet understandable. We work with the team in a remote mode (not only during a pandemic), many of us are located in Austria and some also in Czechia so I tried to bring something personal into the „online“ world. During summer it was possible to travel, so it was a bit easier to meet and chat, but as the situation is not favorable again, I was thinking about some new „experiments“ with the team to engage us all.
I get these ideas or make them up on the fly based on the interaction and mood in the squad or regarding the situation, but I got many inspirations also from the discussions with my Scrum Master colleagues.
I think these kinds of activities are useable to connect each other in many ways, sometimes we don’t even notice them. We often jump into some activity without deep thinking, just because we like it, and only after a while we see a change – big or small this does not matter. What matters is the purpose of the activity, what has changed, and how it affected our point of view and approach.
1. Photo Challenge
The aim is to have some fun together, building team spirit and identity as we are currently at a higher stress level. And everybody deserves some smiles. The advantage is that you don’t have to invest too much time into this. There is always one person nominated who has to change her/his photo for 1 week on our Slack channel – the photo has to be that kind of one you don’t really like, but it is a good story behind it, so we can chat and laugh about that. Reactions are great, it is a good way of a voluntary activity, where you get to know each other better and bring a bit of personality into the online world.
Yes, this was my photo in the challenge.
2. Balloon of the day 🎈
Many times we are focusing on things such as if we are on time when it comes to finishing our tasks, what is the quality of the product, what changes can occur if the supplier can be on time and deliver what we need…To look ahead is typical and useful in normal work life. But sometimes you also need to look back to see what you’ve accomplished and achieved, so you will keep yourself motivated and engaged. Many times we need to slow down, praise either ourselves or a colleague for a good result, or change his/her point of view. I decided to write a post at the end of everyday/evening, to point out what I personally appreciated, what I liked, or what pleased me during that certain day. It doesn´t have to be from a work perspective, but also personal life. And I always put a little balloon next to the post.
What important is, that I don’t expect any reaction, contribution, sharing, or praise, the whole activity is voluntary. The result is that my teammates started to use this balloon icon between each other to praise themselves. Many times, when I share something, others join and add something else which makes me happy.
3. Daily stand-ups from pajamas
As we are having daily stand-ups for 15 minutes every day I wanted to make it more engaging. I saw in other stand-ups, that as long as somebody starts the meeting in a good mood, the whole stand-up will be led positively. So I tried this thing – keep the camera on while I’m still in pajamas. My first reactions were like „have you already drunk a coffee? “ But the next day a colleague of mine joined this initiative with a Teddy Bear, so I decided to bring most of our dailies with the camera turned on and in a good mood. There is also a side effect of this “Camera ON” mode starting to be preferred even during standard meetings. That makes them more personal 😊.
4. Pokemon nominations for daily stand-ups
This is a new challenge we are going to set up – every day we select a person – “Pokemon”, who will share the screen during the whole meeting. It helps to engage others and also to be more exact when we are talking about something (seeing and hearing are better than just hearing). So at the end of the beginning of the stand-up, there is always a new Pokemon chosen for the next day. This new initiative I’ve learned from my colleague Michaela Misovicova. Thank you for the inspiration ☺️.
5. Name of Sprint
We have many tasks in front of us, especially when it comes to planning time, we are challenged to stay in a good mood. So I came up with an idea – let’s name these hard sprints! The first sprint was called SIRIUS (inspired by Harry Potter and as the things are becoming serious), so I asked one of our developers to name the next sprint – so we have another called HAMMER🔨. To name the sprints makes them more sympathetic and less confusing when talking about them. And also the following discussion could be really fun.
6. Online beer 📽 🍻
After the end of the sprint, we have informal talks with a beer or a glass of wine. You can join but don’t have to – it’s up to you 😉. We are talking about anything that comes to our mind, chatting with the kids, playing games, or just showing around our places. It’s fun and also relaxing.
7. „Sit down meeting“
We have daily meetings every day, where the team plans the day according to priorities. But since we try to be as effective as possible and avoid too many meetings, we share a lot of important information on slack channels. To not oversee a piece of important information or not be disturbed many times per day, we thought about how to streamline communication and be always informed about everything important. So I came up with the idea of a sit-down at the end of each day. The aim is to enhance the transparency in the team and create a space where we can talk about everything – just as before Corona – before you left the work, you brought up some small talks with your colleagues about the day. But again it is voluntary, so nobody is forced to join (but mainly everybody joins) 😊.