Scrum Meetings Vs Scrum Events

Some of the common events that is practiced by Scrum teams include

• Daily Scrum meeting
• Scrum of Scrum meeting
  
• Requirement workshop
• Modeling days
• Review sessions
• Retrospective sessions
  

Scrum teams would be conducting one or the other meetings mentioned in the above list, every day. New teams practicing Agile methods specifically Scrum would feel that, there are more meetings in Agile as compared to the number of meetings in traditional methods.

I think one of the reasons why teams start resisting these meetings is because, they might be practicing the methods not in true spirits (not understanding the true value of these meetings) but for the sake of "doing" it.

What is the solution for such teams ?

1. Coaching the teams about the values of these meetings. This could be done with the help from an internal/external Agile mentor/coach.

2. Change the vocabulary: The word "meeting" is kind of becoming synonym for "obligation". So, whenever the team hears the word "meeting", they start resisting unconsciously. One of the ways proposed by Tobias Mayer is to change the vocabulary. For ex: rename "meeting" with "discussion","working session", "event", etc.

After reading Tobias's email, I became conscious of impact on our mind; usage of the words like "firefighting","postmortem","warroom". Beleive it or not, each of these words increases stress,blood pressure level when uttered. Next time when you utter these words feel yourself.