“Team, we have a problem!”, said John, ScrumMaster of team ‘Spirit’ at the retrospection meeting. The team members were not surprised with John’s statement since they were aware that 5 out of 10 user stories got pushed out to the next sprint. But they were ready with their side of story.
“MY development team completed coding of 8 user stories and we gave it to these QA folks. The other 2 stories are dependent on the inputs from Product Owner & Architect”, said Allan, the development lead. “But none of the stories are fully testable and the latest build is crap. MY QA team cannot test it”, said Julie, QA lead. John realized that the ‘Spirit’ scrum team is seriously lacking team spirit.
John said, Team, let me tell you story of pigeons and hunter from Panchatantra. A long time ago, there was a large tree which was home of many birds. One day a hunter set his net below the tree and placed few grains of rice to attract the birds. A flock of pigeons tried to grab the grains and got trapped. And that triggered the blame game with pigeons holding others accountable for the mistake. But the wise lead of the pigeons said, “Friends, we should all fly up carrying the net with us as a team”. And the outcome was obvious.
If we as project / program managers can instigate this team spirit within our teams then lot of issues can be completely avoided. One day, my development colleagues came to me and said, “Rahul, our testing backlog has significantly increased. Hence can we join them for testing in the next sprint, instead of throwing more stories to them?” I realized that this group of pigeons can lift any net together as ONE TEAM!
Do you have any such success stories of Team work? Are you building a true TEAM SPIRIT?
Teamwork always works because it brings together diverse perspectives, skills, and strengths to achieve common goals more effectively. When individuals collaborate with trust, communication, and a shared purpose, they can overcome challenges, spark innovation, and drive success that wouldn't be possible alone. Whether in the workplace, on the field, or in everyday life, teamwork fosters unity, builds resilience, and turns collective effort into powerful results. Simply put, when we work together, we work better.
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