Innovation in times of isolation — Let’s go out for a long drive
Entire country(India) is locked down in response to Corona virus outbreak; me and my team is working remotely for almost 3 weeks now. As a scrum master, I was faced with a new challenge- all of us working remotely. I have not worked with a remote working team before-may be one or two team members connecting remotely — Yes, but each of us being remote- a resounding NO. With apprehensions and some questions in mind we all embarked in this digitally connected and physically disconnected journey. So far it has been smooth armed with internet and a whole set of collaborative tools.
I was planning to a do a retrospection for the previous sprint and was not so sure on how to do this remotely and effectively. I was running out of ideas. An element of surprise always keeps the team engaged and participative; conversations are more natural. Yesterday morning when I got up, the weather was cloudy and breezy which is very unlikely for Chennai in April. Usually it’ll be hot and sultry. If it was ‘‘normal’’ times, I would have loved to go for a drive. This is a luxury now.The only time I go for drive is for buying groceries. I missed my relaxing long drives. And this gave me the epiphany. If I am missing my long drives so much, how about my team mates? Will they not miss the freedom to drive when they want to ?Why not take my team mates for a drive on their favorite cars. And so came the theme of the Retrospection — Lets go for a drive.
Requested team mates to compare the sprint with car brand . We had Ferrari, Lamborghini, Renault and a Bugatti Chiron. I liked how one of the team members used the Lambo to describe the sprint– usually when it’s a Lambo, then first thing that comes to our mind is speed. In this case it was not that obvious — the description was very surprising. He compared the sprint with the Lambo in two different roads — European Highways and Indian streets. Initial days of the sprint were like the Lambo in European roads, exhilarating and smooth; last day of the sprint was like a Lambo on Indian roads- bumpy and rough and scraping the bottom of the car. This made me realize again that how we all think so differently and how the same picture and can tell a different story for each one of us. Each of them came up with their own imagination and compared the sprint with a car brand with a different perspective. All enjoyed the retro and it was effective as we came up with lot of ideas. I hope everyone enjoyed the drive.
Are you ready to go for a drive then?