Punishing Tardiness

Some Scrum masters lock the door to the conference room once the daily scrum starts. It may seem like, by creating a consequence for being late, you’re helping the team members show up on time. But punishments like closing the door, a late jar, and making people sing or dance if they’re late are acts of pillory. Public shaming isn’t one of the tools of a Scrum master.

Team members who don’t respect each other enough to be on time to a team event are exposing a problem that can’t be solved by doing a silly dance. You’ll need to dig deeper and work with the team to discover what’s going on.

For example, did the team get to decide when and where to hold the daily scrum? It’s their event—let them choose how to conduct it.

Does the team have a sprint goal, or is the daily scrum just a status report? If these issues are present, you’ll need to work through them to get the team to attend on time.

Sometimes people believe that the only work worth doing is sitting in front of a computer screen writing code. If you’re making widgets, this could make sense. But we work in a complex domain and perform knowledge work. Most of the time and energy that goes into software development involves thinking. It’s essential that the team collaborates frequently about where everyone expects to be the next day, because doing this creates a shared understanding that everyone can leverage.

This may feel inefficient to some members of the development team, but the outcomes the daily scrum produces—alignment, focus, commitment, and purpose—are essential to high-performing teams.