I like the idea of leaderless standup meetings, but so far I haven’t found a way to pull one off. Pretty much everyone waits for the Scrum Master to start the standup and then keep the conversation passing around the room. Dave Nicolette mentioned on this in a recent comment:
Your choice of words caught my attention: “The tech lead was holding the standup meetings.” Ideally, no one “holds” the standup. The team stands up at the appointed time and they talk to each other. There is no leader as such, and anyone can get the ball rolling.
Two new ideas have occurred to me for some experimentation:
- Have some totem to pass around the room between each team member. Anyone can pick up the totem and start the conversation. I think a rugby ball might do well here. Kane Mar calls this a talking stick.
- Today I heard another idea from Doug Shimp on the Net Objectvives Lean Agile Podcast. This idea was to have the Scrum Master move around the room during the standup so the team members focused on speaking to each other and not the Scrum Master.
We’ve definitely found that a talking token helps this. We use soft, fist-size balls of various sorts that we can toss to/at each other without risk of injury!
We also have found a token helps. We use a cheap inflatible beach ball. It is simply referred to as the “Talking Ball” and anyone on the team can grab it to be first to speak.
We used a hacky sack and I named it Pass the Token.
http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/itsNotJustStandingUp.html
In terms of Leaderless Standups, I’ve also heard of Scrum Masters just looking at the ground (i.e., break eye contact). I’ve tried rotating the standup facilitator but you need to support people who might be nervous in that role.
Something that shouldn’t be forgotten is just talking to the team about why the stand-up is not supposed to be run by a single person.
I picked up an actual rugby ball for fun today as I was out with my daughter bying soccer shoes for the season. Should make a very obvious token. I also like the idea of reexplaining why the standup isn’t supposed to be run by a single person is a good idea.
We use a ball as a token, too.
IMO the key to leaderless standups is that the team members are talking to each other, and not to a ScrumMaster or Project Manager. They’re not “reporting” status, they’re telling each other where they stand and making an implicit commitment to each other about what they intend to deliver that day. If someone “runs” the standup, it gives the impression the team doesn’t own the problem. That may sound like a silly little thing, but it makes a world of difference.