View from the Potting Shed

As trust grows, the Scrum Master steps back

A Scrum Master’s role should not remain static.

A new team may need active guidance to understand Scrum, establish useful habits and create a safe environment for honest conversations. As the team matures and trust grows, however, the Scrum Master should begin to work differently.

From guidance to ownership

Less mature teams may depend heavily on the Scrum Master to:

facilitate every event
resolve every obstacle
encourage difficult conversations
maintain the board that visualises the work
remind people about agreed ways of working
protect the team from outside disruption

This support may be necessary at first. But if it continues indefinitely, the Scrum Master can become another dependency.

A mature team increasingly takes responsibility for these things itself. I often joke with teams that a Scrum Master’s ultimate goal is to eventually put themselves out of a job.

Team members facilitate conversations, raise problems early and challenge unhelpful behaviour. They adapt their working practices without waiting for permission.

High-trust teams need less process

Process is useful. It creates structure, makes work visible and helps people coordinate.

But as teams mature and trust grows, some processes become unnecessary. What once provided helpful support can become friction.

Process often compensates for low trust

When trust is low, organisations tend to introduce more controls:

additional approvals
detailed status reports
frequent progress checks
rigid handovers
rules designed around exceptional failures

These may provide reassurance, but they also slow decisions and reduce autonomy. Over time, people may focus more on satisfying the process than achieving the outcome.

Some project outcomes must be discovered, not defined

Cynefin can help us manage uncertain projects in GTD.

One of the most useful practices in Getting Things Done is defining a successful outcome for each project.

What will be true when this is finished?

For many projects, the answer is reasonably clear:

Submit my tax return
Replace the broken washing machine
Publish the new website
Book accommodation for the holiday

A clear outcome helps us decide what ‘done’ means. It also makes choosing the next action much easier.

But the Cynefin framework reminds us that not every situation offers that degree of certainty.

Recovery is part of the rhythm: how to rest without guilt

Sustainable productivity needs a rhythm of effort and recovery.

That can be easy to accept in principle but much harder to practise. When we pause, we may feel guilty that we are not doing something more productive.

Learning to honour recovery means recognising that it is not a reward for finishing everything. It is part of how we remain able to continue.

Beyond consistency: why sustainable productivity needs rhythm

Consistency is often treated as the secret to productivity: show up every day, maintain the routine and keep the streak going.

But consistency can become unhelpful when we interpret it as doing the same amount, at the same intensity, every day.

In this short post, I explore why sustainable productivity is less about maintaining a constant pace and more about finding a healthy rhythm between effort and recovery.