About Human Logic and SCRUM.
By Svitlana Chernyshova
Recently, one of my clients — a Ukrainian family-owned business that has been working in the field of children’s stationery and creative goods for nearly 30 years — launched an initiative called “Let’s Read Together.” This initiative involves the company’s managers selecting a shared management book, reading it, and meeting once a month to discuss it.
As it happened, the first book they picked was “SCRUM: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time” by Jeff Sutherland. I was thrilled, as I had come across this book time and again over the past few years, heard great reviews, but somehow never got around to reading it… And now — it felt like a fateful encounter.
I thoroughly enjoyed the style of the book as well as the numerous references to behavioral research and tools on how to establish a healthy team tempo/rhythm to help achieve results while enjoying the process of collaboration.
During the discussion, most of the managers came to realize the importance of using SCRUM tools for process organization. Nearly everyone expressed a desire to try out elements such as running sprints, setting up something similar to SCRUM boards for visualization, and holding daily stand-ups — even though they don’t work in a traditional project-based environment.
Beyond that, the book triggered many discussions around the interaction, habits, and needs within the organization itself — especially the “watershed” between personal and work time, the realization that not “everything” can be made a priority at the same time, and that something done half is often worse than not done at all.
Then, we naturally transitioned into a conversation about how “half-done” may mean different things to different individuals — for some, it may simply mean a shift in attention to another task, while for others it can be a trigger that blocks further progress. For some it is essential to clearly separate “work” and “private” time, while others blend the two naturally and harmoniously. All of this — the way we set and manage priorities, the way we manage time as a valuable resource, our ability to maintain focus and concentration, and our natural preference for facts or feelings defines how we prefer to collaborate and communicate.
The art of constructive interaction lies not so much in determining who is “right” or “wrong” but in building a harmonious yet dynamic dialogue while understanding and nurturing our natural differences. It is precisely the understanding and respect for differences — our social versatility — that paves the way toward building effective teams, including SCRUM teams.
In the end, it’s all about people!
