A ScrumMaster approached me a while ago about what to do with his team: The team felt like they were communicating just fine and did not need the daily scrum meeting. The ScrumMaster was convinced that the team wasn't really communicating all that well, that they just gossip from time to time and have ADD. I found this interesting.

The first question I have is Why? Why does the team feel like this meeting is not helping them? Turns out that the team feels like they already have their direction everyday and the daily scrum meeting seems like a waste of time. They see no value or impact from attending it and would rather put their heads down and just work.

I asked Why? again. Why does the team see no value? They said because they already know their tasks everyday because their Manager gives them their work. Aha! Now we've discovered some helpful information.

I asked Why? again, but to the Manager this time. Why do you feel like you need to be the taskmaster of the team? The Manager responded that he needs to keep the team on track? But Why? - again I asked. Because we're under pressure. Yes, and Why? - again I asked.  Because we were just bought out and we need to quickly merge our technology with our new parent company's. Aha!

My synopsis: Pressure by parent company forcing undue pressure on management who must then feel as if they need to revert to form (aka "micro-manage") to get anything done. Becoming TaskMaster means that team members don't have to think for themselves or own the work, so of course they feel like the Daily Scrum is useless.

When you need to get to the root of the problem, use one word posed as a question: "Why?" Otherwise, you could make assumptions that aren't necessarily true. For example, in this case the ScrumMaster thought that the team members had ADD or were not very focused on their work. Turns out that they were focused, but only at the direction of their manager. A ScrumMaster could also make a false assumption that the team members were just fighting Scrum. They weren't. Their manager was.

Click here to go to SixSigma's website that explains more about the Five Why's. Additionally, check out this description of Fishbone diagrams, another helpful tool to sort out various causes of behavior.