The importance of more efficient and effective internal practices for an organization is apparent. Without the right guidance, a business can mismanage finite resources and inadequately execute operations, leaving a company in losses. The Scrum methodology is commonly used to help streamline internal practices and equip development teams with knowledge imperative to perform responsibilities as required and deal with concerns as they arise.
Getting a Scrum Master Certification is a tremendous professional leg up. However, the framework and concepts can be applied to daily life as well. Using better practices in one’s personal life could change not only the responses but one’s outlook for better, more desirable results.
Agile Methods for A Stronger Family
Bruce Feiler, a famous American writer and television personality narrates an instance where he offers a survey to his children to understand what they want for themselves and their parents. The result; an overall reduction in stress and tension within the household. Offering his children an opportunity to respectfully voice their opinions and assess ongoing situations created new information that could be used to optimize in-house activities. This makes it easier for all parties involved. He further chronicles three years later, the method is still being used and has offered an “agile family manifesto” for other families to incorporate.
The principles discussed include;
- Stay always adapting – allow one’s family to experiment and incorporate new ideas. Since every member is an individual, introducing a more open-minded and flexible approach could create a more hospitable and comfortably vocal environment.
- Give the children their voice – one of the most significant sources of conflict in a family is enforcing hierarchy as a rule of thumb. Alternatively, offer children the ability to form their own goals and opinions, understand why their work succeeds or fails, and offer them accompanying insight to make better decisions moving forward. Equipping them with the skills to interpret situations on their own and make healthier decisions is beneficial in the long term.
- Create Goals and Missions – ensure the family understands what the overall mission and core values are. Incorporating strong morals and values into consistent and stable reminders helps keep all members working towards a constructive and common goal.
Agile Methods for Personal Productivity
While the concepts are primarily applied to big teams, the agile and scrum frameworks can be adopted to maximize one-person teams, i.e., you, an individual. The scrum method teaches a product backlog is formed, followed by a sprint backlog that must be completed within a finite period. Adopting these methods to personal workflows can help add an extra layer of organization and prioritization. One-week sprints can help an individual understand what needs to be done urgently and whether or not the resources available can be allocated towards the same. Supplementing the framework with an application to maintain timelines can be exceedingly helpful.
Some of the methods one can adapt to their personal productivity include;
- Start your project or activity first. Understand the process and requirements before beginning to realign yourself. Get creative with the solutions needed to bypass obstacles you can encounter.
- Incorporate consistent reflection and adaptation into your train of thought and action. Setting aside a couple of minutes to create better organization by understanding the obstacles to achieve your personal goals and overcoming them could help one move in their desired direction.
- Introduce a finite set of short-term goals that move one forward. Large, long-term goals can be daunting; it becomes easier to miss the mark and feel defeated. Instead, re-strategize and introduce smaller goals within the bigger overall objective. Accomplishing piece by piece may remind an individual how reasonable their big goal is and work harder towards achieving it.
- Define the sprint but keep an eye on the goal. Ensure a little time of each day is allocated towards achieving the goals without any distractions.
Scrum Methods for Events
The scrum method is quietly but firmly making an appearance as a wedding planning framework. The service offered by “Scrum Your Wedding” details all the rites, rituals, activities, and roles used in the scrum framework but repurposes them for more efficient and effective wedding planning. Consider the scrum master managing the entire process. This role is designated to the wedding planner. The bride and groom take on the role of product owners as they craft the base framework or opinions on which the scrum master builds. Introducing a daily scrum to run down activities completed and a sprint backlog to ensure all activities that must be completed by the wedding day are scrutinized and listed helps keep the jumble of activities required for event planning crystalline.
Scrum Methods for Daily Life
The scrum method outlines a series of non-negotiable tasks further refined to achievable lists over a defined period. The final two steps, reviewing and retrospecting, can be especially helpful to understand why personal goals were not met despite meticulous planning and action towards the same. Creating an optimized framework to conduct your day-to-day activities could offer peace of mind. There is no longer a need to panic over a forgotten deadline or missed event. The careful planning offered by the Scrum method helps refine even smaller processes with an overall personal objective. This could even be as abstract as maintaining your mental health or preserving happiness.
Conclusion
Businesses employ tried and true methods to produce the best results. With success both agile and scrum methods have seen over the years, understanding the concepts and their ability to be adapted to any situation, including one’s personal life, could prove exceptionally helpful. For workaholics, in particular, moving a framework from one environment to another could be the easiest transition to build meaningful relationships and interactions with family, friends, and themselves. The fastest way to deduce whether this method works successfully with an individual is to start. Introduce a part of the Scrum framework and take it one step at a time.
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