Eating Shit should be in the JD

Well it was punk fifteen in the morning 
And it was time to stand my ground 
And as the gawks 
and stares bombarded me 
You know I didn't even hear a sound 
No one gave a damn if I was there or away 
If I died and went to hell 
They'd throw a party on my grave 
And they'd all say 
This kid is just a fool, he'll never be cool 
Plain destitute. 

-Bad Religion (A streetkid named desire)

Chris,

I can do it quicker; I can teach a team not just to take the adjourning part of that Tuckman model, but to use it to jump-start their new job.

There is something that happens at every job I take as a Scrum Master or Manager, in general. Where I'm asked to do something stupid that I know will cause more trouble than it's worth. I have to bite the bullet and just watch the shit hit the fan.

I was brand new at my first Scrum Master job when I got asked to write a sysadmin ticket to spin up a server for a developer. He had an impediment, and this was what I was for. I had no clue why he needed the server, what kind of server he needed, or any details that would make the ticket even feasible. 

I did it anyway and got an earful from the sysadmins, their manager, and my boss about wasting people's time with tickets that I didn't understand. I had to prove why I couldn't be the one to remove that impediment by eating a nice large shit sandwich.

Some form of this same story happens at every job I start. Remove some impediment where it would be more helpful to help the person remove their own impediment. Until they see, not just hear, but see that it doesn't work that way, but I'm willing to try, they just think I'm being lazy. Sometimes I have to just do this once; sometimes it takes a while for the team to understand the Scrum Master's limitations as Genie.

Well, I'm half-awake 
and half a world away 
All my past mistakes 
and every misspent day 
I wouldn't have it any other way 

-Less than Jake (Gainesville Rock City)

I now just grit my teeth and do the thing, making sure that once is enough to show where my powers are. This is part of the Ri moment, 'cause I'm not breaking the rules; I'm adhering to the ones I know won't work so I can bend them later. I take it on the chin at least once to prove I'm willing to suffer for the team. Even when the team never notices.

The person I failed to set up the server for was a problem child of the company. Great at the computer stuff, horrible at the people stuff. The company had a few of them. My greatest accomplishment to this day, I feel, was getting him to come to me to talk about what he was going to say to the Product Owner before he went and talked to him. Not a full win, not that he wouldn't still cause problems, but that he recognized he wasn't great at this and that he needed coaching was as close to a win as I'll ever get.

That's the heart of the job, improving the team, even if it's one person at a time. That's also not something you can put on a resume or value to anyone who thinks, "We're all adults here." That's the missing part of what interviews are looking for.

My improvement in my job isn't that I can avoid taking it on the chin or getting a grey beard; given enough time, anyone can do that. I can do it quicker; I can teach a team not just to take the adjourning part of that Tuckman model, but to use it to jump-start their new job. It's not about finishing the Tuckman model; it's about how quickly you can get to the performing part and who can help you get there.

You can't control the weather, but you can bring an umbrella. These Reorgs are going to come, I'm going to get let go, and wind up looking for another job. My degrees and certificates are my way of making the time spent looking for a job shorter, so I can get back to doing what I do for teams. Do they work? They should, but shoulds are a way to depression, especially when they usually don't pan out. So I've started doing them for the fun of doing them. I like to learn I love this thing I'm trying to do. I wish it weren't killing me.

Question for you, Chris. 

With the re-org on the horizon, with the team being beaten as it is and it might not even be your team. With the project you're working on always and perpetually on a cutting board for some of the most inane reasons you'll ever hear. What will matter about the work you're doing right now? What's going to last beyond you, the team, the project?

I hope that helps.