Scrum Social Technologies

Unlocking the Power of Double-Loop Learning: Transform Your Scrum Master Journey with Immersive Training

Published on 20 November 2023

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

3 minute read

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In my journey as a Scrum Master, I’ve often found that the most profound learning experiences come not just from theory, but from the practical application of that theory in real-world scenarios. This is precisely what the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) immersive learning experience offers—a unique opportunity for double-loop learning.

The Power of Double-Loop Learning

Double-loop learning is about more than just doing things right; it’s about questioning whether we’re doing the right things in the first place. In the PSM immersive class, we engage in a cycle of trying out new ideas in our organisations, reflecting on those experiences, and collaborating with peers to refine our approaches. This iterative process allows us to continuously improve and adapt our practices.

Try: Implement new strategies in your organisation.
Reflect: Assess what worked and what didn’t.
Collaborate: Share insights with fellow participants to gain diverse perspectives.

The Value of Diverse Perspectives

One of the standout features of the PSM class is the mix of participants from various organisations. While it’s beneficial to bring a colleague along for support, the real magic happens when you interact with others facing different challenges. This diversity enriches our discussions and helps us understand what is realistic and achievable in our own contexts.

Many attendees come in with a mindset that certain Scrum practices won’t work in their organisations. However, as we delve deeper into the course, they often realise that Scrum serves as a mirror, reflecting the underlying issues within their organisations.

Challenge Assumptions: Why can’t we implement continuous feedback loops?
Identify Barriers: What’s stopping us from validating our assumptions with real users?

Immersive Learning: A Long-Term Commitment

The immersive nature of the PSM class is particularly beneficial because it spans a longer period, allowing for deeper engagement with the material. Each session is designed to tackle the most challenging aspects of Scrum implementation.

Assignments are crafted around the contentious and complex problems that Scrum Masters frequently encounter. This focus ensures that we’re not just learning in a vacuum; we’re applying our knowledge to real-world situations and collaborating to find solutions.

Tackle Difficult Problems: Address the gnarly issues head-on.
Collaborate for Solutions: Leverage the collective experience of the group.

Maximising Collaboration

As a facilitator, I’ve witnessed firsthand how collaboration can lead to breakthroughs. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the challenges we face, but by sharing our experiences and insights, we can collectively navigate the complexities of Scrum implementation.

If you’re interested in how immersive classes can transform your training experience, I encourage you to reach out. You can book a call through our website, where you’ll also find a list of our upcoming public immersive classes.

In conclusion, the PSM immersive learning experience is not just about acquiring knowledge; it’s about fostering a community of practice where we can learn from each other, challenge our assumptions, and ultimately become more effective Scrum Masters. Let’s embrace this journey together and unlock the full potential of our Scrum practices.

Professional Scrum Master immersive learning experience is unique because it enables that double loop learning that you get from being able to try things in your organisation and then take that information, collaborate with others like what happened during that collaboration, bring it all together with a group of people who are all trying to do the same thing and then figure out what you can do differently. Right? How do I make this thing that I was doing even just a little bit better?

And I think there’s a really big advantage in the PSM because as a public class, because you’ve got a bunch of people in the class that are from other organisations. While you might come along and you might bring a friend from your organisation, because that’s always a good way to get help when you’re back in your organisation as well, right? Having somebody else who’s been through the same experience. But also you get the different perspectives of the people in the room, and that is absolutely invaluable to enabling you as a Scrum Master to understand what is realistic and what isn’t.

Right? A lot of folks come to a PSM class, especially thinking, as we’re talking about the stuff in the class, thinking that that just won’t work here. Right? That won’t work in my company. It won’t work in my company because we do this other thing, not realising, and hopefully they do throughout the class, but not realising that Scrum is intended to be a mirror that shows you what’s wrong with your organisation. Like, why can’t you do that?

Oh, we want to do continuous feedback loops, right? We want to, at the end of every Sprint, we want to get some real users in front of the software and we want to find out what they think about it, right? We want to validate our assumptions. Well, why can’t we do that? And I think the immersive learning is especially focused on that because it’s over a much longer period of time, because you have those sections of learning and then that assignment to go and try something in your organisation.

And those assignments are kind of crafted around those most difficult ideas, most difficult things to do in applications in your company. Most difficult, contentious, gnarly problems that Scrum Masters encounter in their organisations so that we can collaborate and get help from each other. Right? I, as the facilitator, might have seen a bunch of experiences in organisations where those things have worked out perfectly, or I might have seen other ones where things you want to try just fell flat. Right?

There’s no right answer to any of these questions, so how do we collaborate around it and how do we maximise that collaboration? And I think the PSM immersive class maximises the learning and collaboration that happens. If you want to have a discussion about how immersive classes can revolutionise your training experience, then please book a call on our website. Alternatively, you can find all of our public immersive classes listed there as well, and we would love to hear from you.

Agile Project Management People and Process Professional Scrum Discovery and Learning Scrum Master Continuous Learning Team Collaboration Pragmatic Thinking Events and Presentations Coaching

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