The team is the most valuable asset for any Scrum Master. Without a solid team, even the best Scrum Master will lose. 

But how do you create a superb SCRUM team? The answer depends on different circumstances, but the most important is that the team has a shared goal, shared values, manages collective coherent thinking, and a shared framework. 

Usually, we refer to a high-performance team as a football, cycling, or ice hockey team. But there are other teams where the relation between the team participants differs. A fine example is the classic jazz recording: “Kind of Blue” from 1959. The most-selling jazz record – ever! The taps were recorded within only 9 hours in a studio without all the modern tech used today. 

The team was: Producer: Irving Townsend; Engineer: Fred Plaut. Musicians: Miles Davis (tpt); Cannonball Adderley; John Coltrane (ts); Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly (p); Paul Chambers (b) and Jimmy Cobb (d). 

All of these musicians were usually quite individualistic. But on April 17th and April 22nd, 1959 they were full of mutual respect, totally committed, and had all relinquished their ego, even Miles, who was known for his temper.

Bill Evans later wrote about the recording:

“Group improvisation is a further challenge. Aside from the weighty technical problem of collective coherent thinking, there is the human, even social, need for sympathy from all members to bend for the common result. This most difficult problem, I think, is beautifully met and solved on this recording.”

And he continues:

“As the painter needs his framework of parchment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time. Miles Davis presents frameworks that are exquisite in their simplicity and yet contain all that is necessary to stimulate performance with sure reference to the primary conception.”

Miles Davis introduced the harmonic realms of modal music instead of cords that usually form the backbone of jazz. It was a genius innovation created by Miles because it gave the musicians a new framework to work with – as stated by Bill Evans.

Like what Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber did, introducing the SCRUM as a new framework for IT development 30 years later and thereby transforming the IT industry and how developers work together in SCRUM teams today.

Read how you can facilitate a Team Charter workshop using Kind of Blue as an ice-breaker:  Team charter uk