Meditation for Scrum Masters
Improving your focus to better help your teams
When I mention to others that I practice meditation as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach, the reaction is usually excitement from people wanting to learn how to do it themselves. But unfortunately, many others also say they would be unable to get their brain to be quiet or that meditation didn’t work for them when they tried in the past. However, starting a meditation practice is much easier than you might think, and the skills gained can be applied daily in your work and personal life.
Observation, Mindfulness, and Meditation
One way to understand mindfulness is to think back to a situation when observing a team during one of their Scrum events. Not when you were active and helping the team, but when you were listening and paying attention to them. You were practicing mindfulness at that moment. You were focused and looking for interactions, patterns, and areas where the team could use your help.
During meditation, you use those same observation skills but turn them inward to observe yourself and your mind. You are not enforcing rules or telling your mind to be quiet, but you are being present with your mind and noticing where it goes and what thoughts arise.
Observing your thoughts is a bit different than a team. While observing a team, you might interject with a powerful question or lead an impromptu coaching session. But when observing your mind during meditation, you want to notice what enters your mind in a non-judgmental way. After a few seconds or a few minutes, you will lose your focus and catch yourself thinking. When that happens, gently move your attention back from where your mind had wandered and start again.
When I learned to meditate, the reminder I kept getting from my teacher was, “Don’t chase the thought.”
Let the thought arise in your mind, but let it pass by without moving your attention. A metaphor to help think about this is to imagine you are a tall mountain with a peak in the clouds. You sit silently and still as the clouds come to you and then pass over you. Your thoughts are like these clouds — they will come to you even if you do nothing, but they will also pass by without you having to do anything. So avoid focusing on any one cloud as it passes by. Instead, observe it and let it go.
How is this meditation practice helpful
By sitting quietly with your mind, you build on your observation, focus, and patience skills.
As a Scrum Master, one of your fundamental abilities is to notice things going on with your teams. For example, are there moments where communication breaks down or conflict arises? Building a mindfulness practice can help you to be able to notice the subtle cues before a situation erupts into something worse. Or you might be able to see how a team is getting stuck and spinning their wheels. As a result, you will be better able to stay focused on not just the content of the conversation but the message delivery between team members.
Ways meditation has helped me
It can be tough to put your finger on exactly what a habit like meditation has been able to bring to your life. I learned to meditate when I was a teenager in the 90s, but I didn’t have a regular meditation practice until the last eight years.
Since I started meditating regularly, I feel my listening and leadership skills have grown. As a result, I can bring creative and unique observations and approaches to the teams. I can also notice subtle clues that often go unseen by others.
I have also been able to become a very patient person. Leading a working session and helping teams get through a difficult conversation is no longer as stressful as it used to be.
How to start meditating
Like building any new habit, it is best to start small when you are beginning a meditation practice.
With the abundance of apps available, there are many options available. My recommendation is to use the Insight Timer app. The Apple Watch Mindfulness app is also an excellent place to start. Still, I prefer having just a timer so that I build the skill to keep myself focused instead of relying on the watch being an external reminder to refocus.
I prefer Insight Timer to other popular apps because it is free, and most features don’t require a subscription. Like all popular meditation apps, it has tons of guided meditations. However, I recommend you stick with just the timer instead of using guided meditations.
The reason to use the timer is that we are trying to non-judgmentally observe our thoughts, not listen to someone else guiding us on a journey. Of course, there can be value in guided meditations if you want to meditate on a specific topic. However, when the goal is to build the mental focus muscle, I have found using only a timer to be the most beneficial.
When you start the timer, start small with just 2 minutes. Have a bell at the start and end of the time. If you are in a loud environment, you can try adding one of the ambient sounds like waves or a forest, but try it without ambient sound if possible.
Find a comfortable seat — on the floor, in a chair, or lying down. However, if you think you might fall asleep, lying down may not be the best position. Then when you start the timer, focus your attention on your breath. Notice the feeling in your body as you inhale and exhale. Your chest expands as the air passes into your nose, then contracts as you breathe out.
Repeat that simple practice every day. Over time, start increasing the time to 5 minutes. Then to 10 or 15. After several months, you may be able to sit comfortably for 20 to 30 minutes. You should find a time and place to make it a habit in your daily routine. I have found the most success with 20 minutes after my morning reading and another 10 minutes as soon as I get home from work.
At first, it won’t be easy, and your mind will quickly wander. You will start thinking about a project at work or remember a recent moment in life. That is normal. Expect it to happen because it will. As soon as you realize your mind has wandered, focus again on your breath. Don’t beat yourself up over losing focus — that is part of the process.
Over time, you will get to where you can hold that focus longer, but your mind will always wander. The goal is not to chase the thought. Instead, observe it but let it pass by without it taking your focus along with it.
Conclusion
With a daily meditation practice, you are training your mind to be able to focus. You are building the mental muscle to prevent getting caught up in the flow of thoughts we all experience daily. Building this focus skill is helpful in all aspects of our lives. When a critical or stressful moment arises, it is as if I have an automatic slow-mo button where I have time to think before reacting. When I am working with a team, it helps me to catch some of the details that I might have otherwise not noticed.
I hope you find this practice helpful. Let me know if this works for you. And if you are meditating already, how has it helped you?
First published on Medium.com
https://chris-strickland.medium.com/meditation-for-scrum-masters-26346fdf43c