Scrum Masters are not the blockers,
but many times, we unknowingly appear like one
and that misunderstanding silently kills the trust
Here is my experience every Scrum Master can relate to:
A few years ago, I walked into a team room to conduct a sprint planning meeting,
even before anyone spoke, I sensed a disturbance
a kind of invisible friction that made it clear, things were not as they should be
developers were avoiding eye contact
no active participation by the team members in the meeting
one of the developers mentioned that scrum master is the blocker for the team!
That day, I realized something powerful
Because all I ever wanted was to help the team succeed.
Scrum Masters and Developers often work toward the same goal, but speak completely different languages.
Developers want flow, focus, and freedom.
Scrum Masters want clarity, alignment, and improvement.
And when these two intents collide, misunderstandings are born
not because of incompetence, but because of perspective.
If you have ever felt misunderstood, undervalued…you are not alone.
Here are few reasons Developers perceive Scrum Masters as obstructions
- Too many meetings that feel disconnected from the real work.
- Interruptions during deep work, even if the intention is good.
- SM takes the ownership of the process instead of enabling the team to own it.
- Perceived lack of technical understanding – developers to feel ‘you don’t get our challenges.’
- Trying to solve team problems quickly, instead of facilitating the team to solve them.
These are the approaches, I experimented with to overcome the challenge:
- Speak team’s language, understand tech constraints enough to empathize and ask better questions.
- Protect deep work time, align on meeting windows that respect developer flow.
- Shift from ‘process owner’ to ‘outcome enabler’ by showing how Scrum supports delivery, not delays it.
- Facilitate, don’t dictate, help the team discover answers instead of jumping in with solutions.
- Co-create ceremonies with the team so they feel relevant, crisp, and valuable.
From this experience, I gathered a few powerful lessons that I believe are worth sharing:
- Influence grows when teams feel you understand their world.
- Trust is built when you respect their focus and context.
- Developers don’t hate Scrum. They hate friction.
- Your real superpower is not process mastery, it is relationship mastery.
- When you enable flow, developers stop seeing a blocker, and start seeing a partner.
Have you experienced this situation in your team? comment below or share your takeaway.
If you think this could help someone in your network, feel free to share it with them.
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