'Scrum' it up in HR!!!!

The word 'Scrum' transports me back to my school days when me and my friends used to play a customised form of the game 'rugby'. We never had a rugby ball but rather played the game with a tennis ball/Cosco ball.

It was fun even though I doubt if any one of us had iota of an idea about the rules of the original game. The rules were also prescribed by us.

But certain things remained similar to the real game of 'Rugby'. We experienced fantastic camaraderie, had loads of fun but often at the cost of profuse sweating and regular injuries. And And And.....Well Well Well... 'the Scrum'.

One of our greatest lesson from the game was 'Scrum'.

In rugby, scrum is where the whole team acts together with every member moving with everyone else to push the ball down the field.

This ensures complete involvement of the players ensuring greater capacity building that translates to easily visible individual and team ownership.

According to this article in Business Line ' Scrum, a term borrowed from the rugby field, is an iterative incremental process of software development and is practised by everyone at Infospace India, Bangalore-based Web design and applications company.'

Scrum is also a new age software development method that uses the principle of Agile.

What I personally gauge [ I can be wrong!!!] from the Business Line article mentioned above is that it's more or less like a pit stop break which is used in racing or the 10 minutes strategy break used in IPL. Though, I am sure it's only one of the many elements of 'Scrum' in organisational context.

In the organisational context, this means a meeting before the work resumes on the next day with the purpose of seeking answers to certain critical questions that might seem too generic in the normal rigmarole.

Now, I do not know what Scrum is exactly all about in the process development context. Similarly, I did not know much about the real 'Rugby' in my school days but still we had as much fun and passion for the game as the kids who played the real rugby.

Hence, I would also like the HR folks to take the best out of the Scrum philosophy and use it in the HR team.

Here are a few suggestions on use of Scrum in HR:
1. Have a few minutes of Scrum meeting before work resumes.
2. Ask key questions to team on their work status.
3. Encourage simple yet effective interaction.
4. Act as a facilitator to seek answers from them to resolve their problems. If required seek help from others as well as give your own suggestions.
5. Instill a sense of Individual ownership for everyone and explain how it would reflect on the team ownership when considered with utmost sincerity and passion.
6. Allow a little element of fun and humour to make it sincere and not serious [As Chetan Bhagat says].

So what you waiting for HR folks. Time to move the 'rugby muscles'!!!!!!!