Widen Your Gaze
- Mary Iqbal
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
When people first step into the Scrum Master accountability, they often focus entirely on the Scrum Team. That’s understandable—after all, the Scrum Guide describes the Scrum Master as accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness.
But here’s the thing: Scrum Teams don’t exist in a vacuum. Their success—or failure—is heavily influenced by the broader organization around them.
If a Scrum Master only focuses on the Scrum team itself, they risk missing opportunities for improving Scrum within the organization.
A Story About a Narrow View
I once worked with a Scrum Master whose team was struggling. Morale was low and delivery was suffering and stakeholders were unhappy with what was being delivered.
As I dug in, I discovered something interesting: the problem wasn’t just inside the team. The team’s stakeholders were frustrated because the process for requesting work was inefficient and confusing. This in turned caused the Scrum team to work on lower priority work while higher priority items were bogged down in the request process.
I asked the Scrum Master if she tried working with organizational leaders and the Product Owner to streamline the request process or to help the Scrum teams improve the way they interacted with stakeholders.
Her response surprised me.
She said, “That’s not my job. My job is to coach the Scrum Team—not the organization.”
That mindset is one of the biggest traps that new Scrum Masters can fall into.
Scrum Masters Serve Beyond the Team
Scrum Masters absolutely support their teams—but that’s only part of what they are accountable for. Scrum Masters should serve the organization by helping everyone understand and apply Scrum effectively.
That means sometimes stepping outside the team’s immediate circle. It means helping stakeholders, leaders, and other departments understand how to engage with Scrum Teams in ways that support—not hinder—value delivery. It can also mean that the Scrum Master should work with stakeholders to improve processes that surround the Scrum team, such as the request process or any internal structures that support the Scrum team.
Because if a Scrum Master focuses only on the team, they might miss systemic issues that are keeping that team from succeeding.
In the story above, the Scrum Team couldn’t improve its delivery without the organization improving how work requests flowed into the Product Backlog. The Scrum Master didn’t need to take over that process, but she did need to help make it better.
Widening the Gaze
Improving Scrum within an organization requires seeing beyond the boundaries of the team.
That might mean:
Working with leaders to improve processes surrounding the Scrum team (such as a work request process, deployment processes, financial processes, leadership approach, bonus structures and even the review process)
Helping stakeholders understand what incremental delivery means and why it's valuable.
Helping stakeholders understand how to engage in the Sprint Review
Coaching Product Owners on stakeholder management beyond the Sprint Review
Really the list here is endless.
The Scrum Master’s influence should ripple outward, helping the organization learn how to support agility, not just how to “do Scrum.”
Scrum Is a Team Sport—But the Field Is Bigger Than You Think
Scrum Masters are change agents. Their purpose is to improve the adoption of Scrum throughout the organization—not just within a single team.
When Scrum Masters widen their gaze, they can identify the systems, policies, and cultural patterns that either enable or block agility.
By helping the organization improve, Scrum Masters help their teams thrive.
Work Smarter, Not Harder with Scrum
A Scrum Master’s job isn’t just to coach the team—it’s to help the whole organization use Scrum effectively.
If you find yourself saying, “That’s not my job,” it might be time to take another look. Sometimes, the key to helping your team succeed lies just outside its borders.
To learn more about the Scrum Master accountability, sign up for Rebel Scrum's Professional Scrum Master course.
