On large scale scrum programs or scaled agile portfolios it is often easy to have people come and go from the village without all of the community knowing.  Often new people are welcomed to their immediate scrum team, announced at scrum of scrums or an email is sent around.  I’ve observed that new people are often not recognised for a long while by other villagers walking past, and more commonly by the Business Scrum attendees who are often not sitting with the teams everyday. While it may seem like a small transition, eventually the newbie will settle in and everyone will know him - or will they?The act of welcoming new people and helping them to feel settled is dependent upon the behaviours of those already here. The villagers need to actively welcome a person, not just ‘talk about’ it. Being active in welcomeing people and introducing them to the entire program helps to bring them into the culture you'd like to sustain as well as speeding up their ability to collaborate and be productive.

While there is a number of more well know activities for welcoming people into the scrum team; it's also important for the whole agile portfolio to acknowledge they are part of a bigger village.  A Town Hall or Portfolio Sprint Reviews are great places for the personal introductions however for those who work with us and aren't regulars to turning up it's also great to share the news at the Scrum of Scrums and Business Scrums ceremonies.  We create an Agile Portfolio Billboard as a great space for profiling information to everyone. In the same way you have a Dashboard for builds, velocity, engagement it's great to have a Billboard as a live source of communication that maintains news, decisions and changes for the entire program.

Update the team space by adding in a persona card that includes;

• A clear photo so that we associate the face with the name

• Their name, their team – and their location; especially if it’s a large spread out program or distributed teams so that we have context when the newbie speaks and we have visibility of transitions that may impact the teams

• Add in personal details that help to create ice-breaker conversations and for others to easily become familiar with the person. The more familiar we are with someone, the easier it is to have a conversation and to collaborate

• For example; “favourite bands now & when you we’re a teenager”, weekend passions, and of-course being a Melbourner, asking what coffee they like is a must!

(due to privacy laws we couldn't show the team photos, hence the drawings :) )

It's a simple task that creates some tangible and lasting benefits;

• Give others visibility so they can say hi rather than just walk past

• Remind Business Scrum we’re real people on the project, have lives and also give them some icebreaker opportunity to engage with the teams

• Helps us old people remember the newbies names with the faces...you'll be amazed when you work across large programs how many people don't everyones name - we just don't admit all the time

This is one simple step to building a welcoming, friendly and collaborative culture. There are many others available or create your own; remember to keep it simple, friendly and encouraging for people to communicate, build trust and connect with one another.