By Helen Lui You know the drill - every morning everyone on your project team will huddle together and answer these three questions:

• What did you do yesterday?
• What are you going to do today?
• Is there anything in your way?

For some team members, this meeting can be a time sucking bureaucratic notion, and they would much rather be doing something else. They might even give “robotic” answer the questions, throw in some jargons or buzzwords, and hope that you will not question them further. When someone else is talking, they might put themselves on mute (if your scrum meetings are over the phone) and go back to work, oblivious to what their team members are saying, especially if they are rambling on and on. The point of scrum calls is to make the whole team aware of what’s going on in the larger project environment, and to help each other if there’s any impediment, but unfortunately, it does not always work that way in reality. Here are a few things you can do as the project manager or scrum master to keep your daily scrum calls interesting: Make It Live If at all possible, avoid having your scrum meetings on conference calls. It is better to have the team in the same room because face-to-face interactions can strengthen bonds between team members and body language can say a lot. Use a Medicine Ball ScrumMaster Kayleigh Main uses a 3 kg (6.5 pound) medicine ball during her scrum meetings. Why? Because the person who is speaking has to hold the medicine ball at arm’s length when s/he is giving the updates. When s/he is finished, the ball will be passed onto the next person. Having to hold the extra weight ensures that the person who is talking will keep the update short and to the point. The goal is keep the meetings under 15 minutes everyday. Resolve Hidden Problems Because they might be scared to cause a fuss, team members may say they have “no impediments” during the scrum call even when they are experiencing issues. Thus, these issues are “hidden” to you and not logged on in the issues log. These minor issues can escalate and become bigger issues that may even delay your sprint completion date. Before you are up until midnight for a week trying to fix problems that you did not even know existed. It is important to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable talking openly. Listen carefully to what each person has to say during the scrum calls and ask probing questions - sometimes they may indirectly hint at issues that require your attention. Take it offline if you need to, but don’t let these hidden issues slip by. Learn How Your Product Works Sometimes, your developer and engineer may not bring their problems to you because they feel you would not understand anyways. If you do not come from a technical background, you may want to invest some time learning about the technology behind the product your team is building. You will gain everyone’s respect when you can speak their language. Give Lots of Energy Scrum meetings usually happen first thing in the morning, and you can use this as an opportunity to motivate your team for the rest of the day. When it’s your turn to speak, speak with lots of enthusiasm and excitement. When done correctly, daily scrum meetings are a wonderful tool to help the team set short term goals and commit to them. It can also eliminate miscommunicate and duplicate work, and identify problems. About Helen Lui Helena Lui is an instructor at www.examspm.com. Sign up for a free PMP class today.