Mindset practice questions

Stop doing retrospectives to save time for coding.

Why wrong: Retrospectives are essential for improvement.

Assign tasks to members by seniority to ensure speed.

Why wrong: This undermines the self-organizing team structure.

Increase the sprint length to provide more time.

Why wrong: Sprint length should remain consistent to maintain a cadence.

Tell the team they must adapt to the manager's style.

Why wrong: This fails to address the root issue.

Report the team for lack of productivity.

Why wrong: The team is not the root cause of the morale issue.

Become the manager and direct all work.

Why wrong: This reinforces the micromanagement culture.

Disband the team and create new ones.

Why wrong: This avoids the root cause of the behavior.

Identify the individual responsible for the failure.

Why wrong: This kills psychological safety.

Ask the manager to provide disciplinary actions.

Why wrong: This is contrary to the servant leadership model.

Implement mandatory overtime to finish tasks.

Why wrong: Mandatory overtime is contrary to sustainable pace.

Mandate daily status reports to the PMO.

Why wrong: This increases overhead rather than team autonomy.

Assign specific tasks to individuals without team input.

Why wrong: This reduces team collaboration and self-organization.

Accept the change and extend the sprint duration.

Why wrong: Extending the sprint ruins the cadence.

Refuse all changes immediately.

Why wrong: Agile welcomes change, but it must be managed.

Ask the stakeholders to approve the change first.

Why wrong: The team and PO should manage the sprint backlog.

Publicly reprimand the team member during the next meeting.

Why wrong: Public reprimands destroy psychological safety.

Ignore the behavior to avoid conflict.

Why wrong: Ignoring negative behavior erodes psychological safety.

Remove the team member from the project immediately.

Why wrong: This is an extreme action without prior feedback or coaching.

Agree to the terms but plan to change them later.

Why wrong: This is dishonest and damages trust.

Refuse to work on the project.

Why wrong: This is not a collaborative approach.

Submit a formal complaint to the executive board.

Why wrong: Escalation should be a last resort; influence is preferred.

Rejecting all feedback until the next project phase.

Why wrong: This is rigid and ignores the Agile mindset.

Changing the team members every sprint.

Why wrong: Stability is important for high-performing teams.

Strictly following the initial project roadmap.

Why wrong: This is waterfall, not Agile.

To report to the board on team failure.

Why wrong: This is not a constructive leadership role.

To command and control the team.

Why wrong: This is a traditional, non-Agile approach.

To make all technical decisions.

Why wrong: Technical decisions belong to the team.

Report the developer to HR.

Why wrong: This is an overreaction to a training issue.

Force the developer to pair against their will.

Why wrong: This leads to resentment.

Ask them to work alone until they are more comfortable.

Why wrong: This avoids the team practice.

Let the team struggle indefinitely without guidance.

Why wrong: Servant leaders provide support, not just abandonment.

Make all decisions for the team.

Why wrong: This creates a dependency on leadership.

Ask the client to make every decision.

Why wrong: This slows down development.

Fire the individual.

Why wrong: This is not a collaborative leadership action.

Ignore it since the individual is productive.

Why wrong: Hoarding knowledge is a risk to team sustainability.

Promote the high-performer to a lead role.

Why wrong: This reinforces the silo behavior.

Ask them to provide their own plan.

Why wrong: This is an unprofessional response.

Tell them to wait for the final product.

Why wrong: This is dismissive.

Create a detailed plan to satisfy them.

Why wrong: This goes against the Agile principle of responding to change.

Start asking all the questions yourself.

Why wrong: This turns the stand-up into a status report.

Tell them they have to do it because it is required.

Why wrong: This is poor servant leadership.

Cancel the stand-up.

Why wrong: The ceremony has value if facilitated correctly.

Continue the current path to avoid missing the sprint deadline.

Why wrong: Continuing a failing path is waste.

Hide the issue and fix it next sprint.

Why wrong: Transparency is key; hiding issues causes bigger problems.

Blame the architect for the bad design.

Why wrong: This is toxic behavior.

Tell them to work faster.

Why wrong: Working faster without process improvements causes burnout.

Assign more work to fill their time.

Why wrong: Adding more work hurts flow.

Extend the sprint.

Why wrong: Extending the sprint avoids the root cause.

The team always completes 100% of the work.

Why wrong: While good, it doesn't guarantee a healthy team culture.

No one ever disagrees.

Why wrong: Lack of disagreement often means lack of engagement or safety.

The team follows the manager's instructions.

Why wrong: This is compliance, not a self-organizing mindset.

Replacing people faster.

Why wrong: This doesn't solve the turnover issue.

Lowering the performance expectations.

Why wrong: This doesn't fix the underlying issue.

Hiring more senior developers.

Why wrong: The issue is likely systemic.

To satisfy auditors.

Why wrong: While helpful for auditors, its primary purpose is process improvement.

To make the team work harder.

Why wrong: Transparency is about visibility, not pressure.

So everyone knows who to blame.

Why wrong: Blame is the opposite of an Agile mindset.

Tell them it's too late.

Why wrong: Agile embraces change.

Charge the stakeholder for the rework.

Why wrong: This is a transactional approach, not Agile.

Do the change immediately without question.

Why wrong: Changes need evaluation to ensure they add value.