All Blacks scrum… is da best scrum

Over a recent retrospective we inspected and discussed the ‘path to greatness’ for every agile team. To learn from the best, we watched the New Zealand Rugby team’s greatest plays

The idea was to identify traits and characteristics, to help us improve. And here is the list we ended up with

Passion & energy 
As Donald Trump says “If you don’t have passion, you have no energy; and if you don’t have energy, you have nothing”. As mentioned by the developers: It's visible and very obvious the All Blacks’ players live their childhood dreams. The passion and the energy are so strong, and the players are turned into unstoppable team force.

Dedication and Willingness to sacrifice 
The players risk grave injuries and even their lives in many of the runs and plays, all in the pursuit of victory.

Clear vision and goal(s) 
To be the greatest rugby team of all times; To win every game and dominate every other team.

Team results > all 
Every player cares only for the common good; There are no internal competition, envy, jealousy, or destructive internal politics

Teamwork all the time, all the way 
Every time a player runs, he is covered by the team! 4-5 players run in parallel, guarding, supporting, removing impediments or just being ready to help if needed. Often, their support is not even needed, still they keep doing it all the time.

Smashing impediments decisively 
Opponent players are neutralized quickly and efficiently. There is no hesitation, everybody acts quickly and decisively when things go wrong.

Everybody leads 
In different plays, different players lead and score. Everybody is eager to act and lead the team to score yet another point and achieve victory.

Great preparation and training
Strength, speed, reflexes, positioning, timing - it is clear everybody is going the extra mile of the extra mile constantly, to be in the best shape.

   

In the end, a quick reminder, even the best scrum could fail sometimes… and that’s ok, as long as we learn