The Agile Team Destroyed by a Toxic Feedback Loop | Deborah Colombari

Deborah Colombari: The Agile Team Destroyed by a Toxic Feedback Loop

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

"Whenever we almost started to achieve norming, we went back to storming." - Deborah Colombari

Deborah shares the story of a team of about twelve developers and QA specialists that kept losing people one by one. The early signal was not a technical problem. It was turnover. A toxic direct leader created pressure, blame, and snarky responses whenever the team tried to explain what was happening. Because that leader's own manager behaved the same way, Deborah saw a reinforced pattern rather than an isolated personality problem. The team could not stabilize. Every time it moved toward norming, someone left or someone new arrived, sending the team back into storming. Knowledge walked out the door with the people who left, delivery dates slipped, morale dropped, and a fixed-date call center project was eventually canceled. Deborah's story is a sharp systems thinking reminder for Scrum Masters: sometimes the problem is not inside the team. The team may be showing the symptoms of a system that punishes honesty, overloads people, and teaches them that leaving is safer than speaking.

In this segment, we talk about Russell Ackoff, his systems thinking interview with Haynes Media Works, and the Tuckman model.

Self-reflection Question: What turnover or morale signals are you treating as team problems when they may be system problems?

Featured Book of the Week: Russell Ackoff Interview by Haynes Media Works

Instead of a book, Deborah recommends an old Russell Ackoff interview from Haynes Media Works. She connects Ackoff's thinking to Donella Meadows and to the practical work of Scrum Masters. Deborah highlights how Ackoff explains that the outcome a system is designed to produce affects how the whole system behaves. Her example is health care: if the system rewards treating sickness, it becomes a disease-care system instead of a health system. For Scrum Masters, the lesson is direct. Teams are systems, companies are systems, and the incentives around them shape what they do. Deborah uses Ackoff's work to remind us to look at feedback loops before assuming people are the problem.

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About Deborah Colombari

Deborah is an Enterprise Agile Coach with a decade of experience championing Agile principles across organizations. Passionate about collaboration and continuous improvement, Deborah genuinely loves what she does—empowering others to work smarter, deliver value, and thrive in dynamic environments.

You can link with Deborah Colombari on LinkedIn.