#TrueScrumMaster 3: Sheepdog or Gardener?

Hosted and facilitated by Tobias Mayer, and held on the first Thursday of February, March, May, June, July and September 2025, this series of six ninety-minute conversations will help you understand the radically different nature of Scrum, and the role of the scrum master in keeping transitioning organisations on the true path towards a new way of working—and thinking. Each session has a different theme, which will be revealed a week or so ahead of the session. Watch this space.
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#TrueScrumMaster 3: Sheepdog or Gardener?
The scrum master role/accountability has always been best expressed and understood through metaphor. Starting with Ken Schwaber's sheepdog and evangelist analogies the scrum community has created many metaphors to try to explain the role, e.g. conductor, football coach, jester, janitor, old testament prophet, traffic cop, gardener, and many more. It would be interesting to explore these metaphors over time, and consider how the role of the scrum master has changed since scrum was first described.

References
The Liberated Scrum Master
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Recommended reading (or listening) in between sessions:
Scrum Notes
The People's Scrum
LinkedIn Posts

Previous #TrueScrumMaster session notes

1. What (exactly) is a Scrum Master?
2. Scrum is not Agile

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A spirited scrum master is Feste, the court jester in Twelfth Night, speaking truth to power. She is an Old Testament prophet, leading the people back to their true path, and she is Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio, sitting on the shoulder of the organisation, its whispering conscience. Historically, there has been no role in an organisation quite like this one.
— from Scrum Note 41, 2017