The hardest thing about Scrum?

to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.

What is best thing about Scrum?

Wow. There are so many good things, hard to choose the best.

• That we get to be ourselves (less than we pretended sometimes, more than we showed before)
  
• That we get to help others more effectively
• That we get to tell the truth
• That we deliver more business value (pretty important in a recession)
  
• That we can see the truth better
• That we can see the progress we have made (eg, by removing impediments)
• That we have more fun
• That we get to enjoy being in and contributing to a respectful team
• That we can have more pride in our work

OK, fine, but what is the hardest thing about Scrum?

Well, at first, it seems like figuring out all the practices is often the hardest. All the fine art of doing Scrum.

Then, Scrum makes more apparent all the problems we have doing our work. And new product development is always hard. And our organizations, it becomes quickly apparent, are beyond stupid in how they support the team. So, these painful truths are hard.

Then there is the relentless pursuit of perfection. It is hard, everyday, to admit that you and the team are not perfect yet, and there are more impediments to remove, more Kaizen to do, more change. Relentless. And hard on the ego. One wants to believe one can plateau out, one has reached perfection, and can mentally rest. Accepting this never-ending road is hard (although, once accepted, more fun).

Finally there is the mirror. "Hi. I am Joe. I am a recovering waterfallic." We have to admit that deep in our hearts, Scrum values and principles forever elude us. Yes, we get them some, maybe more on some days than others. But even the best of us want to follow other values and other principles sometimes. Even I (whomever "I" is).

I want a silver bullet.
I want to tell people how to do it.
I want to make the Team self-organize. [Is this an oxymoron or what? But we, in effect, say these things to ourselves.]
I want to be seen as the smartest (as though that were relevant to the Team's success).
I want to have a contract, not accept that collaborating through change is more valuable.
I want to prove that my box/silo, which I can fully control [quite an illusion that one], is successful. Rather than accept that I only influence the success of the team. And that the only meaningful success is team success, really customer success.

And many more.

It is so easy, so normal, to think we 'get it' when we don't.

I think it is very hard to see, and hard to accept, that we ourselves are stupid and revert back to 'wrong' ideas.

How to deal with this?
Umm. Very hard. Only simple things can be said. Continually question whether our thoughts and suggestions are consistent with Lean-Agile-Scrum values and principles. Allow others to continually question that. Assume that we are making some errors in this way, and ask ourselves "where are the areas where I am most violating the values and principles of Lean-Agile-Scrum?"

Let us struggle with this, with some compassion for ourselves. But with some renewed energy also, to, for example, ask for feedback.

PS. And we hope you like the Picasso. Girl before a mirror. Museum of Modern Art, NYC.