Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

When Great Scrum Masters Fail—The Hidden Cost of Poor Value Communication | Joel Bancroft-Connors

Jun 2, 2025

Joel Bancroft-Connors, known as The Gorilla Coach, is a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile disruptor. He shares his insights on the often-overlooked importance of effectively communicating value beyond mere team performance. Despite having successful teams, Joel faced challenges when leadership could not see their impact, leading to budget cuts and loss of support. He stresses the need for Scrum Masters to actively engage with stakeholders and articulate their contributions to business outcomes, drawing inspiration from examples like Ted Lasso.

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ANECDOTE

Success Fails Without Value Communication

Joel Bancroft-Connors experienced success with agile teams at AOL but ultimately failed to sustain it.
The failure was due to poor communication of value to leadership, leading to coaching support being cut and team decline.

INSIGHT

Team Success Isn't Enough

Team success alone does not prove delivery of meaningful value.
Agile coaches must connect team improvements explicitly to business outcomes.

ADVICE

Communicate Your Value Clearly

Scrum Masters and coaches must actively communicate their contributions and the value they create to leadership.
Make your involvement clear by sharing specific actions and results, not just team success metrics.

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Joel Bancroft-Connors: When Great Scrum Masters Fail—The Hidden Cost of Poor Value Communication

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.

Joel shares a powerful lesson about the critical importance of communicating value beyond team performance. Despite achieving remarkable success with multiple teams as an agile coach, Joel and his colleagues ultimately failed because they couldn't effectively demonstrate their value to leadership. The teams were thriving, but when budget cuts came, the coaching support was eliminated first. Without ongoing support, these successful teams began to deteriorate. Joel emphasizes that as Scrum Masters and agile coaches, we must actively communicate our impact and connect team success to business outcomes. Simply assuming that good team performance speaks for itself is not enough - we need to interact more with stakeholders and clearly articulate the value we create.

In this episode, we refer to the TV series Ted Lasso, and the books Start with Why by Simon Sinek, and Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins.

Self-reflection Question: How effectively are you communicating the business value of your Scrum Master activities to leadership, and what specific metrics or stories could better demonstrate your impact?

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About Joel Bancroft-Connors

Joel Bancroft-Connors is The Gorilla Coach — a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile disruptor focused on sustainable value and effectiveness. With a background in product, project, and coaching, Joel blends sharp insights with practical tools to help teams thrive. He is a Miro power user and rocks curated classroom playlists.

You can link with Joel Bancroft-Connors on LinkedIn.