Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches · 2026-06-30 · 19 min
Gunnar Fischer: The Anti-Pattern Bingo Team - When Success Is a Zero-Sum Game 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: . "This was neither Scrum, nor a team. It was more like the anti-pattern bingo team." - Gunnar Fischer When Gunnar took his first job abroad, he walked straight into what he calls the "anti-pattern bingo team" - a supposed Scrum team that was neither Scrum nor a team. The company was in trouble, the team had a bad reputation and was used as a punching bag, the manager-of-manager treated them like a stepchild, and the new manager didn't seem to know what he had signed up for. The team members themselves didn't really want to work together. The goals slipped. Decisions were made in back rooms, outside the official meetings. And underneath it all sat the most corrosive belief Gunnar names: that success is a zero-sum game - if you win, I lose. With that mindset, there is no team, just individuals defending turf. One pattern stuck with him so clearly he gave it a name: sandcastle planning.
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