Somewhere during the series of Corona-crises, I started with a newsletter to connect and remain in touch with interested people around the world (April 2021). Fortunately, I never intended it to be a regular newsletter, meaning having to release at a fixed interval. I would have brutally failed. Somewhere along that journey (of irregularly collecting and sharing little snippets of news and updates) I started calling my newsletter “The Scrum Caretaker Courier” and started numbering them (September 2022). I was hoping at some point to design my newsletter like the front page of a newspaper (a mix of articles). That never worked out, so I’m stuck with enforcing a linear reading exercise on my subscribers. What did work out, is the use of the color scheme that resembles an old, worn-out newspaper (text color #5F5948 on background color #EAE0C4).
At first I only sent my Scrum Caretaker Couriers to the official subscribers (via MailChimp integrated with my webshop, 4k+ people in the meantime). Sign up here if interested to receive my snippets first-hand. Then I realized I am also connected to interested people via the Scrum Caretakers Meetup group (1k+ people), so I started sharing a short summary and a link to the online version of my Scrum Caretaker Courier there too. And after I sent nr. 12 recently, I woke up (almost screaming) because I remembered that there are also quite a few people (400+) that have agreed to receive updates from my blog via e-mail. Did I already share that I have this unbearably slow-thinking brain? So, allow me to hereby address them (YOU) and all others just happening to stumble upon my website (YOU also). By the way, if ever you would be interested, there is even an historical archive available kept by MailChimp with all Scrum Caretaker Courier editions.
The Scrum Caretaker Courier 12: About Time
A few weeks ago, as our part of the world was moving from 2024 to 2025, I finally started processing all the ideas and topics I had been collecting for Scrum Caretaker Courier nr. 12. Establishing ‘time’ as the guiding theme helped me tremendously, in the same way that having a catchy title first helps me to write blogs, articles and whitepapers. A clear theme sets the tone and defines the overall focus. And the theme might still change while writing.The theme of ‘time’ drove me towards sharing some thoughts on the concept itself, towards looking back and looking forward in time, but also towards less time-bound topics, ideas that are beyond time (at least for me for the time being). Along the way I eliminated a lot of topics and words, which is probably one of the reasons that it took me so long to get this Scrum Caretaker Courier out.
We are now January 2025. So, it’s also “about time” to have this edition delivered to you.
As I was jotting down my thoughts and observations on the past, I again had to face the fact that in 2024 my business didn’t really prosper, to say the least. Although it hadn’t been too magnificent in 2023 either, 2024 was worse. It is helpful to not hide hard truths from ourselves, no matter how far back in time.
I still remember leaving my title and position of Global Scrum Leader and Principal Consultant at the large global consulting company called Capgemini in the spring of 2013 to take up a partnership with Ken Schwaber and a position at Scrum.org. I started my one-person company for that reason. Although it was a decision that was fairly quickly made (the time it took to drive home from Amsterdam to Antwerp on a Friday evening), it still was an intensely scary one. Because I am a complete and total non-entrepreneur (Am I then to call myself a “nontrepreneur”?).
When three years later I terminated my exclusive work with Ken and as Director for the Professional Scrum series at Scrum.org, I decided to not look for employment at a company again. I decided to remain independent and (try to) stand on my own two feet, despite all my slightly hypochondriacal fears and worries. I called my one-person company “Ullizee-Inc” and I started calling myself an “independent Scrum Caretaker”. As a one-person company, all other titles felt silly and I am a total DIY person anyhow, thereby acting as CEO, CFO, cleaning person, helpdesk, support agent, administrator and marketing director. But, most important, with my self-chosen ‘title’ I wanted to express being someone who not only cares about Scrum, but also about the people impacted by Scrum. I strongly believe that any Scrum Master can and should be expected to act as a such too, as a ‘Scrum Caretaker’. To emphasise what truly drives me, I later added my personal purpose to my self-chosen title: “an independent Scrum Caretaker on a journey of humanizing the workplace with Scrum”.
Much has happened since going self-employed in 2013. Being very insecure and risk-averse, more often than not it is hard, uncertain and stressful to run my own business and make sure that the bills get paid and that my family is housed and fed. My thoughts often spin out of control when (on endless repeat) I start thinking back of the many events and elements that over all these years have contributed to the current state of my business. I tend to inevitably focus on the less pleasant ones. I could mention and call them out (and probably even should), but to what point, I also always end up thinking. And…I would never go back to being employed anyhow. Every single position and title in every enterprise I left behind, I left behind for good reasons: integrity, values and principles.
I also remember starting the Scrum Caretakers Meetup group and meeting in-person with its first members in July 2016, the evening before the Scrum Day Europe event in Amsterdam. My original intent with this Meetup group was to geographically scale down (to a more manageable reach) and just build bridges between my (since 2011) professional home country, the Netherlands, and my (still today) personal home country, Belgium. Despite my financial and personal investments, it plainly didn’t work. I stopped spending time on it. It was when the pandemic hit us that I revived the Meetup group by taking it online and global. 2023 was the year where the number of members surpassed 1k, despite my limited activities. In the fall of 2024, I finally started engaging with the group again. And I plan to keep doing that.
It is part of some overarching strategy. I want to limit posting, publishing or responding on public (so-called ‘social media’) platforms. Elaborating on the why of that ambition is one of the subjects that I eliminated as I was composing this Scrum Caretaker Courier. I will share it in a future blog post or Scrum Caretaker Courier. Just know that it boils down to the fact that it’s taking too much energy to distinguish the signal from the noise and clutter on those platforms. I prefer spending my time on more valuable work. So, instead, I envision communicating more directly to the people subscribed to my Scrum Caretaker Courier newsletter and to the members of the Scrum Caretakers Meetup group.
Furthermore, there is no escaping (anymore) that my main occupation is now officially (has actually been for a few years and has to be) Home Caretakery. Period.
If you want to read about my thoughts, experiences, struggles, plans, challenges and ambitions, loosely organized around ‘time’: read Scrum Caretaker Courier 12 online and/or subscribe for my future Scrum Caretaker Couriers.
I wish you a wonderful time ahead, imagined or real.
Warm regards
Gunther
independent Scrum Caretaker
I very much enjoyed reading your article. You have a way of calming your readers with your take on the world: here’s someone who walked away from corporate and has it all figured out. An inspiration!
Thank you for the kind words, Melissa.
Now, “having it all worked out” is not really how it feels. But I probably wouldn’t want it another way.