I am sure than one team has encountered some resistance to the time that scrum meetings take out of a working day. The meeting that I have found encounters this reaction the most is the retrospective.

I think the reason for this, is the way that the meetings are sometimes conducted. With a chart on the wall with continue, stop, more of, less of  or similar and people asked to discuss their concerns. This is all very un-British and like counselling or something!

Know your audience - If the group isn't giving good feedback we should adapt:

• Have an informal chat in a pub/cafe (a pub may give you more honest feedback!) 
• Use more informal language if the team respond better to it:
  • What do we hate about work?
  • What would make the job less rubbish?
  • What is good but we don't do enough of?
  • What is bad that we should have less of?
• Try anonymous submission of topics to discuss (although transparency is important so use this sparingly)
• For the people that are reluctant to participate because "it is a waste of time" remind them that they are getting paid for this time so they should enjoy it!
• Anything else you can think of! There aren't any rules.

I should also add that it can take a while for a team to adapt to this kind of meeting, so give the meeting a chance rather than abandoning it altogether it really is a valuable tool to improve. {jcomments on}