Stakeholders praise the county elections-systems coach for keeping every clerk “100% busy.” How should the coach reframe success?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A packed calendar is not the same as ballots that work. Full clerks with stuck flow is a traffic jam, not a win. Measure whether election value moves, not whether everyone looks busy.
Full Explanation
When stakeholders praise a county elections-systems coach for keeping every clerk "100% busy," the coach should reframe success toward enabling value delivery and flow rather than treating utilization theater as the goal. Packed calendars with stuck ballot-related work are a traffic jam, not a civic win. Advanced Scrum Master / Team Coach success is whether election value moves reliably, not whether everyone looks occupied.
Raising utilization above 100% by assigning clerks to two elections workstreams fails because over-allocation increases multitasking, queues, and delay. Scoring each clerk's idle minutes at the System Demo fails because it weaponizes busyness and displaces outcome inspection. Replacing flow metrics with a busyness dashboard fails because the county board then optimizes calendars instead of throughput and predictability for elections systems.
Exam caveat: high utilization can coexist with terrible flow; the exam wants coaches who will not confuse the two. Operational check: publish flow metrics (WIP, cycle time, throughput) beside any capacity views, stop idle-minute scoring, coach stakeholders with examples where full calendars delayed voter-facing increments, and redefine praise around Done, releasable elections capability.