A quiet spin before the planning begins

I remember the quiet hum of the projector warming up, the last few people finding their seats. The planning board was a blank slate, and the energy felt a bit brittle, like we were all holding our breath for the first contentious estimate.

When the air feels a bit too still

It’s not that anyone was being difficult. It was more that we were all so focused on the work ahead, we’d forgotten we were people in a room together. The silence before a big planning session can sometimes feel less like focus and more like a collective holding of breath.I’d brought the wheel up on the screen, a simple circle of colored segments. It wasn’t a tool for the work itself, but for the space just before it. Someone chuckled at one of the options, and that small sound was enough to shift the atmosphere.

The question that wasn't about the project

We gave it a spin. The pointer landed on a segment asking about a recent small win, outside of work. For a moment, the sprint goals and story points were completely forgotten. A developer mentioned finally fixing a leaky faucet, and a designer talked about a perfect cup of coffee that morning.It was only a minute or two of sharing. But the dynamic in the room changed. The focus was still there, but the sharp edges had been sanded down. We were a team again, not just a collection of roles facing a daunting backlog.

What the silence was holding

I think that initial stiffness is often just unspoken pressure. Everyone wants to contribute well, to be fair, to not be the one to hold things up. That weight needs a place to go before you can think clearly.

A different kind of readiness

After that brief detour into our small, human moments, turning to the Jira board felt different. The discussions that followed were still rigorous, but they felt more like a collaboration and less like a series of negotiations.