I agree with this. I have been switching between Scrum and Kanban mode with my team. I use Kanban when we are doing something new that is hard to estimate and when the work we are doing isn’t releasable in increments. After we get into a flow and can define tasks, we switch back to scrum.
We seem to be more productive when we are in scrum mode. Scrum gives us a goal and deadline to focus on. But honestly, Kanban is easier for team leader/manager. Our weekly sprints with Scrum have become a real grind for me. I am constantly falling behind on lining up work so the team can make it successfully through the sprint planning.
How much of the sprint planning to you take on your self vs. your team? I’m also curious about what metrics are helping your team members improve. Accuracy in estimating tasks is about all I have found useful.