Thanks Dave. This post certainly isn't easy. In cases like these, it helps me to take a step back from the Scrum framework and ask yourself: "If a team is really suffering from a deep and pervasive conflict, and they don't take action themselves, should you really keep them suffering if you're in a position to help?".

So the scenario we’re really talking about here is agonizing and pervasive conflict. We’re not talking about a mundane conflict or a “lack of culture fit” (as one commenter noted). I’ve been in two of those situations, and I wish them onto no-one. Its horrible. Since we made this part of the official Professional Scrum Master II Class, we’ve had many similar stories from Scrum Masters about experiences of a similar magnitude. And the struggles they faced in figuring out how to move forward. The Scrum Guide provides no clear guidance here because these situations are incredibly messy, and any black/white text in the guide would be turned into a rule for situations that can’t be captured in rules.

So there is no right or wrong answer here. But would you feel that this has become an impediment that transcends the self-organizing capacity of the Scrum team? Does it end up harming to empirical process to the point of breaking it down?