Agile 2009: The Bottleneck Game – The Five Focusing Steps
Monday, 31 August 2009
To illustrate the The Five Focusing Steps from the Theory of Constraints, Pascal and I co-presented The Bottleneck Game at Agile 2009. We had a lot of fun as usual and, in return, we’ve received lots of useful feedback to improve the way we run the session going forward.
Find out more about The Five Focusing Steps here.
What I Liked About the Session
- It was great to have the likes of Henrik Kniberg play the game and give us feedback.
- It was useful to have the opportunity to run the session as two parallel simulations.
- The two parallel simulations heightened the sense of urgency/stress (just like work!) because the two teams tried to compete with one another.
What Would Make the Session Perfect
- Limit the number of consultant players per simulation so players can all focus more.
- Use the microphones as presenters so that everyone can hear us!
- Run the second half of the session so we can apply the Theory of Constraints to our workplace (although this would require an additional 90 minutes!) and come up with a process improvement plan.
Feedback from bloggers on the session
- Patrick Kua shares his Lessons Learnt