TO create a team that delivers value now and in the future
AS A group of individuals
WE NEED to create an agreed way of working.

Immediately after the Profile Card Exercise, we create the team’s manifesto.

The Definition of Team (Duration: 15 – 25 minutes)

We begin by asking the group: “What does ‘Team’ mean to you?” We use the Clustering Exercise to ensure we collect everybody’s ideas.

The Clustering Exercise

1. Brainstorm ideas: Pose a question to the crowd. Ask everyone to write down their answers in silence, describing each idea or thought in no more than a few words on individual Post-its. Set aside 3- 5 minutes for this.
2. Share ideas: Ask each member to go through their entire stack by reading out a Post-it then posting it up one at a time. Ensure everyone can see the information being posted up.
3. Cluster ideas: Ask everyone to group the Post-its by theme. The clustering must be done in silence so that individuals cannot verbally influence one another’s way of grouping.
4. Identify themes: Select a cluster then read out the individual Post-its one by one. Ask the group to give the cluster a theme. Write down the theme on a Post-it and place it at the centre of the cluster. Repeat this step with each process.
5. Vote for themes: Count up the total number of themes then divide it by 3. The product is the number of votes given to each member. Ask each member to vote for their preferred themes. If someone feels particularly strongly for a theme, they can allocate all their votes to a single theme.
6. Spot the top themes: Count up the total number of votes per theme. Note down the number of votes on the associated theme Post-it.
7. Select the top themes: Write out the question you posed to the group as a heading on an A0 piece of paper. Identify and agree with the group up to top 5 themes to form the group’s collective answers to the question. Write down the themes as a numbered list below the question heading.

Once we’ve defined the team values, we take a break. After the break, we move on to the second exercise to build up our team manifesto.

The Definition of Quality (Duration: 15 – 20 minutes)

Quality is an integral part of everything we do. We’ll have many conversations with the team throughout the project about Quality, so it’s important to define upfront what Quality means to us.

Next, we ask the team “What does Quality means to you?” using the Clustering Exercise. Again, we begin by finding out what Quality means to each individual and then come to a common understanding of what it means to the team.

Why define Quality?

• To come to a common understanding of Quality.
• To find out how important Quality is for the team.
• To tap into the team’s sense of professional pride.
• It helps team members to stick up for what they believe in, because they’re supported by the team.
• It’s self-enforcing. Since the team came up with it, individuals are more likely to behave responsibly and encourage others to do the same.

Why is the Clustering exercise useful?

• It allows introvert thinkers to share their thoughts and ideas without being dominated or distracted by the extrovert thinkers in the group.
• It shows the coach how individual members behave in a group.
• It develops a sense of solidarity as a group works together to come up with a collective answer.

Now we have the information for creating two posters that make up the Team Manifesto. Here’s what we do next.

Linking Games with Our Work

This year Pascal and I are creating new conference sessions to demonstrate the bundles of tools and techniques we use when coaching Agile teams.

What Agile Means to Us

Agile is about delivering the highest business value possible faster by focusing on people and Continuous Improvement. While collaboration remains a key theme in everything we do, something more elemental has emerged out of our creative sessions: the importance of mutual understanding.

So what’s new?

‘The First Five Steps to Become Really Agile’ session is made up of 5 tools designed to help create a team out of a bunch of strangers and strengthen the relationships among an existing team. Each tool aims to help us better understand ourselves and each other.

• Tool #1: The Profile Card Exercise – To get to know other members of the team in a fun and creative way.
• Tool #2: The Agility Rating Exercise – To surface your own strengths and weaknesses so that you can come up with ways of improving yourself.
• Tool #3: The Find-the-Bottleneck Exercise – To focus your efforts on improving the bottleneck and have maximum impact on improving the system’s throughput.
• Tool #4: On Defining Acceptance Criteria – One way of defining ‘Done’. Follows the scenario definition format from Dan North: GIVEN[some context] WHEN [event] THEN [outcome]
• Tool #5: The 4-Quadrant Retrospective – To practice Continuous Improvement and become a little bit better at what you do every day.

This session was first presented at XPDay Switzerland in French earlier this month and has been subsequently presented in English among strangers now friends.

Imagine. Today was the first day with your new team. It wasn’t until after the Profile Card Exercise that we discovered: 1) most of the people know each other by sight; 2) none of them really knew each other at all. Judging from the smiles around the room, the ice breaker was a great first step in bringing us closer together. We always begin Day 1 with an icebreaker like the Profile Card Exercise.

The Profile Card Excercise (Duration: 10 minutes)

1. Ask everyone to form pairs. Suggest they pair up with someone they don’t already know.
2. Give them 5 minutes to produce a profile card for one another with the following information 1) their name; 2) a pet love; 3) a pet hate and 4) their contact details (email address and may be a phone number). Ask them to also include a photo-quality portrait of each other. And the acceptance criteria for the portrait? They should be able to recognise one another from the drawing.
3. Ask each pair to introduce their pair partner to the group.

We post the profile cards in the team space to serve as a pleasant souvenir from the team’s first day together. The cards help to brighten up the team space as well as attract the attention of those curious about what being part of an Agile team means.

Portia says: The Profile Card icebreaker is an old favourite of mine. The combination of creativity and group interaction gives people a great excuse to get to know one another, transforming the usually dull and dreary round-the-table self-introductions into a fun and exciting experience.
Pascal says: It helps me put names to faces! And it helps me get better at drawing.

Why the Profile Card ice breaker is useful

• To bootstrap conversations among a group of introverts
• To create an opportunity to talk about common interests
• To share personal information with others
• To attract visitors to the Agile team space
• To create the first shared experience fundamental to the development of a healthy team

Next, we take a giant step forward by creating our Team Manifesto.

What Went Well

• The organisers were really warm and welcoming
• The organisers set a good example as an Agile team – working to help one another
• The participants were enthusiastic
• The candid conversations about the Agile Values and our personal agility
• The range of session subject matter
• 60 out of 96 participants attended Pascal‘s and my session: Les cinq premiers pas pour devenir vraiment agile
• We had lots of fun together
• We all had a good laugh
• Vincent Raemy made a great conference chair
• The dinner in the dungeons at Les Armures where we dined on fondue like real hedonists
• We even played the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves card game with adventurous participants

What Went Wrong

• We didn’t expect to have 60 participants in our session – the session was designed for between 20 – 30 people
• There wasn’t enough room to network comfortably during lunch
• One day is too short for such a great conference!
• There weren’t enough interactive sessions
• We didn’t do a dry-run of our session with volunteer participants

Puzzles

• Where will next year’s XP Day Switzerland be held?

Lessons Learnt

• Set a maximum limit to our sessions
• Our personal agility is better judged by others than by ourselves because it’s usually difficult to evaluate ourselves objectively
• The Agile Values are just as important for beginner-Agilistas as they are for expert-Agilistas
• We become agile by always living the Agile Values
• Hedonism means finding what you love to do and doing it such as egalitarianism, community and friendship
• Being agile means knowing we don’t know it all
• Suisse fondue is made with three cheeses (Gruyère, Vacherin and ?). Now I have an excuse to return to Switzerland to find the answer!

This entry is also available in French!

Qu’est-ce qui était bon?

• Les organisateurs étaient très accueillants
• Les organisateurs faisaient un bon exemple d’une équipe agile – cela veut dire qu’on s’entre-aide l’un et l’autre
• Les participants étaient enthousiastes
• Les conversations ouvertes autour les valeurs agiles et notre agilité individuelle
• La diversité des sujets des sessions
• 60 sur 96 participants ont suivi la session Pascal et moi ont crée: Les cinq premiers pas pour devenir vraiment agile
• On s’est bien amusé ensemble
• On a bien ri
• Le rôle du facilitateur principal joué par Vincent Raemy
• Le dîner aux oubliettes au restaurant Les Armures où on mangeait la fondue comme les hédonistes
• On a même joué le jeu de Blanche Neige et Les Sept Nains avec quelques participants ludiques

Qu’est-ce qui était mauvais?

• Il n’était pas prévu qu’on serait aussi nombreux dans notre session – on n’attendait qu’entre 20 à 30 personnes
• Il n’y avait pas assez de place pour la circulation pendant le déjeuner
• Le congrès ne durait qu’un jour!
• Il n’y avait pas assez de sessions intéractives
• On n’a pas fait une répétition en avance avec les volontaires

Les questions grandes et petites

• Où se tiendra XP Day Suisse l’année prochaine?

Ce que j’ai (re-)appris

• On décide à la limite de participants dans nos sessions en avance
• Notre agilité personelle est jugée par les autres parce que normalement nous ne sommes pas assez bon juge de nous-mêmes
• Les valeurs agiles sont aussi importantes pour les débutant-agilistes que les agilistes expérimentés
• On devient agile en vivant les valeurs tout le temps
• Dans l’hédonisme il s’agit de trouver et de faire plus ce qui nous fait du bien, comme l’égalitarisme, la communauté, l’amitié
• L’agilité cela veut dire qu’on sait qu’on ne sait pas tout
• On fait la fondue avec trois fromages en Suisse (le Gruyère, le Vacherin et ?). Maintenant je suis obligée de retourner en Suisse pour trouver la réponse!

Voir ici pour ce billet en anglais!

This weekend kicked off with a fabulous night out with one of the most memorable teams I’ve had the good fortune to be part of. They’re memorable because they were the first delivery team to undergo Agile Enablement in a large organisation. I’m sure you can imagine the pressure and weight of expectation they had to shoulder. Being pioneers is never easy. This team is living proof that focusing on the people aspect in any team gives teams a chance to flourish.

Try, Catch, Finally

The evening began with a game of bowling in two teams of four, followed by seeing Bolt in 3D and a tasty dinner. To the surprise of many, those who rarely bowled did very well for bowling newbies. Of course, that may well have been beginner’s luck.

Nonetheless, it reminded me of how true apprentices (folks who really want to give things a go and do so with an open mind) find it easier to adapt than experts because they find it easier to leave preconceptions and ego behind in order to move forward.

Like Agile, for me learning is an incremental and iterative process:

1. Listen first.
2. Ask questions.
3. Listen some more.
4. Question some more.
5. Ask for feedback.
6. Listen for feedback.
7. Act on feedback.

Playing for Change

Thanks to Neeraj, Sudhakar, Nitin, Murali, Genevieve, Nick, Robin for making it such a F-U-N Friday night! And a special thanks to Leslie for sponsoring our night out!

M.: I hear what you’re saying about Agile Coaching and people.
P.: (Nods and smiles)
M.: The two words that stick in my mind most are ‘Party’ and ‘Fun’. Count me in!
P.: It’s easy if you try. The trick is to really try.

How do you do that?

Since joining Exoftware back in January 2008, it feels as though I’ve had a personal and professional vitamin boost of unexpected tales and adventures, rarely associated with work. Last week’s 2-day get-together at Exoftware was no exception.

A Company of Friends

At Exoftware, we work together and we play together. Last Thursday was spent on strategic thinking and signing up for tasks about a range of topics, including elaborating on the different ways in which we deliver value to our clients. The hard day’s work was followed by conversations over dinner about aerobics, Disneyland and the global economic crisis.

The best was yet to come

The highlight has to be the Go-Kart racing at The Raceway in Charlton. After a 5-minute safety video on how not to press down the accelerator pedal (on the right) and the brake (on the left) at the same time (as this causes the kart engine to burn out), we got into position based on our time trial results.

As we each whizzed, buzzed, burnt and pootled around the circuit, I was struck by the significance of the coloured flag system, with the Blue Flag meaning ‘Let the person behind you pass’. It reminded me how each person’s race time is down to individual performance and that if we’re to all have fun, we have to let people pass.

My 5 Whys for Working at Exoftware

• I’m trusted to do the best I can.
• I get help whenever I ask for it.
• We share moments of joy and pain together.
• We strive to apply the Agile Values and Practices to everything we do.
• We learn as a company.

Does your company learn? If so, do they learn fast enough?

What better way to begin the new year than with a new team? I met my new team for the first time last week. And so we started our 6-week journey together with Iteration 0, jampacked with a flurry of team building activities and Agile training.

Agile: The Full Mind and Body Workout

Beginning with an Iteration 0 is always a strong way to start. Most important of all, it’s always a good idea to warm up if we’re serious about having fun.

We began with a team ice breaker exercise as folks introduced themselves to one another, first by sharing a pet love and pet hate and then by exchanging three interesting facts about themselves. Next we moved onto creating and laying down the foundation stones to any high-performance team: a team manifesto created by the team for the team.

And of course no Agile training is complete without an Agile Games Day, made up of the ubiquitous Agile Game (also known as The XP Game) and The Business Value Game. In my experience, the best way to learn Agile is by doing. The doing in turn triggers a lot of useful thinking and talking.

‘Agile makes you think. It questions everything you do,’ says one of the developers. ‘The best thing of all is, it makes you deliver value bit by bit over time instead of waiting until the last minute,’ quipped another wide-eyed team member.

What Agile means to me

One way I measure the progress of a team learning to be agile is by using the Agile Values. It’s also a great way of gauging my own agility.

• Communication – Does the team question everything? Does the team flock?
• Simplicity – Does the team do what’s needed to satisfy acceptance criteria, no more, no less?
• Feedback – Am I learning from how different people respond to the way I work? Do I adapt myself to become more effective?
• Courage – Can I accept that I’ve much to learn? Do I help create an environment where others can be courageous, too?
• Respect – Do I believe that everyone brings value to the team?

Agile Values++

• Trust – Do I have an open mind? Do I believe in the team’s wisdom?
• Transparency – Do I share, share and share: from what I know to what I don’t know and the joy and growing pains of becoming a team?

One thing’s certain: we’re learning. Fast. Are you?

Question and Answer

(At a conference in Paris back in 2008)

G.: You understand that Agile is about people and change.
P.: Go on.
G.: There’s a film called ‘Clean‘ in which a character played by Nick Nolte says, “People change. When they don’t have a choice, they do change.” What do you think of that?

In my experience, there are two reasons why people change. One, because they want to. Two, because they have to. Think about the two kinds of reasons as an equation of sorts. Let’s imagine the Individual as the subject of change and Change as a force operating on the subject.

Type One Change: Because I want to

When you want to change, and I mean really want to change, you are committed to making it happen. That commitment is characterised by determination and perseverance.

You know there’ll be blood, sweat and tears, but it’ll be worth it. You are 100% aware of the benefits the change brings and then some. You actively look for ways to inject an element of fun into everything you do. You do this because you know having fun makes you want to do something more and doing something more makes you better and better at what you do which, in turn, accelerates the change process, taking you closer to your goal sooner.

And whenever the going gets tough, you don’t give up. Instead, you summon up the vision of what life would be like after the change and you double up your effort. You run at a steady pace. You feel empowered to determine your destiny. Change feels good.

Type Two Change: Because I have to

You are uncertain about the change happening around you. You’ve probably glimpsed your Wall and are dragging your feet. You wake up in the morning feeling glum about your work and life in general. And you’ve every right to feel the way you do. You find yourself always playing catchup and all you can think about is what happens when you get left behind. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Type Two Change is always the more stressful of the two precisely because it feeds on negative thinking.

Change your tune to make change happen

Here’s what I do when I find myself stuck in the Type Two Change frame of mind:

• Hang out with folks who are into Type One Change: Quiz them about your concerns. Don’t worry about dampening their spirits, they’re committed to change and will appreciate your thoughts on how the change is going. Find out what keeps them going.
• Listen with an open mind: Quieten down the little voice in your head that begins every sentence with “Yes but, No but”. Challenge everything you think. Take notes so that you can replay conversations and meetings. Take time to reflect and absorb your conversations and experiences.
• Work at a sustainable pace: Going through the toughest change for me is like training for a half-marathon, it’s likely to be something entirely different for you. Find the hardest thing you can imagine doing and use that for comparison whenever the going gets tough to help put things into perspective. Remember to keep moving as well as take regular breaks. The best time to take a break is just before you need it. Avoid running on empty.

Committing to Change

It’s always better to lead yourself from the front rather than from behind. No one can make you change. Only you can change yourself. Once you think: ‘I do!’ you do.

Chocolate anyone?

(Before the graffiti)

P.: What do you think of that poster?
Pascal: It’s reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.
P.: It doesn’t make me want to eat chocolate.
TJ: It’s just a bit of fun.

Laughter is better than medicine

I return a week later and what do I find? It appears the local youths have been busy exercising their right to free speech. Granted, I’ve never been a funny, Ha-Ha funny, kind of person. What I do instead is compensate with what I call Gentle Humour, humour that is at times amusing and always good-natured. How often do you laugh with your team?