Do you want to have fun when you're working with teams. Is there a place for fun while working through a 2-day planning workshop? Maybe so...
Recently I had the opportunity to conduct a 2-day kickoff meeting with a team I've worked with, off and on, for about 18 months. This team doesn't need much coaching, but I'm always thrilled when they reach out to me to facilitate one of their workshops.
They are fun, they are creative and they are successful. I don't actually feel like they need my help, but having an independent facilitator relieves the team from having to lead the session and instead spend their time focused as a participant.
There's always something going on with this team. This time it was music. The team had presented a musical skit at a department All-Hands meeting. When I heard that, I wanted to see the video and yes - they had the video. It was fun and they did a great performance.
As we were going through the planning session, we got to the point where it was time to size a relatively large set of stories. Well leave it to this team to be different and fun. We decided to enhance the affinity sizing process by adding music. The other rules still applied. We had a couple of tables set up with t-shirt sizes. The team members started the process and we said, we need some music. One of the team members got out their phone and started playing the song Happy. It was like musical chairs, with people circling the table picking a story and placing it under one of the t-shirt sizes. It was soooo much fun. The team had a blast. And they still achieved the goal of sizing the Release backlog.
Think outside the box. Or better yet, know that there isn't a box at all.
2 comments:
Hey! I know this team! :)
You're right. That was both fun and effective - so enjoyed that workshop...
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