Collaboration Games from the Growing Agile Toolbox Karen Greaves and Samantha Laing This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/CollaborationGamesToolbox This version was published on 2019-02-27 © 2012 - 2019 Growing Agile Contents About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i Broken Skype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Crazy Chat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Collaborative Origami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Listening Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Movers & Shapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Human Knot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 123 go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Columbian Hypnotist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Non Musical Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Yes, and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Magic Stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Singing, Clapping, Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Island Of Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Web Of Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Growing Agile Online Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Growing Agile Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 About Growing Agile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 About the Authors Sam Laing (left) and Karen Greaves (right) We are Sam Laing and Karen Greaves. We have worked in software our whole lives. With Type A personalities and a strong work ethic, we have both done our share of overtime on death march projects. Eventually we knew we had to find another way. Agile brought us together when we worked at a company trying to do Scrum for the first time. In 2012, we took the plunge and started our own business, Growing Agile¹. Since then we have been doing the work that we are passionate about - introducing and improving agile. Best of all we have a positive impact on other people’s lives. If we have one principle at Growing Agile it is continuous experimentation. We used this principle to figure out different ways to help Product Owners. This book represents our current thinking about how best to approach this. As always, we love feedback, so don’t hesitate to send us your thoughts via email info@growingagile.co.za² or Twitter @GrowingAgile³. ¹http://www.growingagile.co.za ²mailto:info@growingagile.co.za ³https://twitter.com/GrowingAgile Broken Skype 20 minutes 8 to 50 people Communication Collaboration What you can learn Communication in groups can work better than a chain of individuals. What you need You will need 3 hand signs or actions – 1 simple, 2 complex. For example: • Simple: American sign language ASL⁴ for technique • Complex: Touch ears, then 2 fingers to nose, then 2 fingers to palm • Complex: ASL for copycat, then ASL for empty glass How to do this Round 1: Ask the group to stand in rows of up to 10 people, looking at each other’s backs. The group may not talk. Explain that you will show the sign only once. Show the simple sign to the last person in each row. They will tap the next person on the back, when they turnaround, they show the sign once. Repeat this until you reach the end of the row. At the end, ask the front person of each row to show the sign they received, and then you show the initial sign to everyone. Round 2: Repeat with a complex sign, still using the rows. Round 3: Ask each row to form a circle. You will show the person on your left a complex sign once; repeat until you’ve come full circle. Only at their turn may people demonstrate the sign, and correct it based on what they have observed. At the end, all do the sign together. How we’ve used this After the three rounds, ask the group which round worked best, and if they notice any parallels with communication at work. Discuss the benefits of meetings with everyone in the team participating versus traditional handoffs. Who shared this with us We created this based on Broken Telephone ⁴http://lifeprint.com/dictionary Crazy Chat 5 minutes 2 to 100 people Respect Listening What you can learn To be more aware of when you are not paying attention and the effects it might have. What you need Nothing How to do this Split everyone into pairs and ask them each to select one of them to go first. For one minute this person will talk about something they are most passionate about in life, their kids, pets, work, sport, hobby, etc. The other person has to stay seated and remain quiet but must act as disinterested as possible. After a minute they should switch roles. How we’ve used this We have used this when training teams or facilitating meetings. It is great to do at the start as a way to help people focus on listening to each other for the rest of the session. After doing the 2 rounds, debrief with the following questions: How did it feel not to be listened to? How did it feel to ignore someone? Discuss how actively not listening is passive aggressive behaviour, and then ask people to consider how often they do this in meetings. Who shared this with us Alan Cyment⁵ ⁵http://ar.linkedin.com/pub/alan-cyment/2/213/142 Collaborative Origami 20 minutes 5 to 50 people Communication Collaboration What you can learn The way we communicate impacts our ability to succeed. Communication is more than just voice, and is much richer when you can see each other. The importance of communicating a vision especially when communication is challenged. It is frustrating to communicate if you can’t tell if you are understood. What you need Origami instruction sheets: 3 objects, 1 sheet of each object per pair. Use simpler objects for round 1. Paper for folding, pre-cut to the correct size for the origami instructions How to do this Form pairs, and ask each pair to decide who will fold and who will instruct. Give the instructor the origami instruction sheet, give the folder a blank piece of paper. Round 1 Folder and instructor sit back to back. The folder can’t see the instructor and vice versa. Instructors need to get the folder to fold the origami object giving only verbal instructions. Allow 5 minutes for the round and see how many pairs finish. Round 2 Folder and instructor sit face to face. Folder can’t see the instructions but the instructor can see what the folder is doing. Again allow 5 minutes for the round and note how many pairs finish. Round 3 Folder and instructor sit side by side. Both can see the instructions and what is happening. Only the folder can fold though. Again allow 5 minutes for the round and note how many pairs finish. How we’ve used this Great training for distributed teams. It can help awareness of the limitations of different types of communication. Debrief by asking people to compare the 3 rounds, how they felt in each, which was most successful and how this relates to communication at work. Who shared this with us Carlton Nettleton⁶ ⁶http://www.linkedin.com/in/carltonnettleton Listening Game 5 minutes 6 to 20 people Listening Collaboration What you can learn To be in tune with a team we need to stop and really listen. Collaboration is far more about anticipating where your team is than in getting more done. Sometimes the best way to help your team is to do nothing. What you need Nothing How to do this Round 1 Get everyone to stand randomly around the room, ideally all facing different directions, i.e. definitely not in a circle. Tell participants you are all going to recite the alphabet one letter at a time, anyone can start by saying the letter A. If two people speak at the same time you have to start again at A. You will probably restart a number of times and get no further than a few letters. Round 2 Now tell people that before speaking they should pause and listen to the room. Pause. Someone should start with A, if they don’t you can say A. This round should progress slower with people pausing between letters, however chances are you will get much further and may even complete the alphabet. How we’ve used this Debrief this by asking how people felt during the different rounds. Ask them why the second round got further. Ask if anyone chose not to speak in round 2. If so you can discuss how them doing nothing contributed to the overall goal. As a variation, you can use numbers instead of the alphabet. Who shared this with us Tobias Mayer⁷ ⁷http://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiasgmayer Movers & Shapers 10 minutes 10 to 100 people Respect Collaboration What you can learn Complex problems can be solved easier by a large group. If some complex problems get to 98% solved, is the last 2% worth solving? When you protect, people move closer together. When you attack, people move further apart. What you need A large room with no or very little furniture. If you can outdoors is great, maybe a parking lot. How to do this Ask people to pretend they are a victim. They must silently seek out 2 other people – one to be their attacker and one to be their shield. They should move so that their shield is between them and their attacker. They can continue doing this for around 2-3 minutes. Ask people to pretend they are a shield. They should silently seek out 2 other people – one to be their attacker and another to be their victim. They should move so that they are between the attacker and victim. Again they can do this for around 2-3 minutes. Finally ask them to silently find 2 new people. They must form an equilateral triangle with them and keep moving until it’s perfect. Stop the game when almost all people are still with maybe 1 or 2 shuffling. This should take about 2-3 minutes How we’ve used this This is a great activity to use with a large group in a class or talk. Debrief by asking what they noticed between the 3 rounds. When they are a victim, the group should move further and further apart, when they are a shield people should converge on the center. When they are equal the group should come to equilibrium after a few minutes. Ask them to contrast this with behaviours in the work place when people act as victims or shields or equals. You can also debrief on the complexity of solving a problem like this with multiple moving parts, and how simply it can be solved by a large group with individuals controlling their own actions. Where we got this Alan Cyment⁸ ⁸http://ar.linkedin.com/pub/alan-cyment/2/213/142 Human Knot 15 minutes 8 to 100 people Self Organisation What you can learn That the people involved are the best people to solve a problem quickly and effectively. What you need Some open space How to do this Select someone to be a manager or an analyst. Get everyone else to stand in two equal rows facing each other. Let the people in one row raise their right hands, and the people in the other row raise their left hands. Ask people to join the raised hands with the person opposite them. Now ask the person at the end of one row to join hands with the person at the opposite end of the other row. This usually works best if they join over the top of the other hands. Now get everyone to join the remaining hands making sure both their hands are not held by the same person. Ask the manager or analyst to give the group instructions on how to unknot themselves without letting go of each other’s hands. The group can only move on instruction from the manager/analyst. Usually after 5 minutes the manager has not succeeded. Now ask the group to solve the problem themselves. They usually succeed in a very short period of time and result in a circle of joined hands. How we’ve used this You can do it without the explicit setup if the instructions are confusing, but you might end up with multiple circles instead of a single circle. Who shared this with us We learned this specific technique from Gabrielle Benefield⁹, but the game is very common. It is sometimes called human spaghetti. ⁹http://www.linkedin.com/in/gbenefield 123 go 5 minutes 3 to 100 people Communication What you can learn Emphasize the importance of listening before acting when working in a team. Show that everyone needs to examine the congruence of their actions with the message they are trying to convey. What you need Nothing How to do this Ask everyone to stand so that they can see you – perhaps in a circle. Explain that you are going to count to three and then say “go”. When you say “go” everyone should clap their hands. Now count to 3 slowly then clap your hands, pause for a second and say “go”. Most people should clap when you clap, rather than when you say “go”. Once you say “go” some will realize this and there will be some giggles. Repeat the exercise. Don’t focus on those who clap early too much. How we’ve used this This is a great exercise to use at the start of a training session to set the tone for the day. We often have “hard-wired” automatic responses. It’s important to really listen and take your time instead of leaping to an automated conclusion. It’s important to also see all non-verbal actions when communicating with a group. Who shared this with us The Systems Thinking Playbook¹⁰ ¹⁰http://www.lindaboothsweeney.net/publications Columbian Hypnotist 5 minutes 2 to 100 people Respect Collaboration What you can learn To demonstrate the differences between controlling someone, being controlled by someone and working together. What you need Some empty space for people to move around. How to do this Let people find a partner and pick who will go first. Round 1 Make them stand opposite each other as if the other is your mirror image. The first person will move and the partner will imitate their movements for about 30 seconds. Round 2 Ask them to stop and swop roles for another 30 seconds. Round 3 Ask them to stop and instruct them to move together rather than having one lead the other. Do this for 30 seconds or more. How we’ve used this This is a great short exercise to include in any meeting or training to help get people to move. It helps build trust between members, and consider how to collaborate together. Debrief by asking how each round felt and what they preferred. You can repeat round 3 with new partner if you want to use the exercise to help build trust in a group. Who shared this with us Alan Cyment¹¹ ¹¹http://ar.linkedin.com/pub/alan-cyment/2/213/142 Non Musical Chairs 10 minutes 5 to 100 people Self Organisation Trust What you can learn A self organized team is really efficient, thus no manager is needed. The team must find a quick and simple way to communicate. A simple strategy will win. Each member needs to trust the other member. What you need Arrange chairs in circle facing outwards. Have a chair for each team member plus 1 empty chair. How to do this Form groups of 5 to 15 and pick a Chair Person per group. The goal is for the Chair Person to sit in the empty chair and for the rest of the group to prevent this by moving and sitting on the empty chair, while following the rules below. Rules No touching the Chair Person. No moving the chairs. If you stand you must move and sit on a different chair. Give each group 1 minute to plan their strategy, while you brief the Chair Person from each group. Tell the Chair Person to move at a steady predictable pace (i.e. not rush for the chair), but that they can change direction at any time. After 1 minute to prepare, have the Chair Person join their team and start the round. Ask the groups to raise their hands once the Chair Person is sitting. When all groups have finished, give the teams a 1 minute to improve their strategy without the Chair Person present. Then play around round. Repeat for 3 rounds, or until the teams find a strategy that prevents the Chair Person from sitting for several minutes. How we’ve used this This is a great exercise to teach teams the power of inspecting and adapting. Debrief by asking what strategies worked, and why some of the strategies failed. Who shared this with us TastyCupcakes¹² ¹²http://tastycupcakes.org/2011/04/non-musical-chairs/ Yes, and 15 minutes 8 to 20 people Collaboration What you can learn Learn how to build on others’ ideas rather than shut them down. What you need Nothing How to do this Get everyone to stand in a circle. Tell then they are going to create a story, each person having to contribute a phrase in turn. Round 1 Each person has to start their phrase with “Yes, but”. You start the story, e.g. “There was a musician who travelled the world…” Let each person continue the story in turn with a “Yes, but” phrase. After a short time or when the story no longer makes sense, stop them. Round 2 Round 2 is the same except the phrase each person adds to the story must now start with “Yes, and”. After a short time stop them again. Round 3 Round three is the same except the phrase each person adds to the story starts with “Because of that”, i.e. it needs to be linked to the previous idea. How we’ve used this Debrief by asking what the difference was between the three rounds? And which lead to the more creative story? Usually people struggle in round 1 because using ‘but’ shuts down options. In round 2 people are more successful but the story is disjointed. In round 3 using the causality words can create very creative stories that hang together well. Discuss how the language you use at work either hinders or fosters collaboration. As a variation, you can do this in pairs going backwards and forwards rather than in a circle. Who shared this with us Tobias Mayer¹³ ¹³http://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiasgmayer Magic Stick 5 minutes 4 to 10 people Communication Collaboration What you can learn Goals can be difficult to achieve even when a group shares the same goal. It is surprisingly easy to get frustrated with others and blame them when results are not good. What you need One long stick (broomstick or tent pole). If you can’t find one make one from rolling sheets of newspaper or flipchart paper. How to do this Ask the group to stand in 2 rows and face each other. Put the stick horizontally in the middle of the two rows and get each person to hold the underside of the stick using only their index fingers. Explain that the goal is to lower the stick to the floor, while ensuring their fingers never leaving the stick. Often, despite best efforts, the stick will rise rather than fall. How we’ve used this Sometimes called Helium Stick, there are several YouTube videos¹⁴ if you’d like to see it in action. This is a good warm up activity for a team meeting and creates energy and laughter. Who shared this with us Sigi Kaltenecker¹⁵ ¹⁴http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=helium+stick ¹⁵http://at.linkedin.com/pub/siegfried-kaltenecker/24/39a/b68 Singing, Clapping, Numbers 15 minutes 6 to 100 people Respect Collaboration What you can learn To illustrate the effects of multitasking and stress. What you need Come up with a quick clap routine, and a song that everyone knows (we use Humpty Dumpty). Create a flipchart with 2 columns labelled Round 1 and Round 2. You need 4 rows, labelled Singing, Clapping, Numbers and Total. If you expect foreigners in your group you might want to print out the words to eliminate the time to learn a new song. How to do this Practice Round Clapping Demonstrate the clapping routine with a partner, and ask everyone to practice ‘clapping’ with their partner. Repeat two or three times until people know the routine. Numbers Ask people to find a new partner. Now demonstrate the numbers routine with a partner. You will use the numbers 1 to 5. You say “1” then your partner claps once. Your partner says “2” then you clap twice. You say “3” then your partner claps three times. Your partner says “4” and you clap 4 times. You say “5” and your partner claps 5 times. To repeat the routine your partner now starts with “1”. Ask everyone to practice ‘numbers’ with their new partner. Song Ask people to find another partner. Now demonstrate the song routine with a partner. You say one word each of the song or rhyme. e.g. You “Humpty” Partner “Dumpty” Singing, Clapping, Numbers 13 You “sat” Partner “on” You “a” Partner “wall” etc. Ask everyone to practice ‘song’ with their new partner. Once everyone understands clapping, numbers and song, and has a different partner for each you can start round 1. Round 1 Note the start time. Ask people to find their clapping partner and do the clapping routine twice. Ask them to signal when they are done by raising their hands in the air. Note the end time of clapping. Place the total time for this on the flipchart under Round 1: Clapping. Now ask people to find their numbers partner and do the numbers routine twice. Again ask them to signal when they are done by raising their hands in the air. Note the end time of numbers. Place the total time for this on the flipchart under Round 1: Numbers. Now ask people to find their song partner and do the song routine twice. Again ask them to signal when they are done by raising their hands in the air. Note the end time of song. Place the total time for this on the flipchart under Round 1: Singing. Note the total time (from the start of Round 1) on the flipchart under Round 1: Total. Round 2 Tell people that you will do a second round but this time you will be switching between the routines. You will say “clapping”, and people should start the clapping routine with their clapping partner. Before they are done, you will say “song” and they must switch to their song partner and start the song routine. When you next say “clapping” they return to their clapping partner and start from where they left it. If they can’t remember how far they got they need to start over. When they finish any of the routines twice they need to raise their hands. Note the start time, and say “clapping”, and then alternate every now and then. You want there to be a bit of chaos in the room, but you also want them to get a little bit into their routines. Note the time for each activity once everyone’s hands are in the air. Place the total time for this on the flipchart under Round 2: <activity>. Also note the total time for everyone to be done (from the start of Round 2) on the flipchart under Round 2: Total. How we’ve used this Once we’ve played the game we ask everyone to form a big circle. We show them a flipchart with the totals from each round. Debrief by asking a few questions: • • • • • How did you find this exercise? What do you notice from the times? How did Round 1 feel? How did Round 2 feel? How long do you think you can do Round 1 for? Singing, Clapping, Numbers • • • • 14 How long do you think you can do Round 2 for? What was the quality of Round 1 like? What was the quality of Round 2 like? Which round looked like more work was being done? Often at work you need to run around like crazy for people to think you’re really busy and productive and usually the opposite is true. Talk about context switching on teams. People working on many different projects for a few hours everyday vs people being dedicated to a project until it is complete. If each of the “projects” were for different clients, how long would each client have to wait to get their project? (This is the time from the start to the end of one of the games). The emphasis here is that the times don’t differ hugely, yet the quality and sustainability of Round 1 is vastly different to Round 2. We close by asking which round more closely resembles how they work today. Who shared this with us Alan Cyment¹⁶ ¹⁶http://ar.linkedin.com/pub/alan-cyment/2/213/142 Island Of Trust 30 minutes 3 to many teams people Communication Trust What you can learn Communication in groups, safe decision making, safe disagreement and collaboration. What you need Paper, markers. Print out of 17 items below (or on slide): • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • x1 four-seater inflatable boat (no engine or oars) x1 machete A box of five lighters x1 fishing net Bug spray x5 hammocks x3 wind-up flashlights A box with enough sunscreen for one year Map and compass x1 first aid kit x5 metres of rope x3 cooking pots x2 spades x 5 water barrels (20 litres each & empty) Enough sleeping bags for the group x1 spear Needle and thread How to do this Instructions: Your team (table) is stranded on a desert island. Seventeen items wash up on shore, you can only keep 5 items. Decide as a team which to keep and rank them in order of importance. (Each line is an item eg: x5 Hammocks counts as 1 item). Island Of Trust 16 How we’ve used this We have used this with teams to see how well they collaborate, who checks out, who dominates and then to engage with the team on their observations. In the debrief we ask questions like: • • • • What did you notice? How was agreement reached? What was difficult to decide on? What created conflict? Who shared this with us Inspired by various activities, some on Tasty Cupcakes. Experienced with Tracey Moerkerk¹⁷. ¹⁷https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceymoerkerk/ Web Of Connections 15 minutes 3 to many teams people Communication Trust What you can learn Building trust in teams by highlighting how much each of them have in common. What you need A Flipchart paper, and markers. How to do this Place the flipchart in the middle of the team - each person has a marker. Ask each person to write their name near where they are sitting, on edge of the Flipchart paper. Now ask the teams to create a bubble with something they like (eg: Pets). Everyone who likes pets draws a line rom their name to that bubble. Now ask them to explore that bubble a bit deeper. What kind of pets - maybe draw a connecting bubble saying “dogs”. Then explore even deeper - perhaps a connection of breeds like “dachshunds”. Continue on to other topics of interest - everyone should be talking and creating and connecting to bubbles concurrently. Leave 5 minutes for a debrief: • How deep did you go? • What surprising similarities did you find? • What conversations did this spark? How we’ve used this With new teams, to encourage getting to know each other a bit deeper. With teams of individuals to encourage interaction and the beginnings of trust. Who shared this with us Tracey Moerkerk¹⁸ ¹⁸https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceymoerkerk/ Growing Agile Online Courses We offer several online courses aimed at Scrum Masters, Product Owners and Agile Teams. If you are ready to get a taste of what our online courses are about sign up for our FREE five week Scrum Master¹⁹ or Product Owner²⁰ email course. Our online courses are a little different to regular online video courses. We’ve applied the principles of Training From The Back of The Room to our online materials. That means each course comes with a workbook and exercises for you to do, as well as video’s to watch and techniques that you can use with your teams. Each activity is intended to deepen your knowledge of an area, so we suggest doing the course over a few weeks and taking the time to do all the exercises. Take a look at our offerings here http://www.growingagile.co.za/online-courses/²¹. ¹⁹http://www.growingagile.co.za/new-sm-email-course/ ²⁰http://www.growingagile.co.za/new-po-email-course/ ²¹http://www.growingagile.co.za/online-courses/ Growing Agile Books Scrum Master Workbook - 15 Weeks of Accelerated Learning Essential for new Scrum Masters! This is a workbook you print out and fill in each week. It will guide you through a range of topics that are critical for Scrum Masters to understand. Each week will include reading, exercises and a journal page for you to reflect. We also include cutouts for your toolbox on a range of different topics. Scrum Master Workbook is available on Leanpub²². The Growing Agile Coach’s Guide Series This series provides a collection of training and workshop plans for a variety of agile topics. The series is aimed at agile coaches, trainers and ScrumMasters who often find themselves needing to help teams understand agile concepts. Each book in the series provides the plans, slides, workbooks and activity instructions to run a number of workshops on each topic. The interactive workshops are all created using techniques from Training from the Back of the Room, to ensure participants are engaged and remember their learnings after the workshop. The series is available in a bundle on Leanpub²³, or you can purchase the books individually. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Training Scrum We have been training teams in Scrum for about three years. During this time we have spent many hours preparing training plans and creating workbooks, flipcharts and slides. This book will help you plan and ²²https://leanpub.com/ScrumMasterWorkbook1 ²³https://leanpub.com/b/coachsguide Growing Agile Books 20 deliver interactive, fun Scrum training for anything from a short workshop on a particular topic to a full two-day course. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Training Scrum is available on Leanpub²⁴. A Coach’s Guide to Agile Requirements Our requirement workshops are aimed at different stakeholders ranging from business, to Product Owners and teams. This book is a collection of some of those workshop and can be used to help improve the way you think about and communicate agile requirements. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Agile Requirements is available on Leanpub²⁵. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Mastering Backlogs Often Product Owners can’t see the forest for the trees and there are so many items in their backlog and not enough hours in the day to groom it. We run short workshops where we work with the Product Owner’s actual backlog. The workshop is a working session, and an hour later the Product Owners emerge with an improved backlog. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Mastering Backlogs is available on Leanpub²⁶. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Release Planning We often hear people say “We’re agile, we don’t need a plan”! or even worse “We can’t plan”. This is just not true. We run Release Planning workshops with many organisations. This book is a collection of our workshops that will help you run similar workshops to create agile release plans. We include teaching points on a range of techniques like Story Mapping and release burnups to help you explain to other’s how to use these methods effectively. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Release Planning is available on Leanpub²⁷. A Coach’s Guide to Agile Testing If a team believes they are agile, but nothing has changed about the way they test, then there is still much to learn. We teach 5 key principles that explain why agile testing is fundamentally different to traditional testing.This books includes a collection of workshops to help teams grasp these principles and adopt an agile testing mindset. It’s not just for testers. A key part of agile testing is that the whole team is involved, so we always run these workshops with everyone in the team. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Agile Testing is available on Leanpub²⁸. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Facilitation It’s taken us several years to master the skill of facilitation, and it continues to amaze us how few people learn the skill, or even understand what it means. People spend much of their lives in meetings, and yet ²⁴https://leanpub.com/TrainingScrum ²⁵https://leanpub.com/AgileRequirements ²⁶https://leanpub.com/MasteringBacklogs ²⁷https://leanpub.com/ReleasePlanning ²⁸https://leanpub.com/AgileTesting Growing Agile Books 21 so many meetings lack facilitation. We hope the collection of tips and techniques in this book will inspire you to grow your own facilitation skills and improve the meetings in your organisation. Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Facilitation is available on Leanpub²⁹. Other books by Growing Agile Flow Do you have a never-ending to do list and not enough hours in the day? Imagine getting everything on your to do list done without stress or worrying. Imagine being twice as productive in half the time. We have over 30 proven tips and techniques to help you achieve a state of flow, where time stands still and productivity soars. With these tips you will deliver value to your customers sooner in practical and simple ways. You will also be happier and less stressed. Flow is available on Leanpub³⁰. Collaboration Games Add an element of fun to your meetings or workshops using these 12 short games that teach principles of collaboration. Collaboration Games is available on Leanpub³¹. Who is Agile in South Africa This book is based on the original Who Is Agile book, only this is a regional version for South Africa. It’s a collection of interviews with passionate South African agilists. Who is Agile in South Africa is available on Leanpub³². ²⁹https://leanpub.com/Facilitation ³⁰https://leanpub.com/helpworktoflow ³¹https://leanpub.com/CollaborationGamesToolbox ³²https://leanpub.com/WhoisagileSouthAfrica About Growing Agile At Growing Agile we help companies create great teams that create exceptional products. We are agile coaches passionate about helping you get the results you are looking for. We are based in Cape Town South Africa, but work with clients from all over the world. We provide phone based individual or group coaching sessions, as well as online courses for Scrum Masters, Product Owners and Teams. Find out more about us at www.growingagile.co.za³³. Our personal goal is to help influence a million people on their path to becoming agile coaches. Our books and videos are ways we can spread that influence further than what we can in person. We are exploring new ways to do this. • One of our latest projects is AgilePath.me³⁴. A community resource of links, courses, books, and ideas to help you find your own learning path as an agile coach. • We also have RemoteAgileCoach.com³⁵ to help all those people who have remote team members and would like some tips and assistance. If you’d like to stay in touch and hear about our new ventures, please sign up to our monthly newsletter³⁶. ³³http://www.growingagile.co.za ³⁴http://www.AgilePath.me ³⁵http://www.remoteagilecoach.com/ ³⁶http://eepurl.com/xVP6D
