Event leader and agile adopter Claire Eason Bassett on how to make bold and brave decisions for your charity using Agile Decision Theory

1. Or ‘Playing the Game’
Claire Eason-Bassett

2. Well, hello!

3. Aims
• Introduce game theory as a way of
thinking about the decisions we make
• Consider event management as a
complex context in which to make
decisions
• Discuss how we use Agile to make more
effective decisions

4. Do we like risk?

5. How do we make decisions?
• There is a decision-maker
• Who chooses an action from a set of alternatives
• The set may be defined or undefined
• We may consider the actions of other players (or not)
• We may know the potential outcomes (or not)
• We may know the likelihood of each outcome (or not)
• The decision may be right and/or rational
• Decisions are dependent on risk and ignorance
• What could influence our business decisions?

6. AttendTTS
Yes
Engage
Learn new
things
Meet new
people
Positive impact
on work
Not Engage
Enjoyment?
Minimum
impact
No Do other stuff
Get on with
the next thing
ThriveThird Sector

8. Types of decisions
Known
Unknown
Dynamic Static

10. Prisoners’ Dilemma – Known; Static; Non
Zero Sum
Prisoner 1 – blames P2 Prisoner 1 – stays schtum
Prisoner 2 – blames P1 Both go to prison but reduced
sentences
(1,1)
Prisoner 1 does full sentence
Prisoner 2 goes free
(0,2)
Prisoner 2 – stays schtum Prisoner 1 goes free
Prisoner 2 does full sentence
(2, 0)
Both go free
(2,2)

11. Nash Equilibrium
- Considers outcome
of decision
- In this example it’s
dynamic, unknown
and zero sum

12. Dating
Adam Richard David James
Gina 4 2 3 4
Laura 3 1 1 3
Helen 2 3 2 1
Holly 1 4 4 2
Adam Richard David James
Gina 1 2 3 4
Laura 3 1 4 2
Helen 1 3 4 2
Holly 1 4 2 3

13. Linear Process

14. Event management

15. The 6 Segment Model
STRATEGY CONTENT
PEOPLE
MARKETINGOPERATIONS
FINANCE

16. 6 SEGMENTS
DIGITAL
Layer Up
SUSTAINABILITY
CREATIVITY
ACCESSIBILITY
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
EVALUATION

17. Non-linear process

18. Iterations & loops

19. Types of decisions in events
• Think back to the game theory stuff….
• Zero sum vs Non zero sum
• Known vs unknown
• Static vs Dynamic
• Finding the Equilibrium
• Ordinarily, we’d manage this with
project plans, detailed documentation,
advance decision making, to try to
control the non zero sum, unknown,
dynamic game but…..

20. Agile for events
• Natural fit – flexibility, adaptability
• Individuals and interactions over
processes and tools
Working event with comprehensive
documentation
Customer collaboration over contract
negotiation
Responding to change over following a
plan
• Can start to get on top of the complexity
by breaking down into sprints and
constant testing with the client

21. Agile decisions
• Identifying the options that are not viable – important to understand the A&O
from the beginning for an event project to set decision making parameters
• Intuitive responses, developed through experience
• Breaking big decisions into smaller – chunking down

22. Sprints as games
• Collective decision making
• Cultivating a diverse but consistent mind set
• Project planning in game units – testing for different outcomes (reverse decision
tree)
• Emergency planning – scenario testing
• Finding equilibrium points in each sprint
• MVP – high risk as a whole, but a useful means to test incremental innovations
within a project

23. Scrum problem solving

24. When to collaborate….
Static, Known
You make the decision because that’s
your role (positional power)
Dynamic, Known
You confer with the team through an
established protocol (planned
process)
Static, Unknown
You make the decision on the basis of
your experience & knowledge
(subject matter expert)
Dynamic, Unknown
You get the team together to develop
a solution together (collaborative
approach)

25. Continuous Improvement
Going beyond Kaizen and Plan, Do,
Check,Act, using agile in this way
leads to experience-informed
decision making and the
cultivation of organisational
learning.

26. Warning!

27. Developing intuitive agile
• Improving our decision making:
• Considering options & probabilities
• Fine tuning our intuition
• Understanding the why
• Accepting and learning from everything
• Breaking down the complex into games (sprints)
• Practicing game playing and scenario testing
• Seeking equilibrium
• Constructivist thinking & standardisation (where possible & useful) without
solidifying the mindset – creating effective shortcuts but not limiting creativity

28. In order that we can:
•Manage risk
•Take advantage of opportunities
•Build effective teams
•Achieve our aims and objectives

29. Thank you