Team dynamics @ Agile.BY August 1st, 2012
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The document discusses teamwork and agile practices. It lists some key principles of agile, including valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, and customer collaboration over contract negotiation. It also discusses the importance of communication and maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio on teams. The document provides strategies for team check-ins, decision making, and giving feedback to improve team dynamics and productivity.
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Team dynamics @ Agile.BY August 1st, 2012
- 1. The Undocumented Agile Practice TEAMWORK Gino Marckx Director Agile practice
- 2. EVER BEEN ON A GREAT TEAM? Or a crappy one?
- 3. SO WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
- 4. SOFTWARE IS ABOUT SHIPPING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INTELLECT
- 6. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO AGILE?
- 7. We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. Kent Beck James Grenning Robert C. Martin Mike Beedle Jim Highsmith Steve Mellor Arie van Bennekum Andrew Hunt Ken Schwaber Alistair Cockburn Ron Jeffries Jeff Sutherland Ward Cunningham Jon Kern Dave Thomas Martin Fowler Brian Marick © 2001, the above authors this declaration may be freely copied in any form, but only in its entirety through this notice.
- 8. SO IT’S ALL ABOUT COMMUNICATION
- 9. SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO
- 10. WHERE IS THIS STUFF FROM?
- 11. THE CORE www.mccarthyshow.com
- 12. Your Assignment Create a presentation that addresses the top 3 teamwork issues that you face in your organization and ways to overcome them. Steps 1. Create a list of the teamwork issues that you face today 2. Agree with your group on the top 3 Issues 3. Create a short presentation that illustrates strategies to deal with these issues
- 13. TEAM SAFETY
- 14. Check-In –Why? Individuals commit to being present in a meeting Great team diagnostic tool Understand the emotional context of your team’s words and actions Connection is the basis of great teams
- 15. Check-In Speaker says “I feel [one or more of MAD, SAD, GLAD, AFRAID].” Speaker may provide a brief explanation. Or if others have already checked in, the speaker may say “I pass.” Speaker says “I’m in.” Listeners respond, “Welcome.” cbde Gino Marckx - Native Child and Family Services of Toronto 14th Annual Community Pow Wow
- 16. STEP 1. WHAT TEAMWORK ISSUES EXIST IN YOUR COMPANY TODAY?
- 17. Check-In Speaker says “I feel [one or more of MAD, SAD, GLAD, AFRAID].” Speaker may provide a brief explanation. Or if others have already checked in, the speaker may say “I pass.” Speaker says “I’m in.” Listeners respond, “Welcome.” cbde Gino Marckx - Native Child and Family Services of Toronto 14th Annual Community Pow Wow
- 18. Decider –Why? Everyone’s voice matters Commitment comes with 100% buy in from the team Eliminate unproductive discussion time
- 19. Decider Proposer says “I propose [concise, actionable behavior].” Proposer says “1-2-3.” Vote using either Yes (thumbs up), No (thumbs down), or Support-it (flat hand) For Outliers (No Votes) “What will it take to get you in?” cb Sarah - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahreido/3120877348
- 20. STEP 2. AGREE WITH YOUR GROUP ON THE TOP 3 ISSUES
- 21. Decider Proposer says “I propose [concise, actionable behavior].” Proposer says “1-2-3.” Vote using either Yes (thumbs up), No (thumbs down), or Support-it (flat hand) For Outliers (No Votes) “What will it take to get you in?” cb Sarah - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahreido/3120877348
- 22. Perfection Game –Why? Use it whenever you desire to improve something you’ve created A feedback mechanism based only on positivity Actionable items provide value to whoever asks for feedback
- 23. Perfection Game Rate on a scale of 1 to 10, based on how much value you can add. “What I like about it...” List the qualities you liked “To make it perfect...” Offer the actionable improvements for it to be rated a 10 cba Nick McPhee - http://www.flickr.com/photos/nics_events/2350462798
- 24. STEP 3. CREATE A SHORT PRESENTATION THAT ILLUSTRATES STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH THESE ISSUES
- 25. Perfection Game Rate on a scale of 1 to 10, based on how much value you can add. “What I like about it...” List the qualities you liked “To make it perfect...” Offer the actionable improvements for it to be rated a 10 cba Nick McPhee - http://www.flickr.com/photos/nics_events/2350462798
- 26. SO HOW DID THAT GO?
- 28. TEAM = PRODUCT
- 29. Thank You! Gino Marckx Дзякую! gino_marckx@epam.com
Editor's Notes
- Ask the audience to show hands if they’ve been on a great team, a team that thrives, that can get anything done!Then ask if they’ve been on a crappy one…
- Ask them to explain what the differences are, what they observed in those different teams.We have seen the following on great teams:People have funThey respect one another and sometimes socialize outside of workThere is no egoEveryone is heard, opinions are not dismissedPeople are not afraid to get into conflict and resolve itPeople keep each other accountablePeople step upPeople trust one another and aren’t afraid to ask for helpThey can get anything done, build great productsTeam is loud ;)We have seen on not so great teams:Blaming cultureSilo thinkingLow accountability‘doing my time’ mentality
- Software is all about shipping intellectual property, about putting some intellectual property in a box. So what’s important here is intellect. Where does that come from? It comes from the team members, and the challenge is to get that intellect from your team to put in a box.The thing is that it doesn’t come from 1 person alone, team intellect is greater than the intellect of the individuals in the team. So the question becomes, how can we get the intelligence from all the individual team members and aggregate that into an even better intellect?
- We strongly believe that team = product. That basically means that, when you have a strong team, you will also have a strong product. This is very similar to Conway’s law:Conway's Law is an adage named after computer programmer Melvin Conway, who introduced the idea in 1968:...organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.[1]So we can even take it further: we believe that the communication structures within your team, will be reflected in your products. So if you have a team that communicates well, and all necessary information is known to anyone, and it’s easy for everyone to get the information they need to do the job, their products will reflect this.If however, the team doesn’t communicate well, and there is a lot of handoffs, the product will reflect that too.
- So how does all of this relate to agile? Why am I here at this conference to present this?
- Well, first of all, it really reflects the first value in the agile manifesto: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.But there is more. This is not only valuable because 17 people decided that this needed to go in the agile manifesto, the practices themselves almost rely on the team to be great, on the team dynamics to be effective and efficient. In most cases, implementing the practices on a team that doesn’t really gel will only give you some of the benefits, but definitely not the benefits that you are promised and probably expect.If you want more background on that, please feel free to talk to me after the session, I’m only leaving tomorrow.
- So it’s all about communication, communication makes your team gel, makes your team a great team. So if you can improve the communication in your team, you basically improve how the team works together and build a better foundation for the agile practices to work and give you the full benefits.You heard Neil’s keynote this morning: We’re not that thrilled about communication! But don’t worry, this will not be painful, uncomfortable at most.
- To improve communication, it’s important to understand what is impeding good communication. When communicating, as the sender, you send a signal to the receiver. But there is always noise on the channel. Noise is the waste in your communication and comes from physical things like distance, environment, name it. But it also comes from other things like drama.The signal to noise ratio is the amount of the message that is transferred in relation to the amount of noise. The more noise, the worse the signal to response ratio is.To improve the communication, we will try to reduce the noise, the waste in your communication.
- Took the knowledge from computer language and put communication patterns in protocol form, easy for everyone to use, even programmers, so people who don’t like communication all that much.There is a
- Talk about pass, everybody can pass at any time. Learning happens in a safe environment, so it’s important for everybody to feel safe. It’s ok to leave now or at any time during the session.
- Create teams of about 4 to 7 people and do a check in. Preferably stay around your tables.
- 10 minutes