Build your team’s collaboration muscle

At Agile 2009, I delivered the results of a beautiful collaboration between myself and Lee Devin, co-author of the much loved Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work. After our session had been accepted, Lee discovered that he could not attend the conference. Instead of saying, “See ya” or “Good luck with that” or “I guess we have to cancel” he drove five hours to work with me so that we could collaborate to create the session and prepare me to lead it solo. Lee acted well beyond the call of duty yet absolutely normal for the gentleman and accomplished collaborator I know him to be.

Part of the session contained collaboration prep exercises that Lee has delivered to this same conference and others in the past, but with a twist. The twist was delivering these exercises aimed at agile coaches – to both let the coaches feel what it means to be truly prepared to collaborate and also to help them determine how they would teach this true-ism about collaboration back home:

On time is already late.

That is, if we arrive at work on time with our bodies only, having not groomed our minds to collaborate, we are simply late. Unprepared.

Teaching this concept can only be done viscerally. All I will say about that is the fact that the session started with a viewing of Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch. You can probably imagine where it went from there. Silliness, hilarity, concentration and good old-fashioned rabble rousing ensued.

After each collaboration prep exercise, participants reflected on their current state of mind and whether having team members prepare themselves to collaborate would positively impact their work. We considered questions such as these: What would the standup be like if the team members were on time with more than their bodies? If they arrived at work on time, mind and body, and ready to for the day’s work ahead? What would be the difference in their conversations? Do you think they would have more and better ideas?

Then, we considered how to bring these exercises and teachings home. Part of that process was brainstorming simple, everyday things people can do to achieve the feeling of preparedness. For that, the group came up with over 70 ideas:

ideas for preparing to collaborate

At the end of the session, one courageous soul spoke up and said that she didn’t buy it. Her teams were already collaborating and she did not see how doing the things we did in the session would improve that. To which I said, “Maybe it won’t. What we’ve done here is one way I’ve learned to help my teams build their collaboration muscle. Only one way.” When I discussed this with Lee later, he had a ready answer for this challenge. He said, “The goal is to get to a place where what you’re doing is worth doing for its own sake, not to achieve some preconceived result. This is the artful way of working. The essence of collaboration. It’s valuable only while we’re doing it.”

In the process of designing this session for Agile 2009, Lee and I created a 2-day course called “Build Your Agile Team’s Collaboration Muscle” where we will be leading participants to explore the other true-isms about collaboration so they can, in turn, take what they learned back home and teach their teams. We are holding that course at a beautiful theatre near Philadelphia on December 7 and 8. Won’t you join us?

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Mark Levison has provided a rundown of sessions at Agile 2009 including various people’s wrap-ups.   It’s a good “one stop shop” to catch up on all the juicy stuff that happened at Agile 2009.

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Agile Team Start-up: one of the first agile adoption activities

The session I offered on Agile Team Start-up at Agile 2009 went over so well that people stayed after the session to learn one more start-up technique.  That’s dedication!

In the session, we explored activities that help an agile coach start-up a new team (or kick-start an existing team) through three broad areas:

• Learning about the process(es) to be used
• Learning about the team
• Learning about the work ahead

The deck I used in the session gives you some meat for each of these.

So, how do you get going with your own agile team start-up from these ideas?  Here’s a sample facilitator’s guide that might come in handy.  Use it as a starting point for designing your own session.

In the session at Agile 2009, we walked through the activities and learning objectives of each of the three areas,  experiencing many of the fun and seriously revelationary activities along the way.  Here are some resources to help you facilitate these activities.

Learning about the processes to be used: what it feels like to work agile – Facilitating Spaghetti

Learning about the team: first, as a collection of individuals – Constellation Exercise Facilitation Guide, Journey Lines Activity

Learning about the team: goals at multiple levels = What’s in it for me? What’s in it for the team? What’s in it for the company? What’s in it for the world?  How to facilitate 35, a good way to quickly create a shared  team vision. And, here’s an example of the visual result from the “goals at multiple levels” activity.

Learning about the work ahead: envisioning the product to be created — Wall Street Journal Vision Activity Sheet

Use these to the best of your abilities. Don’t use them when the purpose of them or how to facilitate them is not clear.  It is almost impossible to convey how to facilitate team activities using documents and pictures only.  That’s why the session at Agile 2009 was important to me.  I knew I would be able to teach them fully and have the participants feel them as well as learn them.  They are powerful when facilitated well so give them a go and notice your impact.  If they didn’t turn out as expected, inspect and adapt.  Keep learning and stretching.