This is a guest blog post co-written with Christine Neidhardt based on a session at Play4Agile conference on coaching with photos. The session was based on an experiment with the Points of You – Coaching Game (German link) to find ways to use the photo cards with a group or team. And we did.

Here is a photo of some of the cards scattered across the floor.

The one-on-one Coaching Game

The CoachingGame is used as a creative support material for coaches and offers a variety of possibilities to work with. We started with a public one-on-one coaching session to show one practical case how to use  the CoachingGame and we were lucky that we had a person volunteering. We selected between four topics the game is offering:

• Relationships
• Winning and Loosing
• Mindfulness
• History, Present, Future

We decided for History, Present, Future. In a fishbowl arrangement, the practice client selected an important question for the session and we asked: what happened in the past, what happens now, what is the potential. The client selected three photos that represented each of the topics.

The cards do offer a photo, a word and a symbol. There is a companion book that explains each of the photos and provide stories to deepen the examination of the topic and offer additional perspectives and insights. There are five types of symbols (way, act, be, problems, opportunities) to which each of the cards belongs. Information which gives additional orientation. This together with an explanation cloth to position the cards to the questions, makes it all very comfortable to work with.

Creating Team Games

After the Coaching demo we formed two working groups to figure out how to use these cards in a group or team. This was the goal of the session and we came up with some pretty cool results in just 15 minutes.

Photo Reflection Game

One group created the photo reflection. We selected the Play4agile conference as topic and asked us, what was the past, present and what is the potential in the future. Everybody selected up to three  cards. Everybody presented his cards to the group. The foto helped to explain and gave new ideas.

Past (first column): We as Coaches who love games realized we were often hold by old habits, felt alone with our ideas and had to endure through tough times in the day to day work.

Present (second column): The conference was the place to be at least authentic and to find people with the same mindset, where there occured many oppurtunities and creativity is in full bloom.

Future (third column): Putting the new games into action was one of our goals, as well as being open to all that is possible. All could happen. Lots of people from the conference would like to see games as a usual tool being used like techniques as Scrum. Some of the people found it possible that they would find their vocation in introducing games and the results of the conference in their daily work.

If we would have had more time, we could have gone deeper, could have agreed on some cards which would be the most important or we could have made as well the second part of the shared vision game.

The Shared Vision Game

The second group used the time to focus just on the last question: the future.

1. Select the topic. In our case it was our future expectations of the conference. It could be for your team or project.
2. Have everyone pick a card that resonates with them.
3. Confirm that everyone is comfortable with the other cards. Some people did not understand the card I picked and after explaining what it meant for me, they were OK with it. I even changed the photo by covering up part to make our shared understanding of the meaning clearer.
4. Create a statement that incorporates all of the ideas.

Our Shared Vision Statement

We somewhat unexpectedly created a powerful shared vision of our expectations of the conference.

What Can We Still Learn?

You see, there are unlimited possibilites and maybe we have now lots of more ideas how to work with these visual tools.

Why does this work?

Michael, as an NLP practitioner, is a big believer in the power of the unconscious mind. And photos tap right into our unconscious minds so we get to what is really important.

In the book How Customers Think, there is a great technique where customers bring in a photo that they feel relates to the product. When they explain the relationship they give very rich information about what is important and why. It’s a great book full of research on brains and decision-making.

The game with photos works the same way. We allow people’s unconscious to get in the game by selecting a photo. This is much deeper than just visual expression or writing on a sticky note.

I just realized now – a month after the conference – what it was that made Play4Agile a special, magical conference for me. Of course it’s the people, but there is more to it than that.

I am writing this post in hopes of inspiring others to organize similar amazing events.

Venue

Located in Germany, seminar center Rückersbach provided a small-scale rural setting with no distractions. Even though it was cloudy the whole weekend it was good to get natural light through the many windows. Looking out onto nature helps too.

Small is Beautiful

With 50 to 60 people, it is really easy to meet everyone at least once, and spend time with people you feel affinity with. Make new friends.

Here is the closing circle where we passed the ball of string along with appreciations. This is possible with such a small group. (Facilitation note: bring a second ball of string).

Longer is better

I have been to one day events, and they do not compare in terms of the depth of connection with others. And building our social networks is what helps us learn. Play4Agile was almost 3 full days. And this made a big difference.

Eat Together

One very nice aspect of this conference was that we all ate together at every meal. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. This gave a chance for informal conversation and to bond with one another.

Drink Together

Evenings at the bar provide a great way to connect in a more relaxed setting. I also got to play werewolf for the first time. 20 people played Marshmallow Challenge for the first time.

Open Space Format

The best peer-conference meeting format going. Period.

There is always room for improvement

So, what would I change to make the event even better?

1. Coffee breaks. Create session slots in the schedule (on the wall) that respect coffee breaks (like space for lunch). Why? Open Space was invented on the concept that coffee breaks are the best part of the conference.
2. Session duration. Create slots of varying size. I know that in theory we can make longer sessions, but in practice not a single person did. And several sessions I attended would have benefited from more time. This would be an experiment, so who knows if it will work.
3. People missing beginning/end. One challenge was that some people missed the Friday opening and others missed all or part of Monday. One idea would be to give people a little travel time on the first and last day – so that they are both (almost) full days.

Caveat: If you appear in a photo and would like to be removed, just let me know.

Agile failure is a sensitive topic but one that we as a community need to talk about in order to build a brighter future together. In this post, I will share some observations that came out of an informal session that took place over an extended coffee-break session at Play4Agile conference.

Survey Results

I ran a quick fist of five survey with first eight coaches and then with twelve as people. The question was:

“How many (percent) of your Agile transitions have been successful? Zero for none. Five for all.”

The results confirmed what I have suspected and experienced: a single one, lot’s of twos and threes, and one four. No zeros or fives.

It was noted that one problem with the survey is that Agile (Lean?) is a direction (dream of perfection) and not a destination.

Good news, Bad news

Consider the visual note below (start in the top left).

Agile in the small is fine

When probing about what was working and what wasn’t it became clear that agile in the small was working well. With single teams and smaller companies, people were pretty happy with the results. Even isolated teams at large companies seemed to find success when the teams wanted to go Agile. The principle that applies here is: Go where the energy is.

Agile in the large needs attention

Now that Agile has crossed the chasm and many more transitions are initiated by the early majority we are seeing more of “me too” Agile adoption. Some of the support found in earlier transitions are now missing:

1. Strong management support
2. Sense of urgency (Critical for Kotter model)
3. Notion that: failure is not an option

Case studies MIA

One key need of early majority is case studies. We as a community do not do a good job sharing success stories and an even worse job sharing failures. This makes it hard to learn and improve.

Agile in the Large

Craig Larman and Bas Vodde have written a great book - Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Large, Multisite, and Offshore Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum – on how to make Agile work in the large. This is a good start and paints a clear vision for alternatives for making Agile work.

We also have Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas by Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising. This is nice, but not nearly enough to get to a playbook for Agile adoption.

I believe that we as a community need focus more attention on models, patterns and guides for Agile transition and adoption. Lot’s of open territory here.

It’s about people. Duh.

One of the challenges with Agile in the large is that many people really don’t care about Agile and don’t want to change. Yeah, this happens with small teams too, but I find it is manageable there. When dealing with hundreds and thousands of people the problem gets amplified.

I thank Christine Neidhardt for reminding me that organizational change is about people. The way to change an organization is one person at a time.

Addendum

Subsequent to publishing this, I found this great post that I strongly recommend: Agile’s Second Chasm (and how we fell in)

Ilja Preuß ran a peer workshop at Play4Agile on Tips for debriefing a game. Thanks to everyone for sharing such wonderful ideas.

I synthesized this into the visual note:

The main points are:

• Go with their energy so that it feels like a conversation.
• Less is more: Give them space so they can debrief each other.
• Guide their attention through powerful questions and observations.

Original flipchart photos are page 1 and page 2. I didn’t capture everything so check them out too.

I was already able to apply some of my learnings when I facilitated a game debrief later in the conference. Thanks Ilja!

Not only was I fortunate to attend Play4Agile in Germany this week, I also had the privilege of working with the organizing team to act as a Spirit Keeper and help with facilitation. During the opening on Friday night we played Constellations and observed that a lot of people already knew Open Space. So how to explain Open Space rules so that newbies learn enough and yet avoid boring the veterans to death? The answer comes from Training from the back of the room: let them teach each other. Then newbies get individual attention and veterans learn it better by teaching it.

I realized later that this pattern can be used for teaching anything (with help). Not just Open Space rules. See the five simple steps in the diagram below:

Steps:

1. Fist of five for checking the knowledge level of everyone in the room. Let them know to keep their arms and fingers up. (Oops. Not sure what this is really called. Fist of five is actually something different. Please comment if you know…)
2. Have them form diverse groups (people with different knowledge levels) of 5 to 7 people. Smaller groups may work well too.
3. In small groups, knowledgeable people teach the new folks. In my group, we took turns explaining key concepts and let newbies drive learning by asking questions. Hang posters high enough so people can see them when everyone is standing.
4. (Optional) Each group can check how successful learning was using fist of five.
5. In the large group, ask the people who learned the most to share one key learning.

Many thanks for Katrin Elster for helping develop the approach and to Marc Bless for a great facilitation – it rocked!