The success of team work, quote by Henry Ford

Exploring team dynamics

Topic of this short talk: team / group dynamics. The point is that you need to be aware of any dynamics happening in your team / group!

Contents of the presentation:

Slide 1: Intro video (ants)

Nice illustration of actual teamwork 🙂

Slide 2: Teamwork

  • Teamwork is the corner stone of any successful undertaking.
  • Teamwork is an individual skill.
  • The purpose of this presentation is to make you aware of the importance of team dynamics.
  • We will look at some examples, and how we can explore team dynamics.

Slide 3: How does a high-performing team look like?

  • Diverse members
  • Diversity of viewpoints, opinions
  • Open and clear communication
  • Managing conflict
  • Clear objectives
  • Trust
  • Participative leadership
  • Positive atmosphere
  • Engagement

The list is long! It’s not so obvious to become a high-performing team.

Slide 4: Putting a group of people together does not make a team.

In case you didn’t know. Just putting people together and hoping “team” magic will appear, or self-organisation will occur; is most of the time wishful thinking. (I have witnessed this in projects …)

Slide 5: Model of group/team development: Tuckman (1965)

One of the basic models about team/group formation. Note the different phases of growing as a team are necessary to become “performing”.

Slide 6: Belbin team roles (1981)

9 team roles: an effective team has members that cover the 9 key roles in managing the team. (cf. Belbin website)

Slide 7: Communication inside the team is a key indicator of whether they are performing or not.

The quality of communication in the team will also directly affect the communication with the stakeholders! Do you want your team to communicate with stakeholders in this way?!

Slide 8: One bad apple can cause rot in the entire cart by altering the behaviour of everyone.

Yes, this is outcome of scientific research.

Examples of bad apples in a group: the passive-aggressive group eroder, the blunt/rude dominant, the controller, the slacker, the anti-establishment guy, the divide-and-conquer schemer, the arrogant fat head

Slide 9: Groupthink

Groupthink is a term coined by social psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment”.

Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanise other groups. A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.

Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

Slide 10: How to explore team dynamics?

  • Listen to the way team members are communicating
  • Observe behaviours: can you recognise certain team roles? Who has an introvert personality, who’s extrovert?
  • Observe how conflict is managed

Slide 11: Don’t be a Scrum Zombie (Thanks to Henrik Kniberg)

Please don’t!

Slide 12: How to explore team dynamics?

I suggest for team building: a classic scrum.

Slide 13, 14, 15: How to explore team dynamics? Team drawer

A team building exercise.

Slide 16: Improv theatre exercises

There’s a book about improv for agile teams.

Slide 17: Quote by Henry Ford

“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.”

Slide 18: Be aware of the dynamics in your team!

Agile By Example 2015

Agile By Example 2015

Agile by Example (in Warsaw, Poland) is a great conference. On the 1st day there are workshops, on the 2nd and 3rd day the meeting takes place in a cinema!

Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw

There are great presentations on a giant screen and comfortable chairs to sit in. One could say that there’s a greater distance between the speaker and the audience, but for me, the experience was superior 🙂 Moreover, the speakers were hanging around after their session, so you could go and speak with them ask some questions.

The talks have been recorded, and videos will be published on the Agile By Example channel.

 

Day 1

Workshop on management 3.0 workout techniques (by Daniel SkowroĹ„ski @_skowronski)

We’ve created our map and played the moving motivators.

ABE 15 - Management 3.0
ABE 15 – Management 3.0

Day 2

Beyond Budgeting (by Bjarte Bogsnes @bbogsnes)

ABE15 - Beyond Budgetting
ABE15 – Beyond Budgeting

 

Evo Planning (by Niels Malotaux @nielsmx)

Niels talked about “evolutionary planning.”

ABE 15 - Evo Planning
ABE 15 – Evo Planning

Make Impact Not Software (by Gojko Adzic @gojkoadzic)

Gojko presented a great talk. Gojko presents on high tempo, telling a story, nicely visualized and in-depth.

ABE 15 - Make Impact Not Software
ABE 15 – Make Impact Not Software
ABE 15 - Make Impact Not Software
ABE 15 – Make Impact Not Software
ABE 15 - Make Impact Not Software
ABE 15 – Make Impact Not Software

Be on a par during Sprint Retrospective (by Izabela Kowalik @izabela_kowalik)

Proposal on an alternative way to hold retrospective (instead of the usual Glad, Sad, Mad) FYI, here’s a site about different retrospective formats.

ABE 15 - Be on a par during Sprint Retrospective
ABE 15 – Be on par during Sprint Retrospective

Silent Sort Estimating (by Tomasz Wykowski, @twykowski)

Technique for estimating (alternative to planning poker)

ABE 15 - Silent Sort Estimating
ABE 15 – Silent Sort Estimating
ABE 15 - Silent Sort Estimating
ABE 15 – Silent Sort Estimating

My Lean Spectacles (by Tobbe Gyllebring, @drunkcod)

ABE 15 - My Lean Spectacles
ABE 15 – My Lean Spectacles

Great talk by Tobbe. What I surely remember:

FAIL = “First Attempt In Learning.”

Lean = LeaRn

Day 3

Limit WIP or DIE (by Jim Benson @ourfounder )

I had the pleasure to dine & wine with Jim Benson and some other great agile people. Jim Benson’s talk was spot on: too many organizations struggle with too much WIP (Work in Progress) and fail to see that this prevents them from moving on to “real” flow.

ABE 15 - Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 – Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 - Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 – Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 - Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 – Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 - Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 – Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 - Limit WIP or DIE
ABE 15 – Limit WIP or DIE

Examples how to move towards Zero Defects (by Niels Malotaux @nielsmx)

ABE 15 - Examples how to move towards Zero Defects
ABE 15 – Examples of how to move towards Zero Defects
ABE 15 - Examples how to move towards Zero Defects
ABE 15 – Examples of how to move towards Zero Defects

Strategy Deployment: The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility (by Karl Scotland @kjscotland)

ABE 15 - Strategy Deployment - The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 – Strategy Deployment – The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 - Strategy Deployment - The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 – Strategy Deployment – The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 - Strategy Deployment - The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 – Strategy Deployment – The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 - Strategy Deployment - The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 – Strategy Deployment – The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 - Strategy Deployment - The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility
ABE 15 – Strategy Deployment – The Secret Sauce for Enterprise Agility

No estimates: how you can predict the release date of your project without estimating (by Vasco Duarte)

Vasco published his book on #NoEstimates. Besides being a widely discussed topic (like on Twitter) with many people saying nonsense, Vasco’s talk was amusing and enlightening. His book is on my reading list. FYI also Yves (Hanoulle) @YvesHanoulle facilitated a discussion on the #NoEstimates topic at ACB (Agile Consortium Belgium)

ABE 15 - NoEstimates
ABE 15 – NoEstimates
ABE 15 - NoEstimates
ABE 15 – NoEstimates
ABE 15 - NoEstimates
ABE 15 – NoEstimates
ABE 15 - NoEstimates
ABE 15 – NoEstimates

Product development is an experiment (by Jim Benson)

It’s one of my favourite talks. I am a massive advocate of approaching any product/service/software development as an experiment (hence my interest in Lean UX, Lean Startup, Discovery Kanban). Build/measure/learn is the basic cycle for any product development. Moreover, Jim explained that creative product development is a team sport: a collaborative approach.

ABE 15 - Product development is an experiment
ABE 15 – Product development is an experiment
ABE 15 - Product development is an experiment
ABE 15 – Product development is an experiment

Taking Back Agile (by Tim Ottinger @tottinge)

Great closing by Tim about going back to agile’s root values and principles.

ABE 15 - Taking back Agile
ABE 15 – Taking back Agile

Panel discussions and possibilities to talk with the experts were also happening.

I had the opportunity to wine & dine with great people:

ABE 15 - dinner
ABE 15 – dinner

Agile by Example, I’ll return.

ABE 15 - closing
ABE 15 – closing