agile-team-development

Balancing Team- and Individual work

Purpose

Time required

35-50 minutes

Materials Required

Preparations

How

Explain that:

Intro/Warm up

Explain the two axes: positive, negative, working as a team and working individually. Invite the participants to walk around on the grid and try to recall some of their own experiences from the various quadrants. Give them 2 minutes in silence to do this. The purpose is to start recalling memories and to focus. When you give them these instructions - walk around in the grid (show by example is more effective than explaining)

Exploration Pros and Cons

In this section we will explore pros and cons of first individual work and then team work. We will start with positive - individual. People that appreciate individual work may feel more uncomfortable in an agile context. By doing it first we show and acknowledge the validity and importance of everyone’s views/experiences.

Repeat this process in this order (new flip chart paper for each):

Reflection, what way off working is best?

Facilitate a quick reflection/discussion:

The conclusion could be along the lines of “We need to be smart and pick a way of working that will maximize the positive sides of both way of working.”

Ask the team if they agree with this statement.

Warning signals and actions

“Let’s think about how to achieve this in practice!” - On a new flip chart paper write “Individual work - warning signs”. Ask the team - “How can we see if we are on our way into the negative aspects of individual work?”

Let a team member take notes as the team shares their ideas on this.

When some warning signals have been collected, switch to collecting actions.

“What actions would we take when we notice these signs - to get back into one of the positive quadrants”

Again, let a team member do the note taking as team members make suggestions.

Repeat for team-work

Reflection, who is responsible?

Ask the question

Current preferences

“We are all humans, and we may have our preferences for how we want to work. This may change from week to week, day to day etc, depending on how many things such as life in general.”

“Let’s end with exploring where you feel the most at home right now on the grid. If you have a preference: stand on the team individual axis to show what it is” (Do it yourself when explaining)

Conclusions

Ok, thank you all for sharing your experiences and creating all these nice posters!

Facilitate a wrap-up for the team. The purpose is to get buy in for any next steps and to celebrate and reinforce any insights or learnings.

Ending on a positive note is also good!

Here are some possible questions you could ask them to discuss e.g., in pairs (pick one or two):