Timing: 15 minutes Overview: This is a short game to explain why WIP is bad. It has so many variants, one of which is the lean simulation game with paper airplanes by Jeff Patton. Instead of building airplanes, we connect five dots of a star. Resources: Print 10 copies per team from this Star-Connect pdf file. Steps: Form teams of 5’s. Each team member is responsible to connect…
Failure Memory Game
The Failure Memory Game is is a game for learning from failures and experiencing how a team or an organisation can benefit from an open failure culture.Participants reflect on their own way, or the team’s culture to handle failures, and directly experience the consequences in a safe space for experimenting and learning. Who plays, and when? This game is usually played by a group of…
LEGO Team Building
Timing: 90 mins Materials (per team): Blindfold LEGO set (50-90 piece set) Music you can play as participants enter the room https://vimeo.com/91818334 Game Background: The city is planning a huge architectural project, but in order to select the most qualified builder they are hosting an event that will challenge each company’s ability to work quickly, efficiently and successfully under pressure. The event is a LEGO CONSTRUCTION competition!…
To Plan or Not To Plan
Overview The game is organized around two activities, drawing a picture and telling a story. In both of these activities, the group will be split into separate teams, with one team given specific time and instructions to plan ahead. After both activities have been completed, the facilitator assesses and leads discussion around the team’s work, and the teams will have a chance to compare their…
Nexus Zoo (a scaling simulator)
This is a fun and effective way to replicate the challenges of scaling product development across many teams.
It puts teams into a situation where they need to turn their individual features into one collective increment within a Sprint. They need to work out how to manage dependencies between teams as well as cross-team requirements and constraints. Consider running this exercise right before introducing a group to a scaling framework, such as Nexus.