Timing: 1 hour

Ingredients:
• Internet access

Players (5..8 recommended):
• Business Manager / Business Owner
• Employees / Team members

Directions:
Clicking on the image to the right will take you to an “instant play” game at innovationgames.com, where you can organize your thoughts on how to create a game to solve an issue. Here, you will see the same image being used as the “game board.” This simple chart consists of 5 sections, representing the 5 steps of the game-creation strategy which conveniently form the acronym PLAID (pronounced “played”). There will also be various icons in the upper left corner of the chart that symbolize the ideas for each category:

1. Problem – red squares, what you want to solve
2. Lead Objectives – stars, what you hope to gain from solving the problem
3. Aspects – purple squares, the different parts of the problem
4. Invent – blue squares, the game created to solve the problem
5. Debrief – light bulbs, how the game worked out

Players add their ideas to the chart by dragging icons to the respective categories and describing what each represents. Once the chart is complete, participants will be ready to create their own game to educate others about a complex problem.

All moves can be seen in real time by each participant, so everyone can collaborate to edit the descriptions and positions of the ideas. Use the integrated chat facility to communicate with your participants. Encourage players to expand on their ideas and motivate them to penetrate the knotted aspects of a problem.

Key Points:
This game incorporates collaboration and critical thinking, inspiring players to see past the surface of a dilemma and dig deeper to understand its complexities. By visually organizing the aspects of an issue and dividing it into 5 simple steps, players can teach each other the tangle of factors involved in certain dilemmas while gaining a genuine comprehension of the predicament themselves. Play Agile Game Incubator to motivate participants to learn-by-doing and to create fresh to solve problems.

Between 30 minutes and 1 hour.

Materials:

Several chairs in an empty space (no table) – No specific disposition, leave some chairs in the middle

1 chair for each team member + 1 empty chair

Between 10 to 15 players (maybe more)

Instructions:

The facilitator will start the chronometer and walk (do not run) in the room trying to sit on the empty chair (all other chairs have a team member sitting on it)

The goal for the team is to prevent the facilitator from sitting on the empty chair during 1 minute, by moving and sitting on the empty chair (each move leaves an empty chair somewhere in the room)

Team should not move the chairs (the solution is not in moving the chairs) but it’s not a real problem if they do it because it doesn’t change the output of the game.

Rules:

- Team member could not touch the facilitator: holding, blocking, pushing … are forbidden

- Team member HAS to move to an empty chair after standing up (a team member could not sit on the same chair … even if the facilitator is close to them)

Iterations:

When the facilitator wins (it takes a few seconds to WIN), give the team some time to do a retrospective and define a new strategy.

Try the new strategy:  the facilitator will win again … do a retro and try a new strategy

Repeat the processus … until the team find a winning strategy

Learning objectives:

This game enforce the importance of SELF ORGANIZATION, COMMUNICATION, SIMPLICITY and TRUST

1. Self-Organized team is really efficient (no manager needed)
2. Team should find a quick and simple way to communicate (short verbal word)
3. The strategy has to be very simple (no time for thinking or organizing the team during the play)
4. Each member should trust other members (for taking care of the chair he left)

Special note:

Thanks to Frédéric DUFAU-JOEL for having presented this game during an agile event organized by the CARA (Club Agile Rhône Alpes)

When to use this game: Play this game to become improve interpersonal coaching and communication skills.

Time: 90 minutes

Description:

1. First partcipants are formed into small groups.
2. Each group brainstorms what they think is important about the three skills and share with the large group.
3. Everyone picks a real world problem to work on.
4. The each triad (group of three) takes turns with each role: client, coach and observer to practice the key coaching skills.
5. After small groups feedback and large group discussion, the whole activity is repeated.

Target Audience: Coaches, Managers, Scrum Masters, Team Members

Game Credits: Michael Sahota and Portia Tung.

Game Details/Instructions: Please see full game post.

Ingredients:

• Stop Watch

Directions:

In groups of two taking turns:

One person speaks, the other listens. The speaker picks a topic of personal interest, perhaps a problem they have been working on. The speaker talks for five to seven minutes while the listener says nothing. They may nod or smile or perform other gestures.

Have a discussion. how did it feel to just listen? How often were we thinking of what we wanted to speak about?

Learning Points:

• Most conflict and miscommunication is due to a lack of listening. It is difficult for many of us to turn our internal monologue and listen to other speak. If we do, the rewards are great.

CREDIT: Ross Martin & Lynn Harrison, Black Tusk Leadership

Posted by Mike

Ingredients:

• Index cards, about ten per team
• Pens

Directions:

Create teams of story writers of 4 or more. Half the teams sit together, the other half must sit at different tables.

The goal is to write a coherent story with six paragraphs that begin with….

1. It was a bright and sunny day in ? ….
2. Finally, John was able to subdue the ? ….
3. The crash left them disoriented and their apples were strewn across the ? ….
4. Somehow the bunny was now on top of the ? ….
5. Alice had been frightened by the barking but found the path back to ? ….
6. The clowns returned and everyone was relieved to see Harry waiting with the bucket of chicken. …

The team has 8 minutes to write their story and then present to the room.

Learning Points:

• Co-location promotes better communication and collaboration creating better products and more cohesive solutions.

Posted by Mike

Ingredients:

• 20-30 balloons per team
• Supplies for each team: construction paper, rulers,
  scissors, markers

Directions:

Start by showing the teams a balloon that you would like created (or draw one).

Test Ballon with Acceptance Criteria

The balloon has a face made up of two round eyes, a triangular nose, and a semi
circle mouth. Without any further instructions, tell the teams that they have 2
minutes to create as many of the balloons as possible, then have them bring the
balloons up to be ‘accepted’. Eliminate any balloons that do not meet your criteria
of ~10 inches wide, ~2 inch eyes, ~1 inch gap between eyes, ~1.5 inch high nose,
and ~4.5 inch wide mouth. Very few teams will have balloons that meet the criteria.
As you reject their work (waste), ask the teams if they’ve ever had a similar experience
in software development. Before the second round, give the teams 2 minutes to discuss
how they can improve for the next iteration. They should start asking more questions
about the acceptance criteria, which you will happily offer. When round 2 starts,
the teams will now apply the acceptance criteria to their work and some will even
start building ‘test harnesses’ (e.g. paper templates for face, quick ways to measure
balloon width, etc.) . The results should be better in round 2. Discuss how they
changed the way they worked and what improvements they would make the next time.
If needed, play one more round. This time, every team should be using a test harness
and should therefore be producing balloons with much more efficiency and quality.

Learning Points:

• Defining acceptance criteria is not the same as writing
  tests, only to be applied after something is produced. They can be used as requirements,
  as tests, and as a target for developers.
• Automating acceptance tests (or executable requirements)
  can be very useful, as demonstrated by the test harnesses produced during the game.
• The investment in creating and automating acceptance
  tests is worthwhile and has a high return.

Ingredients:

• Origami instructions for half the participants (like this one)
• Blank standard sized printer paper for half the participants

Directions:

Pair up participants and provide an instruction sheet (face down) to one person in each pair (the “instructor”), and provide a blank sheet of paper to the other member of the pair (the “folder”). Split the pairs into three groups:

• Group 1 sits side-by-side,
• Group 2 sits face-to-face, and
• Group 3 sits back-to-back.

On “Go!” the person with the instruction sheet flips it over and instructs the other member of the pair how to fold the origami.

• In Group 1, one person folds, but both can consult the instruction sheet as much as needed.
• In Group 2, the folder must not see the instruction sheet, but the instructor can watch the folder and provide feedback on progress.
• In Group 3, the instructor and the folder cannot see each other, but they can talk (over their shoulders) as much as possible.

As each group successfully completes the origami item, have them stand up. The facilitator may cut it off after a period of time, because Group 3 may not successfully finish.

Learning Points:

• Collaboration leads to faster results and better quality.
• Communication barriers on geographically dispersed teams can be disastrous, even if there is unlimited verbal communication.
• Visual maps are a useful communication tool.

CREDIT: Ken Howard, Improving Enterprises

Posted by Don McGreal

Ingredients:

• Many coins of varying denominations

Directions:

A customer wants to hire the subcontracting vendor who provides the quickest estimate to sorting a bag of coins. Have teams of participants bid on the project by shouting out bids (in seconds). Let all the teams attempt the exercise and hold them to their bids by timing them. After they have finished, point out that what the customer actually wanted, was to have the coins sorted by date, not denomination.

Learning Points:

• Timelines are often set without due diligence.
• Assumptions are often made without involving the customer. These assumptions may hold true all the way to production.
• If a team had first sorted a sample of coins and demonstrated for feedback, the problem would have been caught before it became too costly.

Posted by Don McGreal

Ingredients:

• Football (or some other kind of ball)

Directions:

In order to enforce the rules of the daily stand-up meeting and to keep it more entertaining, a football can be used. Only those holding the football can speak. Once they have completed answering their questions, they can throw the football to another team member who has not yet spoken. This continues until all members have spoken. It is up to each individual to remember who has not spoken. You can implement penalties for violations of the rules (scoreboard, $1 to the happy hour or lunch fund, etc.)

Learning Points:

• Tracking who has not yet spoken and the expectation of receiving the football keeps everybody alert, involved, and entertained.
• Only one member speaks at a time.

Posted by Don McGreal

Ingredients:

• People and space
• 1 stop watch per team
• Video camera
• Corporate Lawyer

Directions:

Each team selects a manager. Then, standing in a circle, the rest of the team members are asked to hold hands with others that are not directly adjacent to them. Each person should be holding hands with two different people, forming a tangled mess. The team must then untangle themselves by following the instructions of the manager. None of the other team members are allowed to talk. Record the time it takes to untangle. Repeat the process, but this time remove the manager and let the team untangle themselves through communication and collaboration. Record the time; it should be faster.

Then try untangling in silence, and see what happens.

Be wary of team members taking advantage of the situation, and filing a sexual harassment lawsuit for the inevitable groping that will occur. It might be a good idea to videotape the exercise, to facilitate ensuing depositions.

Learning Points:

• Trusting and empowering the team is quite often the most effective solution.
• Some team members will intentionally take advantage of the situation, invariably destroying the very trust that these exercises should be building. Take note of the alacrity with which these team members contact their lawyers.

Posted by Mike