A Fun, Remote Demo of the Benefits of Self-Organization

Timing – Approximately 30 minutes to run the exercise, including debrief, but you need to set up the ‘boards’ in advance.

Overview

I was trying to find a remote exercise to help with some coaching I was doing for new teams, where all team members are working remotely. I couldn’t find anything that really worked for me so I put this together. It’s a quick exercise for up to 6 participants, to demonstrate the differences between teams that are tightly managed and those that are self-organizing.

Materials

All you’ll need for this is a previously set-up online whiteboard that your team can have access to. I used Miro.com but you could also use Mural etc. The key is that you need to be able to create the boards below in advance of the exercise. It’s also important to use abstract images rather than something familiar so that the team members don’t try to ‘second guess’ what they’re building.

Instructions – First Pass

1. Ask for a volunteer to be the teams’ manager for the exercise.
2. Email the abstract image to the manager. This will be the requirements for the first half of the exercise. Only the manager knows the vision for the end product so you need to tell them not to share the image.
3. Ask for volunteers to take charge of each of the shapes. Explain that these are the team members’ specific area of responsibility. Put the manager in charge of the ‘stars’. If you have fewer than 6 participants, some may need to take more than one shape.
4. Enter the team member names above the shapes they are responsible for.
5. Explain the ‘rules’ to the team: The team has to create an abstract image from the manager’s instructions. Only the owner of each of the shapes can move them or change their colour. Only the manager can see the ‘big picture’. The manager now has to instruct the team members to move, position and change the colour of each of the shapes to build the picture that you’ve emailed them.
6. Allow 6 minutes for the first pass.
7. Reveal the picture to the team and see how close they came.
8. Have a quick debrief discussion. How did this feel to the team members? How did it feel as the manager?

Instructions – Second Pass

1. Now show the second board to the team.
2. The instructions this time are that all participants (including the manager) are now in a self-organizing team. Anyone can move and change the colour of any shape. They can also all see the ‘big picture’ requirements. Encourage them to talk and to collaborate.
3. Allow them 6 minutes again. It’s likely they will recreate the whole picture before the time is up.
4. Hold a debrief discussion on how this felt for them as team members and the differences between the two passes.

Possible variations. I haven’t tried these but they may be interesting/amusing to increase the pressure a little.

1. During the first pass, stop the clock at around 3.5 minutes and send the manager an altered abstract picture. The steering committee have changed the requirements.
2. When you email the image to the manager, include a ‘persona’. Encourage them to be vocal and demanding, telling their staff they don’t have much time left and to hurry up, etc.

Possible Scrum variation. I wanted a very quick exercise for a specific purpose but I think this could be run as 3-4 iterations. Set up a couple of extra ‘boards’ with different pictures. After the first pass give the team a 1 min retrospective and a 1 minute planning opportunity. Let them work out for themselves that the whole team seeing the big picture and self- organizing around it is an effective way to work.

Hope you like this and I’d value any feedback. Please also let me know how you get on if you try the exercise and/or any of the variations.