Library of facilitation techniques

Brief active response during a presentation or (shudder) lecture, can take 2 minutes or 10, can be silent or voiced.

Scrum is like a house, where the team can be safe and self-organize. They will build trust and continuous improvement. Respect Scrum team as an ecosystem will help the team evolve and build up teamwork, and the values will come Day by Day, Sprint by Sprint.

In every Sprint, Sprint Retrospective is an excellent chance to inspect and adapt the way of working. There are many formats to help Scrum Master facilitates the Sprint Retrospective. But I always think about the format that can focus on the team environment, the ecosystem. I keep thinking and uphold that idea, and I found the inspiration from the "Parable of the Soils”. Borrow that parable; I create the Sprint Retrospective format “The 4 Soils”. The meaning of this format is to focus on how to help the Scrum team define what is the good/ bad impact to the house o of Scrum. From that, team will have the action or change to improve/ maintain the ecosystem.

How do we look back, what have we learned?

The Team Canvas is Business Model Canvas for teamwork. It is an effective technique to facilitate getting teams aligned about their goals, values and purposes, and help team members find their role on the team.

The Product box is a classic from the Agile games line. The kind of typical workshop that turns an austere meeting room into a middle school classroom. In the usual version, this game needs a few accessories: A4 cardboard boxes, scissors, glue, stickers, and the participant’s imagination... This workshop definitely requires some logistical support. It takes about 2 hours to complete and you need one facilitator to manage 6 to 12 participants max.

Teams are asked to imagine that this product will be sold in a department store, just like another everyday product. As they imagine the product, they make decisions about its name, a slogan, a logo and 3 or 4 key selling points on the front of the packaging. And on the back of the packaging: a detailed description, the prerequisites and the conditions of use.

To understand and respect each other’s differences in worldview.

Participants set up their virtual workspace and tech configurations based on facilitator recommendations or online guides. Next, they take photos of their workspaces and tech. Finally, they share their set up and live video in the virtual session, which could also be spun into a competition.

Practice team-work in a small groups.

Spoken activities such as presentations or role play conversations are transcribed then analyzed.

Time depends on the number of statements covered. This activity can be extended or shortened as needed. Any time for this activity must include time for introducing the activity, explaining the rules, aligning participants on the spectrum, allowing each participant to share their stories and perspectives, facilitating respectful discussion, and concluding the activity with reflection.

Players complete the sentence "I could tell you a story about...", responding to the facilitator's prompt of the nature of the story. The story is not told as part of the exercise.