A game to illustrate the power of self-organization -- and the pain of 'expert' management.
Create a tangled knot of 8-10 people through a process of crisscrossed hand-holding. It feels awkward and uncomfortable. The other participants act as analysts, managers and observers. A vision of an open circle is offered, with everyone standing comfortably, holding hands. A constraint is set that in order to reach that state the hand-holding must not cease. The set up for eight people will look something like this.
The game proceeds in three stages:
- The analysts are asked to write a spec: a set of steps the team members have to take to resolve the problem. Team members do not move.
- The managers are asked to give instructions to each team member, using the requirements document the analysts wrote (if they managed to do so). The team members will move if told. Team members not instructed should wait their turn.
- (Of course) the team is asked to resolve the problem itself. What happens next is an almost text-book example of self-organization: a collaborative, reflective, emergent behavior occurs and the problem is quickly resolved.
Debrief with a focus on how it felt to be a team member waiting to be told what to do. It is the feelings of frustration, irritation, boredom and waste that you'll probably want to refer to at other times in the training. This is what Scrum helpd to remove.
The exercise lasts between 10-20 minutes.
This game has its origins in the theatre work of Augusto Boal.