 My name's Wade. Hi, Wade. I'm an introverted IT nerd. Many years ago, in an effort to break out of my introverted shell, I decided to take an improv class. I learned a lot of great things in improv classes, and I wanted to help my teams benefit from those lessons I learned. Unfortunately, I was a software developer on a team of two or three. So at the time, I didn't see a way to make that happen. And then, about five years ago, I became a scrum master. And as a scrum master, I felt my teams gave me a certain moral authority. In fact, if I walked off a cliff, I think a couple of them might have followed me. I decided this was the right time to try to take those lessons I learned from improv and infuse them into my teams. So I excitedly told my team about my lessons that I learned. And they were a little less than enthusiastic. In fact, a couple of them said they hated the idea. But we held a team vote because we voted on everything. And we voted to play a three-minute improv warm-up game twice a week. And then we started playing, and a funny thing happened. The team started to see benefits from playing games with each other. So a month later, we voted to play three days a week. And then a month after that, we voted to play every day. I left that team over a year ago, and they had been still playing a year after I left every day. So today, I'm going to challenge you and your thoughts about playing games at work. I'll show you how starting your meetings with a three-minute improv warm-up game can improve not only your teams, but your meetings as well. What do we all really want on our agile teams? Collaboration. To be heard. Yeah, trust. Oh, yeah, these are all good. One of the big things we really want is to have a great team at work. And that's not an easy thing to have, because we can put a tremendous effort into creating a great team, and then, bam, something happens and that great team is gone. What I mean by that is perhaps a management reassigns one of our employees to another team. Or, even worse, one of our friends tells us on Friday that they've found a job with another company, our biggest competitor, for a healthy raise. So I would argue that perhaps creating great teams, what's a nice goal isn't the easiest goal to achieve since they come apart so easily, and instead, we should create great team players. Now, improv teachers discovered the exact same things, because improv teams are simply made up of the people who sign up for an improv class in the same city on the same day, and then they divide up into teams, which is similar to what happens at our companies. Most of us don't choose the teams we work on. Also, improv teams, once formed, they break up and reform more often than high school rock bands. So improv teachers needed a way to get those new teams or reform teams to be great as quickly as possible. So they hit on the idea of creating great team players using four qualities, collaboration, creativity, communication, and trust, which is exactly what we're going to do today. We'll be playing in just a minute. Now, one of the things I put up there is no judgments. This is very important in the improv world and on your teams, and no mistakes. I don't mean we're not allowed to make a mistake. I mean, there are no mistakes. Nothing you say here today in your teams that we're going to form will be a mistake. And in the improv world, we say f your fear all the time, and that, of course, is follow your fear. If something scares you, it's probably the thing you need to do. Okay, so I can either talk for another 83 minutes or show you how these improv games work. Who wants to hear me talk for 83 more minutes? Just my wife? Oh, thank you. All right, I think you'd rather be shown. My wife, Jennifer, in the back is going to help us today. She's the most important person in my life, and I'm thrilled to have her join us. She's a fellow improv student with me, graduated a year-long program, so she's very helpful on these games. She's also a teacher and a registered nurse, so if you keel over laughing or crying, she's the one to call. Our goals are going to be to cover these four qualities, collaboration, creativity, communication, and trust. Now, this conference has a safe agenda, right? A safety thing. This is a safe place. Don't say anything that will get Jennifer or I deported because we want to have a vacation here after the conference. So what we're going to do is form groups of eight people. So if I can get all of you to stand, slide your chairs as far under the tables as possible. What we are going to do is play in the open spaces of the room. So first off, find an open space, and then raise your hand. Your hand being up will mean you are not currently on a team. Once eight of you get shoulder to shoulder, all eight of you put your hands down. So keep your hands up to show that you're not currently on a team. That'll show us one more over here. Eight. Eight. Take one. We have two extras. How about these? You're done. That group over there. How are you? Okay, this group of eight I would like right over here. And then you guys can come this way. Did we have any extras? Two? Okay, so just pick a team and you're playing with nine. So you don't want to have a table in between you. You're going to play in this open space here. So I want you to be shoulder to shoulder. So that one's good, this one's good, good, good. Good. So be a circle. So you guys need one? Two. Okay, this team needs two. If we have nine anywhere, this team has two spots. Okay. We good? Oh, we have another? Great. Right here. Okay, I need you to talk as loudly as possible to the people in your group right now. Okay, okay. So I'm going to have to get your attention many times today. Many, many times. So here's what we're going to do. Anytime you see a hand in the air, you raise your hand. Go ahead and practice. Right, raise your hand and return focus to the front. And that way I won't have to scream into the microphone. All right. Sound good? Okay. Each team needs a starter. This is simply the person that starts the action for this first game we're going to play. So I need one person at each team to raise their hand. You think it's painful, don't you? It's not painful. Believe me. Okay. And the starter, that position rotates from game to game. So you all eventually be the starter. Almost all of these games rotate clockwise. So action in the game is going to rotate clockwise. Now this, so for this particular first game, and I know you're not supposed to read slides, but I want the text up here so you can see it during the presentation. So this first game is called First Name and Hobby. We've got a starter. What we want you to do, starter, is tell us your first name to the team and then tell us about your favorite hobby, most favorite hobby. And this isn't, my name's Wade and I like chess. This is my name's Wade, I like chess because of the beauty of the positions on the board. So go into some detail. So for example, some questions you might answer about your favorite hobby. What is it you love about it? How did you find it? Why you do it? Anything. So I want like 30 seconds a person. So I'm going to put up a timer that says four or five minutes and let you go. If you notice somebody just says, my name's Bob and I like fishing. Well, somebody should say on your team, as a team, hey Bob, when did you first start fishing? You're a team and you're going to kill four minutes with this exercise. And if somebody goes on and on, give them the time out. You go ahead and I'll put up a timer. Okay, well, if you want to join one, we've got room. Can you tell me how to run upstairs? Sure. We use premium improv games to start retrospective, stay away stand-up, and they're all about building collaboration, creativity, communication, and trust in your team. Got it. Okay. Thanks. You want to play? Okay. Will you can join any time? We have course events. Thank you. That's perfect. If we get a bunch, that's four minutes. No, just, you should be halfway through. There's a group over here that needs some people. Okay, well, here's, oh, these four? Yeah, and then we'll start another group. Perfect. You want him? Did everybody get a turn? How far did we get through the groups? Okay. Okay, I'm going to put 90 seconds on our clock so that we can make sure we get through everybody. And the groups that have already gone, tell us something, tell us each really quickly because you only got 90 seconds to get around your group. State something that you really love. You know, could be kids, could be pizza, whatever you really love. Just tell the group what you love. And the other groups, go ahead and finish. Okay? I mean, you are, this is individual question or this is team question? It's individual. So did you do the hobby one? Yes. Okay, so now you just say your name again and you say what you love. And the hobby, did everybody get through? Okay. So the next game we're going to do is going to use those names that we just learned. But before I do that, I just want to mention this is an activity that you could do with your work team and I've played this with teams where people work together for five years and we do this hobby thing and somebody will say, wow, I've been with that guy five years, I didn't know that. So this is sharing. Vasco Duarte ends every podcast with the phrase, sharing is caring. When you start sharing things with people, that's when you can actually start caring about them and my clicker doesn't work. And caring and sharing go to that fourth one down at the bottom right, trust. When we start playing these games with each other, we start trusting each other and building trust on an agile team, what's more important than trust? If we don't have trust with each other, we're just in a world of trouble. Okay, let's get to our next game. This one is called Red Ball. The starter, who's my starter? It rotated one clockwise, right? We have a starter in each team. Raise your hand. One of you guys is the starter. Okay, the starter has a red ball in their hand and it is burning hot. You want to get rid of this red ball as quickly as possible. And the ways to get rid of it are simply to say the name of a person, their first name, and then the word red ball. The color of the ball and then the word ball. Right now it's easy because we only have red. So if a ball gets dropped or lost, anybody on the team can pick it up. And you might think, well, there's just one red ball being thrown around. How can we lose this? It can still actually happen. So you're just going to say, like I'm going to say, Jennifer, red ball, and I'm going to throw her the ball. It's about the size of a tennis ball. And she's going to say and throw it, but we're just a group of two. With eight, she wouldn't have to throw it back to me. Right? So go ahead. Starter throw that red ball around and remember, it's hot. You want to get rid of it fast. Go. Has everybody had a chance to get rid of the red ball? Yes. Okay. Good. Somebody still has it, right? Who has it in your team? Yeah. Okay. So the starter who started the red ball, they now have a yellow ball. And it's just as hot as the red ball, of course. It's the size of a soccer ball or football, whatever that thing, right? So that red ball is still in play. When I say go, the starter is going to throw the yellow ball. Whoever had the red ball is going to throw the red ball. If the starter has the red ball and the yellow ball, they're going to have to get rid of both balls. And as soon as the starter wants, they're going to introduce the green ball. The green ball is the size of a beach ball. Sound good? Is everybody on the same page? Okay. If you have questions, Holler, go ahead. To try to limit work in process. Yeah. So we re-emphasized our names in that game. What else did we get out of that? Why would an improv team want to do that sort of a game with their team? Multitasking is a problem. Context switching is a problem. We emphasize listening to each other. We want to make sure that we hear everyone. So in this game, it's all about, you know, did any team drop a ball? Yeah. Did every team drop a ball? Yeah. Okay. One thing, the speaker next door is having trouble hearing, or they're having trouble hearing her because we're having too much fun. So we'll try to keep that in mind as we move along. Okay. I want to tell you what improv is. So I got this from Wikipedia. It defines improvisational theater or improv as a form of theater where the performance is created at the moment it is performed. The dialogue, the action, the story, and the characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time without the use of a script. It goes on to say improvisational techniques are often used in business as a way to develop communication skills, creative problem solving, and supportive teamwork abilities that are used by improv players, often used in business. Really? I got this from the internet, so I know it can't be wrong. Who here uses improv in their day-to-day business? One guy in the back? You can go. Okay. Let's try our next game. So your starter, who's my starter? Every team got a starter? Okay. This game is called Alphabet Conversation. Play proceeds clockwise around the circle again, and each person is going to add a sentence to our team's story or conversation. There's a little catch, though. The first sentence, first word of the first sentence must begin with the letter A. The next person has to start their first word of their sentence with the letter B, and so on. Yes, so can somebody give me a sentence that starts with the letter A? Okay. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, and the next person might say, but I hate apples. And the next person might say, cauliflower is just as good. I heard from my doctor. And the next person might say, doctor, who's your doctor? So you can go very quickly, feel free to loosen up a little. A lot of times this game becomes easier if you think of just the one word, and then you build a sentence around that word. So we're not trying to be grammatically correct. A lot of us will eventually speak like Yoda, where he said everything backwards. So feel free to do that. And don't think so hard. Oh, and have fun. All right, so if you get all the way to Z, then I want to hear just a little round of applause to let me know your team's done, but keep going to A. And I'll call it when like half the team's finished. Sound good? Okay, go. Wow, you guys really stuck to it. Well, thank you. One of the things I really like about that game is that it really promotes listening, because you have to be listening to the story the whole way. It does. Also, I noticed some people plan ahead a little bit. Did anybody in the room count ahead and see what their letter was going to be? I know it's not just me. Okay, cool. Also, something you guys did as a team is you created something that not any one of you could have done on your own. Whatever story you came up with, you came up with it as a team. So your team succeeded. And for that, I'll say you all rock. So congratulations. This is Dick Costolo, the ex-CEO of Twitter. He has made the statement, improvisation is about embracing the idea of uncertainty. You can almost change that word improvisation and stick what other word in there? Blank is about embracing the idea of uncertainty. Yeah, fits pretty well, right, Agile? He also has a YouTube video called Manage Your Company Like an Improv Team. Now, when he says that, do you think that he wants his managers to just make stuff up and wing it all day long? I don't think he does. I think what he meant by that is he wants his managers to use the improv mindset to help their team succeed. And that mindset is collaboration, creativity, communication, and trust. He wants that developed into all of their great team players. So that last game was what I call list-based. You know how the first person goes and then the person to their left and this person. You could do that on the phone from a list, right, of names. That's list-based. That game in particular would have been much more difficult if we did it, as I say, player-based. Player-based is when I take my turn, instead of the person to my left, I point at somebody. So if I did A, I would point at you, you'd get B, you'd point at somebody for C. So that makes it a lot more difficult. You're going to have to pay a lot more attention. But we're playing a different game. This one's called jibberish dictionary, but we're going to do it player-based. So our starter, who's my starter? We have a starter on every team. They're going to start, but the play continues by them pointing at somebody. And of course, you have a team of eight or nine and they're going to try to make sure everybody gets a turn. So after you take your turn, maybe take a little step back if you're down to just a couple people and you're left and haven't had a turn, take a little step forward. All right. So jibberish dictionary, the way this works is the starter will make up a completely nonsensical word. No basis in reality. Can somebody give me a word that makes no sense at all? Washito. Washito is actually from the Yiddish dictionary, I believe, and it means washing clothes over stones. Maybe. So you were the starter in this case. You pointed at me and gave me the word. Then I would point at somebody and I would make up a word for them to provide the definition. So you're always providing the definition of a word and once you succeed, then you get to make up a word and point at somebody. I thought I had something important to... Maybe you'll see it as we play. Make sure everybody gets a turn. Oh, yeah, have fun with this. Make up crazy words, okay? Go ahead. Keep it going. You are all creative geniuses and this game touched on creativity. Oh, I guess that'll come up eventually. Okay. Well, I'll just pretend it says exactly what I want. It probably says collaboration, creativity, communication, and trust. So that game relied a lot on your creativity and you are all really good at it but if we practice it on a daily basis, we get even better at it. Now, the last slide I had up was Dick Costolo talking about improv and you probably don't really believe that there's a lot of similarities between improv and your agile teams but I think there really are. First, an improv team performs in front of a live audience which is really exactly what you do every day at your meetings at work. It's a live audience. Second, an improv team wants to deliver the highest quality show to their audience and as an agile software team, you want to deliver the highest quality product to your customer. An improv team performs without a script. Well, did any of you wake up this morning and have a script at your breakfast table and have told you what you were going to do today? No, you work without a script all day long. You are improvising all day long. You just probably don't realize it and the one I think is really important is that our agile teams hold retrospectives every week or two. Well, an improv team after every performance gets together with a coach, with their coach where they discuss what went well and what could have gone better which is kind of the two main questions we ask ourselves at retrospectives. Okay, you guys ready for another game? Yes. Yes! Okay, this one's called Count to 20 and for this one, your team is going to be in a circle and you are actually going to be physically shoulder to shoulder. I mean, you can leave an inch there because this is IT, there's no touching. But you're going to be close and you are going to all look at the ground in the center of the circle so you can't see each other's eyes. Our rules. Your goal is to count from one to 20 as a team. There's no starter for this one. Any person who wants can say one and then you increment by ones so anyone can say two. Then anyone says three. Don't form any patterns. So if you say one and you say two and you say three, we're all pretty smart, right? We know what you're going to say. Don't do that. I mean, we're all smart enough to figure that out. Well, that's not where we're going here. We're trying to establish a group mind with our team. You know, a shared vision, if you will. So, you know, maybe behind the scenes somewhere all our brains are connected. I don't want to get weird or anything. But if they are, this is a great chance for us to bond with our team and try to accomplish something where we're all on the same page. Oh, gosh, I'm going to use that all day long. We're all on the same page without even looking at each other. Okay, so that still sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? Yeah, it's going to get harder. So with eight, I want to make sure everyone says at least two numbers and maybe at most three or four. Oh, you can't go twice in a row. I had a team where one guy said, one, two, three, four, five, 20. Okay, we're done. Let's go home. All right, here's the big rule. If two people speak at the same time, we failed, right? And when we fail, we all say, oh, like it's the saddest thing that's ever happened. And then somebody starts us over at one. All right. Oh, and our tip. Our tip is to be present in the moment. Don't think about what you're going to do at the next, what you're going to have for lunch. Just think about this right now. And then finally, let's get in our team, circle up, get ready, look at the floor, and then let's have a cleansing breath. You know, a big inhale and then an exhale. And then go ahead and start whenever you're ready. So this one I'm going to start talking because you're staring at the ground, so I need to actually get your attention. Okay, so that's pretty hard, isn't it? Yeah, getting all of us on the same page is hard. One of the things I like about that game is it really requires heightened listening. I mean, we're even trying to listen for people's breathing, right? If somebody on your team goes, four, well, I know then when they're going to say 12, right? And being in the moment. Have any of you ever been in a meeting where one person's talking and then another person starts talking and neither of them stop talking? They just both keep going? And nobody in the room can understand anything being said. I'm not even sure they understand. Yeah, so what I like about this game is that it teaches us to immediately sense when two people are talking, and we both backed off, which is something we should do on our software teams, too, or our agile teams. And GroupMind is wonderful if we can get there. This is something else I really like about this team. I mean, this game. When your team messed up, did anybody point at anybody? Say, hey. No, it was shared failure, right? Your team accepted your mistake. And nobody throws anybody under the bus. It's the same rule for improv. If a team has a very bad performance on stage and you get back with your coach, you know about what didn't work, but nobody ever points at somebody and says, well, you know, Bill really messed up tonight. We just don't do that. In fact, one of the things we do is save each other. So I don't know, has anybody seen improv? Raise your hand if you've seen improv. Okay, not a whole lot. There's maybe eight people on a team. There's four on each side pointed into the stage. Two people walk out and start a scene. If that scene is just dying, doing really poorly, somebody else will step out and insert themselves in the scene somehow. And when you're on the side and you're coming in to save somebody, I guarantee I have no idea what's going to come out of my mouth when I walk out to help those other two people. But you go out to help them because you know they would do the same for you. They will come out and help you when you are struggling. And actually more often than not, I'm the one struggling and somebody comes and saves me. Have you ever been in a meeting and been zoned out, kind of not paying attention? I was on a phone call last week where the speaker said, hey, is that path forward okay with you, Bob? And there was just silence, nothing at all. And then pretty soon somebody tries to help and I say, Bob, you're on mute! And there's more silence. And then pretty soon you hear Bob get on and he says, oh, I was, I was, gosh, I was multitasking. What was the question? I think we've all been on that call, right? Well, improv teams and our teams have a lot of similar problems, that being one of them. This is another one. Sometimes a single person dominates our meetings. Have you been in meetings like that? We often interrupt each other. Sometimes we have somebody who doesn't participate in the meeting at all, hopefully not for this reason, but sometimes people won't speak up. A lot of times we don't collaborate with each other. Collaboration is building upon each other's ideas to go somewhere new. A lot of times we just tear down our partner's ideas. Well, we don't want to do that. So we practice collaboration. Sometimes we don't completely listen and also sometimes we are multitasking. This person's on the phone driving, eating and drinking. So we try not to do that also. Improv teams struggle with these same problems. So let me back up four slides. Believe it or not, sometimes you're on stage and all of a sudden you ask yourself, you don't say it out loud, but you're like, why am I here? What am I doing? What is this scene about? You kind of lose focus. Sometimes you're on a team where somebody's dominating the stage. Sometimes you've got somebody on the team that's not participating. And sometimes we're multitasking also. My point is that we do the same things in improv that we do in our meetings and they practice collaboration, creativity, communication and trust to help. So I like to say that's the same things we should be doing on our teams. Okay, ready for our next game? Okay, who's my starter in each team? Okay, so this game's a little more complicated. I'm going to demonstrate with a team. So I'm going to demonstrate with you guys. This game is called I Need Three Things. Let me get all of the... Oops, let me get all the rules up. I'll read them really quickly. Actually the only ones that are important are the three things you say, try to keep them related, and the last item you say becomes the first thing for the next person to say. So if somebody could give me just one thing, I'll go with stone. So you asked for... Oh, I'm sorry, you said stone, paper, scissors. You asked for three things. You've played before. So the last thing she asked for was scissors. So my first thing I asked for was scissors. So I walk up to somebody and say, I need scissors, paper and some glue. And then I take his spot. He walks to the center and goes over to somebody and says, I need glue, the last thing I heard. I need glue, a model airplane, and a 12-year-old who sniffs. Oh, I don't know where that came from. And then he would come to the center. I need a 12-year-old that sniffs, a very good doctor and good health insurance. So you're kind of keeping those three things coordinated. Did that make sense? And you don't have to go somewhere crazy like I did. It just is a habit with me. All right. Any questions on this game? Okay. Try to keep the three things related, but go fast. All right. Ready? Go ahead. Ask for three things. Okay. So somebody should be in the center of the circle right now. You know who you are. All right. So we're going to make two changes to this game. First change. Go twice as fast. Don't think so hard. You know, some of us try to think of the three things. Don't. Just say the first one. It's for free, right? You heard that one. Say that second one. Don't worry about the third one. Just keep your mouth open and keep it moving. Something will come out. Try to keep them related. Now that we're doubling our speed, just keep your, just, this is a subconscious thing, right? One of the things that's so exciting is our subconscious knows how to solve problems we don't, which is why often we wake up. How many keep a little pad by their bed, a note pad, so they can write down their brilliant ideas. We're trying to get to that subconscious level whenever we want. So you just dump three things out of your head as quickly as possible. Now, the person in the center is going to ask for three things. My starter, I want you to also step through the circle and ask somebody else for three things. So you're going, your little circle is the same person. Oh, you guys. Okay, so as soon as you ask for three things, you ask somebody else for three more. All right, are we ready to start? So we're going to have two people in the center. Go. So was that harder? Yeah, some people find that harder and some people find that easier. I feel it's kind of freeing when I don't have to think so hard. I just let those words tumble. We're all extremely creative, but sometimes we hide that. And part of the problem is we hide it behind our filters. So one of the reasons to play that game is to get used to removing your filter. Some of your brilliant ideas are trapped behind the filters that we put in place over the years. So I like to remove them when possible. And playing these games practices that. A lot of times I'll be in a meeting and I'll toss out a crazy idea, something just stupid. And I mean people will roll their eyes and go, oh, why do you even say that? But then, like 10 minutes later, when somebody tosses out some idea that turns out to be brilliant, I can see the seeds of my idea in their idea. And they wouldn't have had that idea if it wasn't for that stupid thing I said. So I urge you to be free with your teams. Like in that particular example, I didn't even mind. I didn't point it out. I didn't take credit because it's a team thing, right? You want to take credit as a team for your successes. So go ahead and throw out your crazy ideas. And if anybody asks you about it, you can say you learned it at a conference. And you want to get them on the same page you're on. That is awful. Okay, one of the things we say in improv is, and it relates to this game we just played, we say step off a cliff and figure it out on your way down. It's kind of a little like the follow your fear. Take an action in the right direction. That's what Agile is all about in the first place. All right, I find it hard to define warm-up games. We've played maybe eight so far. There's over a thousand improv warm-up games in the world. There's 20 on this flyer that I've brought several hundred of. So you can grab these on your way out. And there's 60 on the website teamfirstdevelopment.com. So you can play them all the time. They're all repeatable. And I actually created these 60 on the website because I work in St. Louis, Missouri, and I had teams in Mumbai. And I wanted them to collaborate better. So we played improv games over the phone. So all of these are playable over the phone. Although that red ball game, that is really hard because people are all talking at the same time. So these warm-up games are hard to describe, but I can tell you what they do. They get all of us communicating. They get everyone involved. They often make us laugh. They make us feel like a team. They get us energized. And they help us establish trust. They sharpen concentration. And they teach acceptance of each other and each other's ideas. When we pass judgment, we create a wall between each other. We shouldn't judge each other on a personal level and we shouldn't be judging each other's ideas. Pixar actually has a thing. When you throw out an idea at Pixar, you are not allowed to judge it. You have to do what they call plus it. You have to build upon it, add to it, which we'll cover in one of our games coming up. Okay. Oh, I was supposed to show you that slide when I told you about how teams do great stuff together. So this game is called Free Association. We're going to have time for two more games and then questions and answers. Free Association. So this game, the starter, we have a starter at every team? Yep. So you're just going to throw out any word and every time you speak, you have to turn to your left. So you physically either turn or you can just turn from the neck up. It doesn't matter, but you have to turn to your left. You are telling that word to that person on your left and then they make it form an association with that word. So like if the first word was duck, my next person might say dog, but I turn to the left also. So you are going clockwise around the circle, associating. Sound good? Not clear. Okay, good. So let's give an example. So I'm here. I'm going to turn to my left and say wind. This guy is going to turn to his left and say rain. And this guy is going to turn to his left and say weather because they're kind of related. We're associating those words, right? Affinity. Good word. Bonus points for you. Okay, are we all on the same... No, are we all together on this? Same page, okay. Go ahead. Questions? So we're going to try to speed up. This is a loose association. Now we're going to add a little complication. Once you have made it one time around the circle, and remember I had you turn to the left to form that association. If instead you want to form a disassociation or a non-sequitur, or completely change the topic, you turn to the right. So if Jennifer said dog to me, I could turn to my left and say cat, or I could turn to my right and say Pluto as a planet. Oh wait, is Pluto a dog? Okay, I would say Neptune. And then she could turn it back to me and say Venus, or she could turn to the person next to her and say cauliflower. So you can always go to the right making a disassociation or to the left making an association. But I want you to go around the circle at least once associating. So go clockwise to your left. Go ahead. So I'm sorry I'm cutting this one a little short because our next one is like the best game ever and I want to make sure we have full time to play it. Alright, for this game, I need you to remember what team you're on and where your team is standing because you're going to leave that area but eventually you're going to get back to that team. Okay, I need you to pair up so form a pair and then head off to some edge of the room get away from as many people as possible because you're going to have a conversation as a pair. So everybody raise their hand and then once you've formed a pair with another person and the two of you have agreed you're my partner you both put down your hands and we'll see very quickly who needs to find a partner. Oh yeah, if you pair up within your group that's going to make things really easy but you don't have to, any two. Yeah, yeah. Does anybody not have a partner? Hands up if you don't have a partner. You guys good? Okay. Oh Jennifer really wants to play. Okay, so here's how this game works. You are going to plan a party with your partner. A party. So this can be any kind of party. This can be a holiday party. This can be an anniversary party, a birthday party, whatever kind of party you want to plan. So the rules are very simple. One of you, I need a starter. One of you is the starter. Thank you. You make a statement about the party you want to plan. Like I want to have clowns at the party and your partner responds with, and the response is always the same at the beginning. The response is no. That loud. Yep, that loud and with a hand motion. Avoid sticking your hand right up in their face. You know, just no. And you can give a reason you don't want to do what they said but you don't have to. They say, no, I don't like clowns. They scare me. I'd like to serve cake at the party. And the response is no. None of my friends like cake. I would like to have some asparagus at the party though. So, you know, you don't have to do food. You can do whatever you like. That just popped in my head. So you plan the party. Your first person just makes a statement both telling each other no and propose something else. Do you choose the guy for the party first? No. Oh, actually... No! You figure that out while you play. Well, you attempt to figure that out. Yes, keep saying no and telling them why you don't like what they said and then you propose what you want. Is that good? Are we all good? Go ahead. Thanks. That one's hard to get attention back to me because you're in pairs and you're so adamant, right? And you're so negative. Anybody plan a party? It was pretty hard, wasn't it? So, often we do this in business, right? We hear somebody's idea and our very first thought is, that's not going to work. I just had this happen at work the other day where internally I said that's not going to work externally I said yes and simply because of my training now that's my first reaction. So, what you're going to do now is plan a party with your partner again. Same thing, one big change. Oh, Tina Fey wrote the book Bossy Pants, Wonderful. Oh! Sorry. Is that somebody's alarm? Okay, so you're going to plan a party together. Your response instead of the no is always going to be an open, open hands, palms up, yes and so with that yes you accept what they said. You don't judge it. You accept what they said as if it's a gift and then with your and you're saying well you are going to add on top of that. So if you said I want to have clowns at the party yes and we're going to drop them out of helicopters. So this party is going to get weird and you're going to have some fun with it. Alright, ready? Go. Did anybody plan a party? Did anybody break any laws? No? Now I want you to get back in your teams really quickly. Go ahead. Yep, go back to your team. No, don't leave the room. Go back to your teams. Okay, so now who's my starter? Okay, so forget about planning a party. Just make a statement. Like Tom opened a pizza parlor on the west side of the city and the next person we're going to say yes and but we're going to say it in our head. So we say yes and quietly and then we build upon it. Yeah, and Tom hired five pizza delivery drivers and the next person is going to say yes and inside their head, don't let it out. Well, you can. But they're going to build upon that idea. Does that sound reasonable? Okay, go ahead. We're just going to make it around the circle once quickly because I want to wrap up. Go ahead. Go ahead and have a seat. When your team finishes, go ahead and have a seat. You just got four minutes and the old scrum master in me really likes to time box things. So I'm going to try to finish on time here. I think I said before start small. As a coach, every retrospective I facilitate, I start with one of these three minute games. I find it's really helpful to get us all energized before we start our retrospective. When you can look a teammate in the eye, form a real connection, communicate openly and honestly, build upon each other's ideas rather than just waiting for them to be quiet so you can speak. When you can consistently listen to them, when you can do all of that, you and your partner can't help but succeed. It doesn't matter whether your partner is on stage with you or if your partner is part of your software delivery team. When you do all of these things, you will become a great team player and when you are a great team player, your team will be great. And once you have great teams, tell others at your company how to be great team players and your whole company will be great. So my premise at the beginning was that starting your meetings with a three minute warm up game will do for your teams what they do for improv teams. I needed the right slide. We didn't play those. Okay, normally this is a three hour thing. So I do a three hour workshop also for companies and we play a lot more games. Oh, that slide, thank you. What we're trying to do is build communication, creativity, communication and trust into our teams. And this will enable each of your teammates to become a great team player, which will improve not only your meetings, but your teams as well. Thank you. So we've got two minutes for Q&A. Before we do that though, Jennifer has flyers. There's a couple hundred flyers up here. So if you want to grab one on the way out, feel free, I have two piles. They are the exact same thing. 20 games on the flyers, 60 games at the website. How many of you feel that you have formed some connection with your team today? Awesome, that's good. Okay, the real thing for me that I want from you now in the center of your tables is three by five cards. I would love to have your feedback. Can you hand out some over there? I would like this presentation to become as good as I can make it. So if you can give me your open and honest critical feedback, I would personally appreciate it. And then when you leave, you will be starting a new page in your life. Consider saying yes and, because when we say no to something, we gain security, right? We don't have to change any of our thoughts or where we're going. But when we say yes, we open ourselves up to an adventure. And that's what we want. Okay, and the website, teamfirstdevelopment.com. I have 33 seconds for questions. Yes, sorry. You're next. There's nothing called a mistake. Right, we talk about what could be improved. So one of my teams once, I used to be a developer a few years ago and I got to the office one morning and I was the early person in and I went to rebase my code and there was no code. There was no root of our SVN tree anymore. Our team that worked at night had deleted the root of the software tree. So you could call that a big mistake. What we did is it took me four hours of phone calls with various people to figure out how to get our software back and at that point I wrote down the process so that we could do it again in four minutes because it really wasn't that hard. I just didn't know what I was doing. So I'd consider that a gift because now on production morning, 10 minutes before production, we go live if somebody deletes the source code. I got this process written down. It takes me four minutes to get the code back. And this is like anything that's happened in your life. You think, oh, I made a mistake. No, everything you've done in your entire life has gotten you to where you are today, sitting in this room, playing games with your new friends. So whatever has happened, don't look at it as a mistake. Look at it as just where you are today and you can go somewhere great from here or go have lunch, that's good too. One more question and then we're out. The question is related to trust and a little of how we achieve it and then how we measure it. How it affects team performance. Trust is everything. If we don't have it, we're in a lot of trouble. I play games with my teams to try to improve trust. One thing I do on teams that are very troubled and don't trust each other, I play vulnerability exercises with them where we share something. You share something about your life that other people don't all know. You do that in a group setting and you become very close with each other and that tells you where they're coming from because maybe there's a reason they yell. Nobody should yell at anybody, right, but maybe they do because their family yelled at them when they were a kid and you don't know that until you sit down and share some things. So I think vulnerability stuff is an excellent way to improve trust. I'm not sure I answered all of that, but we do have to go to lunch. I'll answer questions all day, but you have lunch to eat. I'll go for a couple of minutes, but I won't feel bad if you walk out. How's that? Because you're on a deadline to eat. Yes, a subset of these exercises for a more formal setup. Well, I mean, I do a longer presentation, like a team building. Yes, I call all of these things we just did team building. Yeah, I mean, I do a three-hour thing. I could probably do a day-long thing. I mean, we get 60 games on the website and there's 1,000 other ones in the world. We could play games for a week. Yes. And then you suggested, hey, and yes, yes, and, but you know that this is an awful, awful, awful idea. So this is a great, great point. Somebody gives you an idea and you know it's miserable. For example, let's write a JDBC driver in COBOL, right? You say yes and let's make it faster than the Oracle driver. And they say yes and, and pretty soon the crappy part will go away. You don't have to tell them their idea is bad. They're going to figure out that COBOL is not the right answer when you try to beat the speed of Oracle for a Java database driver. Yes. Oh, well, I mean, I say everything's good, but if something goes wrong, we do root cause analysis on what went wrong. I mean, like that example I gave where the source code got deleted, we still did hold a meeting that, right, oh, there's no blame. It wasn't like, well, Steve deleted our source code. Let's get him fired. It was, let's talk about how this situation arose and write a process so that we don't repeat the situation. Exactly. Right, it's a fact. It's an event. It happened. Move on. Yep. All right. Thank you very much.