 Hi there. Welcome back to my Agile interview questions YouTube playlist. I'm Geoff Watts and in this playlist I attempt to answer a number of common questions that people get asked when interviewing for Agile roles. In the hope that it will help them prepare a little, but also help the people who are doing the interviewing with some keys on what possibly to look out for. In this second episode, the question I'm looking at is, how do you encourage quieter team members to be more involved in Agile ceremonies? Now, on the one hand, this is absolutely nothing to do with Agile because any meeting, any workshop, any team ceremony at all, Agile or not, could have the same issue of trying to get people who are a little bit more reluctant, a little bit more uncomfortable participating actively, more involved for the benefit of everybody. But on the other hand, it's everything to do with Agile because Agile explicitly requires full team participation. Now, there are two parts to this. The first is that an Agile team is going to be cross functional. So it should contain all the skills necessary to get something valuable done within iteration. Because of this, every member of the team is likely to be bringing to the party something completely different in terms of their expertise, their skill set, their perspective. So if one person isn't being able to contribute or willing to contribute, then the rest of the team's ability to solve a problem or make a decision holistically is going to be significantly reduced. Secondly, Agile teams are expected to some degree be self managing. And part of being self managing is being able to make decisions that we as a team can live by that we're happy with. And we've had our personal opinions and perspectives listened to and taken into account. Decisions that self organizing teams make also need to be actionable and supportable. And if I haven't really felt part of the decision making process, if I haven't had my voice heard, my opinion heard and valued, then I'm less likely to support that decision and try to make it work. So what can we do to help people feel more comfortable taking part in these kinds of ceremonies and workshops? Well, the first thing that I find incredibly valuable is setting expectations as a group. Now, I don't mean that singling out individuals, but literally as a group. I'd be keen to ask the team to think back about the best meetings, the best ceremonies that they've been part of in this team and other teams, and ask them, well, what was it about those sessions that made them successful, that made the decisions that came out of them successful, that made the explorations and the learnings within them more valuable? Was it because everybody was engaged and everybody was participating? If that is the case, then I'd potentially ask the team to think, well, what working agreements would you like to or need to put in place to increase the chances of that happening here? And how would you like me to help you stick to them? Any working agreements that the team comes up with themselves are much more powerful than anything that I could come up with, and they're more likely to stick to them. For example, would the team like to have some kind of Roman voting system in place for any decision or part decision that they're looking to make? Or perhaps they would like to use the decide card protocols? Even before this, however, I'd like to ensure that everybody's had a chance to get their voice into the room. And this is a tip that I picked up years ago from facilitation guru and a good friend of mine, Esther Derby. And it literally is as simple as it sounds, but it's incredibly powerful, giving everybody the chance to speak early on. And the earlier they get their voice in the room, the more chance there is of them actively participating more during the rest of the workshop. It's kind of like a permission to speak and proof that there won't be any terrible consequences as a result. The longer they go without speaking, the less chance there is of them participating at all. So do that early, that could be a round of introductions, or it could just be a little informal chat between you as a facilitator and each of the members of the people in the room. Another thing that's important to capture early on is expectation of participation. Now a common myth around agile ceremonies is that everybody should have equal participation, equal airtime, but that's not really the case. In fact, that can be quite detrimental because it puts a lot of pressure on people to speak more than they're comfortable with. And it also puts a lot more pressure on those who have a lot more to add that they don't feel they can add it. People who are more introverted but more succinct can actually get as much value into the room in a short amount of time than people who are naturally more verbose. So it's not about equal airtime, but more equal opportunity to participate. Now there is an obligation here as well because being part of an agile team requires you to contribute, and it's important to be aware of that. As well as an obligation to participate, there's also an obligation on everybody to allow other people to participate, both the time, the space and the safety. And just clarifying those expectations early on might enable you as a facilitator to come up with an explicit commitment from everybody that this is something they're happy to commit to. Beside these, there are a number of things that facilitators can do to help people who want to participate but aren't particularly comfortable in speaking up in front of a large group get more actively involved. The first thing is to do with the size of the working group. Now, as an individual who's not particularly comfortable in talking in front of large groups, speaking my opinion in front of 20 people could be quite intimidating. But if I was to work in a smaller group, say three, four, maybe five people, sharing my opinion might be more comfortable and easy there, especially when other conversations are going on in the room. And then when that group's opinion is played back to the room, it's no longer my opinion that I may feel judged by, it's now our opinion. So that's a good way of reducing the pressure on individuals. We can also change the medium. So again, speaking my mind verbally in front of people may be quite intimidating, may be quite daunting, but writing down my thoughts, perhaps on a post-it note or something makes it a little bit easier. It also gives me time to think through what I want to say as well rather than feeling on the spot and under pressure. Of course, there are also environmental factors that I consider as well. So maybe there are people in the room who individuals don't feel comfortable or safe talking in front of, perhaps seniors or line managers or even colleagues they just haven't got a great history or connection with. They might also be concerned about what's going to happen with the information that's shared in that session. Is it going to be written up and shared publicly? Or is it going to be shared verbally with seniors or management? Or perhaps even just the idea that it might be leaked to colleagues could reduce my willingness and comfort levels in sharing my true opinions. The other thing around environment is the room itself. Is the room itself visible or audible to people who are just walking by or in the neighborhood? Apart from these facilitation tips, I've probably also considered talking to them one-to-one. And maybe in my capacity as a coach, I could ask them if this is something that they would actually like to develop in themselves. Or if there is something that they'd like to work on and become more comfortable at. If it is, obviously it's got to be something they want to do rather than something that I want them to do, then I could perhaps work on what's going on for them personally and create a personal development strategy for getting them to a point where they are more comfortable being more proactive and involved in meetings like this. In summary, while this is nothing to do with agile in one regard, on the other hand, it's at the heart of what makes something agile. It's about trying to focus a lot more on the individuals and to allow them to have the interactions that they need and that they would like to have so that we don't have to rely as much on process and tools. But by now the interview is probably getting a little bit anxious about asking the next question, so I'd wrap it up. Well, I hope you liked this video and I hope you found it useful. If you did, please give me a little thumbs up alike to let me know. And if you've got any ideas of what you would like me to cover in another Agile interview questions video, then leave it in the comments and I'll try and get that one on to the backlog. Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the channel and to click that little bell that makes you aware, gives you a notification when any new videos are posted. And if you've got an interview coming up for an Agile job, good luck. See you soon.