 But this session is, well, starting to disappoint you, but I don't have any PowerPoint. Is that all right? Yeah. OK, so this is my PowerPoint. We're doing self-management and self-organization. We're doing something called Agile Games, some games that help us experience and learn things. I have a couple. I'm Richard Kasparowski. If you want to contact me, that would be amazingly great. Please do. Please send me email or message me on Twitter. That would be great. Richard at kasparowski.com. Check out my website, kasparowski.com. So we're going to do a few things that are different and unusual, maybe a little scary, but definitely fun. We're going to do a lot of things about self-management and self-organization. Has anybody here heard of the Agile Manifesto? You're so wrong. You're so wrong. Mike? No. Can everybody hear me? Can you guys hear me? Yeah, we're good. You guys hear me? OK. You would need it for an order. What's up? Can I just go on? I don't want to. So the Agile Manifesto, there's a value that says we value individuals and interactions. We're going to do a lot of interacting. There's a principle that says that self-organized teams develop the best architectures and get the best results. We're going to do a lot of self-organizing during this 45 minutes. Here's the first activity that we're going to do. I invite everybody to stand up and look at the chair in front of you or behind you and move that chair over to the wall. We want some open space. So get all these chairs out of the way. We're going to be moving around using the entire floor. What we're doing is voluntary. Nobody has to do any of this. If you don't want to do anything we're doing, that's totally OK. You can just not do it. You can stand by the wall. Whatever makes you feel most comfortable. Nobody has to do anything we're doing. This is all voluntary and opt-in. For our first activity, I need a volunteer to play boss. Is everybody who wants to be boss? What do you want to be bossy? What do you want to be boss, come on up. All right, boss. Veronica is the boss. We're going to do an activity called line up. And Veronica is the boss. You want to make me think. Maybe. They're just going to say it for a bunch. So Veronica is going to have one minute to play boss. He's going to arrange everybody in the room by birth date. And because he's the boss, he's just going to tell you where to stand. So as the boss, he's really, really smart. He knows everything. Everybody wants to do. And as workers, we just stand there and wait to be told what to do. So that's what you guys do. You just stand and wait and be told what to do. As boss, your job is to line everybody up in order by birth date. So people born on January 1 will go over there. People born on December 31 will go over there. And then everybody in between in order. Excellent. And you're a great boss. So I know you can do this in a minute. Don't want any volunteers for the next round or what? So it's fine. I've got a one minute timer going. Boss, you ready? Yeah. All right, go. OK. So I won the January here, the pep here. And that pep I won the entire team to be expected for that. So into columns here. January girl? Everybody in January? May. May. Number, number. March? July-July. May? May. May! July-July, July-July. July-July, July-July. July-July. July-July. July-July. July-July. July-July. The first week towards the front, the second week towards behind that, the third week behind that, the fourth week behind that. The first week in the front. So another thing I'm going to be doing here is if you see me raising my hands, it means I'm asking for your attention. I'm just going to raise my hand and wait. I'm going to raise my hand and wait for your attention. Alright, boss, that's not what I asked for. So this is really nice. Columns of people of January 1st and December 31st in a straight line in between. That was really hard, wasn't it? I was getting there. That was really hard. In the next release probably. After each of these activities, we'll deal a quick debrief. So boss, what was that like for you? Not bad. There was a time when there was a lot of chaos. But the team were doing it on their own, so it was fun. Alright, a lot of chaos. It was more fun when teams were doing it on their own. Anybody who was a worker had anything to say? About the boss or? About anything. There was no participation from boss. No participation from boss, wow. I think the team was self-organized. They were trying to understand. Actually, the way it worked is we just self-organized. So let's do it again. And we'll do it actually this way across the room. And we're going to line up by how long you have worked at your company. How long have you had your current job, okay? If you just started today, stand here. If you've been there for 40 years, stand over there. And everybody in between, in order, from newest at job to oldest at job. How long have you worked there? And all together, you guys get one minute to do this. Ready? Go. Okay. Nine years. Nine years, nine years. Nine years, nine years. Nine years. Nine years. Nine years. Nine years. Nine years. Times up. It looks like you guys got it done before time was up. Yeah. You're getting better than you said all the time. Yeah, boss. What was that like for you guys? There was no box in the road. What was that? There was no box in the road. There was no box in the road. Yeah, it was all self-organized. How did that feel compared to having a boss? They'd go to work. That was awesome. It worked. That was actually really easy. You guys didn't know anything about very few of you knew each other before we started this. So nobody knew where they were going to stand before we did this. Even sitting down next to people, you didn't really know each other that well. Anything else about how that one felt? I think it would. It felt good? Yeah, because you could control your outfit in it together. Yes. So we'll do two more of these. Now, this way across the room just because I like to watch you guys move your experience with Agile. So if you just heard of Agile today stand over here if you signed the Agile manifesto you're up that in the world. Alright? So in order from experience with Agile from just heard about it to signed the manifesto across the room that way one minute, go. One minute, go. One minute, go. One minute, go. One minute, go. One minute, go. One minute, go. One minute. One minute, go. One minute, go. One minute. This is gonna be really hard. This is an instant dimension. Stay where you are in this dimension of your experience with Agile. in this dimension, right, this is a two-dimensional graph now, in this dimension, you're experienced with agile games. All right, so if this is your first time doing agile games, this side of the room fits, stay where you are in that dimension for this side. If you have, you know, if you wrote the book on agile games, it makes sense, stay where you are in this dimension, experience with agile, and in this dimension, experience with agile games. First time doing it, wrote a book. So now we know a lot about each other in that self-organized way. We know who all the special people are in the room, okay? We know that we've got a lot of new friends right here, less experienced in Agile, less experienced at games for Agile, and these are people that we want to welcome into our community and make sure they feel good about being here and help them out with everything they need help with. People over there have a lot of experience with Agile and some experience with Agile games, right? So if you guys, especially over here, if you guys want to know more about Agile and more about games, those are the people. So, you know, and they probably want to talk to you. Because that's why we're here at a conference, so we can meet each other and talk to each other. Anything else about what we just did as a form of self-organizing? Anybody want to add a comment? It's fun. It's fun. Yeah, self-organizing is fun. It's a natural way of doing things. Self-organizing is natural. Another example of self-organizing, Bangalore Trathen. I've heard there are rules, but... I took my first motorrick shot ride the other night with some friends from the conference, and to make it exciting, he went the wrong way. It was pretty exciting. Okay, so that was that game. That game is called Line Up. It's an example of an Agile game, an experiential learning activity. If you want to do some Agile games at your work, but your boss doesn't like the word games, because we're supposed to be doing work, you can call this, this is a pro tip, you can call these experiential learning activities. Then you sound really smart, and you can have a lot of fun at work. So we're doing this because there's different modes of learning. One is reading a book, one is listening to somebody talk, which you're doing right now, and another one is practicing what you do. So we learned Agile, we learned coding and developing software better by practicing it, instead of by listening to somebody talk about it. And teaching it is another great way. So my goals for this session are that, well, you can hear a little bit about what we're doing. You can practice it a lot. It's experiential. And maybe after having practiced it, you can teach it to somebody else. So you can take these experiential learning activities and maybe do them at your office with your colleagues. That was our first game. I learned Line Up the first time I did it was with Lisa Hattkins, who's here at the conference. It's also a very common icebreaker activity. It's documented in a lot of books, books for actors, just books for people getting to know each other better. So that was our first activity. Our second activity is a game, an experiential learning activity, called 60 Paces. For this game, everybody needs a partner. So let's start first, find a partner. Could be the person standing right next to you. So people pair up. When you have a partner, raise your hand. Everybody have a partner? We're going to be doing some walking around. If you're wearing shoes that inhibit your mobility, it's okay to take them off. I will model. Okay, to take your shoes off. Here's how the game works. One of you is a boss and one of you is a worker. If you're the boss, raise your hand. Okay, for every pair of people, one of you is a boss and one of you is a worker. Decide who's the boss and who's the worker. If you're a boss, raise your hand. Boss and worker, you are a little company. And your goal is to take many steps. You get paid 100 rupees for every step you take in 60 seconds. Worker, worker, you can... No, I'm not actually paying you. Worker, you can only do exactly what your boss says. You're only allowed to do what your boss says. Boss, you are only allowed to issue four commands. Go straight, turn left, turn right, stop. Boss, you have four commands for your worker. Straight, turn left, 90 degrees, turn right, 90 degrees, and stop. How many times? You can issue any command you want as many times as you want. And boss, your goal is to get your worker to go as many steps as possible in 60 seconds. Worker, you can only do exactly what your boss says. Ready? 60 seconds, and boss and worker starts now. Go. Go. No. Alright, time's up. Time's up. How many steps did you guys take? 90 steps. 50? 50 five. 50 five. 60 four. Everybody got more than 90. One 40. One 44. 42. Alright, so you got a range from 40s to 140. 105. Very good. Okay, second round of this. No bosses. Everybody is a worker. All by yourself. See how many steps you can take in one minute. Go. Even bosses do one now. Boss. 20 seconds. 50. No. No. Sir. 100. One 20, one 30. One 20, one 30. One 20, one 30. One 20, one 20. 75. 75. What is a final challenge? What is a final challenge? 100. 100. Okay. You did it. Can I just say one minute? Yeah, one minute. One minute. Just a minute. One second. 100. Yeah, one minute. 100, one minute. 500. 100. What is the final challenge? 100. Did anybody get fewer steps than the person? You should ask the question, how many took the right steps? Everybody is going around in a circle. Without a boss, the worker could not follow, right? So sometimes bosses get in the way, that was a lot easier without a boss than it was with the boss. If you were a boss, what did that feel like in the first round? I had to walk with the worker. The boss added zero value, you only got credit for the worker's steps. There was pressure as a boss. The boss was shouting at the worker. The whole thing was stressful for the boss and the worker. As a worker, what did it feel like first round? We were not allowed to take, he felt controlled. What else? He felt controlled. What? He felt controlled. Sometimes the boss can't even count. I think the quality was bad, people were bumping into each other. Getting in each other's way. The boss didn't give the right directions, we were only allowed to do what the boss said. Second round, no bosses, what was that like? People seemed doubled, so people got twice as many steps. Ownership, self ownership, so we felt much better about this. Better coverage of the responsibility. We could learn easier and faster without waiting for the boss. We're focusing on the outcome, how many steps, how many rupees, as opposed to focusing on the boss. We're actually focusing on the business value instead of what the boss was saying. We could just get around impediments. If somebody was in the way, you could just get around. That gave us 60 paces. It's a game that demonstrates self-organization for many complex problems like walking. You can solve many complex problems more easily by being self-organized and self-managed. Credit for that game, I played that game the first time with Jeff Sutherland as a teacher. It's a pretty common game, that was my first encounter with it. That was our second game, 60 paces. Third game is a game called Triangles. This is probably where we'll wrap up. Here's how Triangles works. Look around the room, secretly pick two people who you'll think of as your friend. It doesn't have to be a friend you had yesterday, it could be just a random person in the room. Secretly pick two people, don't tell anybody who your friends are, it's a secret. We can all keep secrets, right? I'm counting on you to keep this all secret. With you and your two secret friends, you're not telling your friends who they are, it's a secret. Move yourself around so you're forming the points of an equilateral triangle. Okay, so you and your three friends, three secret friends, are the points of an equilateral triangle. Move your feet until you form an equilateral triangle with your two secret friends. Don't tell them who they are. Are the rules clear? Any questions about the rules? Okay, so with your two secret friends, form equilateral triangles. Go. And I'm going to play. Keep moving around so you have an equilateral triangle. Keep moving around so you have an equilateral triangle. Don't change friends, I'll make a different one. Form a triangle just like that. It's like a moving target, it's really hard to do. Let's stop there. I don't know if you can imagine doing that with a boss. Second round of that game, okay, this is a little different. You are now a secret agent, and you have somebody that you're protecting and somebody that you're protecting him or her from. You are a secret agent, and you still have two secret people, could be two different people. And you have somebody that you're protecting, sort of like a celebrity maybe, and you have an enemy, that person's enemy, a secret enemy, like a celebrity stalker or something. Your job as the protector is to stand directly in the middle of them. So you have your secret agent, nobody can know who you're protecting and who you're protecting them from. You pick two people, one person you're protecting, one person you're protecting them from, and you stand exactly in the middle of them to protect the person. Do the rules make sense? Do we declare this? Or it's again secret? Sure, you are a secret agent. You pick two people secretly. One of them is somebody special, and one of them is the person's enemy. And you have to protect the special person from the enemy by standing directly between them. There are no other rules. There are no other rules. Okay, ready, go. Very complex problem, right? If you take a step up from forming a line and taking steps to forming a triangle, what did that feel like as a player in the game, as a participant? Anybody? We end up protecting ourselves. Anything else? I had a different problem. I was projecting a curve from him, and then he was creating another thing. Actually, I was supposed to stand in between, but he always came in between. So you found an unsolvable problem? Yeah, yeah. And you noticed it was unsolvable? Yeah, yeah. Without knowing ahead of time that... I just stepped back. All that I decided is that if two people are standing close by, I would just go and stand in the middle. That's all. So one of them is protecting, I mean, I'm protecting always. You are the end of the game. The goal and the result was not clear. The goal and the result was not clear. There was no communication, so it was leading to lack of coordination. It was uncoordinated? Yeah. Take holders actually were not knowing. Whom you are protecting and from whom you are getting protected. So for both rounds of that, the triangles and the protectors, what do you think that would have been like with a boss telling you where to stand? Actually, here there is one more lack of trust. We don't know whether I'm an enemy or the... There's a trust as a part of this. Does anybody have an idea of what that might have been like with a boss? No, I don't. No boss knows everything. That's cool, right? Yeah. So we actually solved the problem. We stabilized it about one minute. Do you think a boss would have done better? Yeah. Yeah, it depends. Without informing the stakeholder, it's difficult. That part of the stakeholder would be difficult. Because boss knows who's who. The boss does not know. The boss has no other... Oh, boss does know. You have to see IA. So it's like in the first game. If the boss doesn't have any extra information compared to the workers, it wouldn't have added any value. It would have been no value at all. Probably wouldn't have solved it. A facilitator might have helped. I wonder where we could find a facilitator. Oh, yeah. Would have been easier with more transparency. So those two games are Triangles and Secret Agent. I learned those at... There's actually a conference about all the stuff. There's a few. I learned this at the Agile Games Conference, which is a conference that we have in the US. These are sort of like theater games and warm-ups that people can do. And they're sort of good demonstrations of self-organizing. We did that self-organized. Nobody told you exactly where to stand. And yet you knew exactly where to stand. You just figured it out. The goal of this game, though, wasn't as clear as the other two. You could say that you don't need the boss. But here, I'm not sure what we accomplished. Yeah, not sure what we accomplished. It was just an experience of being self-organized. That really was the goal. I think that is just about all we have time for. Let's see. I will write the URL here so you can find all of these activities plus more. I have these all documented on my website. I also have a survey. If you don't mind going to this URL and answering the questions, it would help me make this session better. And I would really appreciate your help. We have one final activity. I invite you to help with this final activity. The activity is put the chairs back. Can we all do that? Yes. And I thank you all very much for coming. Thank you.