 We're not starting until we get a loud a round of applause. Come on. You didn't have to do that. Thanks everyone. That's a bright light. Stand over here. That's better. How are you all? Good, cool. Yesterday some of you guys came into the session I ran. A little wave. Hope you enjoyed yourselves. Thanks for coming back for a second one. We're going to do a little activity. I reckon we've got a half an hour. What we want you to do is come up with a top three list of something. How's the accent? Everyone getting the Australian? It's all clear. Are you confident that we can organize ourselves to come up with a top three list? Raise your hand if you're confident we can do it. Everyone in the room is going to participate. Show me your hand if you're skeptical. There's no way we can get. There are about 68 people in the room. You guys are actually good at organizing 68 people to agree on something. We'll just sit and watch. What we're going to do is put the clock on and run a series of very short iterations. Typically around three minutes. We'll do three, three, four, four, four. We're going to run six iterations. What we're going to do is ask you to interact at different scales. We'll start with pairs, then fours, then eights. Then at the end we're going to have 64 people coming together to agree on something. Anyone got a topic that they'd like to volunteer? I'll give you one if you don't have one. Favorite agile technique. We're looking for the top three favorite agile techniques. Your job after you've figured out what the top three most valuable agile techniques are is to go and coach and support and practice those things back at work next week. We don't need to explain how those things work. You know all that stuff. You're experts. You're here at the conference. We'll just have 65, 66 odd people agree what the most important things to focus on are and you'll know because that's a big enough crowd to figure things out. Sound good? Cool. Everyone mobile? Anyone on wheelchairs or crutches? Abdul here, my partner in crime. Thanks Shruti. That was a good call out. He and I will wander around the room and just check out if anyone's stuck. Raise out and sing your hands. Call out and we'll come and help. Our main job is to watch the clock because you're going to do the organization. When I shout out, hey, next round go from two to four people. Look around, find the four people. We're not going to give too many instructions. You guys are adults. You can work that stuff out. Make sense? Has anyone got any dumb questions? Has anyone got any smart questions? All right, cool. The most useful tool in this session is going to be the clock. Are you ready? First thing you need to do is figure out who your partner is, pairs, form pairs. Everyone got a pair? This is the hardest bit. Form a pair. If any of you get left out and there's an odd number of people in the room and somebody's left out, just grab one of the other pairs and become a threesome. All right, are we done? Is anyone not in a group? All right, just turn to your left or your right and join the pair next to you. Great. Okay, so just to reiterate, round one, we're going to debrief at the end and have a conversation as well. Hi, welcome to the session, guys. This is why projects go late. Hiring takes a while. It takes a bit of time to onboard people. So you guys have just walked in. Just follow the instructions. Don't worry about it. It's going to work out. First thing I need you to do is grab your pair. Right? Everyone's in pairs. You guys have just walked in. Grab a person. You two, form a pair. The group activity is we're going to come up with our top three list of agile techniques or practices. Right? And that's what we're going to prioritize. Okay, we don't need to work out a big long list. We don't need to know what 16 or 17 is in the list, do we? Because we're just going to focus on the top of the backlog. Right? You good? You ready? Does anyone want to go, by the way, now that you know what we're doing? No one wants to bail? You do? Yeah? There you go. Okay. You ready? The clock is about to start. In three minutes between the two of you, you're both going to have worked out what your favorite preferred agile technique or method is. Right? And then what we're going to do is we're going to do a round after that. And we're going to do a round after that. You ready? Set, go. You ready? Put a question, shout it out. You done? Okay, cool. We're prioritizing, right? At the moment, we've probably got about 34 different ideas. Okay? So let's converge a little bit more. Each small group, grab another small group that's near you. So you're now a medium-sized group. Can you do that? Right? Spot a group near you. Everyone make sure you've got the next round ready. And do it again. Right? The one most important agile technique that you guys think is worth focusing on. Just one. So who's talking? Are you guys in it? So it's you four and you three? Or you're all together? How's it going so far? Oh, gosh. How's it going so far? Thumbs up. There. There. How's the conversations going? You're liking the conversations? You're ambiguous. I'm not having fun. Right? Okay. You're welcome to leave if you don't like it. If you're ambiguous, you're bored. You don't need to stay. I don't want to waste your time. Just kidding. I do like wasting people's time. It's my job. My management. We're going to do it again. Right? So is everyone feeling okay with the conversation so far? Yeah, good. So now you're going to do the next level. It's going to get a bit more complex because we're going to get to larger groups. So do you mind all standing up? Everyone on your feet. Right? And I just want you to know that you're welcome to use the stage. You're welcome to use the front of the room. It's going to get a bit crowded. Maybe if I do a bit of social organizing, if you guys come and stand over here you guys come and join them. Yeah? So that's one group. You guys at the back and the table in front of you just kind of move around that table, make that your home base. You guys at this front table and you guys at this front table, you're going to have the stage. Come on up. And you guys maybe move to this front center table and then back corner. There's two groups over there. So one of them move over to this front table. You guys all stage. Come on, stage. Get up here. No one, don't worry about it. No one's going to be listening to your talk. Right? And then the guys that were standing over there the guys that were standing over there go to that table. People in the corner you go to that table. Yeah? If you're new in the room just come over here and then you guys, you're a group so you can have that space there. Right? I don't know what happened. I said the people that were standing have instructions, right? This is management. We're incompetent. You guys that were standing over there, you go to that round table there. Right? So if you're in that group over there, go to that table. Right? Visualization, transparency. Okay. So the people that were over there went to that table. Now the people that were in that corner go to that table. You're good. You're a group. You're a group. You're a group. You're a group. You're a group. Is anyone here management? You know what I'm going through, don't you? Yeah. It's not fun. Alright. We're going to do it again. That's because I'm holding a secret, right? And everyone wants to know what it is. So we're going to go again. We're going to hang on to three minutes again. And same job. Right? Just come up with one most vital, useful, agile practice technique method. People have asked questions, right? Is Scrama thing that can fit into this? Is daily? No, you're just after one. Right? So at the end of this whole session, we're going to be looking for three. Right? But right now, all I want is one. Right? So if you've got three in your list or if you've let your list build up to six and you've gone, we'll sort it out later. Now's the time to purge it. Alright? We good? Shall I start the clock? Okay. Clock has started. Three minutes. Just one. Just one. Just a question. Sorry. Wrap it up. Shh. Quiet everyone. Alright. Does anyone fail to get agreement on that round? If you're a team that didn't get one good outcome, everyone's got one. If you've got more than one or if you haven't solved the problem, put your hand up. Haven't solved the problem. You guys, you're good. You guys, you're good. You're good. You've still got time to solve it. Right? Okay. Hmm. I reckon we're going to do two more rounds. We're going to get there. Alright. Go again. Three minutes. Before we do. Sorry. I've got to do the organizing thing. The light screws my eyes up. You guys over here. Alright? You two together and you guys up on the stage. You're good? Come on. Come on. Come on. Time is money. Let's get moving. Come on. Come on. Come on. Project's going to be late. Okay. We know where the groups are. We can see they're all in play. Three minutes again. One best agile method or technique. What is it? Did you get a decision? Did you get a decision? No? Did you get a decision? Yes. Did you guys get a decision? Yes. Alright. Cool. So now I've got this awkward thing of three groups. You can't pair up three groups. What am I going to do? Right? Except these guys haven't got their priority yet. Cool. So everyone up on the stage. Everyone in the room up on the stage. Go on. Can't fit. Okay. Over there. Yeah. Collaboration exercise. Abdul says get everyone on the stage. That's an activity. Everyone on the floor over there. Just crowd around the floor over there. Move. Get walking. Down there. Right? I'm the center of the group. Come here. Come. Come. Come. Come. Come. Come. Don't trip over the wire. Push that under the chair. Alright. Is everyone in the center? You people that are taller. You've got a moral authority over the rest of the group. So you can argue your thing really strongly. Right? So this is it. You're still making decisions. Abdul, my three minute clock is on the table next to you. So he's going to set the clock off. You've got three more minutes. This time it's going to be a little more complex because I want you to come up with the top three. It would be weird if you did it in ten seconds, but go for it. Box on. Three minutes. Go. Is anyone able to turn that light off? You're still in the middle. You're still in the middle. You're still in the middle. You're still in the middle. You're still in the middle. You're still in the middle. 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Okay, time's up. Go to your seats. Go on. Go to your seats. You can sort it out as you sit, but go to your seats. I need the answer in just one minute. Sit down. Sit down. So what we'd like to do is we'd now like to round this activity out with a couple of questions for you. I'm potentially the laziest public speaker in the world, except Abdul's even quieter and does less than I do, so it's a tough gig. We've written some questions down based on our observations, and we're just going to throw them to you, so we'd like you to answer. Obviously the first one is what was the number one? Retros? Cool. Number two and three? Backlog grooming and sprint demos. Yeah, cool. Good one. Thanks. Do you agree? We're experts. It doesn't matter. Alright, cool. That was an activity in self-organising, wasn't it? We didn't put too many rules in place. We just set some goals and then did the group thing. The rest of the decision-making protocols was your deal. So as you went through that activity, can somebody throw out or shout out some of the methods you used to achieve the outcome each round? Voting? Yeah, raising hands and voting. Any others? Did you do that when there was two people? No. Right, okay. What else? Ask for justification, explain yourself. What else? Hang on, hang on. Yeah, that's called the hippo principle, right? The highest paid person. You voted? That was a show of hands. Hang on. Right, yeah, cool. So you go in three minutes. What can we get done? Yeah? Right, so as the group went from two to four to eight, one person ended up being the voice of the other people. Yeah, that's an interesting one, isn't it? The outcome was, say that again. Right, so putting it in context of like, you know, it's kind of safe to file because we're at a conference and just talking stuff. How engaged were you all in the last conversation? Was anyone, just show of hands, like, you know, we're all friends here. Anyone just standing batches going, oh, I don't have skin in this game anymore. I'll just stand back and shut up. Were you that person? Really? Yeah, yeah, there they are. At a 60-something people, the three people just kind of backed off. That's nice of you because you made room for other people to exhibit their leadership. Good on you. Do you want to throw a question out? What rules did you create while during this process of self-organizing your friends? So that's an effective communication, a signal to the rest that I'm calling a topic. Anything else, guys? Any other rules? Nothing else? Right, so you narrowed down your similar items into one. Anything else? Those are two rules. We can go on to the next question. Alright, we're about to get a lunch but you guys don't mind two extra minutes to you. The hard question, right? The hard question. What did you learn about decision making in this activity? What lesson can you draw from this activity? So just do this so we can kind of focus. Right, so what might you do back at work? Pardon? Why not? Right, yeah. Who's going with a purpose? Yeah, going knowing what you're trying to achieve. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cool. Prepare for meetings and stuff. The more forcefully you assert your position, the less likely it's going to be the outcome. Yeah, yeah. That's interesting, yeah. Yeah, cool. So there's like a certain level of base understanding in this room about what agile is. So you didn't have to go and explain the basics to people. I imagine in product and process projects, I mean, most people that you're talking to have a clue what you're doing but not everyone, right? Yep. Oh, interesting, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, so that's unusual, isn't it? Like we go to work and there's certain people that make all the decisions and the rest of us just go and do it, right? And we did this activity of deciding together, right? If you send a survey to 60 people, how many of them are going to respond and how long is it going to take to get the response? And is there a good dialogue and mutual understanding? And then when all the responses get back and like 32 people say let's do this and the other people say let's do that, how are they going to feel about the outcome? That's different to this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And don't get me wrong either. Like I know in the real world that like people are in different buildings in different cities and all that sort of stuff and you can't put everyone in a room all the time. But when you can, why wouldn't you, right? Any other last little reflections from this side of the room? Right. Yes. Just taking the microphone. Go on. The way it was organized was very nice. The beauty of this decision making was a group was there, they made one decision. When we merged with another group, they only had to decide between two points. Like, you know, so the decision making was far more easy. Had it been a complete list versus a complete list, then or even a three in place, it would have been a big challenge. So even in a real life situation, we could use this kind of concept between solving between teams. Absolutely, right? So yeah, I just want to repeat that back. But like the essence is like you give people simple problems and build up to the complex problems rather than throw complex problems at big groups because that just amplifies the complexity. Last comment. Just want to add that when you're onboarding a new bunch of stakeholders, they always come with a context of their past and that needs to be recognized because you had a discussion within the context of what you had and that recognizing the context of what their one point is you need to understand. I'm having a hard time locking onto that idea. So the idea being we all come from different backgrounds but going through this activity gave us an opportunity to kind of bring some mutual understanding to the table. But then still you're making assumptions about where people are coming from. Yep, cool. Or not actually, because sometimes you can just make a decision. It's a lightly held decision and you can change it later, right? But yeah. And so when we talk about backlog items and the stuff we're going to do in the next two days, maybe the consequences aren't as big as the stuff we're going to do for the next six months. So I just observed maybe there are people from a different cultural background but not Indians. Anyone wants to share, did you notice anything different about how the group dynamics are here? Anyone wants to share something? Is it how exactly you would have done back in your own cultures? Or did you notice anything different after observations? I actually think it was quite collaborative. I think there was more engagement here than there might be. I'm from Minnesota and we're really passive aggressive. Right. So people are more likely to not share what they think until something they really object to. But here was I think was really collaborative and people were sharing ideas and speaking up. Yeah, great. So we had a collective society, isn't it? So our group decision making process is different. Thanks for sharing. So I guess we'll just wrap up now. I learned this from Alastair Coburn, the agile manifesto guy, and he came to Melbourne one day and ran a meet up and did this activity and I thought it was really interesting watching the dynamics of decision making and how they changed from group to group and then thinking about that in the context of like the corporate life of rules for how you do things and how just in a simple activity like that, the rules in which you make decisions change rapidly because the context and the needs of the situation change. And so if we instead focus on the goal and the group dynamic, like how many people can hold a conversation together and so on, you provide very simple constraints and you help people move forward and achieve their outcomes. So it was interesting to me and that's why I shared it with you guys. Now potentially this is a technique and a method that you could easily share out to the workplace. Like you know, a bunch of you are coaches and consultants in the agile space so you know, go ahead take it out and try it out with people and those of you that are people on project teams doing real work maybe it's something that you can pull into a retrospective or you know, a group building, team building activity or something like that. If you want Naresh is saying shut up, you've got to finish. Yeah, I'm finished now. Yeah, yeah cool. So I'm wrapped up right now. So if you want to ask us any questions we'll be here for the next few minutes and thanks for coming. That's it. That's it. Thanks. Thank you very much.