On the Board: mini-edition

Photo by rawpixel on UnsplashWhen we talk about Visual Management, an essential workshop quickly comes to mind: To the blackboard !

It is on the occasion of Riviera Dev 2017 that I proposed to animate it. The problem is that not having been very attentive, I realized that the time allocated to me was not 2 hours but only 45 minutes! 😕

After a few minutes of panic, drama and guilt, I finally challenged myself to lead this workshop in the time allotted! 😛

I present to you here the mini-edition of the Au Tableau workshop! 🙂

You can find the materials used here comprising:

• The instruction sheet (PDF)
• Books (PDF)
• Books (PPTX)

Findings and changes

Following many workshop animations, I was able to observe recurring elements on which the participants wasted a lot of time without it being of great value. My action therefore had to go in the direction of simplification and clarity so as not to alter the experience or learning too much.

• Observation 1: the participants tend to complicate the task even though the workshop instructions are simple.

• Observation 2: participants are sometimes lost with the terms “works” and “works”

• Observation 3: the choice of works left free sometimes makes participants hesitate to take action

• Observation 4: many structures are ultimately not used and are only present to materialize a stock.

• Finding 5: the number of assignments per book is substantial and does not have much impact on the participants' experience

• Observation 6: the process does not always appear clear to the participants, which does not help them to take action

• Observation 5: the iterations do not have a clearly expressed intention which can lead to loss of time, especially during the 2nd iteration

• Observation 6: the notion of priority has little impact on the experience except for the work specified as Urgentissime

• Observation 7: the requirements do not all have the same impact in terms of learning but nevertheless take time to achieve

• Observation 8: the debriefing part between iterations is time-consuming, especially when there are more than 2 teams at the same time

Overall, the changes made have gone well in the direction of simplifying and clarifying the elements of the instructions.

Although I am well aware that there may be elements of learning in the vagueness present in the textual instruction sheet, I preferred to get rid of it to focus my attention on the emergent representations of the participants.

In the heart of the workshop

Preparation

I'm lucky, I'm scheduled at 2:00 p.m., so I have time for the lunch break to set up everything I need.

Like any workshop, the important thing is in the preparation:

• The material must be positioned so that it is available to all participants at all times.
• The instruction sheets and books are already positioned in front of the teams' dedicated areas.

I plan 4 people per team for optimal operation. I've never done it with so many different teams, it's a challenge, but why not! 😛

The arrival of the participants is not long in coming and there are finally more people than expected. It's hard to refuse people who look at you like this:

So we end up being a good thirty people, and luckily people came a little earlier so we start! 😉

Note: I would not describe the workshop itself, but rather what happened in this variant of the original workshop.

Iteration 1 (10′)

Iteration 1 is going smoothly, it starts quickly and it's basically the same as in the original workshop! 🙂

Gallery (7′)

Modification here of a debriefing part by table to a gallery mode. I invite each group to walk around the room and talk informally with the different teams. It works rather well: curiosity, feedback and exchange are naturally created between participants. There are still 5 teams so 5 tables to observe!

Of course, criticism can point the tip of his nose but nothing too bad! 😛

Iteration 2 (10′)

The iteration proceeds without particular hitch, with the usual difficulties of the original workshop.

Gallery (5′)

I let the participants move around the room to see the evolution of the different paintings. The exchanges are done more quickly since the Gallery mode had already been experienced earlier.

Debriefing (5′)

The debriefing part is short but above all allows me to share certain messages such as:

• The construction of Visual Management as a team is as important as the result obtained (1 team = 1 Visual Management)
• We can materialize information in different ways: color, materials, areas, spaces…
• Visual Management is not a reporting tool but a team collaboration tool
• “See together, Act together, Learn together”
• Activate visual management by the Daily: sharing the Daily Kanban protocol, an alternative to Daily Scrum

Results obtained

Conclusion

You were able to add up the timings, I got into the nails! 😛

It was a particularly enriching experience for me in the sense that the main messages could well have been passed, while we had half the time. Above all, I was able to implement a concept that is dear to me: concern for the framework to maximize results.

Thanks to the community ofAgile Playground Paris which allowed me to think about this mini-format and especially Eric Lannemajou for his support and help on Story Telling.

I've never done this format again since the conference, probably because I've never been forced into such tight timing as this, which usually allows me to keep the gray areas inherent in the original workshop.

However, if on your side you want to try the experiment, keep in mind that the success of your animation will be in maintaining the frame!

The less time, the more people, and the more important the setting.