Group InteractionPatterns The Keys for Highly Productive Teams

Presented by

Michael R. WolfMichaelRWolf@att.net

@LearningWolf

206-679-7941

-- All Mammals Learn by Playing

Liberating Structures

Better Software Conference East Conference

My session- Wednesday, November 7, 2012 3:45

Why should you care about techniques for Group Work? Lead a more fulfilled life.

Honestly!!! I’ll personally attest to it.

You don’t have to tell “The Boss” why you’re doing it….… but it’s an open secret. It’s all inter-related.

Why should I listen to you?

Presentation Overview “Guide on the Side” (my preferred style)

- “Technique Slam”- GW - Group Work Pattern Language

- LS - Liberating Structures

- CP - Core Protocols

- PK - Personal Kanban

- Experience the techniques- Leave you wanting more….

- Flight of beer – sample now for later enjoyment- Speed dating – overview now for later deepening

“Sage on the Stage” (only when “necessary”)Closing

LS - Liberating Structures

“Including and unleashing everyone”

33 liberating structures, each includes- What is made possible?

- Micro structures & Design Elements => Min Specs

- A structuring invitation

- How the space is arranged and what materials are needed

- How participation is distributed

- How groups are configures

- A sequence of steps and time allocation

Keith McCandless & Henri Lipmanowicz Immersion Workshop

- Wed, Oct 17 -- #1 (Redux)

- Thu, Oct 18 -- #2

- IncludeAndUnleash.eventbrite.com

1-2-4-All(from LS)

Make an Invitation

- What practical/theoretical topics could Beyond Agile present that would help you create better products?

Distribute Participation- I will be timekeeper, facilitator

- You will think, write, listen, share and refine

Configure Groups- Group of 1 – think & write

- Group of 2 – listen & share

- Group of 4 – listen & refine

- All - facilitated – collect & display

Arrange Space- Face-to-face. Knee-to-knee. Groups of 4.

- Disregard “Space Police”

Sequence & Allocate Time- Listen for sound and directions

PK – Personal Kanban

Authors: Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Two simple, main points (printed on alternate pages)- Visualize your work

- Limit your Work In Progress

Jim co-founded Seattle Lean Coffee 2-3 years ago

Kaizen Camp also founded by Jim and Tonianne- “Discussing the Future of Work”

- Seattle in 2011 & 2012

- Coming to NYC, SoCal, Boulder, DC, Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston

- Plans for on Tel Aviv, London, Berlin, and Australia

Every meeting aKanban (from PK)

Very Simple Every meeting starts with a purpose No meeting starts with an agenda Everyone creates agenda items

- Written on stickies

- Placed in “Backlog”

Every item is briefly introduced Everyone distributes 2-4 votes across all items

Voila! A prioritized backlog. Timely. Relevant.

Work commences as item moves from “Backlog” to “WIP” Limit WIP (Work in Progress)

Move item to “Done” when finished- … or time box is exceeded

- … with consensus on extensions

- Happy Dance! Celebrate!

Every meeting is a Kanban. I mean it!!! Business

- 1-on-1 meetings with Supervisor- Status meetings (until replaced by task board)- Working meetings

Civic- Ballard Greenways- St Luke’s Urban Garden (TheSLUG)- Ballard Urban Gardeners (BUG)

Personal- “Wolf meetings”- Special projects (i.e. IRS audit, yearly taxes, weekend getaway)

Kanban board during Seattle Lean Coffee

Kanban for Weekly “Wolf Meetings” & Special Tax Project

Kanban board for Michael - Old

Kanban board for Michael - New

Coming from Wolf Enterprises Kanban R&D…• Tablet form-factor UI

• Easy upload/download• Light weight• Portable• Front & back lit

• Solar, AC, DC, Candle, &c• 0% opacity• Landscape & Portrait• Doubles as book holder and

paper weight

…trend setting• Double sided• Ambidextrous

… multiple after-market styli• Color• Width• Line pattern• Shapes• Very extensible

… object manipulation• Tactile• Digital• Intuitive• Extensible

Kanban board in ScrumMaster class

Event Planning Board at Kaizen Camp

TRIZ(from LS)

Make an Invitation

- What can we do to reliably get the worst result imaginable?

- How does this compare with current procedures?

- What can we stop doing? Distribute Participation

- <As in 1-2-4-All>

Configure Groups

- <As in 1-2-4-All>

Arrange Space- <As in 1-2-4-All>

Sequence & Allocate Time

- <As in 1-2-4-All>

GW - Group WorksPattern Card Deck

“A pattern language for bringing life to meetings and other gatherings” 3 years of design, writing, and layout from “core team” Each of 91 Cards in 9 Categories has:

- Title

- Image

- Heart

- Related cards

- Category glyph

First printing 4Q2011

“Steward Circle” is getting wisdom out to users, and also listening to how they’re being used

Common uses- Pre-event planning & Post-event evaluation

- Individual & Team skill development

- Breaking out of a fixed mindset

Core team: Tree Bressen, Dave Pollard, Sue Woehrlin

Needs “stewards” and early adopters. (Contact me!)

Group Works Card Deck Categories Intent - Serving and attending to the larger purpose for the gathering and how it is manifested, including addressing its longer term

meaning and consequence. Why are we here, what’s our shared passion, and what are we aiming to accomplish.

Context - Understanding and working with the broader context and circumstances both in place and in culture.

Relationship - Creating and maintaining quality connection with each other, honouring our full selves, and recognizing power relations. Includes being authentic and sometimes foregrounding emotional needs in the moment rather than task.

Flow - Covers rhythm, energy, and pacing. When we do what and for how long. Things to pay attention to both in anticipating the event and in responding to circumstances in the moment, to support movement along the intended trajectory toward the desired outcome.

Creativity - Using multiple intelligences and a variety of modes to open up creative possibilities.

Perspective - Noticing and helping the group more openly and thoughtfully explore different ways of seeing an issue. Watching, understanding, and appreciating divergent viewpoints, ideas, values and opinions. The key is in how you look at something.

Modeling - The essential skills and responsibilities for both facilitator and participants, to demonstrate good group practice and ensure the process goes well. Includes monitoring, nurturing and mentoring the group, enabling their effective personal and collective self-management.

Inquiry & Synthesis - Discovering coherence and moving toward convergence. From gathering information to exploring knowledge to arriving at understanding, shared meaning, consensus, or clear outcomes.

Faith - Trusting and accepting what happens in a spirit of letting go and letting come. The mystery, synergy, and ineffable, complex magic of emergence. You can invite it, but you can’t control it. Felt as a deep sense of connection not only to those assembled and to the work’s purpose but to the larger universe as well.

Group Works Card Deck The Group Works card deck is designed to support your process

as a group convenor, planner, facilitator, or participant. The people who developed this deck spent several years pooling our knowledge of the best group events we had ever witnessed. We looked at meetings, conferences, retreats, town halls, and other sessions that give organizations life, solve a longstanding dilemma, get stuck relationships flowing, result in clear decisions with wide support, and make a lasting difference. We also looked at routine, well-run meetings that simply bring people together and get lots of stuff done.

The deck consists of 91 full-colour 3.5" x 5.5" cards (plus a few blanks to add your own patterns), a five-panel explanatory insert, and an accompanying booklet explaining the purpose and history of the project and suggesting uses for the cards in group process work.

What you get… 91 Full color cards … a few blank cards A 5-panel “key” to categories A history and

The whole deck

Case Study(from GW)

Situation- Regular meeting felt like it was getting in a rut. Power

dynamics of de-facto leader seemed to be excluding perspectives. I saw opportunity for group as training lab to gain experience at facilitating, not merely content.

Experiments- Facilitate input from quieter participants

- Balance the interruption dynamic

- One-on-one

Group Work Cards (examples for case study)

CP – Core Protocols

Jim & Michelle McCarthy

Refined knowledge through 10+ years in XXX lab 11 Commitments

1. I commit to engage when present.2. I will seek to perceive more than I seek to be perceived.3. I will use teams, especially when undertaking difficult tasks.…11. I will never do anything dumb on purpose.

11 Core Protocols (Structured Conversations)1 & 2. Pass (Unpass)

3. Check In

4. Check Out

5. Ask For Help

6. Protocol Check

7. Intention Check

8. Decider

9. Resolution

10. Personal Alignment

11. Investigate

Jim & Michelle McCarthy

Perfection Game

(from CP)

Perfectee: - Presents an object for perfection

Perfector: - “On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate this object X based on how much value I can

add.”

- “What I liked about the performance of object X was…”

- “To make it a 10, you would have to do yada, yada, yada”.•Integrates best ideas•Improves some object

Get Involved… Liberating Structures

- Immersion Workshop Series in Seattle- #1 (Everyday Solutions) – (Redux) October 17- #2 (Big Projects) – October 18- #3 (Strategy & Design) & #4 (Transforming Movements) -- TBD

Group Works Personal Kanban

- Periodic seminars around Seattle, U.S., and Mundo The Core Protocols

- Online discussion group via FaceBook NCDD (National Council for Dialogue & Deliberation)

- National gathering – Seattle – Oct 12-14- Pre event – Mapping Methods with the Group Works Cards

Caveat “Talking abut Music is like dancing about Architecture.”

-- Elvis Costello

That is, the “knowing” is in the “doing”.

Learn by doing… - … playing- … because “All mammals learn by playing!”

Closing

1-2-4-All- What is your biggest take away?- What is left unanswered?- Go learn. Go play!

About…

Michael R. Wolf MichaelRWolf@att.net 206-679-7941 @LearningWolf -- All Mammals Learn by Playing

LS - Liberating StructuresLiberatingStructures.comOct 17,18 – Immersion Workshop Series in Seattle

GW - Group Works Card DeckGroupWorksDeck.org

PK - Personal KanbanPersonalKanban.com

LOL Cats!We don’t need no stinkin’ LOL cats. Here’s a cutie Wolf!