In Practice: Team Building in Transition

Agile coach Nicole Belilos describes how a one-day liftoff that functioned as a team-building and alignment activity got a team up and running with a common vision. It helped team members align on an understanding of the work that needed to be done. You can adapt the alignment activities Nicole describes to team chartering as well.

A Late Start

I was working as an agile coach in a large company that had just started the transition from waterfall to agile. The project was about to start, and I had invited the entire team, the product owner, and some key stakeholders to attend a one-day liftoff.

When people gathered at 9 a.m., the atmosphere was a bit dull. The team members did not seem excited by the idea of having to spend a long, boring day together. In the past, liftoffs had consisted of lengthy PowerPoint presentations of work to come, and a talk from the project manager that amounted to saying “I am going to motivate you by putting you under pressure.” Expecting more of the same, they clustered around the coffee machine in the corridor and talked about last night’s football game.

The stakeholders were already sitting in a corner of the room, busy checking their email and answering phone calls. They were annoyed that they had to spend a day of their precious time with this team. Wasn’t one hour enough?

Well, this was their first liftoff. Although I had sent out a detailed program, they obviously were not aware that it was going to be a day of active involvement, learning, and games. My goals were to create a stronger team, to build relationships with the product owner and stakeholders, and to get a common understanding and goal. By the end of the day, I wanted everyone all set up to start work and feeling happy about the project.

When everyone had finally entered the room, finished their calls, and reluctantly taken their eyes off their screens, we were starting twenty minutes late.

Aligning As a Team

While most people knew each other slightly, there were new faces too, and few had worked together as a team. So I decided to spend quite some time on the introductions. Instead of going around the room to have everyone tell their name and their technical experience, I asked people to get up and find a person they did not know well. I gave everyone a flip chart and markers. I then gave them each five minutes to interview the other person. During the interview, they also were to make a drawing of the person and illustrate the details. The idea was to get to know the professional side of the person as well as some personal details, like hobbies or number of children.

When the drawings were done, we sat down in a semicircle, and each pair of people came up and introduced the other person to the group. Few people were good artists and time was limited, so the drawings looked like cartoons and were good for some laughs. We decorated the walls with the drawings. From that point on, the ice was broken.

After the introductions, we went on to determine the team’s simple rules. As it can be hard to come up with values and simple rules off the top of your head, I gave each person a sheet containing fifty values, such as helpfulness, curiosity, skill, integrity, and vision. In silence, each team member had to select their own top four values. We then went around the room, asking them to read out their values (without giving any reactions!) as I tallied them. We then reviewed and discussed them, grouped some (“Can we consider cooperation to be the same as helpfulness?”), and the final list of values emerged. This team’s core values were helpfulness, reliability, fun, and enthusiasm. The simple rules they chose were: promote collaboration. Honor our commitments. Look for the fun. Show you care.

Then we moved on to the working agreements. I made columns on the whiteboard with their newly selected values: helpfulness, reliability, fun, and enthusiasm. “What agreements are we going to make to achieve these values? How would we finish the sentence, we work together best when....?” Everyone took a few minutes to write their ideas on sticky notes and put them in the columns. We organized them, discussed them, and came up with agreements such as We offer help, even when not asked and We go out for lunch after every demo.

During the whole day, I made sure we had plenty of coffee, tea, and snacks. Caffeine, salty snacks, and sugar turn out to be crucial ingredients for a successful liftoff! We also had lots of breaks. This was the time for people to listen to their voice mail, make phone calls, and answer their email. By giving them enough time to communicate with the outside world, they were able to focus during the sessions, and they agreed to turn off all laptops and phones.

Going out for lunch in this company was not common, especially when management paid for it. So, we went out for lunch and felt special.

Afterward we felt drowsy, so I proposed to do a quiz to revive the energy. Everyone in the room sat down in a large circle. We then went around the room and had to answer simple questions like, How many children does the person next to you have? and What is his favorite TV program? Every correct answer was rewarded with a chocolate. This game was good for lots of surprises and laughs. “You think I watch Sports Channel? Oh no, I hate sports!” and “You have four kids? I always thought you were single!”

Did we do anything useful that day, besides play games and eat food? Sure! The product manager (one of the stakeholders) presented his product vision and talked about customers, the product, and the product line. There were technical workshops on the architectural vision, the hardware setup, and the database. The product owner was well prepared and presented the initial product backlog. Everyone in the room was involved. There were plenty of questions, discussions, and much sharing of information and insights.

Came As Individuals, Left As a Team

By the end of the day, there was a commonly understood product vision and an understanding of what we needed to make and why. Everyone was ready for the first sprint planning meeting.

During the closure of the day, I asked everyone to describe the day with the first word that came up to his or her mind. I heard “team,” “fun,” “useful,” “interesting,” and “learned a lot about other people, oops that’s more than one word.”

When the set of individuals with different assumptions and perspectives that had gathered in the morning left in the afternoon, they left as an team aligned around a common purpose. They were happy and excited to start working on this project together. I went home satisfied.