Thanks, Kevin. To clarify, is the use of "Working Agreements" in the "ongoing team norms" sense, or in the, say, offsite facilitation sense? My gut says the former.
On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 2:01 PM, Kevin Smith <ksm...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > Last night, I attended a meetup[1] where we learned about the Team > Canvas[2] approach to establishing how a team will operate. It roughly > replaces the "Team Norms" or "Working Agreements" development, and is > structured as a 2-hour session (or 30 minutes for the abridged "basic" > version). > > Rather than jumping straight to working agreements, the canvas has > time-boxed segments to have team members share both things about themselves > individually (e.g. strengths) as well as things about the group (e.g. > common goals). Within each segment, prompting questions give a structure > that makes it easy for individuals to participate. > > By the time the group gets to the point of listing rules, they have a much > better shared understanding, so that part goes quickly and smoothly (at > least in theory). > > The work can be done with sticky notes, or electronically. Some tools > (like Trello) actually include pre-built templates for the Canvas system. > > Some tips from the presenter last night: > > - It's important for each person to use a different color sticky note, > so their voice is visually represented in the shared space. > - Even if the paper output doesn't seem impressive, the shared work > done by the team is where the real value lies.. > - At least for the "complete" version, an external facilitator is > important, so all the team members can participate fully. > - The team should understand the types of conversations that will be > involved, so they don't freak out when they arrive. > - However, it's probably better not to share the detailed materials > with the team in advance--you want their thoughts in the moment, not some > over-processed watered-down version. > - It's not just for forming: A team should probably go through the > exercise again every few months, or when members are added or removed. > > I haven't done enough team-forming/charters/norms/working agreements work > to know how this compares to other systems. But it sounded like something I > would be interested in trying at some point. > > [1] https://www.meetup.com/BeyondAgile/events/243808919/ > [2] http://theteamcanvas.com/ > > > Kevin Smith > Engineering Program Manager, Wikimedia Foundation > > > _______________________________________________ > teampractices mailing list > teampractices@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/teampractices > >
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