The Marble Game, A Teambuilding Exercise, PMCamp Berlin 2014

THE MARBLE GAME Self-Organising Teams

Christoph Moser ([email protected]) THE MARBLE GAME

GREAT PROJECT MANAGERS … have great Communication Skills

… are great at delegating Tasks

… stay cool under Pressure

… promote Team Building

… command Authority Naturally

… know how to solve Problems

… exercise independent and fair consensus-building skills when conflict arises

http://www.recruiter.com/i/10-things-that-make-a-good-project-manager-great/ http://99u.com/articles/6946/top-10-characteristics-of-great-project-managers http://www.cio.com/article/447182/Six_Attributes_of_Successful_Project_Managers


THE PROJECT MANAGER

Five Salty Balls by Gabriel Rojas Hruska , https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluefade/4229364807/


HERDING CATS

Herding Cats: A Primer for Programmers Who Lead Programmers - Hank Rainwater, 2002


HERDING CATS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmgLtg1Izw


BUT HOW WOULD A

BUNCH OF PROJECT

MANAGERS WORK

TOGETHER AS A TEAM?

THE MARBLE

GAME


THE GAME

Within your team, transport a Marble from A to B using Tubes!


THE RULES • Each Person is allowed to have at most one Tube.

•  The Marble has to stay in the Tube

•  The person who holds the Marble is not allowed to move.

•  The person who holds the Marble is not allowed to close the ends of the Tube

• Manipulation of the Tube that hinders the Marble from a free flow is not allowed.


DON’T BREAK THE RULES

If the rules are broken the marble goes

back to the start

ROUND 1


ROUND 1

8 Minutes to transfer as many marbles as possible from cup A to cup B.

On Member measures the time for each run as well as the total number of Marbles that went from A to B.

LEARNINGS?


GREAT PROJECT MANAGERS … have great Communication Skills

… are great at delegating Tasks

… stay cool under Pressure

… promote Team Building

… command Authority Naturally

… know how to solve Problems

… exercise independent and fair consensus-building skills when conflict arises


PRE – PLANNING

versus

ITERATIVE APPROACH


PRE - PLANNING “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

Albert Einstein

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Benjamin Franklin


ITERATIVE APPROACH

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

Mike Tyson

“Responding to change over following a plan”

Manifesto for Agile Software Development, Beck K et al., 2001


TEAM DEVELOPMENT “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”

Michael Jordan

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”

Helen Keller

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

Phil Jackson


DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE

Developmental Sequence in Small Groups (Tuckman, BW, 1965)

1. FORMING 2. STORMING

3. NORMING 4. PERFORMING


HOW CAN WE PERFORM

BETTER?

ROUND 2


ROUND 2

8 Minutes to transfer as many marbles as possible from cup A to cup B.

On Member measures the time for each run as well as the total number of Marbles that went from A to B.

Build New Teams

LEARNINGS?


PMCAMP BERLIN 2014


OBSERVATIONS Their experience didn’t make Project Managers perform better in a self-organising team.

Nobody wanted to act as a leader because it was a team game.

There was indeed a pre-planning in each team, which was continued by an iterative approach (test-and-learn).

Interestingly, the quietest team won the second round (5:2).

As I put the target mark (cup) on the floor, the hardest part was to get the marble down. As a feedback I was told: “it was like 80% of the way were easy and the last 20% were the hardest – similar to some tasks in real life.”

Although there was no “forming” phase, “storming”, “norming” and “performing” phase could be seen.


POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS The facilitator of the team member who measures the time, acts as a motivator and coach to encourage the team to perform better.

Try to find more space – if the room is too small, try it on the floor outside if possible.

Experiment with longer tubes.

One participant knew another way to play the game: Two teams play the game outside and try to reach the target point at the same time.

THANK YOU


WHO WAS THIS GUY? Dipl-Ing. tech. Informatik, MBA Agile Coach, Agile Project Manager Strong Background as Java Developer and Information Architect Certified Scrum Master Certified Scrum Product Owner Keen runner, photographer and cook

[email protected]

0049 173 36 18 15 8

www.vividbreeze.com Christoph Moser

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The Marble Game, A Teambuilding Exercise, PMCamp Berlin 2014