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Today, as promised, I will tell you about the debrief related to the exercise for the cartoon this week (see above and yesterday for the actual exercise and the day before for the setup of why we are doing this!).

Please read over the past two days so you get some decent context about what I am about to cover next. It is that important (smile).

After everyone is sitting down and breathing they may actually be looking at you like, “OK, Why the heck have we done this exercise?”

First question for you to think about, then I will go about explaining why we do what we do here.

So.

Why do you think this exercise is done.

Take a moment and think about that before continuing.

I will still be here!

OK. Now that you are back… let me go into how I debrief this exercise.

First, I ask people, “How did this exercise feel?”

Leave it open ended.

And.

Shut up and let someone talk.

They will. They always do. Really.

Depending on the answers, I then take them through a guided tour of the three parts, and then ask a lot of open ended questions about the purpose of each section.

One of the things I constantly work on as both a ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Trainer is learning how to shut up and listen — and NOT answer the questions I ask. This is a constant struggle for me and something that was pointed while I was co-teaching a class about six months ago; since then I have made sure I am aware of when I do this.

Sorry for the small tangent but I think it is important for you, my reader, that this will be a constant struggle going forward (if it is not — let me know how you are handling it!).

So.

For the first section I ask the “managers” how it felt for them. And let them talk.

Then, I turn it around to the “workers” — and how it felt for them. And. Let them talk.

This starts some light bulbs going off in some of their heads. This is a good thing.

And I point out how few (mainly by asking again) how few people completed this exercise.

No matter where I do this in the world — and it is a lot of places — the results do not vary that much.

So. It is not just a “North American” or “European” or “Indian” or “Insert your country here” thing.

Cool to see in action.

Next, I ask people who “finished” the second part of the exercise.

Almost all do.

Why?

Because they were given instructions on what the end goal was, and they knew how to do it.

It is not rocket science.

And.

Think about how to apply this on your Scrum Team.

It is that easy.

The next section was introduced to me earlier this year and I have had mixed results with it — to my surprise (wow… even I can still get shocked at results LOL).

When I ask people to become “blind” (about a third of the people attending the workshop) and give them the exact same directions as part two of the exercise…. teams doing this do one of two things. They automatically help each other or they let the blind crash into things and other people.

Wow.

How true to life is this on your team today?

How can you change that going forward?

This part of the exercises is reflected upon pretty regularly throughout the remainder of the workshop. And as the days go on, people start to see what this means in their current environment.

Is this something that has opened your eyes?

Will anything change?

Who will initiate that change?

Gotta run!.Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

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2 Comments! to “The Blind Leading The Blind. The Debrief.”

1. huygir Says:
   December 13th, 2007 at 10:04 am

   I anticipated (through experience mostly) everything you said EXCEPT one thing… I never expected that you would see a “team” given directions to succeed as a “team” let blind members simply crash (and burn). In hindsight, “teams” certainly do that all the time, but in general just the competitive nature of human beings would seem to be enough that they would work to “win” (and the goal was pretty clear).

   I’m looking forward to adding that 3rd part of the traditional exercise so that I can see this for myself. It actually kind of concerns me.

   Thanks, dude.

2. mvizdos Says:
   December 16th, 2007 at 4:41 am

   Hi,

   Thank you for the comment. This is one of the main reasons I did add that section to the exercise — it is eye opening for many people (especially groups I work with that are either brand new or in a public class where many people do not know one another).

   Just don’t play it up much the first time you do this and only point out — through the questioning and debrief — of what the team saw. If they execute on it perfectly (and some “get it”)… ask… “What could have gone wrong here.”

   And be quiet (smile).

   - mike vizdos
   http://www.implementingscrum.com
   http://www.michaelvizdos.com

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