So many different meanings to the word Flow. There is the experience we have when we are ‘ in the zone ‘ and then there is the more mundane experience of flow from a work delivery perspective. I would love to create a workshop around the more esoteric version, but until then, the Flow Experience from Okaloa will have to do.
I first experienced these games at Standard Bank where fellow coach, Karl Fuchs, introduced them as a way to shift Agile teams to a new level. Yes we had SAFE and yes we had Scrum, but we were finding that the concept of flow (never mind continuous delivery) is a hard one for teams to get when they have been living and breathing batch delivery. Teaching the concepts of Flow can be, well difficult. The books don’t exactly grab one, so the game made perfect sense.
And yes, people walk in rolling their eyes, “Do we have to play a game ? We aren’t in school anymore you know ?”
And then 4 hours later we have to throw them out as they get into it, trying new variations to see how they can get their work to flow better.
The concepts are basic – Work in Progress Limits, blocked work and induced work – and the results counter-intuitive (I mean why would you get more work out if you limit the amount you take on ? ) but every time teams go from getting 1, maybe 2 pieces of work out in a 10 day cycle to tripling that (it is an exact repeat the second time around).
Deeply Agile is offering this workshop for what I do believe is the first time in South Africa (outside of Standard Bank). It is 4 hours and we take 15 people at a time. We have found that it works well taking an entire team through in one go as this not only creates a new bond with the team, but also ensures that everyone is on the same page. To ensure that you get the most out of the experience we are also offering a ‘Visualise Your Flow’ workshop that you can add to the afternoon.
