An Agile game with a Diwali twist

As an agile coach, I'm always looking for ways to keep things fun and to contextualise the principles of agility through agile games. Similarly, in the interest of inclusion and diversity, I'm keen to ensure that colleagues of mine from other cultures enjoy these sessions also.

The below game is my first attempt at a Diwali themed game. A colleague of mine Raman Dhamijia kindly helped me sense check the story and overarching themes to ensure it was both relevant and in good taste.

Overview & Brief

This game was inspired by the classic teamworking game involving spaghetti sticks and marshmallows where teams are tasked with building the tallest possible tower from dry spaghetti that's capable of holding a marshmallow atop. It intends to coach teamworking, experimentation and failing fast.

With Sita kidnapped by Ravana and residing captive on the island Lanka.. Rama and Hanuman need to build a bridge across to the island to rescue Sita. Each teams mission is to build the longest bridge possible from the materials provided, capable of holding a weight (To represent Ram and Hanumans army) on top. Can you help Rama build the bridge and for good to overcome evil?

The game;

• Allow group to self organise into equally sized teams (3 - 4 each isideal)
• Once organised, explain context of game and relevance to Diwali
• Confirm understanding of the brief
• Set a timer for 10 minutes and indicate there is time for around 4 x 2.5 minute sprints
• Observe results, and discuss learnings with the group afterwards
• With discussion time, this game should last around 15- 20 minutes

Rules

• Sheets of paper only may be used alongside sellotape
• Each individual piece of the bridge, however so designed must have the name Rama written on it
• Team may not sellotape the bridge to any surfaces
• Team with the longest bridge wins
• Bridge must be capable of supporting the phone holder unaided (Or weight)

Materials;

• Sheets of A4 paper
• Sharpies in various colours
• Sellotape
• Tape measure
• Something to serve as a weight (We used a plastic phone holder)

Themes covered

• Inspecting and adapting
• Experimentation and failing fast
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Good overcoming evil!

Observations

• Different teams approach things in different ways and this is ok and to be encouraged. One of the teams very quickly settled on a design that worked for them and began organising themselves in a production style, whereas another team used the first sprint to experiment with different styles before settling on one and then focusing on building it at length
• Being mature teams, they embraced the fail fast principle and tested their bridges early and often to ensure it could hold the weight, this is a common pitfall of new teams in particular as they may have a waited until the end of the game to test it.

Has anyone else created any agile games that are specific to any other cultural events in the calendar? I'm always keen to hear about and experiment with other styles.