Myth or Fact? Unleash discussion and learning within your organization

Within every Agile transformation, the organization invests in training and workshops to gain understanding about an Agile mindset and how to gain knowledge about the Agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban etc… Once back at the workplace the day-2-day business is top of mind again. It is only a matter of time that the gained knowledge gets forgotten. Moreover, people start to recall wrong statements about the theory they had learned years ago. This behavior usually results in large investments in training and workshops to refresh the Agile theory.

This trend kept me busy for a long time. Wondering how to refresh the Agile theory without the large investment. After talking to peers about the need for refreshment, I then had a bright idea: “Myth or Fact”. I then started an experiment with Ivo de Vrijer and we came up with 11 statements. After three weeks, we discussed the results of the statements within the KPN iTV organization. In this article, I will describe the method and what it unleashed within the organization.

What is “Myth or Facts”, and which potential is unleashed?

Myth or Fact is a method where your organization can vote about statements. These statements are printed out and made visible within the organization. People then can have discussions with each other when waiting for a meeting or taking a cup of coffee and then cast their votes. They have two options to select from “Myth” or “Fact”.

When worrying about day to day issues, it is hard to take a moment to think about issues that are bothering us the most. However, when reading a statement on paper, the thinking process is activated. Suddenly, we spend the time to discuss and form our opinions. And especially the time to discuss is an important part of the refreshing of theory. The potential to have meaningful discussions and taking time to learn is, in my opinion, the biggest potential which is unleashed.

My findings

During the experiment, I noticed that many people were discussing the statements. However, not all of them submitted their vote after the discussion. In retrospect, this was not a big issue, because the main goal was to start the discussion within the organization. After three weeks, we organized a session to discuss the scores and also to reveal whether the statement was a Myth or a Fact. Finally, for each statement, we created a QR-code with more explanation on the topic. This part is very important to reach out to colleagues who want to dig deeper into a subject.

Examples

To start the experiment, I used statements about Scrum. Knowing this method works, the next series of statements will address organizational topics as well.

1. The Scrum Master needs to approve my holiday request
2. The Scrum Master has to attend the Daily Scrum
3. It is up to the Scrum Master to address attitude and behavior of team members
4. As a team, you must have a DoR and a DoD for doing good scrum
5. The Development team is responsible for determining the costs of realizing a Product Backlog Item (PBI)
6. The Product Owner is responsible for inviting the stakeholders to the Sprint Reviews
7. The Sprint Backlog is not fixed during the Sprint
8. A Scrum Master should reveal, not resolve impediments
9. At the Sprint Planning, the Dev team is the one who can commit to work in the Sprint
10. The PO should not participate in the Daily Scrum
11. The Scrum Master should not participate in the Daily Sprint

Do you want to use this to unleash your organizational potential, download the template I have created here. I am also curious how you use this format within your organization, and what your experiences are.

This was originally posted on Medium at The Liberators page: https://medium.com/the-liberators/myth-or-fact-unleash-discussion-and-learning-within-your-organization-8b317f46b0da