Similarities between Tangram game and an Agile team
In the popular television series Blindspot that is available on various streaming websites, the main character Jane Doe, who is found with her whole body covered by tattoos where in each tattoo is a clue of an ongoing crime, for FBI to find the culprits.
Jane Doe is found with her selective memory on her identity erased, packed in a duffle bag with FBI’s assistant director’s name mentioned as a tattoo, so that they (FBI) can take her over. Over a period of time, FBI team, that is involved in solving these clues which are essentially puzzles, with help of their brainy FBI-in office-operative Patterson, realise that Jane Doe is a trained ex-navy seal operative who starts contributing extensively in handling the field operations.
There is this one episode that was interesting for me (Season 1, episode three to be more precise), they would be struggling to find what Jane’s role is, how to work it out on a week to week or day to day basis.
Jane Doe, being a new team member talks to Patterson, asking (may not be in exact words) “why the team is not accepting me as who I am. There seems to be some skepticism on me being part of the team”.
It was Patterson’s response that caught my attention. She says, “it’s kind of like a tangram, which is like these Japanese shape puzzles. You know, this team has been in one piece for so long. And we’re just trying to figure out how to incorporate this new piece, what shape that team is going to be”.
Now let us look at what the game Tangram is. The tangram, which literally means, seven boards of skills, is a dissection puzzle game consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.
Image: Like most modern sets, this wooden tangram is stored in the square configuration. (image source, Wikipedia)
It is reputed to have been invented in China during the Song Dynasty, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century. It became very popular in Europe for a time then, and then again during World War I. It is one of the popular dissection puzzles in the world. A Chinese psychologist has termed the tangram "the earliest psychological test in the world", albeit one made for entertainment rather than for analysis. (Source Wikipedia).
The beauty of this game is, these tans can be arranged in multiple ways to form different shapes. Again, the constraint is that they stay within the outline given.
Now, let us look at the parallels between Tangram and an Agile team. An Agile team, like Tangram, also has around 7 to 8 team members with skill sets that can complement each other so that in entirety, is a cross-functional group of people that have everything, and everyone, necessary to produce a working, tested increment of product. Similar to Tangram’s outline, we have a few constraints for the team that as a rule, do not move the team people between or across teams as demands ebb and flow.
Now let us get back to Jane’s story. Similar to Jane’s situation, we do get into circumstances in an Agile team, where the team would be working for quite some time as an entity, having created their own shape (if we can draw the parallels with Tangram game), and operate in a particular way and style of working, within the constraints they have. Here comes a new team member, like Jane, and the rest team will be puzzled in the initial days, as to what areas can the new team member contribute, though the basic skills are known. This can even happen when someone leaves an agile team, they continue to operate with one less member and over a period of time, we get a new team member joining them.
What is needed for a team going through these changes is to understand that they had done it in the past to work as a best team and this addition of a new team member is a momentary change, which once passed, they will have a fantastic team available again. Giving the new team member enough time and space to be part of the team, will only help the team. Wish we get the maturity of Patterson in every team, so that we understand what it means to have a new person in the team.
Who knows, as they may get the best Jane Doe or John Doe with lots of hidden skills that will make them the best team possible.
References and disclaimers:
1. The idea and opinion are my personal view points and not my employers. 2. The reproduction of the content from Blindspot is made for educational purpose only and doesn’t deem for any obligations. Source of Tangram and its image is Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram