Today we conducted a team launch for one of the teams for which I serve as an agile coach. I thoroughly enjoyed facilitating this event, I and cherished the opportunity to have two hours dedicated to team building and getting to know eachother.   I sent the team a few videos on Spotify’s engineering culture, and asked them to pull out a few takeaways.

This was not only a team with new members, but in realigning our Agile Coaches in my team, I became their agile coach recently and had an awesome chance to explain my role as their coach. I drew the Agile Coaching Competency Framework developed by the Agile Coaching Institute.

The team building exercise for the team to get to know one another better was market of skills. I asked each team member to imagine they were at a flea market, where they had to setup and man a booth to sell themselves to the team. Describe strengths, skills, and attributes that make them an asset to the team.  It was a great way for people to share things that maybe others did not know about them.

In the end, the team developed an awesome Team Alliance, with their team mission in the middle and several values and goals for the team to strive for.

 

I was so proud of the team and I am very excited to work with them.

Here is a copy of the Team Launch Facilitation Guide that I used for the event.

 

Until the next Iteration . . .

Jason