Author Archives: Season Hughes
Improve Your Scrum Implementation with Our Scrum Scorecard
While the effectiveness of scrum is made up of much more than what a scorecard can show, having some criteria to start conversations about how well scrum is working on your team can be helpful. For this reason, we’ve created the Scrum Scorecard. Use this Scorecard to assess your team’s implementation of scrum and identify areas of improvement.
Team Health Assessment
Healthy teams are effective teams that meet goals, produce high-quality work, and delight customers.
When we measure team health, we step away from these outcomes of the team – however valuable they may be – and instead look at the team itself. What environment are they working in? How do the team members feel about the work they’re doing? How do they feel about each other?
Facilitation Technique: Validation
Validation is when the facilitator acknowledges the validity of a participant’s position. The facilitator is not necessarily endorsing the viewpoint, but simply recognizing that the viewpoint is reasonable and understandable for the participant to hold.
It can be tricky for a facilitator to acknowledge thoughts of participants and help them feel heard without agreeing with what the participant is saying. Validation takes practice and can help earn the trust of your team when done well.
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How Effective Are Your Sprint Reviews?
If your team’s sprint reviews were graded, would they earn an A or D? We’ve created a Sprint Review Assessment tool to answer this question. More importantly, it will help you see how to make your sprint reviews more valuable.
Facilitation Technique: Writing First
Writing first is a facilitation technique where participants collect their thoughts in writing before having a discussion. This allows more participation from those that need time to gather their thoughts or feel more comfortable expressing themselves in writing. The facilitator will set a time period for silent writing, then participants share their thoughts once the writing time is up.
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Facilitation Technique: Stacking
What Is Stacking
Stacking is a facilitation technique which ensures that everyone’s voice is heard. The facilitator acknowledges each person who wants to contribute and establishes an order in which they will share. The result is that each person knows when their turn is and that they won’t be forgotten.
Facilitation Technique: Questions for Elaboration
In this third part of our facilitation techniques series, we’re using questions for elaboration to encourage further conversation.
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Facilitation Technique: Mirroring
In part two of our facilitation techniques series, we’ll practice mirroring: what it is and when to use it for effective facilitation.
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Facilitation Technique: Paraphrasing
Looking for techniques for effective facilitation? In this first part of our facilitation techniques series, we’ll dive into paraphrasing: what it is and how to use it.
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