One activity I found helpful when coaching teams about Scrum is the Ball Point game. Although it’s not a new game, this is a great game when introducing iterative working methods, such as Scrum. In addition, it highlights the benefits of early feedback loops and the importance of collaboration, self-organisation, and working together as a team.
Companies are made up of teams and teams of people. As a result, we want to encourage people to embrace their natural curiosity and eagerness to learn. One of the key approaches to support this is inspection and adaptation. In other words, assess how things are going and make adjustments to address any issues. Again, it has its roots in the Ball Point game.
While observing the game, you can learn a lot about the team’s communication and collaboration patterns. However, it can also be a fun way to understand the flow and sustainable pace better, but every game element is a stepping stone to deeper learning.
How the game works
The Ball Point game’s objective is to pass a ball between team members as quickly and accurately as possible. It works best when at least five people are playing, although it can theoretically accommodate dozens; however, the number of players can increase. The group works as a team, trying to get as many balls as possible through the system in 90 seconds intervals. The team will self-manage and form a process based on the rules provided. There are a couple of basic rules:
– Each ball must pass through each team member’s hands at least once.
– Dropped balls do not count.
– Each pass, each ball must have air-time
– You cannot pass a ball to someone directly to your left/right
– The endpoint must also be the start point.
– The session should take 35-40 minutes.
- 5′ for the facilitator to explain the game
- 15′ to play five rounds including strategy meeting + execution + scoring
- 15′ debrief, take-aways, and feedback.
Between each round, a retrospective is held, and the improvement ideas applied in the following rounds.
Lessons from the game
You can apply a few Scrum values to this game. By playing this simple game together, your team learns about teamwork, collaboration, iterative work, forecasting, retrospectives, empirical process control, diversity and inclusion, the Tuckman model of team formation, continuous improvement, experimenting, inspecting, and adapting Scrum values, psychological safety, and trust.
Enjoy this Scrum learning game!
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