Quadrants version 1.0

Last Monday, the Quadrants of Effectiveness game was officially introduced at XPDays Benelux. About 25 participants were brave enough to sit around five carefully designed game boards, digest version 1.0 of the game rules and try to become the most effective tribe member in a 15,000 BC setting. In three rounds, they learned to apply the Eisenhower method, around which the game has been designed.

After overcoming a fairly steep learning curve during the first 10 minute round, the teams really got into the game and gradually started becoming more effective, using the built in benefits, decreasing quadrant I activities. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that 4 teams out of five finished at least one full game, reaching the last field on the game board. The feedback was mainly positive.

When we played the game again during the games night on Monday evening, the discussions and additional feedback led to an idea for version 2.0, on which I will focus during the next couple of weeks. In an attempt to transform the delegate action to something that is more alike delegating in real life - i.e. giving less important work to someone who it is more important to - the point system will be redesigned to take into account five different scales, one for each player, without adding significant complexity to the game rules. While in version 1.0, gold, water, food, etc. have the same value for everyone, in the next version, each type of point will be more valuable to one specific player.

Although it adds a bit of complexity and needs a carefully redistributed set of cards, it will definitely bring some extra benefits to the game and the session. No doubt the most important feature is that it encourages team play. Instead of delegating crap to another player, you will actually be able to delegate useful activities to someone else, being a lot more aligned with the real world. This adds a collaborative aspect to the game, which it is currently lacking. It will also add to the possible game plays, and keep it interesting, even after many games. Not sure yet if the game can have fewer cards because of the redesigned point system, but if so, it will definitely contribute to how it advances.

All in all, I'm very happy with how the game was received, and even more with the valuable feedback that I soon hope to incorporate in an even better version. So stay tuned for more news on the Quadrants of Effectiveness.

Growing Agile Locally

For over 9 years now, XP Toronto has been organizing regular meetings with sessions much like those found at the conferences I attended in Europe and North America. When I arrived here a little bit over a year ago, I was glad to find this community I immediately felt part of. Today, we are proud to announce Agile Tour Toronto, in the Hyatt on King in downtown Toronto on October 20th.

Whether you're a novice with regard to agile software development, a practitioner or you're managing teams, no doubt you will find the conference valuable. Visit the website to submit a session proposal, register for this low-cost event or just to find out more about it.

Leading at the edge

I like to believe that people don't choose the books they read, but that books choose their readers. Leading at the Edge by Dennis Perkins is one of those books that arrived in my hands in the most unusual way. Bernard and I were walking to the subway when he suddenly stopped to take a picture of some random thing happening on the street. My disinterest in whatever it was he tried to photograph drew my attention to three books, lying on the side walk, seemingly dropped out of a purse, no sign of the owner, not even in them. But most striking was that only a few moments earlier, Bernard and I had prepared a workshop on leadership, and then this book fell out of the sky, to land on our path, exactly there where something interesting enough would happen to make Bernard want to eternalize it.

So I took this book with me, convinced that it would prove to be of value for my work. Dennis Perkins extracts 10 leadership strategies from the extraordinary saga of Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, in which he succeeded in the unimaginable, to bring home alive each and everyone of his crew after they were left shipwrecked on the ice.

1. Vision and quick victories
   Never lose sight of the ultimate goal, and focus energy on short-term objectives.
2. Symbolism and personal example
   Set a personal example with visible, memorable symbols and behaviors.
3. Optimism and reality
   Instill optimism and self-confidence, but stay grounded in reality.
4. Stamina
   Take care of yourself: Maintain your stamina and let go of guilt.
5. The team message
   Reinforce the team message constantly: "We are one - we live or die together."
6. Core team values
   Minimize status differences and insist on courtesy and mutual respect.
7. Conflict
   Master conflict - deal with anger in small doses, engage dissidents, and enjoy needless power struggles.
8. Lighten up!
   Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about.
9. Risk
   Be willing to take the Big Risk.
10. Tenacious creativity
    Never give up - there's always another move.

None of them come as a surprise, and many are elaborated upon in other books and courses about personal excellence and leadership, but nevertheless this list is quite a good summary of necessary qualities of a powerful leader.

Agile game design

It was going to be fantastic. 241 game cards and a 24 x 36 inches game board would make the maiden play of the Quadrants of Effectiveness game an unforgettable event. Sure, some minor adaptations would probably be necessary to make it usable in a professional environment, but the final version would not be that much different from what emerged from a scary idea to teach the Eisenhower method in time management.

Yesterday was the big day, the official inauguration of a business game forever reshaping the landscape of dull time management courses, filled with suits rigorously writing down every single sentence escaping the teacher's mouth. From now on, those same women and gentlemen would be standing around a game board, sweat pearls on their foreheads, high heels kicked out, ties loosened, to win a game that would prove them to be the most effective tribe member in the forest of effectiveness. And most important of all, they would remember how to use the winning strategy in their day to day life.

I invited a friend over for the tryout and the first comments were great: "nice board, funny cards, great theme". So we just started playing. But after about 5 minutes, I got the first real feedback. A huge flaw in the rules could neutralize built-in penalties, and fixing that flaw as we continued playing, surfaced another important issue. So I started thinking: Why is it that even the first version my new software usually doesn't contain any show stoppers? And how can I use this knowledge to continue designing the Quadrants of Effectiveness game?

The requirements for the game were carefully written down, acceptance tests defined. However, after carefully writing down the rules and validating them against the acceptance tests, it didn't seem to be even close to ready for production. So how can I prevent the same thing happening in the future? First of all, I extended the test set to find the issues we encountered yesterday, just to make sure that they don't show up any more in future versions. And like with TDD, I will design tests to validate a desired goal even before I start thinking about a rule to reach it.

Let's see how this works out!