[teampractices] Team Canvas: a process for forming (or re-forming) teams

[Max Binder]

Thanks, Kevin. To clarify, is the use of "Working Agreements" in the
"ongoing team norms" sense, or in the, say, offsite facilitation sense? My
gut says the former.

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 2:01 PM, Kevin Smith <ksmith at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Last night, I attended a meetup[1] where we learned about the Team
> Canvas[2] approach to establishing how a team will operate. It roughly
> replaces the "Team Norms" or "Working Agreements" development, and is
> structured as a 2-hour session (or 30 minutes for the abridged "basic"
> version).
>
> Rather than jumping straight to working agreements, the canvas has
> time-boxed segments to have team members share both things about themselves
> individually (e.g. strengths) as well as things about the group (e.g.
> common goals). Within each segment, prompting questions give a structure
> that makes it easy for individuals to participate.
>
> By the time the group gets to the point of listing rules, they have a much
> better shared understanding, so that part goes quickly and smoothly (at
> least in theory).
>
> The work can be done with sticky notes, or electronically. Some tools
> (like Trello) actually include pre-built templates for the Canvas system.
>
> Some tips from the presenter last night:
>
>    - It's important for each person to use a different color sticky note,
>    so their voice is visually represented in the shared space.
>    - Even if the paper output doesn't seem impressive, the shared work
>    done by the team is where the real value lies..
>    - At least for the "complete" version, an external facilitator is
>    important, so all the team members can participate fully.
>    - The team should understand the types of conversations that will be
>    involved, so they don't freak out when they arrive.
>    - However, it's probably better not to share the detailed materials
>    with the team in advance--you want their thoughts in the moment, not some
>    over-processed watered-down version.
>    - It's not just for forming: A team should probably go through the
>    exercise again every few months, or when members are added or removed.
>
> I haven't done enough team-forming/charters/norms/working agreements work
> to know how this compares to other systems. But it sounded like something I
> would be interested in trying at some point.
>
> [1] https://www.meetup.com/BeyondAgile/events/243808919/
> [2] http://theteamcanvas.com/
>
>
> Kevin Smith
> Engineering Program Manager, Wikimedia Foundation
>
>
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