Hi guys, this post will be about a quick exercise that I did during last retrospective and I would like to get your input.
Like always I started the retrospective with a small exercise to “set the stage”, something to make the people relaxed but at the same time helping them to get the focus.
I did the brand car exercise, this exercise is quite basic; we just ask to each different team member how they would describe the previous iteration using a brand car.
I had the brand of the car in my mind, I chose a Ferrari. The iteration went very well; the team delivered all promised stories, and they won a private bet against the PO. He did bet with the team that they would not be able to deliver all promised stories . Naturally I thought about Ferrari and I expected to hear the same from others.
I started to ask one by one which brand they wanted to better describe during iteration. Surprisingly, all the mentioned brands were modest, such as Opel, Skoda, Ford, etc. The only luxurious brand car was chosen by PO. At that moment I didn’t play so much attention, I thought that these guys are humble .
Later on during the conversation with an Agile Coach, colleague Mark, he mentioned to me “Did you see how their confidence is so low?” The iteration went so well and according to type of the cars they chose, their confidence of achieving something great was quite low.
This conversation with Mark was the main reason why I am writing this blog! I truly believe this can be used as a quick and simple tool to evaluate team´s confidence. What do you think? Do you think this is a useful tool to verify team’s confidence?
Please comment this post and leave me your opinions .
Thanks guys,
Luis
