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Hi guys, in this post, I just want to present two really simple ideas that you can use for your Communities of Practice.
The first activity is called “Book and Coffee Break Study Group”. How many of us read books in our free time and want to share the content of books with other people but it actually never happens?
How about if we had a practice in place and would get together for a coffee break for about 15-30 minutes. This could be 2-3 times per sprint where we would have the opportunity to present the most interesting ideas that we captured during our reading? This idea (Study Group) is presented in details in the book “Fearless Change“.
In our current company, we have something similar called “lunch talks”where voluntaries speak about new topics every time. This activity is called “Team Inside-Outs” in the industry and the big difference between this and “Book and Coffee Break” it´s the duration and the frequency. Usually, this activity lasts for 30-60 minutes and it happens only once or twice per sprint.
Rachel Davis and Liz Sedley on their book “Agile Coaching” explain that this kind of activity works well for several reasons. There is no teacher or expert present, allowing everyone to be an active participant enable participants to draw their own conclusion. Another reason pointed out is that people will learn more from reading and discussing than reading alone by themselves.
Another point raised by Rachel and Liz is the fact that a study group is not just a way to get more information. They refer that it can provide support for people to apply the practices discussed. After a discussion about TDD, people might decide to try it out, this is a great way to ramp up activities that can bring a lot of innovation and improvement in a team/organisation.
These kind of activities are awesome if supported by a company. But if your company is not yet open applying them outside of working time, just remember, at the end of the day you are doing this for yourself and your knowledge :)
