We live in a digital age where we can communicate at the speed of thought using digital media. Is there a place for traditional tools in such an age? This is a talk based on research that I presented this lightening talk at Cambridge Agile Exchange in November 2018. Is the pen mightier than the keyboard?

1. Intro
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed are my own and not my employer’s
Ask:
• Who uses an electronic board
• Who uses a physical board
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2. If you are using a physical board, I invite you to think why: was it your scrum master/
agile coach that wanted you to use it? What were you trying to achieve?
If you are using an electronic board, why is it? Did you think it was going to make
your team more efficient? Or faster? Or better in any way?
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3. I am curios and I have a couple of questions:
What is it about physical tools like whiteboards that make them different from
electronic tools?
Do they have a place in a digital age?
I have a theory but first let me say that…
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4. If you have team members who are remotely located, then you have little choice:
electronic tools are your friend.
Can you imagine the Mars rover sending a sticky note to mission control to
communicate there is a ditch in front of it? By the time the note arrives to Earth and
the correction sent from Earth (on sticky note, of course) reaches Mars, the rover is
already down the ditch.
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5. Advantages of digital tools:
They are fast (and also typing is faster than longhand writing)
They facilitate remote communication
Asynchronous
they usually preserve the history of an item. Very good for future reference.
Don’t change too much over time
Easy to print and share
Disadvantage: they are not too flexible (issues with user permissions anyone?)
It’s also easier to organise, print, and share documents.
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6. On the other hand, nothing beats a sticky note on the door if you don’t want to
forget something (that’s my theory of annoyance; I leave myself a note where I
cannot ignore it)
Writing an email to myself or having a reminder on my phone is not as effective as
not being able to open the door without reading that note.
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7. There is something more. What might seem disadvantages of physical tools, are
actually plus sides of it.
On a keyboard a single stroke is required to write a letter. And it’s always the same
one regardless of the letter you are typing. Typing is faster than longhand writing and
that’s why many people prefer it. Longhand writing is not mnemonic, it’s an
experience that involves different parts of the brain.
When we take a marker and write on a sticky note, we have to use different muscles,
we have to feel the marker and the way it moves, feel the paper, look at the signs we
are making (each letter is a different movement). These activities stimulates our
memory and make it simple to remember the concepts.Also longhand writing is slow,
so you have to take your time, and you have to synthetize the concepts. The space on
the paper is limited, so you have to carefully choose what to write.
When we take notes with a keyboard, we tend to record them verbatim rather than
elaborating them ourselves. We focus on single words and not on concepts.
The message your brain gets when you write by hand is ‘Pay attention! This is worth
the effort!’. If you are taking the time to write it down, then it must be important.
Writing by hand activates the reticular activating system (RAS), the part of the brain
that signals to the cortex to wake up and pay attention.
According to research: You learn faster; You recall more; You are more creative
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8. My point is: There is value in both kinds of tools and, if you use just one, I believe you
are missing out. Take the advantage of both!
Try it for a couple of sprints/ one month, see how it goes, and discuss it in your
retrospective.
Thanks for your attention!
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9. References:
• The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop
Note Taking Pam A. Mueller (Princeton University) and Daniel M. Oppenheimer
(University of California, Los Angeles)
Credits:
• Images from pixabay.com except picture on slide 6
• Picture on slide 6 from the author
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