Workshop on "Empowering Teams & Self Organization" using Delegation Poker (one of the Management 3.0 Practices) at the 12th Agile Professionals Meet-up organized by Agile Nepal

1. Pramesh Vaidya
CSM, CSPO, CSP, SAFe Agilist, Deputy Director LogPoint
pramesh.vaidya@gmail.com
Empowering Teams & Self Organization

2. 70
Self Organization
Agile software development works because of self-organizing
teams
Process where a structure or pattern appears in a system
without a central authority or external element imposing it
through planning1
1 http://www.mgt30.com/self-organization/

3. But HOW do we grow a valuable self-organizing system?

4. Well, NOT by putting a control center on top of a living system

5. Control from the bottom up:
In a complex system, everything happens at
once, and problems ignore any central
authority. Therefore, overall governance must
be spread among all the parts.
Distributed Control
Kelly, Kevin. Out of Control. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1994, page 469

6. Empowerment is implementing distributed control by delegating
authority
Empowerment
70
70
70
70
70

7. Assignment of authority and responsibility to another person
(normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific
activities
Delegation
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delegation

8. Self Organization
Distributed Control
Empowering Teams
Delegate
Self Organization Loop

9. Different levels of delegation
Help managers to gradually transfer responsibility to a team
Manager can learn to trust a team, and the team learns to
deal with the additional responsibility
Manager assigns more power to the team without totally
renouncing his involvement
Major step towards self-organizing teams

10. Techniques for delegation
RACI Matrix
C
DACI MatrixCLAM Approach

11. Delegation Poker

12. Delegation Poker: Preparation
Each team plays this game differently
Start by making a list of pre-defined cases or situations in
which you want to create a delegation policy
Team members should be organized in groups of three to
seven people
Each teammate gets a set of cards numbered 1 through 7,
signifying the Seven Levels of Delegation

13. Delegation Poker: Process
One person picks out a situation to read aloud
Each player chooses one of the seven delegation cards
privately, reflecting on how she would delegate the decision
When all players have decided, they reveal their selected
cards
People with the highest and the lowest cards explain the
reasoning behind their choices
Create a Delegation Board to show the results of the
consensus

14. Delegation Board

15. Examples: Key Decision Areas
Leave Approval Core working Hours and Holidays
Project Management Framework
Coding Convention & Tool Selection
Relocate to other office building
Team events planning and budgets
Recruitment
Salary Review
Sprint length and deliverable
Vacation Days
Choose logo for business
Replace waterfall with Scrum
Select new team member

16. Workshop: Delegation Poker Story
Imagine forming a new Agile Team among yourselves of 3 - 9
Within the team identify one Manager and Facilitator
Identify Key Decision Areas where no clear responsibilities are
defined between two entities
Each participant receives a deck of cards: In our case our
fingers J

17. Workshop: Process
The facilitator names the topic
Each participant think on your own of the level of delegation
you feel is appropriate.
If everyone is ready, the facilitator asks to reveal their decision
People with the highest and lowest value share their decision
with the others
There will be a time-boxed discussion

18. Workshop: Process
A new voting will take place, in which the results should be
more equal
Participants then decide on one level of delegation
Discussion that leads to a mutual understanding is the most
important part here
Make the results publicly available by drawing a Delegation
board on a flip chart and sharing your experience with other
participants

19. Workshop: Timings
Total Time: 35 mins (Game Play) + 15 mins (Experience Sharing)
Group formation; Manger and Facilitator Identification; Delegation Board
template preparation, Key Decision Area Identification (3 – 5): 10 mins
Game Play including preparation for experience sharing: 25 mins
Experience sharing: 3 mins each team (Total time of all teams: 15 mins)

20. Learning Summary
Delegation is not a binary thing. Plenty of “shades of gray”
Delegation is a step-by-step process. Hand over accountability
to other people, in a controlled and gradual way
Delegation is context-dependent
It is not a one time activity. Review the delegation matrix as
the team matures

21. Thank You

22. • https://management30.com/product/delegation-poker/
• https://management30.com/practice/delegation-board/
• https://vividbreeze.com/delegation-poker/
• https://de.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/agile-management-authority-delegation
• https://hackernoon.com/who-really-decides-how-to-play-delegation-poker-d11544ceb7d9
• https://medium.com/seek-blog/how-to-empower-your-team-with-delegation-poker-810bf8ea7ba5
• https://medium.com/@jurgenappelo/the-7-levels-of-delegation-672ec2a48103
• https://dzone.com/articles/delegation-poker-game
• https://harrynieboer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Management-3.0-Games-WoMiWoWoMiWo-
Management-3.0-games-2-Delegation-Poker.pdf
• https://www.toolshero.com/project-management/raci-matrix/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/problem-raci-ray-sheen/
References