Getting Rusty

I was in the Moab, Utah area last weekend and got some mountain biking in. I haven't spent a lot of time mountain biking this year so I was a bit rusty. By the second day I was starting to get my rhythm but it took a little time.

Just like mountain biking, our agile skills can get rusty. I ran a Lean Coffee last week and before it I read a couple articles because I hadn't done a Lean Coffee in a while and wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I've been working with some of my newer Scrum Masters on facilitation techniques, another skillset that can easily get rusty if you don't do enough of it.

One of my favorite facilitation tools is POWER;

Purpose - why are we having this meeting/workshop.

Outcomes - what do we expect to walk away with.

What's in in for me - Why will participants want to attend and what can they get out of it

Engage - how will you as the facilitator engage the participants. Think about activities, items on the tables to play with, or even snacks.

Roles & Responsibilities - What can the participants do.

I like using this as a way to prepare for workshops so that I can make sure the workshop provides value to the participants. Using this keeps me from getting Rusty on my facilitation techniques.