Working The Way We Want

A case-study talk on how we used a modified Open Space marketplace to dynamically reteam around work.

Working the Way We Want  

Starting in 2016, I was part of an amazing experiment of 40+ people who self-organized and dynamically re-teamed around our work, using two-day iterations to produce amazing high-quality applications for a large healthcare insurance company. Our process became what is now called Fluid Scaling Technology ( FAST  ).

In his book, The Art of Agile Development (2nd Ed.), James Shore called FAST:

“One of the most promising approaches to scaling I’ve seen.”

Attendees will learn about the processes and practices of FAST, but even more, they will understand how we created an environment of learning, growth, and team responsibility that allowed us to achieve high-quality, amazing outcomes at a more rapid pace.

We’ll discuss how dynamic re-teaming created stronger more knowledgeable teams, and how team self-selection of work improved team ownership and team responsibility for our products and customers. Along with this, I’ll talk about how other roles, like scrum masters and managers, became an integral part of making this work, along with how you can implement some or all of these ideas at your company.

Learning Outcomes  

• Explain the Practices and Processes of FAST.
• Explain Dynamic Re-Teaming, and why it’s so effective for teams.
• Understand why Self-Selection of work increases Team Responsibility and Team Ownership of work.
• Recognize the influence that learning as a team has on product quality and the speed of release.
• Understand techniques for improving your team processes and culture.

Presentation Dates  

Resources  

• Slide deck  - updated 2023-02-02
• Lightning Talk Slide deck  - updated 2023-05-10

Links  

FAST-Agile 
Discovery Trees 
Open Space World 
Dynamic ReTeaming 

Books  

FAST Guide  - Ron Quartel
Open Space Technology: A Users Guide  - Harrison Owen
Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us  - Daniel Pink