Very interactive, fun and educational session thanks to Heart of Agile.
Organisation and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC) enables us to do just that. In this session, we will use a relationship systems coaching technique called Constellations to explore agile-related topics by listening to the ‘voice of the system’ which is created by everyone who attends the session.
Heart of Agile: Click here for event on Meetup
Constellation is a technique (or game) usually at the end of retro held to get feedback or voice from all members.
This is coming from Organisation and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC). One of the things ORSC teaches is to treat system as a separate entity, a third entity with its own identity.
Game starts by people moving around the room finding their place. It’s important to consider the room size depending on the number of participant in the game. The topic, or question, is represented by an object like a ball in the centre of the room. The facilitator reads the first question out loud and people till take position relative to the ball depending on how much they agree/disagree or what they think about the topic. There will be opportunity for people to reflect and explain why they are standing where they are standing.
Below are few things to consider:
- Number of Questions: it is recommended to have no more than 3-4 questions
- Room size: the size of the room should be suitable to the number of people participating in the game. People should take position relative to the object in the middle based on their perception of how they agree or disagree
- Positioning: People should take position relative to themselves and the object in the centre - not others
- Playing with your feet: this technique is a great tool to get feedback from introverts and shy people. People express their views by taking a position - they are more than welcome to talk and explain why they are standing where they are standing but they don't have to
- The system decides to listen or ignore voices: Where people are standing is the feedback. The system (and people) decide what to do with it, they can listen and make changes or discard
- Look at the whole picture: it's important to look at where everyone is standing at the end of each question and see how people reflect on the topic
- Deep democracy: It's very important not to have a dominant voice and no ideal passenger. Expressing views by feet help those are shy and introvert to get the message out without saying much verbally
