21 Mar

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Fabien Bataille is the owner of the blog Agile, Lean et Companie (in French), which contains many insightful articles and book reviews. I invited him to be the first guest on this blog, with a translation of our favorite articles from his site. Today, a review of a classic management book.
-Coline Pannier

Among a bunch of books that a former colleague of mine left behind, I was especially interested in this one about team spirit.

After a first experience as a manager that didn’t go so well, where I had the feeling to always improvise instead of really managing, I’ve been looking for the best way to manage people (if this really exists).

Why is Scrum so much fun? Part 3: The Feedback System

Feedback is a decisive aspect of human interactions. Be it in education, games, management, design or in interpersonal relationships, the way we communicate to people if they have met our expectations can have a strong impact on their future behaviours. Well-designed feedback loops are thus crucial for crafted experiences, and one of the main reasons behind the success of Scrum as a method.

After looking at the goal (part 1) and at the rules (part 2), we are continuing the exploration of the fun in Scrum with the third trait defining a game: The feedback system.

Why is Scrum so much fun? Part 2: The Rules

In today’s post, we are continuing the observation of Scrum through the lens of game design. In part 1, we discussed how having a short-term goal makes for a compelling experience. Let’s now look at the second factor defining a game, namely: the rules.
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13 Jan

Why is Scrum so much fun? Part 1: The Goal

In the past few years I had the opportunity to explore various uses and dimensions of Scrum. On projects working with Scrum and the Agile philosophy, I always felt more energized, accomplished and enthusiastic. The atmosphere in my team was better, we were more productive, engaged, and overall we experienced much less stress. To put it simply: Working on projects with Scrum was fun. I started to ask myself why it was so much better to run a project with Scrum than without.
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10 Jan

What does work look like in the 21st century?

Scanning the horizon

I have started this blog to explore how work methods can foster motivation in human organisations. It is meant to grow organically, and will follow the twists and turns of my work and research.

My first idea was to start from game-thinking and see how it applies to various topics and activities. You can see this unfold in the four-fold series “Why is Scrum so much fun?”

The Power of Systems

In a previous post, I discussed the question of game mechanics and how they can be used to support certain design intentions. Today I would like to share some thoughts about systems, the underlying and often invisible structure behind interactive experiences.
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01 Oct

Non-evil Gamification

When we hear of gamification, it is often in reference to the tip of the iceberg: achievements, levels, points, and other forms and representations of scoring systems. This leads to a common misconception that one could simply add a few levels and points to turn a boring task into something fun. However, even if these kinds of game mechanics are able to prompt behaviours to some extent, it is a double-edged sword.
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01 Sep

Board games, DIY and the circular economy

With my co-founder Sofía Montuori at inaloop games, we set out to challenge the way board games are produced. As soon as we started looking for solutions to manufacture our board game Creators, we were confronted with a burning question: What would a circular business model for board games look like?
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Coline Pannier

Work methods for the 21st century

Category Archives: In English